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In our suite of in-house reviews, yet another addition to our how we test repertoire is laptops. With a wide variety of models and capabilities, we take it upon ourselves to get hands with them to see how in fact they perform. Finding out if they are worth the money and consideration with such a wide variety of options to choose from.
With that in mind, we outline the process of our laptop reviews. Starting from receiving the product to testing and writing it up. This gives us a good overview of how people may experience the laptop, which is something that’s not always easy to figure out. This also leads us to be able to provide the best recommendations for our laptop-buying guides. So here’s how our testing labs deal with mobile devices.
Box contents and out-of-box experience
The first thing you experience when getting your brand-new laptop is opening it up. So with that, we check how well it is packaged and what comes with the machine itself. You want to ensure your laptop isn’t damaged before you even get your own hands on it, as well as getting all the things you want or something else that can be handy.
Then there is the actual setup of the laptop, with the kind of software and features already installed on the machine. There is the potential for finding bloatware and unnecessary additions that already clog up the software. That detriment your experience in general but there might be some good additions like controlling the hardware so it’s good to know how it comes prepared. Both of these things contribute to the general experience of a laptop so it’s necessary to evaluate them.
Evaluation and testing
After that, we put the laptop through our testing lab. Starting off with the general usage of the machine, the day-to-day tasks of actually completing tasks, and setting up software that you may want to install and get good use of. It’s vital for it to perform well and just be comfortable to use for hours at a time. During that time we get plenty of use to evaluate what the design and components are capable of.
That is especially useful for the keyboard, trackpad, screen, and sound. This general usage should be seamless and not be too intimidating to use. As many laptops may vary with thickness, weight, and general specs it does change the experience wildly so it’s important to get the feel of it and how convenient it is to use.
Then of course we put it through various benchmarks and tests to see how well it performs in those. Along with tracking the power and temperatures, as with such a small space, those are very important impacting both the capabilities of it and the actual usage as they heat up the usable surface.
Benchmarks
- 3DMark
- Cinebench 2024
- Blender 4.1.0
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Furmark 2 & HWInfo
This is a bit more lean of a workload but does cover a wide spectrum of workloads and should be indicative of what the laptop is capable of. Especially as even with the same supposed components, there can be distinct differences so it is good to cover a good array to make sure it is as good as it seems and doesn’t throttle down and lose performance over time.
Upgradability and connectivity
Another important feature of any device is how much you can change out. How easy it is to open up the bottom panel to get access to the components inside. Then check how much you can actually change out, if it’s the NVMe SSD or RAM to see if you can upgrade it or change it down the line. Important to get more out of your system or repair it when necessary.
The usability is also affected by the ports and connectivity onboard. There is a variety of ports available depending on the setup of it, especially depending on the thickness and how much can actually fit in. But a variety of USB and additional connections can be important and make or break your needs. Then the internet connections matter too, it is via ethernet or WiFi, and you want to ensure you have the speed and right generation for your setup.
How we score
In the end, we give the laptops an end score and a potential badge award. Summarising our evaluation into an easily readable solution to give you an easy and quick understanding of what we think of it. So here’s a breakdown of how these scores are split.
Gaming performance (15%)
One factor is the gaming performance that the laptop can achieve. It’s not the be-all and end-all as we don’t test a whole range of games so it’s less prominent in the scoring.
Workstation performance (15%)
With a few more benchmarks to utilize, we see how well it does in a variety of tests to compare how well it does and if it can achieve its full potentail.
Picture quality (10%)
You’ll most likely be using the screen substantially on a laptop. So it is ideal to have a good display with either high quality, fast refresh rates, or good resolution and size. These combine to give you a better experience from it.
General features & upgradeability (15%)
The overall usefulness and longevity are key to a laptop. Be it the connections on board and if you can improve what’s available on it. These have a great impact on how well your experience will be with it.
Power & cooling (10%)
With such small factors, it’s important that you get the most out of it, without throttling and heating up way too much for comfort. But these may come with loud fans that can affect the usage as well.
Design (10%)
The general look and choices in the design easily change how you get the most out of the laptop and if it’s fit for your purposes. If that’s the sheer size or choices changing the utility of them.
Value for money (25%)
One of the most important features is the cost of performance and features. You don’t want to be paying too much for something that’s outclassed by lower tiers. In which case you want to be getting the most for your money.
