10 Mistakes People Make When Shopping for Business Laptops
Almost every professional needs a laptop to remain productive and connected in the modern world. Unfortunately, many of these professionals make critical mistakes when shopping for laptops, such as spending too much money on features that are impractical or choosing a computer that isn’t a good fit for their needs.
What are the most common mistakes that people make when shopping for business laptops and how can you avoid them?
Mistakes People Make When Shopping for Business Laptops
These are some of the most egregious mistakes to avoid:
1. Entering the market without core needs in mind. It’s pretty easy to tell when you need a new laptop. You might be starting a new profession or making a significant transition. Your existing laptop might be slowing down or falling apart. Or you might have new responsibilities that demand new requirements. In any of these scenarios, it’s wise to start shopping for a new laptop – but it’s premature to start this process before you have all your core needs in mind. Long before you start looking up consumer reviews, you need to have an idea of what kind of laptop you need and what features will be most important to you. Only then will you be able to appropriately determine which laptops will be a good fit.
2. Exclusively focusing on one feature. Some professionals get caught up in focusing on one specific feature. That feature may be important, and it may genuinely be the most important feature in your list of considerations, but if you get tunnel vision, you’ll end up ignoring other important features. For example, you might find an excellent laptop with a huge, beautiful screen – but you might neglect the fact that the battery life is much worse than the market average, making the screen much less of an advantage.
3. Thinking bigger is always better. On some level, upgraded versions of features are superior; it’s easy to see why more RAM is better, why a bigger screen is better, and why longer battery life is better. However, this isn’t always the case. Many features come with tradeoffs; for example, a bigger screen means more weight to carry around, and most upgraded technical components mean a higher total price. On top of that, certain features may offer far more than you’ll ever use; if you mostly deal with spreadsheets and data entry, you don’t really need 32 GB of RAM.
4. Sticking with a single brand. You might be a bit of a brand loyalist. If you’ve only used one type of laptop, or if you’ve heard good things about one specific brand, you might be tempted to only consider laptops made by that brand. But this is inherently limiting; it’s in your best interest to shop around.
5. Ignoring size and weight. In pursuit of examining technical details, it’s easy to overlook factors like size and weight. But if you plan on transporting your laptop around, these are significant variables. Heavy, bulky laptops are often more trouble than they’re worth.
6. Neglecting practical trials. It’s one thing to see a list of technical specifications on a screen, but it’s another to try out those technical specifications in a live experience. You may not always have the opportunity to try a specific laptop model before you buy it, but it’s wise to take that opportunity whenever you have it.
7. Maximizing internal storage space by default. It’s easy to see why greater internal storage space is so appealing, especially if you’ve dealt with the problem of running out of storage space prematurely with a previous business laptop. However, you shouldn’t necessarily seek to maximize internal storage space by default. You should have a good idea of exactly how much storage space you need, now and in the near future. And it’s important to remember that upgrading or expanding your storage is easier than ever; taking advantage of cloud storage services or adding external hard drives can easily solve this problem, and usually for much cheaper than upgrading the internal storage.
8. Overpaying. Every year, millions of professionals overpay for their business laptops. They may overload the laptop with features they don’t really need, or simply pay a price that’s too high for the features they chose. Shopping around is the best way to determine what a fair price for your chosen model is; it also pays to wait for sales and major discounts.
9. Underpaying. That said, you shouldn’t go the opposite route and buy the cheapest laptop you can find. Cheap laptops are cheap for a reason, and they usually include a much narrower range of features and less impressive technological components. Even worse, cheap laptops are sometimes more prone to breakage. Don’t be afraid to pay a bit more if it means getting a much higher quality, better fit product.
10. Failing to check warranties. Most major laptop brands make quality a top priority; it’s why people continue to buy from them after decades of operation. But you can’t take your laptop’s lifespan or durability for granted. When shopping for a business laptop, make sure you check out available warranties – even if it’s just for your own peace of mind.
Buying a Better Business Laptop
If you could avoid all these mistakes and approach your business laptop buying decision with focus and logic, you should end up with a much better machine for a much better price. There’s no such thing as a perfect business laptop, but there is such a thing as a perfect fit for your needs. Once you find it, and you account for all these considerations, buy it.