Tips for purchasing laptops

Preparation

I. Requirement Analysis

Before purchasing a notebook, you must first analyze your needs and understand what your laptop is mainly used for. What are the requirements for the notebook weight? It must be lightweight and easy to carry, occasionally, or just as a replacement for desktops. What are the requirements for notebook performance? Is it used to meet general learning and office applications, or to play games with a notebook, or to check whether the multimedia functions of the notebook are satisfactory. If you want to purchase a notebook at a minimum price.

After clarifying all this, you will determine which models of laptops you should pay attention. Then, you can screen out several favorite laptops through network comparison or other means, and finally go to the Computer City to see the real machine. Through some comparisons, basically, you can determine which notebook you want to purchase. After determining the product model, you can write down the approximate configuration to avoid the merchant from temporarily adjusting the configuration, because many laptops have multiple configurations for one model.

Through this demand analysis, consumers can purchase laptops with a specific purpose, thus avoiding blindness. After all, the number of laptops in the market is huge, in addition, major sellers also try their best to attract consumers and talk about their laptops. If the consumers are not prepared in advance, they will not only make themselves at a loss, but may also be deceived, only strategizing can win a thousand miles away.

Ii. Material Analysis

The laptop shell should be a very important part of the notebook. It not only plays a role in protecting the important components and LCD screen in the notebook, but also affects the heat dissipation effect, its own weight, and the appearance of the notebook. Therefore, a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the materials used in the laptop housing will be of great help to us if we can purchase a laptop suitable for ourselves, this is often a place that consumers can easily ignore. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the mainstream Materials Used in laptops.

1. Abs engineering plastics: ABS engineering plastics are PC + ABS (engineering plastic alloys). The Chinese name of ABS engineering plastics is plastic alloys. ABS engineering plastics may be the most commonly used and commonly used in laptops. They can be found in almost every notebook: some are used in the whole shell, some are only used in the top cover and other parts of the screen. It has the advantages of convenient maintenance, low cost, moderate heat dissipation, poor radiation protection, unsatisfactory intensity, and high quality. The appearance of the notebook made of this material is also relatively simple.

2. Aluminum-magnesium alloy: Generally, the main element of Aluminum-magnesium alloy is aluminum, and a small amount of magnesium or other metal materials are incorporated to enhance its hardness. Aluminum-magnesium alloys are light in weight, have low density, have good thermal dissipation, and have strong weathering property, it can fully meet the requirements of 3C products for high integration, light thinning, miniaturization, anti-collision and electromagnetic shielding and heat dissipation. Its hardness is several times that of traditional plastic casings, but its weight is only 1/3 of that of the latter. It is usually the best material for mainstream laptop casings.

3. Carbon: the carbon fiber material is special for the first two materials. It has both the elegant and sturdy properties of aluminum and magnesium alloys and the high plasticity of ABS engineering plastics. Its appearance is similar to plastic, but its strength and thermal conductivity are better than ordinary ABS plastic, and carbon fiber is a conductive material, can play a similar metal shielding effect (ABS Shell needs to be coated with a layer of metal film to shield ). Carbon fiber is twice as strong as aluminum-magnesium alloy, and has the best heat dissipation effect. In addition, the cost of carbon fiber is high, and it is easy to build a plastic shell without ABS engineering. Therefore, the shape of the carbon fiber shell is generally relatively simple and lacks changes, and coloring is also difficult. The color of the notebook made of carbon fiber is relatively simple, and the color is mostly black. This material was used in the early IBM ThinkPad TP600 series.

4. Titanium Alloy: it can be said that the reinforced version of magnesium alloy is superior to that of magnesium alloy in both heat dissipation, strength and surface texture, and the processing performance is better. The shape is more complex and changeable than that of magnesium alloy. The key breakthrough is stronger and thinner. In terms of toughness, the titanium alloy is three to four times that of the magnesium alloy. The higher the toughness, the higher the pressure, and the larger the display size. Because the thickness of the alloy is only 0.5mm, half of the magnesium alloy, halving the thickness can make the laptop smaller. The only drawback of titanium alloys is that they must be welded and other complex processing procedures to make complicated laptop casings. These production processes produce considerable costs and are therefore very expensive. This material is dedicated to the IBM ThinkPad T series notebook, so this is also the reason for the high price of the T series notebook.

3. screen parameters

 

When purchasing a laptop viewing configuration list, consumers will encounter screen parameters such as XGA, WXGA, and UXGA. What do these English letters mean?

VGA: The full name is Video Graphics Array. This screen is now extinct in this book. It is a very old screen used in this book and supports a maximum resolution of 640x480, however, some small portable devices are still using this screen.

SVGA: Super Video Graphics Array, a replacement for VGA screens. It supports a maximum resolution of 800x600 and a screen size of 12.1 inch. As the pixels are low, the image remains largely extinct.

XGA: Extended Graphics Array, an LCD screen widely used in laptops. It supports a maximum resolution of 1024x768. The screen size ranges from 10.4 inch, 12.1 inch, 13.3 inch to 14.1 inch, and 15.1 inch.

SXGA +: Super Extended Graphics Array. As an extension of SXGA, SXGA + is a screen specially designed for laptops. The display resolution is 1400 × 1050. Because the horizontal and vertical distance of the notebook LCD screen is different from that of the ordinary desktop LCD screen, the display accuracy is much higher than that of the ordinary 17 inch desktop LCD screen.

UVGA: The full name of Ultra Video Graphics Array. This type of screen is applied on the base of the 15 inch screen and supports a maximum resolution of 1600x1200. Because of the high requirements on manufacturing processes, the price is also relatively expensive. At present, only a few high-end mobile workstations are equipped with this type of screen.

WXGA (Wide Extended Graphics Array): As the Wide screen version of a common XGA screen, WXGA uses a ratio of to enlarge the screen size. Its maximum display resolution is 1280 × 800. Since its horizontal pixel is only 800, many other than the 15 inch base also use this type of screen.

WXGA + (Wide Extended Graphics Array): This is an extension of WXGA with a maximum display resolution of 1280x854. Because its horizontal width ratio is and the non-standard width screen is. Therefore, only a small part of the screen size is 15.2 inch.

WSXGA + (Wide Super Extended Graphics Array): The display resolution is 1680 × 1050, except for most 15 inch or more Wide-screen laptops, at present, the more popular large size LCD-TV also use this type of products.

WUXGA (Wide Ultra Video Graphics Array): Like UXGA in, WUXGA screens are rare, with a display resolution of 1920x1200. Because the price is too high, few notebook manufacturers use this product.

Iv. true and false

I believe many consumers know about the company, but some elementary consumers have not really understood what the company is. I have met some consumers who regard it as a CPU, in fact, since the release of the company, the company has always been composed of three major hardware components. For example, the company's first generation is the Pentium m cpu (Banias core) the 855 series chipset and Intel Wireless/Pro 2100 3B Wireless network adapter (802.11b) are constructed. The three major hardware of the Intel 2nd generation Sonoma platform are Dothan core Pentium m cpu, 915 series chipset, and Intel? PRO/Wireless 2200BG & 2915ABG Wireless network adapter; and the last release of the three-generation Napa platform in China "s" is composed of Yonah Pentium M processor, 945 series chipset, Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG Wireless network adapter. Some sellers will mislead consumers for the purpose of profit. Originally, the notebook did not have any technology, but one or two modules of the three major modules were said to be "China, for example, when the notebook only has the Dothan core Pentium m cpu and 915 series chipset, some merchants will say it is the second generation Sonoma platform, so pay special attention to the purchase.

Practice

I. Verify the real identity

When you have determined which notebook you want to purchase, the merchant will call a new machine. Consumers will not like the box that has been opened, fearing that these laptops will be moved by the merchant. In fact, some laptops that seem to have not been opened may also be passive, and the seals on the boxes are easily torn down by hair dryers or other tools without leaving any trace, therefore, the most important thing is to carefully verify the notebook.

After opening the box, first check whether everything in the box is complete. Generally, there will be power adapters, related accessories, product manuals, warranty creden (the number is the same as the laptop number), license card Recording cards, etc, pay attention to whether the operating system recovery disk and installation disk are consistent with the operating system on the machine.
 

In order to ensure that the purchased notebook is not a repair or prototype, check whether there are scratches on the fuselage, whether the mats at the bottom of the notebook are worn or dirty, and whether there is dust on the heat sink, whether there are traces of use of the anti-theft lock hole, whether there is dust in the keyboard gap or a few common keys are shiny, there are no signs of passive screws around the notebook. If there is no problem above, Next let's take a look at the serial number of the notebook, and carefully check whether the serial number on the outer packing box of the notebook is consistent with the serial number on the machine body. The serial numbers on the body are generally on the base of the laptop body. While checking the serial number, we also need to check whether it has been altered or re-pasted. In addition, when starting the system, you must first enter the motherboard BIOS of the laptop, and check whether the serial number in the BIOS is consistent with the serial number in the body. The three numbers are the same, and there is basically no problem with the source of the laptop. If there is any inconsistency, it will be a collection of goods or assembled goods .. Finally, let's take a look at the production date. Generally, if it is not a clearance notebook, the production date will not exceed three or four months.

The above are some basic inspection methods, which are not difficult. It is easy for consumers to be careful when purchasing them.

Ii. Battery Detection

Note that the battery of the new laptop should be charged no more than 3 times, and the power should not exceed 3%. In addition, the dealer will not insert a battery when testing the machine, but directly connect it to the power outlet. If the power is too high or the number of charge and discharge times is too large, it proves that at least the machine was used. The battery management software of Sony and IBM also shows that the battery has been charged several times.

Iii. Bad Point Detection

The LCD screen of the notebook can be said to be the most important part of the notebook. If there is a problem with the LCD screen, the other aspects of the notebook will be useless, so the bad points of the LCD screen must be a headache, it not only affects the screen watching effect, but also affects the mood. Therefore, when purchasing a notebook, it is necessary to detect bad points on the LCD screen. Currently, some software can be used to detect bad points, for example, NOKIA Ntest is a good bad spot detection software. If there is no software on hand, you can set the screen background to a white or black color, and then check it carefully, generally, the consumer can refuse to purchase the LCD screen if there are more than three bad points.

Iv. function configuration

It is very important to check the notebook configurations when purchasing a notebook, because many brands of laptops of the same type now have different configurations, detection configuration can first go to the laptop motherboard BIOS view or enter the operating system through some software such as CPU-Z to view. If the product is confirmed to be correct, try again to see if the operating system is abnormal, whether the audio effects and images of multimedia playback are normal, whether the MODEM/LAN Internet access is normal, and whether the cooling fan is working properly; laptop mouse positioning is normal, transformer (ADAPTER) charging is normal, fan noise is acceptable, and so on. In addition, if the laptop is also equipped with an optical drive, you must also check the read disk of the optical drive. If it is an optical drive with a burning function, you should test its ability to burn a CD.