- Hey everybody.
This is Roberto Blake of robertoblake.com
helping you find an awesome laptop today.
Yep, that intro was a little different,
but it does segue into what we're gonna be talking
about for the rest of the video,
which is I'm gonna give you advice
on buying a brand new laptop.
I've covered some different things here
on the channel before in terms of buying computers
and buying laptops, but I don't think I've ever given
specific advice on what to look for in a laptop overall.
I've talked about budget laptops, graphic design laptops,
video editing laptops, but I want to give you guys
some basic and comprehensive guidance
in buying a laptop for whatever your situation is.
Whether you're a business owner,
whether you're a student, whether you're traveling,
I wanna give you my best tips on buying a laptop.
In the future I'm gonna have to do videos
on all of the terms and technical things
that we're talking about here,
just kind of make tech simple for you guys,
if it's something that you struggle with.
But the main thing you need to know is
you need to know about RAM,
you need to know about CPU,
you need to know about the graphics, a.k.a. GPU,
and you need to know a little bit about displays
and screen resolution just to be able to kind
of follow along with what we're talking about.
But again, I'll try and keep everything
super simple for you.
So one of the first immediate things you have to figure out
when you're gonna buy a laptop is what your budget is.
Your budget is actually gonna dictate everything else
for the most part.
It's gonna dictate everything from the power and the specs
to whether you get a Windows laptop or a Mac,
the budget really does matter.
And you have to figure that out before anything else.
Whatever your other preferences are,
whatever you think you need to do with this,
it doesn't matter if you don't have the budget for it.
If your budget is under $500 or $600,
you're gonna have to get a budget laptop.
On a budget laptop, you're gonna have to make
a couple of compromises and sacrifices.
The number one sacrifice
you're gonna have to make is the GPU
You're not gonna get a dedicated video graphics card,
which means that if you're buying this laptop
with gaming or very high-end video editing in mind,
then it's probably not gonna be an option.
You're also probably gonna have a limit
of about eight gigs of RAM,
which means if you're gonna do super intensive graphics
or image manipulation, special effects,
that's kind of off the table.
You can do some of these things at a very general level,
like some of the stuff I do here at the YouTube channel
including video editing, color grading, Photoshop for print,
web, digital, you can do all that stuff on a budget laptop.
I've been doing it that way on and off for years,
and it works out just fine.
So, if you're sacrificing a graphics card
and you're settling for eight gigs of RAM,
understand you can still do
professional high-end work on that laptop.
It just may not be as fast as you like or comfortable with,
but you can still get the job done,
and it will work out for you.
Again, if you're not playing video games,
a dedicated graphics card doesn't matter as much.
If you're not rendering or editing 4K video,
a dedicated graphics card just doesn't matter as much.
Will the experience be better?
Absolutely.
But if you don't have the budget for it,
you just don't have the budget for it.
In this price range, you can still get
a great processor, though, and that's gonna really affect
more of your productivity than anything else.
If you at least have six to eight gigs
of RAM in there, you'll be fine.
So, what that will get you is
probably an i5 or an i7 processor.
Those processors are gonna be capable
or letting you run multiple applications at once
or, you know, you're gonna be able to at least export
video at a decent speed, if that's something you're doing.
Or if you're gonna edit photos, images,
that's gonna be fine as well.
If you're just browsing the web,
or if you're using word processing applications,
or some very light, basic, editing apps
for making presentations,
then you're more than fine with this.
It's okay, you do not have to spend a thousand dollars plus
if all you're doing is office work.
Yep, that's the bottom line, here.
These budget machines, in most cases,
if you get a 15- or 13-inch laptop,
tend to be a little heavier,
they tend to be a little bulkier,
and that's another one of the trade offs for the price.
The other trade off is the hard drive.
The hard drive will usually be
an old school spinning hard drive.
It won't be super fast, and it will probably add
a little bit of extra weight to the laptop.
So, just kind of keep those things in mind.
If you go much lower than that,
this is something I only recommend for students,
if you're gonna get a $300 or less laptop,
then it's not gonna have hardly any space,
you're gonna have to save most of your work in the cloud
and it's probably gonna be smaller.
You're probably talking about maybe a 11-inch,
13-inch or a 12-inch laptop,
so if that is your budget and your a student,
and you're just browsing the web
and doing basic assignments, you're doing Powerpoints
and Word stuff, then that's okay.
But if you're gonna do anything more intense than that,
then you're gonna have to invest more money.
If you're someone who's doing a lot of traveling,
you might want to invest in Ultrabook.
My current travel laptop is the Dell XPS 13.
And this has an 11-inch form factor
and a 13-inch screen.
Dell actually sent this for me to do some reviews
and some other videos that you can find here on the channel.
But this is a great travel laptop,
and this has been going with me everywhere lately,
and I'm very happy with it.
You can get any travel laptop you need.
A popular option is the MacBook Air.
Now, before I get too much into the Mac versus PC
side of this, I just wanna give you a rundown
on travel laptops and Ultrabooks in general.
So let's cover that first.
Defining a travel laptop in an Ultrabook
basically means that this laptop has a focus
on being very light weight,
and having a large battery life.
In terms of battery life, you're looking for something
that can last eight, 10, 12 hours or more,
depending on the configuration you get.
The Dell Ultrabooks actually can go up to 18 hours,
but it really just depends on what you're getting.
Right now, two of the most popular Ultrabooks
are the Dell XPS 13 as well as the MacBook Air.
What you need to know about Ultrabooks
and travel laptops is that the weight matters.
It matters a lot.
But so does the build quality and durability,
because these are meant for travel.
In terms of specs, it really comes down
to what you're doing.
Me, I need to be able to continue to do photography,
and video editing and all those things on the go
because of the nature of my work.
Most people that will not be the case for them.
So getting a travel laptop or an Ultrabook that has
four or eight gigs of RAM is gonna be fine for them.
Eight was my minimum, but this one has 16,
and that's something that the MacBook Air
does not currently do as of the making of this video.
Neither does the MacBook
which is another popular travel laptop right now
is their 12-inch MacBook, the revival of that product line.
This is still a great device, don't get me wrong,
but it does have a lot of sacrifices in features
that you won't see in other travel laptops,
the primary one being the lack of USB ports.
It does have a USB-C port which there are not a lot
of devices that are very compatible with that right now
and you will end up buying an adapters.
And this is already an expensive machine.
When it comes to travel laptops, you really have to think
about power and you have to think about weight,
but you do also have to think about
how it works with your accessories.
So you're gonna want to make sure that you have
travel accessories to go with these.
You wanna make sure that Bluetooth is definitely
a priority for you and that it least has two USB ports
that you can utilize, maybe you want to get a USB hub.
That's super important.
You're also want to take a look at the keyboard form factor
and figure out whether that's comfortable for you.
Screen size and resolution matters as well.
You're gonna be viewing this,
usually in an uncomfortable situation
like on a plane or train or a car,
so you wanna make sure that it has a great display
that's high resolution and you might even want
to make sure that it's IPS which means that you can see it
from multiple angles no matter how you tilt the screen,
it's a good experience for you.
These things absolutely matter when you're talking
about Ultrabook and travel laptop.
Again, where budget is concerned,
you know, this gets a little pricey sometimes.
The MacBook Air product line is very pricey,
I think for what you get.
The MacBook Air's display is not great,
the new MacBook's display is fantastic,
but the trade off there is you don't have a lot
of the features and the accessory capabilities
that you have based on a lack of USB ports,
the lack of display ports, et cetera.
So I would still say that the MacBook Air
in many cases is still a superior, in my mind,
for a practicality to the MacBook,
but beyond both of them I would say something
like the Dell XPS or even the ASUS line of ZenBooks
could be a little better.
It all really just comes down to what you need.
And like I said, budget is usually the thing that decides
whether or not somebody's gonna go
with a Mac or a PC, but it's not the only consideration
when picking a laptop or anything that you're doing.
If you have a budget to get a Mac,
and you really love that experience,
then you absolutely should, but only if you have the budget.
If you really need to get some work done
or you need something done, and you feel like
you want the most bang for your buck,
do not feel compared to get a Mac just because
of what you're hearing in the marketplace
for the user experience.
There are beautiful laptops from a lot of companies
including ASUS and Dell and they look just as beautiful
and have just as great an experience as a Mac
when it comes to the hardware and the performance.
The operating system is where a lot of people decide
to draw a line in the sand.
And as someone who uses both Windows and Mac
every single day, I can tell you
that the experience of Windows 10 is really not that bad.
And you do get some things that you don't get
with the Mac OS currently.
Currently the Mac OS has no voice activated features,
and that is kind of something very interesting
considering the amazing job they did with Siri for the iOS.
I am really upset that the Mac operating system
for both desktops and laptops does not have
voice activated features like Siri,
but the Windows laptops absolutely do via Cortana.
And I've really been taking advantage of this
to set reminders in my calendar,
and to really just utilize the features for productivity.
It's been tremendous for me and I think that experience
is something that's lacking on the Mac laptops and desktops.
That being said, the clean and unified interface of the Mac
as compatibility with your other mobile accessories
does give it an edge there versus Windows.
Almost nobody's using Windows phone,
let's just be honest about that.
So, if you're already invested in the Mac ecosystem
and in iOS very heavily, then you might take that
into consideration when you're purchasing a laptop
and choosing the Mac.
I have an iPhone and I have an iPad.
I used to have an iPod before that was stolen.
And so, there is a reason, if that's your situation
to go with a Mac laptop.
On the other hand, I haven't had any real issues
in getting these products to work the way that I want to
with my Windows machines.
So, just take that with a grain of salt
and make an informed decision based
on what suits your preferences, the hardware ecosystem
that you're comfortable with, the software that you prefer.
You have to make that decision for yourself,
but budget and the practicality of productivity side
can weigh into this just based on whether or not
you're doing business
or what your creative capabilities are,
or just what you're really comfortable with.
If you're looking for a desktop replacement,
the MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops
on the market, hands down.
But it's not the only option out there.
As I said, the ASUS ZenBook is tremendous,
and so is the DELL XPS 13 as well as the XPS 15.
I don't necessarily consider the XPS 13
a true desktop replacement
because it does prioritize portability and power,
and it doesn't lack in performance
if you spec it out high enough.
But at that price range, you're entering the arena
where it might be more practical to go
with a 15-inch model like the MacBook Pro
or like the Dell XPS 15 Infinity.
So, I think that those are some of the better options.
Obviously you can get an ASUS laptop as well.
And they have some tremendous options.
I'll have links to my best recommended laptops
in the description below for you,
for every budget and for every type of category.
But when you're talking about getting some real work done,
the MacBook Pro is ASUS,
so is the Dell XPS 15.
They're both tremendous laptops and can crush video editing,
they can crush Photoshop, they can crush After Effects.
You can even get some 3D artwork and rendering done in them.
So I think that these are fantastic options
if you're looking for a laptop.
In terms of specs, you should be looking at going
with between eight and 16 gigs of RAM.
I'm always gonna prefer 16 gigs of RAM.
I know that the Adobe and the Autodesk
and all the other high-intensity softwares out there
for creative development take up RAM.
They are RAM hogs.
And they also eat up processing power.
You're gonna want an i7 Quad Core processor
in whatever machine you're getting
if that's the type of work you're doing.
And if you're not doing that type of work,
these machines, frankly, are overkill.
You could really get something under $1,000
if you're not doing high-level production work.
If you're not doing video editing, photo editing,
image manipulation, you really could just save
a ton of money and not get one of these fancy laptops.
I really wish you would.
For the price difference, you could get
so many great accessories,
you could invest in your software.
So I think you really just need to look at practicality
when buying a laptop and not worry about the optics
or impressing people.
You're here to use this thing to get work done,
for the most part, anyway.
The entry level MacBook Pro models are using
integrated graphics from Intel.
They are using Intel Iris and the Intel Iris Pro,
but remember these are still integrated graphics,
they are on the motherboard.
They're not a dedicated screen graphics card
like you would get from AMD or Invidia.
So that actually is an entry-level weakness
of the MacBook Pro product line.
However, the more expensive models
do have the dedicated GPU and I think those go
up to two gigs of RAM in most cases,
usually from Invidia or AMD,
just depending on what you're getting.
In the MacBook line, as far as MacBook Pros,
I'm almost positive it's still Invidia.
I do know that in the desktop models,
they kind of moved to AMD.
So, you'll just have to confirm
which one of those you're getting
based on what year you're buying the laptop from.
Remember refurbed MacBook Pros are still fantastic.
So if you want to get one of the older models,
it's actually a great deal and you can save
a ton of money by doing that.
Competitively though, same price point,
you can get something even more powerful
in a Windows laptop if you're okay
with the operating system.
So again, feel like you can get
whatever you feel you need to
based on the performance, the specs, the hardware,
and if you're okay with the user experience,
then, you know, have at it and save a couple of bucks
and get more for your money, get the real value out of it.
But again, when you're buying these things,
if you're doing the type of work I'm doing,
the type of work I'm talking about here
mostly video editing, photo manipulation,
those kinds of things, i7 processors, 16 gigs of RAM,
maybe a dedicated graphics card,
or at least an Intel Iris or Iris Pro would be beneficial.
The SSD hard drives, solid state drives,
those actually matter because it'll be faster
for your data transfers, boot times,
and it can really improve your user experience,
and it'll give you peace of mind,
because the laptop will last a little bit longer
and it'll be able to take impact better.
The displays on these are fantastic.
With the MacBook line, you're getting the Retina display,
and it can export true 4K resolution to an external monitor.
With the Dell and ASUS models you get the same thing,
so that is something to keep in mind.
What I will say about the new Dell models
is that they are packing Thunderbolt 3 capability.
So if you wanna future proof,
if you need high speed transfers to external drives,
that can be something to consider.
Again, I'll have links for my best recommended laptops
for everything in the description below.
For those of you who are using your laptops
for entertainment purposes, like just watching videos,
surfing the web or gaming,
it really just depends on how intense
you are trying to go here,
because the reality is for most of these things,
you can still do it for under $500 or $1,000,
but it just depends on what experience you want.
if you're a gamer, obviously you're gonna want to go
to the top end and that might not even be an option for you
considering that a lot of the games don't work
on the Mac operating system, or are not available.
So, that's something that you really have to keep in mind.
Again, if you're someone who's more casual, though.
I'm not a big gamer right now, you could get by
on a $500, $600 laptop, you just won't have
the ultra settings or anything like that.
And it can still be a great machine for you
for everything else, including watching movies,
on Netflix or surfing the web,
and playing the casual game of Star Wars or Republic
or StarCraft the way that I might do,
so that's something that you can get away with
on a budget and save a ton of money.
But if you're trying to do quote unquote real gaming
or whatever it is, then maybe a laptop
like the Razer would be good for you.
Maybe an ASUS ROG, Republic of Gamers,
maybe that model of laptop would be better for you.
I have a lot of friends who actually do that.
And this also doubles as their video editing
and Photoshop machine.
So if that's the kind of thing that you're doing,
then those could be great solutions for you,
and I have some links to those.
Now, what I will say is that displays and graphics cards
do matter when it comes to gaming and getting
those ultra high case settings.
So you wanna get a graphics card in your laptop
that has somewhere from two to four gigs
of dedicated memory for the video,
so that's something that's gonna be
super important for you.
I would say steer for 16 gigs of RAM.
Eight, you can get by, but you're really gonna want 16.
You're gonna want to have solid state drives in there,
so make sure you're looking for that, and i7 processors.
You know, there's no point in really having a conversation
if you're talking about high-end gaming
without those specs as your minimum.
4K is a kind of take it or leave it kind of thing.
it's really up to you.
The big thing here is the refresh rates.
You want those to be higher.
Again, I think ASUS ROGs, Republic of Gamers,
are good options for that.
The ASUS ZenBooks actually
is a pretty decent gaming machine as well.
Dell can actually handle gaming.
Alienware is something a lot of you are interested in.
But, again, one of the best options out there
are the Razer or Razer Blade.
So those are pretty cool,
and you can check all of those out.
Now, again, I'm not a big time gamer,
so my information on this is gonna be very general.
If you want to get more specific information,
go deep on that, then you probably need to talk
to somebody who's an expert at that
and is very current on those things.
Me, I use this stuff more for Photoshop
and video editing and doing productivity work,
and even doing visual effects using Adobe After Effects.
And I'm starting to mess with it a little bit
of the 3D modeling programs.
So that's how I utilize them.
And for my purposes I don't really have to go that route.
But if that's what you're doing,
then these recommendations will definitely help you.
And again, the laptops that I have in the description below
I've broken them out based on what your needs are
and what your budget is.
So that's something that you should really
like make an informed decision about.
Get something that you're comfortable with
and that will fit your needs.
Well, I hope this video is informative for you guys.
If you still have questions,
leave those in the comments section.
I'll do my best to answer as many of them as I can,
so you guys can make an informed buying decision.
This was actually a fun video for me to do,
because I got to geek out with you guys
over some hardware specs and some different brands
and talk about the way that I make my buying decisions
here for what I'm doing in the office.
And, you know, I think it's just really cool
to be able to do a different type of video with you guys.
Again, if you have questions,
leave those in the comments section
and I will try and answer them.
There are Amazon links in the description below,
those help out the channel, those help me out
as well as you, you pay nothing extra,
so please try and use them.
Anyway, like this video if you like it,
don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always you guys, I thank you so very much for watching
and geeking out with me while I try to help you buy
an awesome laptop.