Choosing a Laptop for Business

In choosing the proper laptop for your business needs a great many considerations must be planned out. If you plan out properly ahead of time you will ensure it is a good purchase and be in position to evaluate the exact models that meet your needs to give greater confidence in the purchase and to justify the expenditure to a purchasing officer or resource manager if need be.

There is no one size fits all laptop for business use. Every different business and most different positions within a single business have different requirements. As with everything else in the competitive environments of today’s economy cost will always be a significant factor. With a plethora of laptops for sale online it can be difficult to choose.  I will list some considerations on needs and areas most likely to be able to trim costs.

1. What is the actual purpose of having the lap top as opposed to a desk computer?

• Is it to simply enable you to take work home with you when needed or does your work involve frequent travel away from the office?
• Will it be used in building at meetings and such a lot?
• Are you likely to be using it in a ‘field’ environment such as at construction sites or outdoor expos where limited access to power supplies?

2. Will it be used in other countries?

• Is it possible you need a convertible power source to adjust to different electrical currents?
• Does it need world band mobile cell built in for when Wi-Fi is not available?
• Does it need adjustable Wi-Fi settings for different areas?

3. Will it be used by a single person or for shared use with several users or as a resource for a department?

• Will standard user accounts such as available in Windows operating system be sufficient or will it need to be partitioned and boot entirely different system for each user?

Once these basic questions have been answered a better idea of costs can be determined. Things such as extended batteries and extra batteries, need for extremely rugged accident resistant styles, and multiple world settings can add substantially to the initial costs, but skipping these items renders it a poor purchase as it will be ineffective for productive use if they are needed.

Areas to look at to reduce costs are available as well.

1. Very seldom does a business computer require the latest fastest processors and chipsets. A good middle of the line system will be more than functional and allow for future use and compatibility for several years easily.

2. A DVD drive is likely more than adequate, skip the Blu-Ray

3. The vast majority of the time a no additional sound card or video card is needed – it is for work, not gaming. If it is to be used for presentations a decent speaker or external speakers may be required.

4. In general a relatively small hard drive is sufficient. Most often work laptops are backed up on servers frequently and do not have 1000’s of photos, videos, or MP3 files to eat space. Anything over 500GB is near certain excessive and a good deal smaller will work fine.

Things to look for and features that may provide good benefits-

1. Weight is important if actually using as a mobile computer. It is actually a “comfort” feature but one that will be well appreciated.

2. Extra Batteries will come in handy often, or at the very least a 9 cell battery as opposed to the more standard 6 cell.

3. Extra RAM (I would say 4GB at a minimum, 6GB would be better) will help applications run faster and ensure better forward compatibility with future software and applications.

4. A solid state drive (SSD) is a relatively expensive option but if the computer is used for presentations at all it is of great benefit as it increases boot and load times greatly.

5. A built in web cam is pretty standard but nice to teleconference to office.

6. HDMI out is great for use in presentations.

Careful planning and shopping (ask about discounts if more than one unit is to be purchased) will ensure that you get the value and a laptop that meets all of your needs.