A laptop is a very useful tool, but can become a useless buy. Get the laptop you need.

Buying a laptop, especially for the first time, is to say the least, exciting. Whether you are a college student buying a laptop for school and for your multimedia needs, or you are a corporate person trying to stay on top of your business with the latest technology, a laptop, can be considered a basic necessity. However, knowing which laptop to buy can become a huge chore.

The prices of todays laptops could sell as low as $750 but could go way above $2,000.

• Cheap Laptop
• General-Purpose Laptop
• Gaming Laptop
• Media Center Laptop
• Business Laptop
• Tablet PC

You can research for yourself. Or simply read below.

We need laptops that work for us, and work with us. That is a given.

Cheap Laptops are easily available on your favorite "discount" shops. But if you dont get it right the first time you buy, you might end up throwing it in the bin and buying a second one that will serve it's purpose. The trend with laptops today, is slightly similar to mobile phones. They are classified according to usage. These laptops often have 512MB RAM and 120GB hard disk space.

General-Purpose Laptops are the best guess, it comes a little bit cheaper than the top of the line ones, and it will give you most of the things you need. But, you could also be paying for something that you do not need. An attached web cam for example, when all you needed to use your laptop for was writing articles. You pay for that extra "technology" attached to your laptop, and not actually use it. You however may need a good amount of disk space for your important documents.

Gaming Laptops demand the most of video graphics capability first and foremost, RAM, and disk space. The ease of upgradability is what is expected for these kinds of laptops, even if laptops in general are considered less upgradable than workstations. The standard for gaming laptops start from a 128MB video card and can go up to 512MB. 2GB RAM is the minimum and look for those with the most expansion slots.

Media Center Laptops will require more disk space to say the least. This is where you store your photos, music, videos, and a whole lot more. The video graphics could be a bit tricky, as this line are expected to give out quality videos but not as high as those for gaming laptops.

Business Laptops is one of those everyday laptops that you carry around with you most of the time. Portability is key to these kinds of laptops. The size and weight of such laptops, including the "look", are very important. Lugging a 7lb-pound laptop onto your business meetings can be a drag. Look for those that are around 4-5 lbs and can easily fit in a small laptop bag. Business laptops may not be very demanding on graphics and memory, but it may need a stable wireless network capability for you to tap into new wireless networks efortlessly.

Know more about laptops, the different types, parts, and top makers of today's laptops.