Buying a laptop isn't easy. With so many models out and about, the customer is completely confused. Not entirely the fault of anyone, but at times, even the consumers expect the world of performance but want to pay only Rs 25000 for it!

We have heard a lot of sob stories of consumers who have purchased laptops or netbooks that were completely unsuitable for them. Either they spent too much and purchased a machine that was way too powerful for their usage pattern, and went completely underutilized. Or they spent too little (or were limited by budget constraints) and realized within a few days that it wasn’t adequate for their requirements.

To help you buy smarter, here is a simple guide on what kind of specifications to expect according to price bracket.

What is the budget? What can you buy?
Ordinarily, most customers tend to set a pretty wide budget. For example- Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,0000 while some of the more pedantic ones may set it between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,0000. However, while it is crucial to know beforehand how much you will spend on a product, it will be better if that doesn’t let you get bogged down, if spending a bit more will get you a vastly superior product.

If you are going to spend between Rs 14k an Rs 24k, what you can choose from a pretty wide range of netbooks. These are meant for the very basic of basic computing, with the real motive to offer supreme portability. Not a lot of power, but enough for some document work, web browsing and a bit of multimedia playback. Very small display size, something we wont recommend to anyone unless the requirement is very specific.

Typical configuration: Intel Atom or AMD Athlon processor, 1GB - 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, Integrated graphics, 11-inch display and Windows 7 Basic.

For between Rs 30k and Rs 40k, what you will get are basic laptops, which won’t be powerhouses. Neither would the focus be on a sleek form factor. What you will get is basic computing, sufficiently powerful enough for most daily computing tasks. Don’t expect this to be a gaming machine, not even by slimmest of margins.

Typical configuration: Intel Core i3, 2GB-4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, basic graphics (Nvidia or ATi) with 512MB or 1GB graphics memory, 13-inch/14-inch/15-inch display sizes and Windows 7 Premium.

Between Rs 40k and Rs 60k, the machines are the mid-range. These will be considerably more powerful than the basic ones, but the notebook manufacturers also spend some time tweaking the looks of most of these machines.

Typical configuration: Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, mid range- premium graphics with 1GB dedicated memory, 11-inch/13-inch/15-inch/17-inch display sizes and Windows 7 Premium.

Anything above Rs 60k is generally considered as ‘expensive laptop’. Someone spending that money will expect solid build, and an equally solid bunch of specs. Gaming laptops fall in this category