Buy the machine you actually need

Notebooks by profession and by budget, smartphones, the parts inside a desktop, and the network they all sit on — explained in plain language, with the trade-offs stated rather than glossed over.

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Notebooks

The best notebooks for running virtual machines

Introduction In today's rapidly advancing tech industry, running virtual machines has become an essential requirement for many professionals and enthusiasts. Whether you are a developer, a data scientist, or a cybersecurity expert, having a…

News & industry

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News & industry

Alienware Area-51m R2

Characteristics: 10th Gen Intel Core i9, NVIDIA GeForce RTX, 17.3" FHD or 4K, up to 64GB RAM, multiple SSD options. Description: This…

Smartphones

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Notebooks

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Desktops & components

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The laptop spec adviser

Say what you do with a machine, how long you keep one and how much you carry it. It returns the spec that fits — processor class, memory, storage, screen and battery — with the reasoning for each line and a guide to read next.

Work out your spec →
  • A spec plate you can take to a shop or a spec sheet
  • Storage sized from how much you actually shoot or store
  • Every line says why, not just what
  • Runs in your browser — nothing is sent or stored

Corrections & suggestions

Spec moved on since we wrote it?

Hardware dates faster than almost anything else we could write about: a recommendation that was right last year can be wrong now. If a guide here is out of date, or there is a machine or a use case we have not covered, tell the editorial team.

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