As enjoyable and easy as shopping may sound, when it comes to gadgets, a lot of thought has to go into it. Getting a laptop can be tasking; they come in a variety of brand, shape, size, and even colour.

To ensure an easy-breezy laptop shopping experience, you ought to ask yourself certain questions: what are your specifications? Is it for work or leisure? What platform – Mac, Windows or Chrome OS? Are you after performance or aesthetics? Do you want a static system or one you can always take with you?

Sorted answers to these questions will aid you in narrowing your options, bringing you to the actual shopping experience. Now that you are ready to shop, here are some of the best laptop options in the market.

Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series

Price: Starts at $449

If you are in need of a reasonably priced laptop with long battery life, this is the laptop for you. Dell Inspiron 17 5000 is “designed for multimedia enthusiasts on a tight budget,” reviews PCMag. Affordable and attractive with its aluminium coated design, the Inspiron 17 5000 Series offers quality performance with a 500GB hard drive, a Cyberlink’s Media Suite software, several Dell applications, and what’s more, the series also offers a touchscreen model for just $200 extra.

Acer Chromebook 13

Price: $292 or more

Looking to save big on your laptop purchase, Acer’s 13-inch Chromebook is ‘it’ for you. This chromebook which sports a slim, matte white plastic chassis and has a sharp 1080p full HD screen comes at a give-away price of $292. Compared to other competing notebooks, it has a long battery life owing to its first of a kind NVidia’s energy-efficient Tegra K1 quad-core processor.

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro

Price: $1,296 or more

So you want a really cool and sleek laptop, notwithstanding the price? Look no further. Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro has your name written on it. Super flexible and sleek Yoga 3 Pro is one of thinnest and lightest laptops Lenovo has produced yet, at just 12.7mm thick when closed shut. The hinge of the laptop allows a complete bend to any given angle. It also has a high screen resolution with a fantastic display offering a 72 per cent colour gamut. Though Lenovo claims the Yoga 3 lasts 7 hours on a single charge, certain tech reviewers are of a different opinion.

MacBook Air

Price: $899 or more

Incredibly light and portable, the MacBook Air is quite strong with beautiful backlit keyboard. Acclaimed as one of the best laptops you can buy, this laptop offers incredible battery life (10 hours plus), and excellent performance. According to TechRadar, “On a full charge, the new 13-inch MacBook Air is good for 12 hours of general computing, and lasted for nine hours of live video streaming.” The MacBook air comes in various screen sizes, ranging from 11-13inches.

Toshiba’s Chromebook 2

Price: $249 or more

Toshiba offers in this product, the simplicity of a Chromebook, with better quality experience. This Chromebook is elegantly designed with a silvery, textured plastic that’s easy to grip. It has great battery life and comes at a give-away price of $249. Its screen can reproduce 98.5 percent of the RGB color gamut, plus a superb audio as Toshiba partnered with Skullcandy to bring specially tuned speakers to the Chromebook 2. If you are thrifty on your laptop purchase quest and need a laptop for just web surfing and light work, Toshiba’s Chromebook 2 is suitable for you.

The HP Stream

Price: $200 or more

Described by TheVerge as, “a computer for work that’s dressed for the weekend,” this is one of the cheapest laptops in the market. Coming for as low as $200, the HP Stream is a budget machine that functions well. It comes with a personal bonus of a one year free subscription to Office 365, a reasonably cute keyboard and a decent battery life. Though not as powerful as other laptops or chromebooks mentioned on this list, it’s quite solid for its price. The HP Stream is another great laptop for those who don’t want to break bank on account of buying a laptop.

MacBook Pro

Price: $1,299 or more

The MacBook Pro is an excellent ultraportable laptop that brags of a beautiful screen, impressive battery life (upto11 hours), and more ports than the MacBook Air. This laptop has an HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, a headset jack, two USB 3.0 ports, and an SD card reader. It is fit for persons in want of a MacBook with great screen display and faster speed. “The Intel Core i5-4278U processor with built-in Intel Iris 5100 graphics helps the MacBook Pro score some of the fastest multimedia test times,” as reviewed by PCMag.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X240

Price: $854 or more

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X240 is reviewed as, “a no- nosense business laptop to beat.” Though slightly thick and heavy to be considered an ultrabook, it’s only 0.79 inches weighing only 3 pounds.  The X240 has two batteries with a bridge that enables you swap a depleted battery for a charged one without having to shut down the system. It’s great for desk work but might put a strain on your shoulder if you are an on – the –go kind of person.

The ThinkPad has durable glass-fiber chassis and all the I/O ports you could ask for, including a gigabit ethernet port, a VGA port, an SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, an always-on USB 2.0 port, 34mm Express card socket, a smart card reader, a mini DisplayPort, and a docking port at the bottom. If you are an entrepreneur wondering what laptop best suits you, think Lenovo ThinkPad X240.

Asus ROG G751JT

Price: $1,749

On this list, there’s something for everyone, and Asus’ ROG G751JT is for the ‘gamers’. Asus describes the ROG G751JT as, “the unbeatable gaming laptop.” The ‘Republic of Gamers’ offers a TurboMaster for stable GPU overclocking, an ROG AudioWizard-enhanced audio for immersive gaming, a SuperMulti DVD burner to read and write CDs and DVDs, not to mention the 17.3 full HD matte display. The G751JT also has an upgraded “near-silent” cooling system consisting of dual independent fans and copper app which “keeps everything cool, even in the heat of battle.”

By Hadassah Egbedi