Cybersecurity Lessons, Hints and Tips.
Series 1 Episode 3: Best Laptop For A Beginner (Part I).
You never forget your first.
The desire. The anticipation. The nervous excitement. The joy of eventual, undisturbed possession and touch. The physical exploration and examination from every angle. The test of performance, to see if the walk is as good as the talk. Finally, the satisfaction, or not, depending on whether your expectations ended up living up to reality.
The topic under discussion is, of course, your first laptop.
Surely, considering the headline, it couldn’t possibly have been anything else. Or could it?
Anyway, back to business. You want to treat yourself to a new laptop, or give one to someone as a present. So, why bother researching at all? Why not simply buy the cheapest one available, or the same one that your best friend owns? The answer is that you still need to arm yourself with some information in advance, because the selection available on the market is staggeringly varied, with newer versions of existing technology arriving in our stores on a daily basis.
You don’t want to be stuck with a piece of hardware you can’t take for servicing, or for which replacement parts, e.g. batteries or screens, are no longer readily available (a likely consequence of purchasing discontinued or end-of-the-line models, for example). If your laptop malfunctions at a critical time, you’ll be desperate for speedy options to remedy the situation.
Consider, for a moment, the most common considerations a typical first-time buyer might initially reach for. These would be things like cost, comfort (including weight), battery life, memory, storage screen size — even colour, for some people. These items are all important, to varying degrees. But our overarching theme here is cybersecurity, so we will bear it in mind when thinking about which hardware (or endpoint device, as they are called in the cybersecurity world) to buy and use to access the internet.
Cost: You don’t want to pay too much for your first laptop. If you need to do highly sophisticated or extremely technical things, the odds are high that you’ve already done them on other devices, and your knowledge about the inner working of computers surpasses that of the average person. In such a case, your requirements would be extremely specific, and you may already know how to build, or custom-order, your own device. For those who don’t fall into this category (I didn’t say “non-geeks!), your computing requirements are likely much more basic. You’ll probably be expecting some change after spending the equivalent of $500; (I’ll play a little fast-and-loose with currency exchanges and taxes, and say £500 and €500, for UK and European customers respectively). Have no fear; at this price point, there are plenty of options for you. Examples would be the LENOVO IdeaPad 3 series, which retail in the UK at under £350, (14-inch screens), ACER Swift and ACER Aspire laptops, many of which you can get brand-new for below £400, and the HP Pavilion 15 and 15- series, which come in at below £500.
Comfort: One man’s meat is another man’s poison, as they say. So, it’s tricky to translate such an intangible into a solid item. But typical things would be weight, screen size and the presence or absence of a numeric keypad. If you’re going to be lugging your laptop around a lot, as students and commuters and travellers might, the lighter it feels the better.
Options include the LENOVO IdeaPad 3 14" Laptop (weight 1.6kg), the AVITA Pura 14" Laptop which is equipped with an AMD Ryzen chip, and which is even lighter at 1.345kg. Or you could go for the MicroSoft Surface Go 2–64 which comes in at a “featherweight” 544g; though it only has a 10.5-inch screen, which may feel too small for some people. None of these has numeric keypads, though; so you’ll have to settle for using the numbered keys lined just above your usual lettered keys. My personal preference is to have a numeric keypad, but hey, that’s just me.
Screen sizes: These range from 10 inches all the way to just over 17. Larger-screened laptops, e.g. the LENOVO IdeaPad 3 17.3-inch (AMD Athlon chip) and the ASUS VivoBook X705 series, tend to have numeric keypads. But at 1.55kg for the Lenovo, and 2kg-plus for the ASUS, they’re not the lightest computers in town. You can always magnify a document or web page, using the zoom function on your mouse or keyboard, making the screen size less important. But some people prefer a larger screen regardless, and it comes in handy when flicking between web pages or documents at speed, without pausing to zoom at any stage. If in doubt, go for a larger screen on a laptop that weighs as little as possible.
Battery life: Not a major consideration for most users in Europe and North America, perhaps. But if it is for you, get ready to dig deeper into your pocket. The bad news is that unless you don’t mind using a 10-inch screen, extra long-life battery laptops come at the more expensive end of the pricing scale, with a lot more choice over £500. This may be due as much to the other features in these laptops, as it is to the battery life itself. So, make like a scout, and be prepared. Options include the HP Pavilion 14-ce3602sa (currently £499 at Currys PC World) with up to 10.5 hours of battery life, the 10.5inch screened Microsoft Surface Go 2, Intel Pentium Gold laptop with 4GB RAM (£399.00 at John Lewis), with a declared battery life of up to 10 hours, and the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 (20LTSB5C00) 14 inch, which (at £529.98 on Amazon’s UK site) breaks out of our budget, but which claims a staggering 20 hours of battery life.
Note: Some people are of the view that officially-declared laptop battery life doesn’t always measure up to actual experience, after purchase, as these figures often represent estimates or averages. So, this may be something to watch out for, and research further, if need be.
Memory: People often say “memory” when they mean “storage.” Many know the differences between the two, but for those who don’t, a bit of an explanation will follow.
Broadly speaking, memory in a computer is divided into two categories:
Primary memory (also known as RAM and ROM).
Secondary memory (hard drive, flash drive, SSDs, etc).
Secondary memory is also known as “storage.” This is a less technical term, and therefore one I will be using here, to aid in understanding.
RAM (Random Access Memory) is used to store information for short-term or your immediate use in your device. Short-term use here means information that is manipulated and processed. For example, while you’re updating an Excel spreadsheet (manipulating the Excel data), the spreadsheet is in the computer’s memory. But when you save it (or it is saved automatically), after you’ve finished your tasks, the spreadsheet is saved into the computer’s storage. When you first switch on your laptop, the operating system (which is stored in the storage) accesses the files you will need to use, e.g. your Word or Excel files, your Chrome or Firefox browser, etc., booting them up from the storage and making them available to you, enabling you to work on the files or documents while they are held in the computer’s RAM. As such, the larger and faster the RAM of your device, the quicker these and other files will become available for your usage. However, since you’ll never be using all the documents and files you’ve stored in your device at the same time, you might have a preference for large storage over large RAM. The quantity of RAM in a computer is a key selling point for many users, which is why retailers will specify the RAM content of a laptop when advertising it for sale.
With Read-Only Memory or ROM, the information it contains is usually pre-recorded onto the computer’s memory chip (also known as a ROM chip, or simply as ROM), during the manufacturing process. Alternatively, it may have been programmed onto the chip after the chip was manufactured, but before it was added to a computer or other such device. Either way, this is all done long before you purchased your item from the store. This is crucial because this pre-programmed information is used by your device to carry out essential tasks, such as booting it up when you switch it on. These principles apply to laptops, phones, printers, and all other devices which have computing power. As such, ROM cannot be easily altered, reprogrammed or even accessed by users, and will not change no matter how many documents, videos, pictures or other data you save to your computer. ROM is not a key selling point of a computer; it has very little influence on typical user behaviour. Therefore, retailers do not include it in their specifications.
When it comes to Secondary Memory, or “storage,” the picture is quite different. When you save a Word document, or spreadsheet, or perhaps a picture, while using your computer, tablet, laptop, phone, etc., you’re saving it into the device’s storage. This obviously means that the more items you’ll be saving, the more storage you require. In addition, when your device is originally being put together, whatever operating system (be it Windows 10, Apple Mac OS or Linux), which was built into your device, is also stored in the storage.
An operating system manages software programs and applications which a computer or other device needs to run. It also manages the computer’s hardware functions, including basic, familiar tasks like switching the device on and off, loading the program you’re trying to open (as well as running it so you can use it), and even printing. Information in your storage is always there, like clothes packed away in a rarely-opened suitcase on the top of your wardrobe, waiting for you to pull it down, open it and help yourself to an outfit.
To make things even more interesting, cloud storage solutions are very popular nowadays. The existence of cloud solutions such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., has drastically reduced the need for large physical storage in a laptop. Add to that the availability of external drives, memory sticks, etc., and you may find that — as some people do — you hardly ever keep anything in your computer.
This method of using a device allows your natural cybersecurity instincts to kick in. Let’s say the documents you work on are stored using a cloud service when not in use, while copies needed for immediate use are downloaded and stored in external devices like flash drives, when you’re at home. As long as the information within such external devices is protected with proper identity and access management mechanisms e.g. Two-Factor Authentication (more on this in another article), then theft or loss of your laptop itself is unlikely to cost you much in the way of data loss. Undoubtedly, the loss of your laptop itself will cause you pain, but at least your data will be protected. In other words, you’d be effectively using your laptop as a “dumb terminal,” i.e. as if it doesn’t belong to you and you have to share its usage with others.
You should also use identity and access management practices to restrict access to your computer itself. But storing your data in the cloud, rather than on your device, gives you an added layer of security from the “bad guys.” It’s a bit like double-locking a door; two locks are better than one.
Consequently, if you’re certain to be a heavy user of cloud-based storage solutions, you could opt for a laptop with large memory, rather than large storage. On the other hand, if you think you’ll be travelling to places with limited internet access, simply want an all-in-one solution and can’t be bothered with external storage devices, or intend to add plenty of additional software programmes to your laptop, you may want to go for a laptop with large storage functionality. We’ll take a look at some good choices in each category.
Laptop memory ranges from 2GB to a high of 32GB. However, 8GB is more than enough for most people, and would most definitely cover the needs of a beginner or basic user. To illustrate, you’d only need 16GB or more if you intend to take part in high-performance activities like professional gaming, graphic design work, or streaming to Twitch. If you’ll be carrying out any of these types of memory-intensive activities fairly regularly, either on their own or at the same time as other work on your laptop, you should opt for at least 16GB.
Once you’ve bought a laptop, adding RAM to it — in order to increase its efficiency — isn’t always possible, depending on the spec you bought. So, think carefully about your future needs before you fork out your money. The motto here: start as you mean to go on. On the other hand, these days, a lot of the most frequently used applications in the world are web-based. The technical term for such programmes is SaaS-based applications (Software-as-a-service). This describes services you can use simply by logging onto them online; you don’t need to download such applications to your machine and open them to enjoy their benefits. Common examples are Gmail (in fact, all webmail), YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, Zoom, Skype and Office 365. The fact that these applications or services are hosted and managed elsewhere, means your device can make do with less RAM when using them. This is another reason why most users only need relatively average amounts of laptop memory. There are other areas of a laptop where you may need to spend more.
Options currently on the market include the HP Pavilion 15-cw1004na 15.6 Inch Full HD Touch-screen Laptop, which comes with a more than decent 8GB memory. You can pick it up for £499 at Amazon; just make sure it’s in stock. If you’re not too bothered about processor speed (and if you don’t know what it is, odds are it’s not important to your usage patterns), you could save a bit more by going for the £399 priced ACER Aspire 3 15.6 (Intel® Core™ i3) laptop. This one has the same size screen as the i7 version of the same name, but comes with an i3 processor instead, and is £100 cheaper (both are at Currys PC World). That would be instant savings of £100 which you can put to good use elsewhere. I’ll explain what processors are, in another article.
Or you could opt for the sleek, silver-coloured DELL Inspiron 15 3593 15.6" Laptop — Intel® Core™ i3. It can also be found at Currys PC World, and at just £459 it’s within our imaginary “budget.”
For £399 at Argos, you can pick up the HP 15.6in Pentium Gold 8GB 1TB FHD Laptop — a decent piece of kit that won’t break the bank. But if you insist on going beyond our unofficial limit, or you require the extra memory, there’s the HP Pavilion 15-cw1598sa 15.6” AMD Ryzen 7 Laptop — 512 GB SSD, which comes with 16GB, and which could be yours for £799 at Currys PC World. Currys seem to offer some of the widest choices of computers in the UK; it would be unwise to look elsewhere without first reviewing their laptop ranges.
The next article will cover laptop storage, and show you how to enjoy your storage and memory benefits while applying your cybersecurity defences appropriately.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. All comments are welcome. See you next time.
