Laptop Features: What do the specifications mean?

• Processors

  Processors are the engine of your laptop. The size of the processor is measured in GHz – the higher the GHz the faster the processor.
  
  A 2 GHz processor will allow you to do pretty much anything you want with your laptop, with the exception of high-end gaming and intensive video production. If that's the kind of stuff you’re interested in, consider a 2.4 GHz or a 2.66 GHz processor.

• Memory

  The level of memory your laptop has will determine how fast and efficiently your work gets done. Memory is measured in RAM and as a guide, 2 GB of RAM is usually enough to run an operating system like Windows Vista and lots of applications at the same time.

• Hard Drive

  Hard drives are measured in GB too, and are essential if you intend to store lots of movies, videos, music or photos.
  
  As a rough guide, each GB of hard drive will let you store around 200 songs or photos. Downloaded movies are usually 1-1.5 GB each.

• Battery

  If you're always on the move and want to use your laptop in cafés or while you're on the train, make sure you shop around for a laptop with a good battery life.

• Graphics

  This is all about how good stuff looks on your laptop. Some laptops have additional memory cards for graphics which means they don't take up the general memory of the laptop. If you'e into high end gaming or watch a lot of movies on your laptop then you'll want a good graphics card that produces high quality images.

• Display

  The display is the size of your screen. The standard laptop screen is 15", but there are larger and smaller options. There are also wide-screen monitors which are great if you like to watch movies on your laptop or if you always have heaps of applications open at the same time.

Check out our top tips for buying the best Windows PC to suit your lifestyle.