Hey yall, Welcome back to another issue of Getting Comfortable with Tech. This month’s topic is How to Buy Tech. Lets jump right in!

We all know things aren’t getting cheaper, with costs rising everywhere who doesn’t want to save a buck or two especially with our technology but I’m here to advise you not to cut cost around your tech but to splurge on your tech because it will save you in the long run. Low-cost tech such as Chromebooks, Celeron devices, and MacBook Airs will only put you in a bind after a years’ worth of use. They will be outdated as new software and updates are released. Low-cost tech sacrifices the ability to upgrade, which we recommend that you upgrade your machine every year to keep up with the industry standards. Its better to buy tech with specs for the future and not just for the now, you want to keep an eye toward physical durability and factor in tech upgrades and repairs.

Whenever possible buying a product that you can upgrade down the line is a feature to look out for. Laptops are a prime case: Thinner, lighter models often sacrifice the ability to upgrade RAM and, in some cases, storage. That means you’ll be stuck buying a new machine later when all you’ll really need is a $50 memory/storage upgrade. You sacrifice a bit in portability, but if long-lasting tech is your primary concern, that may be a sacrifice worth considering.

Buy products that aren’t delicate, thin laptops may be easy to carry around or fix in a bag but usually one drop can damage the entire system forcing you to replace it. You don’t have to buy the most ruggedized tech meant for hardcore job sites, of course. The ThinkPad is a great example of a product that’s designed to take everyday beatings while maintaining decent portability. Moving parts, like the hinge on a laptop, are prime failure points. You want to make sure they feel sturdy enough to last before you buy.

Batteries are a good indicator of a product’s durability. Gadgets that work without wires are powered by a lithium-ion battery, which can be charged only a finite number of times before it deteriorates. Fortunately, most phones and laptops have batteries that can be replaced by professionals. But more compact products have components that are glued together and tightly sealed up, making their batteries impossible to replace. Wireless earphones like Apple’s AirPods and Bose’s QuietComfort 35 are examples of popular products with irreplaceable batteries. Once the batteries die, you have to buy a brand-new pair. So, if you’re buying anything with a battery — including digital picture frames, wireless security cameras and Bluetooth speakers — do a web search to see if the battery can be replaced. If not, consider it disposable.

When shopping for a shopping for a business class machine here are the minimum specifications, you should have in your machine.

CPU which is brain of the computer and does most of the work needs to be 2.5 GHz or higher.

RAM which stands for Random Access Memory stores the little things you do on your machine into a Cache so you can access it faster. Think of RAM as your snack drawer, you have all the snacks you eat all the time close by for easy access preventing you from going all the way to the kitchen for the same snack. That’s how RAM works on your machine. The more RAM the bigger the snack drawer for you to store snacks and quickly retrieve those snacks when needed. Your machine needs 8GB – 16GB of RAM to be efficient.

Storage is where all your data is saved. Machines use either an HDD or SSD. Either will work for your machine but it is preferred to have an SSD. SSD don’t have a spinning disk inside of them like HDD’s do so they are faster and break less often since anything that moves will eventually slow down. For optimal storage you’ll need 500 GB of storage space.

Connections are an important aspect of computing to consider. We all use a USB from time to time, our mice and keyboards whether they are wireless or not use at least one USB, webcams can sometimes occupy a USB port, or even a scanner. So, it’s worth your wile to have more than 2 USB ports as well as matching display connectors for your monitor. VGA, Display Port, and HDMI are popular display connections. But keep in mind that your connections have to match in order to get visuals. VGA to VGA, Display Port to Display Port, or HDMI to HDMI.

So as you’re shopping for a new machine keep in mind what we learned here at Getting Comfortable With Tech.