As with buying a PC laptop or for that matter any electrical equipment, it is a case of different strokes for different folks, what might be good for Joe may not be right for bill. With laptops, you should consider a few things before you purchase. With the new school, collage, and university terms, starting you may find yourself being convinced that your offspring would do so much better in education with this new top of the line ever so expensive laptop computer. Alternatively, you may be a travailing sales person and find that you need access to the office database while out of the office and the company has given you free reign to choose your own piece of IT kit whatever the situation you should consider the options available that will meet your needs.

Laptop computers are more expensive then an equivalent desktop unit with similar specification and if they go wrong they are much more complicated to repair (and did I mention more expensive as well).

So the first consideration is do you actually need a notebook computer, a desktop unit will give so much more bang for your buck.

So if your still with me, then you have decided being mobile is the only way to go. what things should you be looking for with a new laptop. However, the actual question should be what do you need the laptop to do.

Let's start with the basics, are you going to be using it for your main computer if so we should be looking for a larger screen. When you spend a lot of time in front of a screen you want to be able to see what you're doing. If you're only going using it as a support for your main computer, I would advise a smaller compact unit as the larger laptops begin to weigh you down if you have to carry them around for any length of time.

The hard drive size is another important factor bigger is better in this case go as large as you can afford with what your budget will allow.

Memory again same as above, but just think what you will be using it for, the standard amount of memory for most computers is 512 RAM, which is more then enough for most people. Exceptions to this are if you are going to be using large graphics in application like Photoshop, working with movie files, or any sort of 3D work then I would recommend going for a larger memory directly proportional to the size of the files you will be working with.

Graphics card

For office applications the basic built in graphics adaptors are fine but if your doing any 3d gaming or anything even slightly graphically intense , or want to run windows vista in all is glory then a better card is needed, one with at least 256 Ram

DVD/DVD-RW

A DVD drive is now the minimum you would get in most laptops but for backing up data a DVD-RW is necessary, your data depending on what sort of business you are in can be worth a lot more then your computer, you should make sure you back up regularly.

Wireless

Wireless internet is now a common reality and having a built in wifi card can be a real help when in need of information from the office or the internet I would recommend including this option if at all possible

Operating system

Most of the world has been focused on the Windows operating system with windows XP and now Windows Vista. There is an alternative that a lot of the general public don't know about, Linux. In the past Linux has been seen as an operating system for computer nerds and geeks and to complicated for Joe public, but with Linux distributions like the excellent Ubuntu this is changing. The benefits of Linux are legion, the best being its free with lots of software available also free.