[PCWorld]

Post your comments for How to Test a Laptop in the Store here

[postone]

Well what does this do? All I see is a laptop with a pair of hands on it?????????????????????????????

[TechSponge]

postone, on 26 March 2012 - 10:40 AM, said:

Well what does this do? All I see is a laptop with a pair of hands on it?????????????????????????????

The article is in a slideshow format, you can click the arrow in the upper right part of the picture to review each tip.

Hope this helped.

[mick51]

Wher are these tests you talk about?

Can not do any tests without some more info.

[SophieVoillot]

See the little arrow above the picture where it says, "1 of 8"?????????

[MichaelPfeiffer]

The boot time was the exact same as the one in your desktop test... Some helpful tips though, thanks.

[spudy121]

Although these are some good suggestions there are a lot more to buying a good laptop.
The best thing to do is to look at reviews and ratings online and almost everyone has a cell phone with internet or if the laptop itself may have internet access never listen to the sells rep not that they are just trying to sell you something most of them do not have a wide range of knowledge on all of their products and the first thing they do is look at the box or the sheet of paper in front of the pc.
Don’t jump on the first thing that looks good do a little bit of research and you will be much happier
With what you buy.

[DGittins]

Seriously? The first thing I'd look at is the Windows Experience Index. That's got to be the single most effective and easiest way to gauge the computer's overall hardware and software performance, and you don't even mention it?
http://windows.micro...xperience-index

[DGittins]

Seriously? The first thing I'd look at is the Windows Experience Index. That's got to be the single most effective and easiest way to gauge the computer's overall hardware and software performance, and you don't even mention it?

[kevi8991]

Another thing you might want to do is check the insides of the computer. Open up a run window by hitting Win+R, and type in dxdiag. This will bring up the DirectX stats-page-thing. Here, you can see the overall specs of the computer. By hitting the Display tab, you can also see things like the GPU and Graphics memory

[reor]

All good tips - I took this as Phase II of the decision-making process; Phase I, of course, would have been online research and reading lots of reviews, to narrow down two or three models that have the equipment and performance to do the job you have in mind.

Hands-on store research would then help you find out whether you will like it (or possibly hate it) over extended use. Surprising how infuriating some things, like touchpad behavior, can become over time! Things like that aren't reflected in the printed specs.

You don't have to actually buy the one you try in the store - having made your final decision, you could (and I would) go ahead and purchase your favorite online.

Good common sense - but it's surprising how many people will spend a lot of money without any hands-on!

[bobc4012]

First of all, I live in a large Metro area and very few stores (Best Buy included) have that many lap-tops/desktops) you can check out. Typically, they have a lot of HPs, maybe a couple of Acers and Toshibas and maybe one or two others. Tiger Direct used to be fairly good until Comp-USA decided it wanted to be back in the "brick and mortar" store business again. Now they are doing the same thing they did before which left them to closing those store. Unfortunately,we don't have a Fry's in our area (but from what I hear, they have gone down-hill too).

[johnalter]

That's a smart tip