Buying a laptop isn’t as simple as it may seem, when you are first looking at the flyer from XYZ Stores that came along with the newspaper this morning. While the choice is very wide, what you need is to work out a few things before actually putting down the cash for a new laptop.

We have heard a lot of sob stories, when consumers 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. Or they spent too little (or were limited by budget constraints) and realized within ten days that they should have purchased a more powerful machine.

We wish that such a situation shouldn’t befall you! Hence, here is a simple guide on how to go about selecting the best laptop for you.

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 40,000 while some of the more pedantic ones may set it between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000. 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.

For between Rs 30k and Rs 40k, what you will get are basic laptops, which wont be powerhouses, and the focus is definitely not 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 rig, not even by slimmest of margins.

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

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

What kind of specs should you be looking for? And what you’ll actually get?
The specs will vary quite a bit, across the price band. When you do decide on the perfect machine, you will need to figure out the perfect balance between the two. The trick usually is to buy a machine that is slightly more powerful than what you need at this moment, if your budget allows for that. This will help keep the config new-ish for longer, and you wont get the urge to change the laptop an year down the line.

If you are in the market for a netbook, what you will essentially get is a newer gen Intel Atom processor, a couple of gigs of RAM, 250GB or a 320GB hard drive, no dedicated graphics solution, no optical and a 10-inch display. This is the very basic of basic computing, essentially targeting the road warriors for mails, web browsing and document related work on the move.

For a full-fledged laptop, you will be spending upwards of Rs 30k. Between Rs 30k and Rs 40k, what you will usually get is and Intel Core i3 processor, 2GB or 3GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and rarely a dedicated graphics card. Dell had the Inspiron M501R with an AMD Phenom II quad core processor retailing for about Rs 39k, but that doesn’t seem to be around anymore. While that laptop didn’t win any battery marathons, the power offered was just in a league well above this price bracket.

If you are on a strict budget, you will inevitably look at a machine from this price range. However, we would suggest getting the RAM upgraded to 4GB (assuming the laptop comes with a 64-bit OS) to avoid any slowdowns or bottlenecks in performance.

Between Rs 40k and Rs 60k, the you will get a balance of more power, much better looks and all this without disturbing the battery life. These mid-range laptops will usually come with Intel Core i5 processors, 4 gigs of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, dedicated graphics from Nvidia or ATI and maybe even a full HD display. The focus is on performance, but the fact is that as you move higher up the price brackets, the build quality improves as well.

If you like powerful laptops, and do not like the idea of a sluggish machine, we suggest you buy a laptop from this price range. Even if that means stretching that budget a little bit.

The next is the rich man’s category. This is where the so-called elite laptop lives! Intel Core i7, 4GB of RAM or more, 500GB or 750GB hard drive, and a dedicated graphics card with 1GB or 2GB of video RAM. Optical drive may have Blu-ray reading capabilities as well. The gaming laptops also get introduced in this category, and then move well beyond the Rs 80k price barrier, we have introduced in this article!

However, display sizes range between 14-inches and 17-inches, and since most these laptops are on the slightly heavier side, they are mostly used as desktop replacements or as home entertainment machines. Buy from this category if you are a performance freak, who doesn’t really bother about the portability aspect.