How To Choose A Budgetary Laptop For Web Design And Development

Craftsmen, craft, and tools are intertwined in such a way that one cannot imagine a refined product without any of these aspects. Similarly, if we look at the bigger picture, web designers and web developers are no different. Since laptops are like an elixir for their existence. One has a right to one's personal preferences; therefore, specifications and requirements vary from person to person but one aspect remains the same in most the cases i.e. budget. Hence, it becomes important to look around and take careful and considerable decision while choosing a laptop. As one wrong decision may hinder your work development efforts. Hopefully, this article will provide you with essential tips and guidance to help you choose the right laptop.

Point Of Contemplation

Before headfirst venturing into any work sphere, the start-off point is to set a budget for each and every task. Web designers and developers can’t imagine their life without a decent laptop with high-level specifications. But such laptops can’t be bought easily without paying heavily. Since, most laptop models fall under four price brackets (Budget, Mid-range, High-end, and performance) but when you are working on strict money allocation for buying laptops, you can’t seem to think about buying from the other three brackets. Especially, if such requirements are felt by students, freshers, freelancers, and new establishments.

But, anything is possible in this ultra-modern era we have stepped into. So, no need to worry about budget restrictions for buying a brand new, high specifications rich workstation. Since everything today is about better alternatives, we can also come up with an alternative for this problem of ours (ting! ting! ting! - refurbished laptops).

Refurbished Laptops 101

The refurbished market is taking the IT industry by storm with its humongous inventory consisting of a variety of laptop models available at affordable prices.

It is quite commonly believed by many that a refurbished laptop is second hand. Though the truth is that it might not be used at all. Refurbishers specializing in selling refurbished laptops perhaps could have acquired them from a variety of sources. It can include- laptops returned by customers due to faulty components to previously leased devices or laptops part of a device exchange program to brand new laptops with damaged packaging resulting in their return.

The job of an authorized service provider or certified supplier is to disassemble and check these products. The essentials like- battery condition, the power supply, HDD, optical drive, quality of the screen, potential faulty components are thoroughly scrutinized.

After this, comes the cleaning and repairing stage in which the laptop is restored to factory settings and released in the market with at slashed rates. Hence, the most significant advantage posited by the refurbished laptops is that brand new device at much better prices.

Added advantages include a warranty, although for a much shorter period as compared to one offered by manufacturers. According to the general trend, refurbished laptops come with a six-month warranty or less, though in some sellers might offer a one-year warranty.

Further, the customers don't have to worry about the necessary features and upgrade options. The capabilities and design of laptops are already tuned as per the latest trends. Since the rapid changes in the IT industry don’t correspond to similar frequent changes introduced by software companies. The majority of applications and software are easily compatible with these devices.

Hardware Specs For Web Designing And Development

Let us go through the attributes required in the best laptops for web development and design. We’ll also go through the exact hardware requirements for this specific purpose.

CPU (Generation and Core):

Web designing is not CPU intensive, but modern CPUs are built for multitasking that ought to take place in this field. In these cases, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 doesn’t matter much if from the 7th and 8th generation. Although, nothing to worry much about CPU as modern ones have at least two cores on them, enough to launch a virtual machine. Customers shouldn’t worry too much about getting a device with a more powerful CPU as they can be overkill for the purpose.

RAM:

Being the most important component for developers as the amount of multitasking can be quite crazy. For instance, just imagine having- a text editor, a web browser, virtual machine, a SQL server; now add to the concoction few more browsers or tutorials, a video and certain heavy programs like Photoshop, Visual Studio, etc. in such a scenario 4GB will be gone quick. So, it’s better to have a device with a minimum of 8GB or 16GB RAM. For the ones aspiring to become a professional in this field, such attributes will come handy (upgradeable laptops are more suited).

Storage:

For web designers, hard disk is much more important than the CPU. Since you will be constantly opening and closing a lot of files at the same time, the device will be required to read/write data to/from files simultaneously. Therefore, a storage drive that is a few seconds faster can be advantageous. Besides, SSD, disk memory and durability of the storage drive should also be pondered upon before purchasing a laptop.

Display:

After all, the above-mentioned attributes come to the display. This is the part of the device that helps in physical interaction with other parts. Preferable resolutions are 1600x900 or 1900x800; you can always reduce the resolution but can’t raise it beyond a certain limit. Therefore, it is recommended to invest in a better resolution even if you have to sacrifice other components.

Conclusion

So, if your budget is low, it is highly recommended to opt for refurbished laptops. They can help you save a decent amount of money with little or no compromise at all. It is advised to not to jump at the first deal that catches your attention instead make a careful and well-informed choice.

About the Author:

Gary Jones is a professional content writer. He works with a staff of talented writers to create educational and inspiring content to help many readers make the best decisions when it comes to need of technology.