The Laptop-Buying Learning Curve

Your preferences for a laptop's weight -- and your budget -- will then probably dictate its screen size. In the case of an under-$1,500, campus or cross-town laptop, that usually means a display measuring 13 or 14 inches across -- usually a wide screen, proportioned to fit DVD movies. Don't worry too much about settling for "only" a 13-inch screen; odds are, it will have the same resolution as a 14-inch display. You won't see more of a Web page on the bigger display; its text will just look marginally bigger.

Wondering when you should worry about the processor in a laptop? Quite possibly, never -- although the Intel and AMD chips do offer differences in performance, the rest of the hardware inside the machine can have a much bigger effect on its overall utility.

Memory leads that list. The 512 megabytes included on entry-level models will suffice for Windows XP (though not its successor, Windows Vista, due in January) but just aren't enough on an Intel-powered Mac, where Mac OS X needs extra memory to translate older Mac software for the new chip. Take the money you might have spent on a processor upgrade and sink it into more memory instead.

A hard drive that's bigger and faster (as measured in RPM) will also help. It's hard to go wrong buying too much hard drive in a laptop, since replacing it later will be difficult or impossible.

If you've narrowed your choice of laptop down to a handful of models, compare their expandability. More USB ports to plug in peripherals and gadgets are always good. Bluetooth is -- finally -- becoming useful as a way to link up cellphones and handheld organizers wirelessly. (This is separate from WiFi wireless Internet access, a standard feature across the board.) And PC Card and Express Card expansion slots (the latter is a newer, faster standard) let you add entirely new functions, such as high-speed data service from a cellphone carrier.

Don't forget to consider the more subjective area of hardware design. You're going to have a laptop inches from your body for hours at a stretch, so it might as well be comfortable. Try its keyboard and its touchpad (Lenovo also includes a pointing stick mid-keyboard). Make sure that you can easily find its expansion ports and that the screen doesn't pick up too much glare from overhead lights.

This column should conclude with advice on how to compare bundled software and tech support, but there just isn't much to compare in either category.

Although Windows supports the greatest variety of software the world has ever seen, you'd never know it from the dreck preinstalled on most Windows laptops. Innovation in the PC industry seems to count as setting Internet Explorer's home page to Google instead of the usual MSN, Yahoo or AOL.

Tech support is another area crying out for renewed competition. As it stands, you can have somebody take your calls quickly, you can get accurate answers, or you can talk to somebody who will understand your English perfectly.

But you can't get all three.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at rob@twp.com.