Eventually even for you it's time to buy a new notebook. You have already spotted some computers that you think might be for you, but before you proceed with the purchase you would like some advice on how to choose a notebook.

What is the minimum of RAM and CPU that has to have a laptop to not be considered an old man at the exit from the store? Which to choose between two computers with the same specifications but different construction materials? How much you have to spend to bring home a good notebook? These and other questions will try to answer you right away, in the most short and simple as possible, with this quick guide to buying a laptop. Happy reading.

To learn how to choose a notebook, the first two assessments you need to do is: "what is the budget that I have available to me?" And "why do I need this computer?". After answering these crucial questions, the road will be down and you go to buy your new handset with mind almost entirely free from doubt.

Let's start with the first question: "what is the budget that I have at my disposal?". To give you a satisfactory answer, you should know that there are roughly three price bands for notebooks: that of the computer medium level of up to 500/600 euro, that of the higher-end computer that comes to about 800 euro and that of the top of the range that cost more than 1,000 Euros. For average use, often those of 500/600 euro are good but their characteristics will talk further. Now let's focus on the doubt to dissipate.

"Why do I need this computer?". It is important to clarify this for two reasons: to understand what are the characteristics of the computer on which to focus primarily (eg. Graphics capabilities, battery life, etc..) And identify the ideal size of the notebook to buy. Notebook, in fact, there is something for all tastes with a display ranging in size from 13 to 18 inches and you have to choose carefully what you need. A computer with a screen over 15 "loses much of its portability and is unsuitable for use on the move, on the other computers with display of larger diameter represent an optimal solution for those who must use the notebook primarily at home or office and want a screen can not stress your eyes, play games and watch movies in an easy manner.

Now that you've focused on two of the issues most important to choose a notebook for your needs, we pass to the evaluation of the hardware components of the laptops on the market. Unlike desktop PCs, laptops do not provide a great freedom of choice in hardware, you can buy only "black box" and also the replacement of components such as RAM and hard drives is usually more difficult than that of desktop computers. That said, to choose the notebook that best suits your needs is crucial to good specifications and evaluate elements such as the processor, RAM, hard drive, video card and build quality of the product.

Concerning the processor, the minimum that can request to a handset of a good standard is a dual core at least 2:20 GHz (such as the Intel Core i3 or AMD equivalent), while as regards the RAM avoids absolutely computers with less than 4 GB of memory, because they would not be able to fully meet the needs of work and leisure more common. On the video card's speech is variable depending on your needs: if you plan to use your notebook primarily for work, draft documents and surf the Internet, you can settle for any onboard video, but if you're going to play games of last generation and watch movies in HD, the choice must be oriented on a laptop with a dedicated video card (eg. ATI or Nvidia 6470M GT 530m).

Other features to consider carefully before buying a notebook are the power and speed of the hard disk, battery life and build quality of the computer. As for the hard drive, do not consider portable storage with a capacity of less than 500 GB and tries to favor the HDD 7200 rpm compared to 5400 rpm as they ensure greater speed than the other (although it is difficult find hard drive 7200 rotations per minute on portable medium-low). As for the battery, are authentic cells and milliamp / hour (mAh): the higher the number, the greater the autonomy. I advise you to at least 6-cell battery, which should provide a range of about 4.30 / 5 hours (then it all depends on the use you make of the computer).

And now we come to the chapter on the quality of the materials. Especially if you use your new notebook as a primary computer for work, before proceeding with the purchase you have to carefully evaluate the quality of the computer itself. Believe me: it is worth spending 100 or 200 euro more for a rugged notebook and comfortable rather than make thrifty and find themselves every day to do to blows with a computer too "plasticky" that overheats too, has a keyboard awkward or a trackpad that works badly. By this I do not say that you have to buy a device to force top of the range, but if between two midrange computer there are two with identical technical features and one of these while costing a little more seems more robust and superior design, take what . You will not regret.

Now you should have pretty clear ideas about what notebook worth buying and what not, but before concluding I would like to talk to you about two particular types of laptops that you can find at electronics stores: ultrabook and netbooks.

The ultrabook notebook are very high-end characterized by three elements: power, light weight and portability. Are very thin, have great autonomy and instead of the classic hard disk mountain of SSD (solid state drives) that are much faster and less delicate than standard hard drives. How easy to understand, are great but their price is almost prohibitive: starting from 900 Euros to get to 1,200 / 1,500 euro.

Netbooks, unlike the ultrabook, laptops are very affordable (costing about 300/500 Euros, depending on the features) but have technical specifications rather limited with very small display (7 to 12 inches), and battery life is not always brilliant. They can be very useful when your primary need is mobility but maybe before you buy one is to consider the hypothesis tablet. In this regard, for any clarification you should take a look at my article on how to choose a tablet.

Choosing a digital camera for a beginner is probably one of the most crucial unsolved problems of this century.

I'm exaggerating, of course, but if you attended the photography forum or Q & A sites like Yahoo Answers, you'll notice how often people who are new to the world of photography for the first time asking what is the right camera for a beginner if a model is better than another, what is the best camera to learn and so on.

In another article I talked about how to deal with the choice of a digital SLR camera for a beginner. For various reasons, however, some people prefer to buy a digital compact. Who among these, he wants to have the opportunity to learn how to take pictures, make sure that the camera must meet certain requirements. Let's see how to deal with the choice of a compact digital camera to learn how to take pictures.

Why choose a compact digital camera?

In my opinion, those who have some semi-serious intentions to photography and want to keep all options open to learn it is good to consider a DSLR. We all know, however, that the reflex have some disadvantages, especially from the economic point of view and the convenience of use and transport:

SLR cameras are more expensive, not necessarily at the beginning, the first purchase, but in the long run since the purchase of additional targets soon becomes inevitable for many photographers,
SLRs are bulky, especially when it comes to camera bodies and semi-professional telephoto lenses, which makes them more difficult to carry in daily life, which can be rather a good habit to learn how to take pictures, excessive clutter gets in the way when we are passionate about photography while traveling, and sometimes we lose valuable opportunities to make beautiful photographs
SLR cameras require more maintenance, especially as regards the cleaning of the sensor and the targets.

A compact digital camera allows you to avoid all these problems. Not to miss at the same time all the advantages of having an SLR, it is important to contact the models a bit 'more advanced, read on to find out which model is best to try.

What features to look for in a compact digital camera?

Those who follow me for a while ', you know that, in my opinion, anyone who wants to learn how to have control over the creation of the photo should try to leave as soon as the shutter modes automatically. For owners of the SLR, this is not always possible because a camera will always have semi-automatic and manual shooting modes. But this is not true for all compact.

The first criteria for the choice of the compact camera is the presence of the shutter modes Aperture-priority, time-priority, and manual. The cheaper cameras provide only shooting modes, which are sometimes called scene modes that automatically configure all of the settings, depending on the circumstances specified by the photographer (outdoor, night, party, etc.). A crucial aspect of photography that we all must learn is to calculate the exposure, or how the exposure triangle, that is how you have to use aperture, shutter speed and ISO to have creative control over the picture. This and prevented from fully automatic shooting modes, while the semi-automatic and manual modes let us greater control and thus the opportunity to experiment and learn.

Make sure the camera you want to buy has these shooting modes is easy: just look in the technical specifications which exposure modes are present, or look on the shooting mode dial you are the letters A, S and M

Another shortcoming of compact digital cameras are cheaper in the range of focal lengths. You can easily find cameras covering focal lengths low or medium but you have to turn to more advanced models to gain access to greater lengths, those that allow us pushed magnification. The focal length in compact cameras must always be compared to the equivalent focal length of 35 mm (due to the crop factor). In my opinion, it would be better to turn to the machines that achieve equivalent length greater than 100 mm. This will make it possible to experiment with focal lengths ranging from wide angle to telephoto and then taste a bit 'all types of photography and also understand how the focal length affects factors such as depth of field and perspective.

A less stringent requirement but equally important is the ability of the camera to take pictures of good quality with high ISO values. The high ISO is very useful for taking pictures indoors and in general in low light conditions. When we raise the ISO, however, we increase the noise and sometimes this can lead to having to discard a photo.

Compact digital cameras that have a value equal to a maximum of ISO 3200, 6400 or more typically reduce this risk (for this purpose, can be useful even a larger sensor, but better not to go too technical).

As for the maximum aperture, it would be good that came under f4, to be able to easily get blurred backgrounds.

Finally, an option very convenient, in my opinion, is the ability to shoot in RAW. If you read the article just linked, you will realize what this format has undeniable advantages. A photographer who wants to create quality images absolutely must know how to handle the RAW format files. The compact cameras that provide this opportunity are very few then use this requirement as too discriminating main limit the possible choices, we should make it into account.

An additional comfort may come from the presence of physical (not via the menu or touch screen) to control the exposure parameters, but this is a rare feature, since the compact, by their nature, have little space to accommodate these controls.

Beware of the portfolios

Unfortunately, as you can imagine, cameras that meet these requirements are those in the higher price ranges. Some of them are going to cost as much as a cheap SLR. What is certain is that once you buy a compact, charges will be nearly complete as we will not have to buy goals. But I believe there are no shortcuts: who really wants to learn to photograph has to give to make a large initial investment than those who are content with random shots.

But then, what models for black friday 2014?