Screen size
Diagonal size of laptop display.
The larger the screen, the more convenient the laptop for watching high-definition movies, modern games, working with large-format graphic materials, etc. Large screens are especially important for multimedia and gaming models. On the other hand, the diagonal of the display directly affects the size and cost of the entire device. So if portability is key, it makes sense to pay attention to relatively small solutions; especially since most modern laptops have video outputs like HDMI or DisplayPort and allow connection of large-format external monitors.
In light of all this, the actual maximum for laptops these days is
17"(17.3"); however
larger devices (18") reappeared at the beginning of 2023. The standard option for general purpose laptops is
15"(15.6"), less often
16", a diagonal of
13"(13.3") or
14" is considered small by the standards of such And smaller screens can be found mainly in specific compact varieties of laptops — ultrabooks, 2 in 1, transformers, netbooks; among such devices there are solutions for
12 ",
11" and even
10" or less.
Screen resolution
The resolution of the screen installed in the laptop — that is, the size of the screen in pixels horizontally and vertically.
Higher resolution, on the one hand, gives a sharper, more detailed image; on the other hand, it increases the cost of the laptop. The latter is connected not only with the cost of the displays themselves, but also with the fact that in order to work effectively at high resolutions, you need the appropriate filling (primarily a graphics card). This is especially true in games; so if you are looking for a laptop with a high-resolution screen that can effectively "run" modern games — you should pay attention not only to the characteristics of the display, but also to other data (the type and parameters of the graphics card, test results, the ability to work with certain games — see everything below). On the other hand, if the device is planned to be used for simple tasks such as working with documents, surfing the Internet and watching videos, you can not pay much attention to the “hardware” parameters: anyway, they are selected so that the laptop is guaranteed to be able to cope with such tasks on full resolution of the "native" screen.
As for specific numbers, the resolution options that are relevant today can be divided into 3 groups:
Full HD (1080),
Quad HD and
UltraHD 4K. Here is a more detailed description of them:
...— Full HD (1080). Initially, the Full HD standard provides a frame size of 1920x1080, and it is this resolution that is most often used in laptop screens from this category. However, in addition to this, other resolution options are also included in this format, where the vertical size is at least 1080 pixels, but does not reach 1440 pixels. Examples include 1920x1200 and 2560x1080. In general, Full HD displays provide a good balance between cost, image quality and laptop hardware requirements. Because of this, nowadays they are extremely widespread; matrices of this standard can be found even in low-cost devices, although they are mainly used in more advanced technology.
— Quad HD. A transitional option between the popular Full HD 1080 (see above) and the high-end and expensive UltraHD 4K. The vertical size of such screens starts from 1440 pixels and can reach 2000 pixels. Note that QuadHD resolutions are especially popular in Apple laptops; most often, such devices have 2560x1600 screens, although there are other options.
— Ultra HD 4K. The most advanced standard used in modern laptops. The vertical size of such screens is at least 2160 dots (up to 2400 in some configurations); the classic resolution of a modern UltraHD matrix is 3840x2160, but there are other values. Anyway, a 4K display allows for high image quality, however, it costs accordingly — including due to the corresponding requirements for a graphics adapter; in addition, to work with high resolutions, it can be more convenient to connect an external monitor to the laptop. Thus, such screens are used relatively rarely, and mainly among premium laptops.Brightness
The maximum brightness that a laptop screen can provide.
The brighter the ambient light, the brighter the laptop screen should be, otherwise the image on it may be difficult to read. And vice versa: in dim ambient light, high brightness is unnecessary — it greatly burdens the eyes (however, in this case, modern laptops provide brightness control). Thus, the higher this indicator, the more versatile the screen is, the wider the range of conditions in which it can be effectively used. The downside of these benefits is an increase in price and energy consumption.
As for specific values, many modern laptops have a brightness of
250 – 300 nt and even
lower. This is quite enough for working under artificial lighting of medium intensity, but in bright natural light, visibility may already be a problem. For use in sunny weather (especially outdoors), it is desirable to have a brightness margin of at least
300 – 350 nt. And in the most advanced models, this parameter can be
350 – 400 nt and even
more.
Passmark CPU Mark
The result shown by the laptop processor in the Passmark CPU Mark test.
Passmark CPU Mark is a comprehensive test that is more detailed and reliable than the popular 3DMark06 (see above). It checks not only the gaming capabilities of the CPU, but also its performance in other modes, based on which it displays the overall score; this score can be used to fairly reliably evaluate the processor as a whole (the more points, the higher the performance).
RAM
The amount of random access memory (RAM or RAM) actually installed in the laptop.
The amount of RAM is one of the most important indicators characterizing the overall flow Rate of the system. The more RAM installed in a laptop, the better it will cope with “heavy” resource-intensive programs, and the more tasks can be performed on it simultaneously without “brakes” and failures.
Today
, 4 GB of RAM is considered the minimum required. A capacity of
8 GB is usually enough for comfortable household use and simple games,
16 GB and
32 GB are enough for running resource-intensive applications and confidently launching modern games. And in advanced gaming and professional laptops there are also larger amounts of RAM -
64 GB or even more.
Note that many laptop models allow you to increase the available amount of RAM; For more details, see “Maximum installed volume”.
Max. RAM
The maximum amount of RAM that can be installed on a laptop. It depends, in particular, on the type of memory modules used, as well as on the number of slots for them. Paying attention to this parameter makes sense, first of all, if the laptop is bought with the expectation of
and the amount of actually installed memory in it is noticeably less than the maximum available. So laptops can be upgraded in RAM to 16 GB,
24 GB a>,
32 GB, 48 GB,
64 GB and even more -
128 GB.
RAM speed
The clock speed of the RAM installed in the laptop.
The higher the frequency (with the same type and amount of memory) — the higher the performance of RAM in general and the faster the laptop will cope with resource-intensive tasks. However modules with the same frequency may differ somewhat in actual performance due to differences in other characteristics; but this difference becomes significant only in very specific cases, for the average user it is not critical. As for specific values, the most popular modules on the modern market are
2400 MHz,
2666 MHz,
2933 MHz and
3200 MHz. Memory at
2133 MHz or less is found mainly in outdated and low-cost devices, and in high-performance configurations this parameter is
2933 MHz,
3200 MHz,
4266 MHz,
4800 MHz,
5200 MHz,
5500 MHz,
5600 MHz,
6000 MHz,
6400 MHz and
more.
Graphics card model
GeForce graphics cards from NVIDIA:
RTX represented by
RTX 2060,
RTX 2060 Max-Q,
RTX 2070,
RTX 2070 Max-Q,
RTX 2070 Super, RTX
2070 Super Max-Q,
RTX 2080,
RTX 2080 Max-Q,
RTX 2080 Super,
RTX 2080 Super Max-Q,
RTX 3050,
RTX 3050 Ti,
RTX 3060,
RTX 3060 Max-Q,
RTX 3070,
RTX 3070 Max-Q, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080,
RTX 3080 Ti,
RTX 4050,
RTX 4060,
R TX 4070,
RTX 4080,
RTX 4090,
RTX 5070,
RTX 5070 Ti,
RTX 5080,
RTX 5090;
MX1xx represented by MX110, MX130 and MX150,
MX2xx(MX230 and MX250),
MX3xx(MX330 and MX350),
MX450, GTX which represent GTX 1050,
GTX 1060,
GTX 1060 Max-Q,
GTX 1070,
GTX 1070 Max-Q,
GTX 1080,
GTX 1080 Max-Q,
GTX 1650,
GTX 1650 Max-Q,
GTX 1650 Ti,
GTX 1660 Ti,
GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q and. AMD also offers video cards
Radeon 520,
Radeon 530(535),
Radeon 540X,
Radeon 610(625, 630),
Radeon RX 550 (550X, 560),
Radeon RX 640,
Radeon RX 5500M,
Radeon RX 6800M and
Radeon Pro.
Note that all the above models are discrete. Actually, for a configuration with discrete graphics, it is the model of a separate video adapter that is indicated; if it is supplemented by an integrated module, the name of this module can be clarified by the official characteristics of the processor.
It is also worth mentioning that this paragraph does not give the full name of the model, but only its name within the series (the series itself is given separately - see above). However, knowing the series and model, one can easily find detailed information about the graphics card.
Video memory
The amount of native video memory installed in the laptop's graphics card. Only discrete video adapters and their advanced varieties like SLI or Dual Graphics have such memory (see "Video card type").
The more memory, the more powerful the graphics card and the better it can handle complex graphics. Of course, the specific capabilities of the adapter depend on a number of other parameters (primarily the characteristics of the graphics processor); however, the difference in the amount of memory, as a rule, is quite consistent with the difference in the overall level. In terms of specific numbers, solutions with
2 GB are entry-level,
4 GB and
6 GB are intermediate, and
8 GB - to advanced, and
12 GB and
16 GB can be found in top-end gaming laptops and high-end workstations.
