Buying a laptop takes a lot of planning and evaluation. Will it be powerful enough to serve the use case it requires? What additional features can it provide? And of course, the most important consideration is how much it will cost. That’s because, like smartphones, laptops have become more than just work tools. They have become a necessity. Especially in the ‘New Normal’ that has unfolded in the post-pandemic world.
To understand all the different aspects that buyers consider while buying a laptop, 91mobiles recently conducted the 2023 edition of its Laptop Buyer Insight Survey. After analyzing responses from over 5,000 laptop users, here are some insights into what matters most to people when buying a laptop.
the aspects that matter most
- Undoubtedly, the most important aspect for the buyers was the display. 76.1 per cent of the respondents said this was the most important aspect. In fact this percentage has increased as compared to the previous year which was 72 per cent.
- To better understand what buyers were really considering when talking about performance, we broke it down into processor, RAM capacity, graphics card, SSD, and benchmark scores. It turns out that according to 66.3 percent of the respondents, the processor was the most important aspect in terms of performance, followed by RAM capacity (15.3 percent).
- When it came to the factors that go into a laptop’s display, 43.9 percent said they would look at the type of screen technology first. Only 20.5 percent said they would look at the size of the demonstration.
Intel on top
- Intel ruled the roost in the survey with eight out of ten respondents saying they’ve heard of the brand. Not only that, but a majority of users (58.5 percent) would prefer an Intel-powered laptop.
- It should be noted that 17.6 percent of respondents didn’t really care who manufactured the processor as long as the laptop was good enough.
- Interestingly, a majority of the respondents (54.5 per cent) also said that they would prefer an Intel GPU in their machine.
Most wanted features in a new laptop
- We asked respondents what essential features they wanted to see in a laptop. 37.2 percent said they wanted a laptop with a good webcam and speaker quality, which isn’t surprising given the work-from-home nature of many businesses during and after the pandemic.
- They were also fairly split between choosing a hybrid/convertible laptop and one with a biometric scanner, with 27.1 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively.
- Interestingly, it seems that most users do not value privacy very highly. Only 8.9 percent said they would prefer that feature in their laptops.
The survey suggests that not much has changed in terms of public opinion since last year. Performance is still something that the public sees as a priority when it comes to buying a laptop. This may be because too much has changed in the past year to warrant public attention.
The biggest change we see is in terms of brands that people prefer while buying a laptop. While Intel was still the most popular processor brand, AMD overtook Apple for second place with 11.5 percent. This pushed Apple into third place, with 10 percent of respondents saying they preferred Apple’s processors. It is very interesting that Apple is doing a great job with their M1, M2 and new custom processors. As such, these processor makers will have to do something big to catch up to Intel’s popularity.
