Laptops

Laptop size The size of the computer is the criterion with which it is advisable to start choosing a laptop. It is generally accepted around the world to measure the diagonal size of a laptop screen in inches. Laptops currently available from manufacturers range in size from 11.6" to 17.3". The 15.6" laptops are still the most popular, offering the optimal balance between mobility and ease of use thanks to their relatively large screen. 13-14 inch laptops are becoming increasingly popular because their light weight (0.9-1.7kg) and compact size make them easy to take with you on long business trips or when you're having lunch in a café or park. Type of laptop In addition to traditional laptops with a screen that opens to at least 90 degrees, there are a few other different types of design:

• 2-in-1 ( convertible ) - A computer with a screen hinge that allows 360-degree rotation so that it can be used on a table in tentmode or as a tablet if the model has a touch function.
• Tablet ( detachable ) - A laptop/tablet whose keyboard is mechanically detachable from the touchscreen so that it can be used as a full-fledged tablet.

Application Dateks.lv also classifies laptops according to their recommended use:

• Ultrabook - Ultra-thin and light 12-14" laptops, most often in metal or carbon fibre(carbon) enclosures, prioritising high mobility and maximum battery life.
• Home/Business - Standard laptops for everyday tasks (documents, web browsing, high-quality video playback) at home, at school or in a small office.
• Business - laptops suitable for use in large companies with a centralised IT infrastructure. They are most often equipped with Windows 11 Pro and can support technologies such as TPM, fingerprint reader, media encryption and professional port replicators or docking stations. Business PC series such as Lenovo ThinkBook and ThinkPad, HP ProBook and EliteBook also come with a range of warranty extensions.
• Gaming - Laptops equipped with an advanced multi-core processor and a powerful graphics card to deliver the power needed for advanced PC gaming. The high performance of this category also makes them suitable for photo, video and 3D processing.
• Mobile Workstation - A mobile workstation designed for professional work with the most demanding photo, video, 3D and rendering software. These laptops are typically equipped with a powerful Intel Core i7, Core i9 or Xeon series processor, large (16GB or more) RAM and an NVIDIA Quadro graphics card.

Housing material Today, most laptops are equipped with plastic cases. However, in the premium and, gradually, in the mid-price category, models with a body made partly or entirely of metal (aluminium, magnesium or an alloy of several metals), carbon fibre(carbon) or a combination of these are becoming more common. The best known models with metal casing are Apple MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, ASUS ZenBook, Acer Swift, Dell XPS, HP EliteBook and Dragonfly, Huawei MateBook, Lenovo ThinkBook and Yoga, Microsoft Surface Book, etc. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, HP Spectre and selected Dell Latitude 7000 Series notebooks are all made from carbon fibre. Screen The screen is one of the most important criteria for choosing a laptop. In addition to the diagonal size, the following characteristics are distinguished for laptop screens:

• The screen coating can be matt (anti-glare) or glossy (glare or glossy). Frosted screens are the most common as they diffuse ambient light, allowing you to see information clearly even in bright artificial light or sunlight. Glossy screens have the advantage of more intense (brighter) colour reproduction, but the biggest disadvantage is that the reflective light hinders a clear view of the screen.
• The screen resolution indicates how many pixels a computer screen can show. The higher the resolution, the more pixels and more detail you will see on the screen. We recommend a laptop with Full HD (1920x1080) or higher resolution, while QHD (2K) and UHD ( 4K) screens will improve the accuracy for photo editors and 3D professionals.
• Type of display panel - laptops usually use IPS or TN liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, less commonly AMOLED. IPS technology is far superior as it offers much higher colour accuracy and wider viewing angles. Professional photographers and designers will appreciate the IPS screen.
• Touchscreen ( Touchscreen ) - indicates whether this computer is equipped with a touch sensor(digitizer) that supports finger orstylus control.

Central processing unit The processor (CPU) is the central element of a computer that performs computation and is responsible for executing programs and operations. Processors are complex microchips, differing in the number and size of transistors, the microarchitecture used, the number of cores, the clock frequency, the amount of cache memory and other parameters. Laptops currently use processors from two manufacturers, Intel and AMD, which are subdivided into series:

Intel	AMD	Recommended use
Celeron	3000 Series	A budget solution for the simplest tasks - paying bills, searching the internet, working with documents, playing music and videos.
Pentium	Athlon	Slightly more powerful processors that allow you to work with multiple tabs and additional documents open at the same time in the web browser, and to work smoothly with presentations, spreadsheets and HD video playback.
Core i3	Ryzen 3	The processors in this series enable you to play high-definition video, work with large documents, spreadsheets and databases, and use Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and other image editors at a hobby level without a hitch.
Core i5	Ryzen 5	The most popular processor series that guarantee good performance at a democratic price. With 8-16GB of RAM, this computer can handle all of the above, as well as photo processing and small video editing for the next 3-5 years. With a good GeForce graphics card, you can play games on medium quality settings.
Core i7	Ryzen 7	Powerful processors that handle documents, spreadsheets, databases and 4K UHD video playback at lightning speed, and the power you need for professional photo and video applications. If you have a decent GeForce or Radeon video card built into your PC, these processors will also work great in games.
Core i9	Ryzen 9	The most powerful processors, typically found in expensive gaming PCs and mobile workstations. The high core count and high clock speed will allow you to perform any task, including video processing and 3D modelling, in the shortest possible time, and achieve the highest FPS performance in PC games with one of the most powerful GeForce RTX series graphics cards.

RAM (RAM) RAM is the short-term storage memory that is the foundation of any computer system. Its purpose is to compensate for the cache limit of the processor and the slow data transfer speed of the main memory (HDD/SSD). The minimum amount of RAM required for normal Windows 10 operation is 4GB. Fluent computer use, simpler computer games and amateur-level photo processing require at least twice as much - 8GB of RAM. If you plan to run multiple applications simultaneously, play the latest PC games or edit photos and HD video files, you should optimally choose a computer with 16GB or more RAM. Laptops are often configured at the factory with a powerful processor but inadequate RAM. For this reason, many laptops can be upgraded with extra RAM, which is often cheaper than selecting a computer that has the amount you need already installed at the factory. If your computer has at least one free memory slot, you will see the Additional RAM section under product specifications on the product page. If you choose one, our technicians will install the memory on your computer at no extra charge! Graphics card A graphics card or video card is the component responsible for generating and sending the image to the display. Video cards can be either integrated into the processor without their own memory (using system RAM) or additionally installed (dedicated) with their own graphics memory (VRAM). The Intel HD Graphics and Intel UHD Graphics integrated in the processor are not designed for PC gaming, but can play Full HD and even 4K UHD video content. Intel Iris Plus and AMD Radeon Vega are also integrated graphics cards without their own memory, but their graphics cores (GPUs) are powerful enough to watch HD and UHD content and play the simplest PC games (Dota 2, CS:GO, League of Legends, Fortnite, etc.). For the highest quality PC gaming, video editing or 3D modelling, you should choose a laptop with a GeForce GTX 16-Series or RTX 20-Series graphics card with 4GB or more of memory. Storage Today, there are two types of data storage devices - hard disk drives (HDD) and solid state drives (SSD).

• HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is a technology more than half a century old, based on a metal disc rotating at high speed, in which digital data is recorded and read by means of a magnetic head. The biggest advantage of these drives is their high capacity (up to 20 terabytes) and low price per gigabyte. However, there are also drawbacks, such as noise and power consumption, low data transmission speeds and poor resistance to vibration and shock, which can lead to data loss.
• SSD (Solid State Drive) is an advanced technology that stores data on memory chips. SSDs provide at least 5 times the data transfer speed and up to 100 times lowerlatency than HDDs. They are also shock and vibration free. 21. At the beginning of the century, the biggest disadvantage of SSDs was their high cost, but the technology has become much more affordable and now a 1TB SSD costs less than €100 - only twice as much as a hard disk drive of the same size.

In real life, the difference between SSD and HDD can be felt in almost everything - for example, Windows 10 boots on average 3 times faster from an SSD, and opening apps and games and loading levels is much smoother, so we recommend buying a PC with an SSD installed. Currently, notebooks are equipped with SSDs ranging in size from 128 GB to 2 TB. The minimum 128GB SSD is enough for the operating system, basic applications and a small photo collection or a few PC games. 256GB is optimal for the operating system, essential programs, documents, photos and some games, but photographers, film collectors and true geeks should look for a PC with an SSD of 512GB or more, or buy a USB flash drive or external hard drive to store their largest files. Battery Battery capacity is expressed in watt-hours (Wh) and typically ranges from 30 Wh to 100 Wh. In theory, the more watt-hours, the longer a laptop will last on a single charge, but in reality it's a bit more complicated than that. The actual life of a battery is affected by a number of conditions - the power of the components used in the computer, the brightness of the screen, battery wear (number of charge cycles) and even the ambient temperature. However, the type of use has the biggest impact on battery life, so a powerful computer with a 60Wh battery can run out of power after just 2 hours in a complex computer game, while a budget computer with a 35Wh battery will last 5 hours or more in movie-watching mode. Keyboard Notebook keyboards differ in the number of keys, the keyboard language and whether the keyboard is backlit. Our range mainly offers computers with two types of keyboards:

1. ENG - Latin (QWERTY) keyboard layout.
2. ENG/RUS - a combination of Latin and Cyrillic characters.

Most 15.6" and 17.3" computers use full-size keyboards with a numpad on the right-hand side, which accountants and other people who frequently enter numbers on a daily basis can't live without. Smaller computers do not have a numpad to physical limitations, but some ASUS 13" and 14" laptops use the innovative NumberPad solution, which allows the built-in touchpad to be used as a numeric input pad. Keyboards with illuminated keys are becoming more common - an essential feature for those used to working late at night. Ports Laptops offer a wide range of ports so that anyone can connect to a monitor, TV or projector, add headphones, mouse and keyboard for ease of use. Most computers offer at least one HDMI, DisplayPort or D-Sub (VGA ) port for connecting a second screen or projector, a pair of USB 2.0 or 3.0 sockets for USB computer mouse, flash drives and various adapters. The most modern and slimmest laptops can only be equipped with the new and trendy USB-C sockets - in this case, a USB Hub will be needed to connect conventional USB-A accessories. If your home or workplace does not have a Wi-Fi wireless network and you need to connect your computer to the internet with a cable, be sure to note that you need a LAN (RJ-45) port, which is increasingly rare in many thin computers due to their size. If you want to play or record content on CDs or DVDs, make sure your computer also has a DVD+/-RW optical drive, which is becoming less popular. Wireless connections 99.9% of laptops have a built-in Wi-Fi adapter to connect to a wireless network. Wi-Fi is divided into several standards - Wi-Fi 4 (N), Wi-Fi 5 (AC) and Wi-Fi 6 (AX)- so we recommend choosing a computer with a wireless card that works at least as well as your wireless router at home or at work. If the card is newer, this is not a problem as Wi-Fi standards are backwards compatible - a Wi-Fi 6 enabled laptop will also work on Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 4 networks. Most laptops also have Bluetooth built in. If you want to connect your laptop to a smartphone, Bluetooth headset, keyboard or mouse, make sure the model you choose does. Operating system You can't use a computer without the underlying software - the operating system (OS). Microsoft Windows is currently the world's most common operating system and is compatible with virtually all the laptops we offer, except for the Apple MacBook series, which uses macOS developed by Apple. Currently, more than 80% of models are already factory-fitted with a licensed Windows OS, but there are some PC configurations that do not have an operating system at all, or are running DOS or Linux. These operating systems usually do not have a graphical environment and will not even be able to open a web browser, so this computer can be considered to be effectively without a (usable) operating system. The exception is Dell, which installs Ubuntu, popular in Linux circles, on its models. OS-free configurations exist to reduce the cost of Windows for those used to using one of the many free versions of Linux, or for those who have a Windows Retail product card with a key purchased separately from their PC. If you've found a laptop that fits your specifications but doesn't have Windows - under product specifications on the product page there's an OEM Operating System section where you can choose your Windows 10 Home or Pro licence in your preferred language. In these cases, our technicians will install the operating system and the necessary drivers at no extra charge! You can find out the difference between Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro at microsoft.com. Remember! Microsoft Office office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) are not part of the Windows operating system and must be purchased separately!