What are the Reasons You Need to Buy a New Laptop

Laptop computers allow you to work anywhere at any time, gaining significant productivity even when away from home or the office. That is, until your laptop starts to run slowly and would require costly repairs and upgrades to improve its productivity. Here are five reasons you need to upgrade to a new laptop.

Extended Battery Life

Battery life is a crucial part of the maintenance of your laptop. However, laptop batteries have a certain number of charge cycles, or times you can recharge the battery. If you own a laptop that is three-to five-years old, your laptop can hold only a fraction of its original charge. To make matters worse, your battery probably didn’t last very long to begin with, as most laptops made before 2009 offered limited battery life. Now you can purchase a laptop that gets more than six hours of battery life. And you won’t have to break the bank in the process, as you can find a handful of laptops that are priced below $500. There are even laptops out there that can operate for over 15 hours. No longer will you need to be within arm’s reach of an outlet, fighting to plug in your charger.

Lightweight

Just a few short years ago, most of the ultra-light laptops available were far too expensive for the average consumer. Most laptops felt nearly as heavy as a standard desktop PC. With numerous options weighing less than five pounds, consumers have the ability to find the perfect laptop that meets all of their needs, including weight, without sacrificing anything in the process.

Faster Storage

With faster boot times, speedy application opening speeds, and improved responsiveness, many laptops are offering solid state drives, making computers seem decades ahead of those lacking solid state drives. In 2008, solid state storage was still in the development stages. Even if you could afford a laptop with a solid state drive, the speeds during this time weren’t anything to write home about. While it is more expensive to go with a solid state drive, many more systems come with the option. For around $200, you can upgrade any modern notebook to a solid state drive. If you choose to go with a laptop with a second generation Intel Core Series CPU and chipset, you have the option of getting a SATA 6gb solid state drive, providing you with a drive twice as fast as those of the past.

Extremely Intelligent Graphics Switching

Laptops from around 2008 that have discrete graphics cards devour power. However, two years ago, Nvidia released Optimus, which automatically switches between discrete and integrated modes to provide you with the best combination of power efficiency and performance. With this newer technology, even laptops that are built for PC gaming can last for hours on end. AMD also released its own automatic graphics switching technology, providing you with even more options to maximize your laptop’s performance without losing battery charge.

New Features

Even last year, most laptops didn’t come standard with USB 3.0 ports. Offering consumers transfer rates more than double those of USB 2.0, the new USB 3.0 drives allow you to transfer a plethora of media files and applications to and from your laptop with ease. By upgrading your laptop, you’ll be able to take advantage of new features available since last purchased a laptop. Newer models include faster modem or wireless technology, making it easier for your computer to communicate with other devices. Also, in order to upgrade software, you will most likely need additional hardware than your current laptop has. So save yourself the hassle of working with outdated technology and upgrade to a new laptop.

 

Melanie Gomez is a Staff Writer for TechBreach.com.