The Most Popular Laptop Brands

The first month of the year is coming to a close and all of us are excited about new technologies, inventions, and models of our favorite gadgets “smartphones, smartwatches, and laptops. With so many models available in the market offering different features and unique selling points, should you stick to the current brand of your gadget or explore a new one?

In this article, we look at the top 5 best laptop brands that have marked its name credible, reliable, and innovative in the industry.

1. Apple

Best known for its sleek design and simple operation, Apple laptops give any working person everything he or she needs to make productive use of his or her time. Not only does Apple provide style and function, they also keep their laptops and operating system protected from harmful viruses and allows for easy integration across different Apple devices. Apple laptops tend to cost more in the price range, but most users said that the money invested is worth it.

2. Dell

Dell is best known for its wide selection of laptop models that offer value and versatility. Dell’s latest product line features a structural design that is easy to carry around, ultra lightweight and has a powerful operating system. Other than that, Dell laptops are known to have a long working life.

3. Asus

Coming up third is Asus. Asus offers sleeker, lighter, and extra-reliable laptops for a more affordable price. Its product line consists of an extensive size range so if you want a small, lightweight, but powerful laptop or a heavy-duty, extra powerful one, Asus is a good place to start scouting for the laptop that would best suit your taste.

4. HP

HP is best known to provide laptops that are practical for use in work and school. In recent product line offerings of HP, they have provided faster and more powerful laptops that are competent to do a job well done. In the price spectrum, HP rests on the more affordable side, which makes it a great choice for practical businessmen or company laptops.

5. MSI

Best known for gaming use, MSI has all gaming features you would probably want your laptop to have. MSI continues to innovate their laptops to have cutting edge designs that have off-the-hook gaming ability. If you need a laptop solely for business or school use, MSI is not the laptop for you. But if you are a hardcore gamer or possibly a career person who likes to play RPG games, MSI may be the perfect investment. With its heavy-duty design and structure, and powerful hardware, MSI is built especially for the gamer. MSI makes the best 17 inch, strongest laptops in the gaming area.

Choosing a laptop for you to buy is not always an easy decision. Laptops are big-ticket purchases and its functionality can affect your work. These brands offer different features, advantages, and disadvantages. List down the reasons for why you want to buy or upgrade your laptop and see which brand best fits your needs. You can also scout for other brands as the brands listed above are only 5 out of a whole lot.

How Long Should a Laptop Last? What about the Battery?

What is the average lifespan of a laptop and how long does a laptop battery last?

These questions come up very often when someone is planning on buying a laptop or is switching from a PC. There are a certain number of factors that come into play when we are speaking about laptop lifespan, but most often what brings a laptop to its knees is its battery.

That is why we have decided to create a universal guide about how can you prolong the lifespan of your laptop, and how can you make sure that its battery will last for a long time.

The average lifespan of a laptop is around 4-5 years depending on how well you take care of it. As we have mentioned before, the lifespan of a laptop depends on a lot of things. These are some of the main things that you will have to look out for:

The Hardware affects its lifespan

First, you will have to take into consideration, that hardware does get old and if you are using a 10-year-old laptop the chances of it malfunctioning or breaking is much higher than a brand new laptop. The most common reason why this hardware fails is that of overheating. Laptops gather dust and they are much harder to clean than regular computers, making them run hot if not cleaned regularly.

Hardware comes into play as well, when we are talking about what you are going to use your laptop for. Softwares and video games get better and better, thus they require more powerful hardware to run.

If you have a laptop that has a lot of RAM in it, a nice and powerful GPU and CPU, it will last longer, than an average laptop that is designed for office use. So as time goes by, the performance of your laptop decides how long the laptop is going to last.

The more you spend on a brand new laptop, the higher the performance it has, the longer its lifespan will be.

If you have an older laptop, look around for information on how you can upgrade it. Usually, the RAM and HDD of a laptop are upgradable, and + 4 GBs of ram and an SSD can help you out a lot.

Taking care of your laptop

If you don’t take care of your laptop, it won’t last long. If you don’t clean your laptop regularly, you will experience thermal throttling, which means that the performance of your laptop will be significantly worse when it heats up, and due to the constant heat, the parts inside will break.

But don’t worry, we have made a list which helps you taking care of your laptop:

  1. Make sure you clean out the inside of your laptop regularly. If you are inexperienced, or not sure what you are doing just ask a professional or a friend who can clean it out and apply thermal paste to the CPU and GPU.
  2. If your laptop runs hot, consider using a laptop cooling pad to make it operate properly.
  3. Don’t leave your laptop on your charger 24/7. If you do so, you might potentially overcharge the battery which will shorten it’s lifespan.
  4. Make sure you don’t eat or drink near your laptop to avoid accidental food/drink spills that might damage it.
  5. Make sure you have an antivirus software and don’t download or click on any suspicious windows/pop-ups.

How long does a laptop battery last?

The question “how long should a laptop battery last” can be answered to ways:

On a single Charge

The single charge duration depends on two things.

  1. How you use your laptop
  2. The WH Rating of your laptops battery

The more quality laptop you buy, the more quality battery you get which means longer single charge duration. But you will have to be careful because many of the most expensive laptops come with bad batteries. We suggest reading our featured list of 17 inch laptops to see for yourself.

Usually, good laptops last around 5-7 hours until they need a recharge, but if you are constantly using a gaming laptop to its full potential, this can fall down to almost 45 minutes.

Overall lifetime of a battery

On average, if you don’t damage your battery, they should last for at least 300-500 full cycles. That means 300-500 full charges. Keep in mind that we have mentioned Full charges, that means you would have to completely deplete your battery and charge it to 100%, that would count as one.

One way you can prolong the lifetime of your laptop battery is to don’t overcharge it. Never let it completely deplete, but never let it fully charge either. That way you can preserve it, and get more performance out of it.

What do you need to start Live Streaming?

Whether it’s on burgeoning platforms such as Twitch or even Youtube, Facebook, Ustream, or Instagram, live streaming has become one of the most popular forms of online internet. It makes for a wonderful hobby for anyone that wants to share their passions with the world. Anyone can jump on board to either play games, perform music, illustrate, or even simply show off whatever they may be doing at the moment. It doesn’t matter if you’re just venturing into online content creation or already an established entity. This is a very new world where all are welcome to stake their claim.

If you’re new to the entire concept, however, it can be a bit daunting and even a little confusing. Not only is there a bit of a settling in period if you’re merely watching live streams for the first time, there are certainly a lot of elements that will be difficult from the streamer’s end. Unfortunately, this presents a bit of a mountain to climb. With so much similar content already being generated, there’s a lot of competition right from the start. If you can’t keep a viewer engaged, they may leave your stream in relatively short order.

So, what can be done to make sure your stream is a success? From the very early stages all the way up to maintaining your momentum once you finally get going, there are a few key tips that will help you rise above those who were will be prepared. With that in mind, here’s how to start live streaming from your computer successfully:

1 – Make Sure Your Computer Has Some Power

First of all, it’s important to make sure your computer is up to the task in the first place. You need a strong processor, a solid graphics card, and plenty of RAM. If you have an older machine or even a budget laptop, it may hold you back. Anything having to do with video takes a lot of processing power.

If you find that you can’t afford upgrading, you can always try starting off by streaming at lower resolutions until you’re finally able to do so. Many viewers will prefer HD streaming, but you don’t have to feel overly held back at first. Note that building your own PC or merely updating your current rig piece by piece is easier and more affordable than you probably think.

2 – Check Your Internet Speeds

You also need quality internet if you’re going to be live streaming. You need to be streaming from a connection that can transfer a lot of data quickly, so be wary of any internet packages that skimp on the upload speeds. If you can’t provide a quality bitrate with a smooth connection, it’s going to be difficult to keep an audience engaged. On the same note, you should be sure you can stream from a wired connection that’s hooked directly into your modem whenever possible. Wireless should only be relied upon for mobile streams.

3 – Pick Your Streaming Platform

You’re also going to need a streaming platform on your computer to help you set up which parts of your screen will be captured. You can create certain scenes to switch between on the fly, giving your stream a professional look and feel once you get the knack for it. The two most popular options are currently XSplit and Open Broadcaster Software. OBS is a solid first choice since it’s free to use.

4 – Invest In A Quality Microphone

Even before you start thinking about webcams and the like, it’s important to grab a high-quality microphone. Something along the lines of the Blue Yeti or Blue Snowball will suffice until you have the means to upgrade to even higher-end models. Those models, in particular, are easy to use and can connect to your computer via USB. You should check out our list of the best microphones for streaming.

You should also invest in a shock mount for your mic and a pop filter. If you can keep your audio clean, you’ll already be ahead of the game. Even poor visuals can usually be forgiven if you can at least be heard well.

5 – Watch Your Audio Levels

On the same note, make sure you can monitor your audio levels within your streaming software. A lot of the most egregious rookie mistakes come from allowing your audio to soar to uncomfortable levels. Always keep your audio from peaking, which will usually be indicated graphically by level meters that turn red. Once you really get serious, you can buy a mixing board for your mic to help you adjust things on the fly.

6 – Put Yourself Out There

There are some other additional steps such as gathering some graphics for your intros, screen transitions, and overlays, but all of that is ultimately fluff. The most important step once you have all of the pieces above in place is to simply start streaming and let the world know. Keep it up consistently with a regular schedule and do everything you can to advertise on social media. Re-post your streams to Youtube as well, and with time you’ll hopefully build an audience.

Although it is not recommended, you can start livestreaming from a 17 inch laptop as well, just make sure it has enough power. If you want a good one, you can check out our awesome list of the best 17 inch laptops.

How to wash your laptop backpack the correct way

Laptop backpacks are very important for those who own laptops as they make it easy to transport laptops, serves as protection for laptops and stores laptops. However, a laptop backpack should be well taken care of so that it can last for a longer period. This is why it is a good idea to know how to wash your laptop backpack.

Learning how to wash your laptop backpack is important as dirt, dust and bacteria can accumulate in and around your bag after years of use. Additionally, stains from food residue and accidental spills of liquids could also make the laptop backpack look unsightly.

At times, an unclean laptop backpack can emit a sour odor and lead to discoloration. Do you want to save on costs for taking your backpack to the laundry while at the same time have an attractive backpack that you can carry it everywhere you go? If the answer is a big yes, then it is good that you learn how to wash your own laptop backpack. Make sure you buy a premium quality 17 inch laptop backpack, because it will be easier to clean.

What you need to wash your laptop backpack

Old toothbrush or rag

If your backpack has stains that are visible and unsightly, then it may be a good idea to use some form of light abrasion to remove the stains. A rough rag or old toothbrush can be a good option. Avoid using bathroom brushes or those brushes with metal bristles or tight plastic because they could damage the upper layer of your backpack.

Mild detergent

Those who want to remove stains from a cloth or cloth-like material should look for a surfactant in the form of detergent. This is mainly because of the fact that plain water cannot remove stains effectively. However, using harsher types of detergents could end up bleeding out the color of your backpack. Therefore, it is good to look for detergents that have a color friendly formula to avoid any discolorations.

Washing machine

Despite the fact that laptop backpacks can be washed by hand, it is also possible to use a machine wash unless the backpack’s tags indicated otherwise. A washing machine can make the process of washing more convenient. However, there are certain precautions that you should observe when using a washing machine.

Manual washing your Laptop Backpack

Empty all the contents

Before soaking your backpack in water, take out all the contents especially small electronic devices such as phone chargers, pens, papers and so on. Also, remember to remove detachable straps and pockets.

Brush off dirt, dust, and loose threads

Before you soak your backpack in water, look for any loose surface dirt and if there is any dust them off. Doing this will ensure that the water is as clean as possible. After dusting off the dirt, wipe off any stubborn dirt using a rag. If there are any loose threads hanging, especially near the seams, cut them using a pair of scissors. Avoid tugging them.

Add detergent- water mix to stains

If there are any stubborn stains caused by rust, food or drinks, then ensure that this area is pre-treated. This can be done by mixing equal parts of detergent and water and then scrubbing the residue using a soft brush. Let it sit for 30 minutes as most of these would further fade with the bag. Make sure you use environment-friendly detergent.

Fill a large basin or pale with lukewarm water

Lukewarm water can remove tough stains and this is why it is a good idea to use it to clean your laptop backpack. However, you should avoid using hot water as it may make the color bleed out. Also, remember to take caution for this step since some bags should not be soaked. Ensure that the label indicates that the backpack can be soaked before soaking it in lukewarm water.

Wash the backpack

Washing a laptop backpack involves submerging it if it is permissible and adding some mild soap. Scrub the pre-treated area for the second time using the same toothbrush you used earlier. However, avoid overdoing this step and instead stop after all the stains have been fully removed.

Rinse thoroughly

The next step is to take out all residues foam soap and detergent. To do this, you will have to soak your backpack in a basin or pail or fresh water. You can use a body towel to rinse a lot of water by wrapping the bag in it and pressing it lightly.

Hang it out to dry

It is good to let your backpack dry the natural way. Keep the bag unzipped and ensure that it hangs upside down. This allows the water to dry up.

If you are still looking for a laptop backpack to buy, you should check the recommended 17 inch laptop backpacks of Tibco.

Wondering what laptop should you put in your newly cleaned laptop backpack? Let our geeks help you out! We recently released our list: 17 inch laptops selected by Ticbo. This list includes the latest models, from budget categories up to premiums!