PC Guide: Help When Shopping For A New Laptop

Knowing what you are looking for when shopping for a new laptop is very important. With so much choice in the marketplace, it can sometimes be difficult to know which device is going to best suit your needs. That’s why online computer guides are now more popular than ever. These free guides help you to select the right laptop for your lifestyle and help you to avoid bad products. When you are an informed buyer, you don’t have to worry that you are going to end up with a device that doesn’t match your requirements.

If you don’t like reading long articles or analyzing specification sheets, don’t worry. The latest computer buying guides are now available in video format. This means you can watch as industry experts guide you through the different choices you have when it comes to selecting a product in the laptop marketplace. It’s surprising how much more information you can get from video content.

If you don’t plan to use your laptop outside of your home, you might want to think about opting for a PC instead. A desktop computer generally offers you much better value for money and it can be easily upgraded. For example, you can add new graphics cards, extra ram and additional storage anytime you want. What’s more, with a desktop you have a lot more connectivity as such PCs always have more ports than laptops.

If you plan to do a lot of video editing on your computer, a desktop is probably a better option as you can hook it up to a large screen. Many people find it different to edit video on a 13in laptop screen, especially if they are trying to rearrange clips from multiple video files.

One of the many things that good PC guides cover is the choice of operating system. Do you want a device running MacOS, Windows or Linux? Each operating system has it’s own pros and cons, so if you are new to the world of computers, you need to spend some time researching which one will be best suited to your requirements.

If you are currently using a Windows computer and thinking about switching to a MacBook, the best PC guides can tell you all you need to know before you make the switch. For example, you need to know what pieces of software you will no longer be able to use and what the alternatives are.

Easy Ways To Increase Battery Life For Laptops

Does your laptop’s battery drain quickly? If your laptop doesn’t hold a charge for long, you should start looking at ways to increase battery life for laptops. These suggestions should help you improve your device’s battery life.

1. Turn Down Your Screen’s Brightness

The simplest and most effective way of extending your laptop’s battery life is to adjust the brightness settings on your screen. Even making a small adjustment to your brightness settings should significantly increase the battery life of your laptop computer.

Adjusting your laptop’s battery life is easy; you can usually do it in less than a minute. More importantly, a few minor adjustments can increase your laptop’s battery life by an hour or more. If you haven’t tweaked your default battery settings yet, you should definitely make a few changes.

2. Take A Look At The Power And Battery Settings

What are the current power settings of your laptop? Are there any changes you could make that would increase the battery life of your laptop? Does your laptop have battery settings? Have you tried adjusting these settings to see if it might have a positive impact on your battery life?

A lot of people never bother to look at the power or battery life settings of their laptops. If you take a closer look at these settings, you’ll see quite a few changes that you can make. Experiment with these settings until you find a solution that gives you the battery life you need.

3. Don’t Leave Peripherals Connected To Your Laptop

It’s easy to stick a DVD in your laptop and forget about it, and it’s simple to do the same thing with flash drives and other peripherals. What many people don’t realize is that these peripherals are draining their laptop battery. If you feel like your laptop battery is draining much too quickly, peripherals might be the culprit.

Only leave a peripheral plugged into your laptop when you’re actually using it. Once you’re done with the item, you should unplug it from your laptop. If the device is not connected to your laptop, then it won’t be able to drain your battery.

4. Disable Features That You’re Not Using

There’s a good chance that your laptop has a lot of built-in features that you never use. For example, it’s common for newer and popular laptops to offer Bluetooth functionality. These features will drain your laptop’s battery even when you’re not using them. Because of this, it’s smart to disable features when they’re not in use.

On many laptops, you’ll be able to see features and utilities from the start menu of your device. Enable features when they’re not in use. Remember, you can always turn these features back on later on. After you’ve disabled a few features, you’ll see that your laptop battery lasts a lot longer.

5. Unplug Your Laptop From Time To Time

If you leave your laptop plugged into a power source all of the time, you’re probably not getting as much out of its battery as you could be. It’s important to let the battery of your laptop drain from time to time. If your laptop is constantly plugged into a power source, you may only be able to use about 80% of your battery.

Why does this happen? In many cases, it’s because manufacturers include a utility that keeps a laptop from fully charging. This is done to prevent battery degradation. If your laptop is permanently charging, you’ll find that you don’t have a full charge when you take it off the power source.

In addition to letting your battery drain from time to time, you may be able to disable utilities that keep your laptop from fully charging. Check to see if there’s a limit on the battery charge. If you see a limit, you can choose to disable the limit and unlock your battery’s full potential.

You don’t have to buy a new battery — or a new laptop — if you’re having issues with your device’s battery life. As you can see, there are a lot of things that you can do if you want to get more out of your device’s battery. Take a look at these suggestions and see if some of them might work for you.