Balanced Performance without Breaking the Bank

Laptop performance has come a long way over the past few years, and even more affordable laptops can keep up the majority of computing needs. AMD’s A-Series processors (particularly the A8 and upcoming A10) offer great all-around performance at budget-friendly prices.

Lenovo IdeaPad Z575 – The AMD A8 version of Lenovo’s Z575 is arguably one of the best values on the market. It’s very well built, with a sturdy yet still lightweight chassis, and at around $500, it’s easy on your wallet as well.

Performance that will Last

Since College will generally last at least four years, you probably want a laptop that can last that long as well. Solid construction and strong performance is one way to help ensure a laptop will still be useful several years down the line.

Sony Vaio SE Series – Configured with a 1920×1080 resolution display and Core i5 processor, the SE series is probably one of the best choices on the market right now. Currently available is the VPC-SE25FX, which, at less than $1000, offers stellar performance for not only productivity, but also gaming and just about everything else. It also has useful features, such as a backlit keyboard and USB 3.0. Sony also offers very good technical support.

Sony Vaio S Series – Similar to the SE series, the S series is a bit newer, featuring Intel’s 3^rd generation of Core i5 and i7 processors. A configuration closely matching the SE25FX mentioned above weighs in at just over $1000.

Ultra-Portability that doesn’t Skimp on Performance

When you’re darting around campus, running from class to class, you might not want to be lugging around a bulky laptop, but at the same time, tablets and netbooks aren’t really the best choice for productivity. Ultrabooks represent a middle ground which features the performance you’d get from a full-sized laptop paired with the portability and battery life of a netbook.

Asus ZenBook UX31 – The ZenBook UX31 is currently alaTest’s top rated laptop. It’s one of the top performing ultrabooks for around $1000, but its biggest appeal is its 1600×900 resolution display. The extra desktop space provided by a higher resolution is a major benefit compared to the 1366×768 resolution display of most ultrabooks.

Apple MacBook Air (2012) – The new MacBook Air is the first ultrabook to run Intel’s 3^rd generation Core i5 and i7 processors, which gives it an edge particularly in graphics performance over other ultrabooks. The 13-inch model also has a 1440×900 resolution display, which, while not quite matching the UX31, is still a great benefit.

What about Laptops We Haven’t Mentioned?

Just because we didn’t mention it in this article doesn’t mean it’s not a good choice. There are a ton of other laptop choices out there, so here are a few key things to consider when making a purchase:

Dedicated Graphics – A laptop with a dedicated graphics processor will almost always outperform a laptop with an integrated graphics processor when it comes to things like HD video and gaming; however, the AMD A-series and Intel’s 3^rd generation Core series with HD 4000 graphics are still strong performers.

Screen Resolution – Most laptops have a resolution of 1366×768. Laptops with 1600×900 and 1920×1080 resolutions often cost a premium, but offer much more on-screen workspace which helps considerably with productivity.

Backlit Keyboards – Backlit keyboards are amazingly useful.

Processor

The CPU is the heart of a computer, but it’s not easy to know which CPU models are best for which tasks. The following is your basic CPU hierarchy.

1: Intel Core i7 – The Core i7 makes up the top tier in CPU performance. It also makes up the top price bracket. You’ll typically only need this sort of power if you expect to do a lot of computationally intensive tasks, such as photo/video editing or high-end gaming.

2: Intel Core i5 and AMD A8 – The A8 series CPU represents AMD’s highest performance offering in the laptop sector, and it’s roughly on par with Intel’s Core i5 series. Both are just as capable as the Core i7 but are slightly slower. In every-day tasks, this speed difference won’t even be noticeable.

3: Intel Core i3 and AMD A4/A6 – This is the more budget friendly range of CPUs. They’re considerably slower than the other offerings, but if all you’re looking for is a laptop for web browsing, word processing, and multimedia, they’re more than capable.

Each series has range of models with slightly different performance. Searching CPU benchmarks can help give you a feel for performance hierarchy.

Graphics

Most laptops have integrated graphics ships, specifically Intel HD Graphics 3000. Integrated graphics limits you to basic tasks, such as web browsing and simple productivity. As a general rule, you should avoid integrated graphics of possible.

Dedicated graphics, such as AMD’s Radeon and Nvidia’s GeForce chips can provide much more performance than integrated solutions, but often cost more. The model numbers can be confusing as well, but the following chart can give you a rough idea of performance:

An exception to the integrated graphics rule is AMD’s A-series. While the A-series CPUs do have integrated graphics, AMD has fitted them with entry-level gaming-class GPUs. This actually makes the A-series a very good value.

RAM

When it comes to RAM (aka Memory), there’s no such thing as too much, but you still don’t want to pay for more than you need. 6GB is ideal, but for the time being 4GB is still sufficient. Memory speed also plays a small role in performance, but it’s really only important with high-end systems.

Hard Drives

Anywhere from 64GB to 2TB, how much space you need is entirely up to you, but hard drive speeds can also play a major role in overall performance. Most laptops come with 5400RPM hard drives. When compared to 7200RPM drives, these will have slower loading times, but only by a small percentage. 7200RPM drives are best for high-performance laptops.

There are also SSDs (Solid State Drives). These give significantly better performance compared to traditional hard drives, sometimes halving load and boot times, but cost quite a bit. Due to the price, SSDs typically come in small capacities, like 64GB to 128GB, making them mostly ideal for productivity tasks only.

Size

Display size and slimness are all a matter of personal preference. Any two laptops with the same internal components will perform similarly, regardless of size; however, size can have an indirect on battery life. Large screens tend to use more power and smaller chassis often have smaller batteries. Expert reviews can be useful for gauging realistic battery life.

Resolution

Screen resolution basically equates into how much workspace you get on your screen. Most laptops have 1366×798 resolutions. This is fairly low for those who prefer to display many things onscreen at once, but it is still enough for 720p video. Other resolutions, like 1600×900 and 1920×1080, can make for a much more productive system, but also cost considerably more.

If you are thinking about upping your computer’s graphics performance, here’s a list of some of the best dedicated video cards for popular price points.

Best GPU Under $100: AMD Radeon HD 5570 and HD 5670

The Radeon HD 5570 can turn just about any budget computer into a manageable gaming system, and at just $65, it’s easy on the wallet. It will play most titles with moderately high settings at 720p resolutions, and even 1080p for some. At just $10 more, the HD 5670 will give you about 20% more performance. The best thing about both of these cards is that they have very low power requirements, meaning it’s very likely that they will work in most commercial desktops.

Best GPU for about $120: AMD Radeon HD 5770 (and HD 6770)

The Radeon HD 5770 offers a perfect balance between price and performance, easily making it the best valued video card on the market. It can play most games at 1080p resolutions while keeping detail settings relatively high. The HD 6770 is simply a newer version of the HD 5770 and offers the exact same performance.

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Best GPU for about $180: AMD Radeon HD 6850

If you’re looking to get into some serious PC gaming but don’t want to spend some serious money, the HD 6850 is a great place to start. It’s capable of playing even the latest games at 1080p resolutions with nearly every settings maxed out. Nvidia’s GTX 460 1GB also offers similar performance, but the HD 6850 is generally cheaper.

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Best GPU for about $220: AMD Radeon HD 6870 and Nvidia GTX 560 Ti

Both the HD 6870 and GTX 560 Ti should be able to play just about any game at 1080p resolutions with the settings cranked up to the max. They’re even capable of playing some titles at 2560×1600, though may require some slightly lowered detail settings. Nvidia’s GTX 560 Ti edges out a bit more performance than the HD 6870, but it also costs about $25 more.

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Best GPU for $250 to $300: AMD Radeon HD 6950

Coming in both 1GB and 2GB flavors, the HD 6950 is about the highest performing video card that still carries a practical price tag. Expect to be able to play at 2560×1600 with detail settings maxed out for most titles, though you may have to settle for 1080p resolutions to play some of the latest titles maxed out.

Best GPU when cost isn’t an issue: AMD Radeon HD 6990 and Nvidia GTX 590

Once you go past $300, cost per performance becomes much less practical, making it difficult to recommend anything past that point, but if you want to play the most demanding of games at 2560×1600 with every feature and setting turned up to 11, regardless of cost, one of these cards is for you.