Brightness
The maximum brightness that a laptop screen can provide.
The brighter the ambient light, the brighter the laptop screen should be, otherwise the image on it may be difficult to read. And vice versa: in dim ambient light, high brightness is unnecessary — it greatly burdens the eyes (however, in this case, modern laptops provide brightness control). Thus, the higher this indicator, the more versatile the screen is, the wider the range of conditions in which it can be effectively used. The downside of these benefits is an increase in price and energy consumption.
As for specific values, many modern laptops have a brightness of
250 – 300 nt and even
lower. This is quite enough for working under artificial lighting of medium intensity, but in bright natural light, visibility may already be a problem. For use in sunny weather (especially outdoors), it is desirable to have a brightness margin of at least
300 – 350 nt. And in the most advanced models, this parameter can be
350 – 400 nt and even
more.
Contrast
The contrast of the screen installed in the laptop.
Contrast is the largest difference in brightness between the lightest white and darkest black that can be achieved on a single screen. It is written as a fraction, for example, 560:1; while the larger the first number, the higher the contrast, the more advanced the screen is and the better the image quality can be achieved on it. This is especially noticeable with large differences in brightness within a single frame: with low contrast, individual details located in the darkest or brightest parts of the picture may be lost, increasing the contrast allows you to eliminate this phenomenon to a certain extent. The flip side of these benefits is an increase in cost.
Separately, we emphasize that in this case only static contrast is indicated — the difference provided within one frame in normal operation, at constant brightness and without the use of special technologies. For advertising purposes, some manufacturers may also provide data on the so-called dynamic contrast — it can be measured in very impressive numbers (seven-digit or more). However, you should focus primarily on static contrast — this is the basic characteristic of any display.
As for specific values, even in the most advanced screens, this indicator does not exceed 2000: 1. But in general, modern laptops have a rather low contrast ratio — it is assumed that for tasks that require more advanced image characteristics, it is more...reasonable to use an external screen (monitor or TV).
Total threads
The number of threads supported by the laptop processor.
A thread is a sequence of instructions executed by a processor. Initially, each processor core was designed for one such sequence, and the number of threads was equal to the number of cores. However, in modern CPUs, multithreading technologies are increasingly being used, which allow loading each core with two instruction sequences at once. Such technologies have different names for different manufacturers, but the principle of their operation is the same: during the inevitable pauses in the execution of one of the threads, the kernel does not idle, but works with a different sequence. Accordingly, the total number of threads in such processors is twice the number of cores; such a scheme of work significantly increases productivity (although, of course, it also affects the cost).
Passmark CPU Mark
The result shown by the laptop processor in the Passmark CPU Mark test.
Passmark CPU Mark is a comprehensive test that is more detailed and reliable than the popular 3DMark06 (see above). It checks not only the gaming capabilities of the CPU, but also its performance in other modes, based on which it displays the overall score; this score can be used to fairly reliably evaluate the processor as a whole (the more points, the higher the performance).
RAM speed
The clock speed of the RAM installed in the laptop.
The higher the frequency (with the same type and amount of memory) — the higher the performance of RAM in general and the faster the laptop will cope with resource-intensive tasks. However modules with the same frequency may differ somewhat in actual performance due to differences in other characteristics; but this difference becomes significant only in very specific cases, for the average user it is not critical. As for specific values, the most popular modules on the modern market are
2400 MHz,
2666 MHz,
2933 MHz and
3200 MHz. Memory at
2133 MHz or less is found mainly in outdated and low-cost devices, and in high-performance configurations this parameter is
2933 MHz,
3200 MHz,
4266 MHz,
4800 MHz,
5200 MHz,
5500 MHz,
5600 MHz and
more.
3DMark06
The result shown by the laptop's graphics card in 3DMark06.
This test primarily determines how well a graphics card handles intensive workloads, in particular, with detailed 3D graphics. The test result is indicated in points; the more points, the higher the performance of the video adapter. Good 3DMark06 scores are especially important for
gaming laptops and advanced workstations. However, it is difficult to call them reliable, since measurements are made on video cards with different TDPs and an overall average score is given. Thus, your laptop can have either more or less than the specified result - it all depends on the TDP of the installed video card.
2nd drive capacity
The volume of the second (additional) drive installed in the laptop.
Two drives used simultaneously in a laptop are most often of different types — for example, HDD and SSD of one kind or another (for more details, see "Drive Type"); however, there are also configurations for two media of the same type (for example, hard drives). Anyway, if separate storages have different volumes, then storage of a smaller capacity is usually considered additional. This is due to the fact that such a drive often performs an auxiliary function and is intended not so much to store data as such, but to speed up the system. A typical example is the HDD + SSD bundle, where it is the SSD that is considered the second carrier. But if there are two hard drives, they usually have the same volume, and in such cases the division into the first and second drives is purely conditional.
In light of all this, the volume of the 2nd drive is generally noticeably lower than that of the main one. In many devices, this parameter
does not exceed 128 GB ; the average can be called
250 GB(more precisely, 240 – 256 GB); and a capacity of
around 500 GB or
more is considered pretty solid in this case.
Brand acoustics
The brand of the speaker system (speakers) installed in the laptop.
This item is indicated if the laptop is equipped with
advanced acoustics, which is noticeably superior in quality to conventional speakers. Such information further emphasizes the high level of the device. At the same time, the characteristics usually do not give the full name of the speaker system, but only the brand name — for example,
Bang & Olufsen,
Dynaudio,
Harman,
Harman Kardon,
Infinity,
JBL, etc.: even such information in this case is quite enough.
Backlight
The presence of
a backlight in the laptop keyboard. This feature not only gives the device a stylish look, but also makes the keys more visible than on
non-backlit laptops. The specific implementation of the backlight may vary - it depends both on the price category and on the general purpose of the laptop. For example, single-colour lighting is found in both inexpensive laptops and professional ultrabooks. And gaming models may provide
advanced RGB backlighting and even the ability
to synchronize the backlight.
The backlight colour is usually chosen by the manufacturer taking into account the general specialization of the laptop. Thus,
white backlighting is popular in
“office” devices - it fits well into a restrained business style and at the same time looks good on its own.
Yellow (golden) colour is noticeably less common - mainly among
fashion laptops, although there are exceptions. In turn, among gaming models the most advanced type of backlighting is often found - RGB: it allows you to choose the shade as you wish, and besides, a change in colour can signal different gaming and system events. A number of top gaming laptops feature multi-zone RGB backlighting - each zone can be illuminated indiv
...idually or in combination with other areas of the keys. One of the simplest options is a 3-zone backlight highlighting the “WSAD” keys and another additional area. A more advanced implementation is the 4-zone RGB backlighting of the keyboard, and the most chic is the 24-zone backlighting or even customizable backlighting for each individual key, visually distinguishing the buttons from others. Gaming devices are also produced with simpler, single-colour backlighting systems - in such cases, the keyboards usually glow red, green or blue. It is these shades that are best combined with the characteristic design of gaming laptops; Moreover, the red glow is usually used in devices with a rather catchy and “aggressive” appearance (and in itself is an important element of such a style), while blue and green are typical for a more restrained design.
