Ask “which laptop should I buy?” and the honest reply is another question: what for? The right machine for a retired teacher is the wrong one for a film student, and both can waste money, one by overspending and the other by underspending.
So let’s skip the abstract advice and meet five imaginary buyers. Find the one who sounds most like you. The price bands are rough guides for new laptops in US dollars, and they shift with sales and with the cost of parts.
Rosa, 71: “I just want to see the grandkids”
Rosa uses a computer for email, video calls, online banking, recipes and the occasional film. Her last laptop lasted nine years and she’d like this one to do the same.
What she needs: a clear, reasonably bright full HD screen, a decent webcam and speakers, a comfortable keyboard, and something that doesn’t nag her. Speed barely matters, because nothing she does is demanding.
What she doesn’t need: a graphics card, a 1TB drive or a top-tier processor.
Roughly: under $450. A Chromebook is a strong choice here because it updates itself and is hard to get wrong. If she wants Windows, she should look for 8GB of RAM at the least, 16GB if the budget allows, and a real SSD.
The mistake to avoid: the very cheapest Windows laptops, with 4GB of RAM and tiny eMMC storage. They’re slow on day one and can run out of space for their own updates.
Dev, 18: starting university
Dev will carry his laptop to lectures and the library every day for at least four years. He’ll write essays, sit through video lectures, keep thirty tabs open and maybe play a few light games.
What he needs: something under about 3.5 pounds, a battery that lasts a day of classes, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a sturdy build. He should also check whether his course requires any particular software before choosing between Windows and Mac.
What he doesn’t need: a heavy gaming laptop he’ll resent carrying by week three.
Roughly: $550 to $850. This is the most competitive part of the market, so sales matter. See our Student & General Use Laptops page, and our letter to a new student for more.
The mistake to avoid: buying for the best-case battery claim on the box. Look for the battery size in watt-hours instead.
Mia, 34: works from home
Mia is in spreadsheets, video meetings and a dozen browser-based work tools for eight hours a day. Her laptop mostly sits on a desk, connected to a monitor.
What she needs: 16GB of RAM as a minimum, since video calls and browser tools together eat memory. A good webcam and microphone. A comfortable keyboard. A USB-C or Thunderbolt port that can charge the laptop and run her monitor through one cable.
What she doesn’t need: a fancy screen, if she uses an external one. That money is better spent on the monitor. Our guide to choosing a monitor can help.
Roughly: $700 to $1,000. Business lines such as ThinkPad, Latitude and EliteBook are built for exactly this life. See our Work page.
The mistake to avoid: a USB-C port that’s “data only”. It looks the same as a full-featured one and won’t run a dock.
Jordan, 23: plays games most evenings
Jordan wants current games running smoothly at high settings, and uses the same machine for everything else.
What they need: a dedicated graphics card first of all, because it decides how games run. Then 16GB of RAM or more, a 1TB SSD since modern games are huge, a screen of 120Hz or faster, and good cooling.
What they don’t need: the thinnest design. Thin gaming laptops run hotter and louder for the same performance.
Roughly: $1,000 to $1,600 for a solid mid-range machine. Below that, compromises show up fast. See Gaming & Productivity Laptops.
The mistake to avoid: assuming it must be a laptop. If Jordan rarely plays away from home, a desktop gives more performance for the money. We argue both sides in Gaming Laptop or Gaming Desktop?
Sam, 29: edits video for clients
Sam’s laptop earns money. Slow exports and a screen with inaccurate color cost real hours.
What she needs: a fast multi-core processor, 32GB of RAM, a capable graphics chip, 1TB or more of fast storage, and a color-accurate screen, either OLED or a high-quality IPS or Mini-LED panel. Fast ports for external drives matter too.
What she doesn’t need: to economize. For a work tool used daily, the faster machine pays for itself.
Roughly: $1,500 and up. See Editing & Productivity.
The mistake to avoid: judging by the processor alone. Check which hardware her editing software actually uses, since some lean on the graphics chip far more than others.
What the five have in common
Each of them should buy for the heaviest thing they do regularly, not the heaviest thing they might do once. Each should spend on what can’t be changed later, which usually means the screen, the RAM and the build. And none of them should go below a full HD screen, a real SSD and 8GB of RAM, with 16GB the safer choice on Windows.
If you sit between two of these people, lean toward the more demanding one. A laptop that’s slightly more than you need lasts longer than one that’s slightly less.
More reading: all Dealmania articles