When you are in the market for a new laptop that will work as your home and business laptop, you may wonder if there is any difference between the two devices. With so many laptops and laptop features hitting the market, it can be difficult to differentiate between business and consumer devices.
Regardless of the fact that there is this increasingly blurred line between work and home, laptops are still placed in distinct classes. Though you may choose a home laptop to use for pleasure or business, there are some entrepreneurs who may need the features found in a business laptop.
What is the difference between these two distinct classes of laptops?
There are many features that each type of laptop contains, but these features fall into seven main categories. Have a look.
1. Business laptops tend to be more durable and long-lasting.
As companies like Acer develop home laptops, they do so with the assumption that you are going to want to stay on top of the latest trends. You can also refer to best Acer laptop to know the perfect laptop that you can use precisely for business. That means that you will be upgrading your laptop frequently. Business laptops are designed and marketed differently. These laptops are promoted to last a long time and to withstand long hours of constant use.
2. Consumer laptops have different hardware components.
Most consumer and business laptops have many of the same hardware components. However, it is not uncommon to find a business laptop coming with SSD (Solid State) drive, whereas a personal laptop may only have an HD (hard) drive. Other hardware components that you will find in a business laptop include more USB ports, webcams designed for video conferencing, and biometric fingerprint readers. There is also a large range of business laptops that have a 3G modem for broadband use that is cellular. This particular feature allows a mobile worker to stay connected wherever they are.
3. Home laptops tend to be fancier with unique features built into the design.
People who purchase a home laptop are more likely to pick a fancier and prettier laptop. Though business laptops are better looking than they used to be, the aesthetically appealing laptops belong to the consumer market.
The better-looking laptops for personal use tend to have features that make them more appealing. These features include a variety of colors, glossy displays, island-style keyboards, an eye-catching chassis. Furthermore, there are more features that include fancy lights in the keyboard and large touchpads. Consumer laptops are historically advertised as more versatile devices than the standard business laptop.
4. Software that comes preloaded.
Most consumer laptops have a general range of pre-loaded software that is called bloatware. These things include many features that you don’t choose and stuff that you probably won’t use. Games and various apps are a part of the bloatware package. A business will not stand for a laptop that is full of useless software because it will lead to a lot of software cleanup that is time-consuming. Most business-grade laptops offer business security and business versions of the most common operating systems.
5. You get more configuration options with business-grade laptops.
Consumer laptops do offer a range of custom features, but these features are generally limited to the size of the storage or the quality of the display. Businesses tend to buy laptops in bulk and purchase them with diversity in mind. These laptops tend to offer a large range of customization specs that allow businesses to get the configuration they need.
You have the option to choose things like the processor and the type of battery. Furthermore, you have the choice of the video card, the amount of ram your laptops will have along with whether or not you want a backlight on the keyboard.
6. Warranty periods and service agreements tend to be better for business laptops
Picking a laptop offers you different warranty options or service agreements that you can get into. However, if you think about the stand offering that comes with the average commercial versus personal use laptop, you will find out that business laptops tend to have longer out of box warranties and comprehensive service agreements that would be an additional cost to those who purchase a consumer laptop.
Furthermore, business laptops also have faster response times when issues arise, and some even come with onsite support in the event of immediate issues. These kinds of things you can get with a consumer laptop, but you pay dearly for it.
7. Business laptops tend to have IT and security management in mind.
Above we spoke about how business laptops have additional features that you won’t find on consumer laptops. One of these features was the biometric fingerprint scanner. These are additional security features that you get with a business laptop to keep sensitive data secure. Furthermore, business laptops tend to have advanced software built-in to make managing devices across enterprise networks easier and more transparent.
Though the security and IT management features found in business laptops is a window that is narrowing quickly with consumer laptops, for now, business laptops have the edge over home laptops when it comes to security and management.
Conclusion
With business laptops and consumer laptops having some distinct features that set them apart, it can be hard to choose the right one for the entrepreneur who has to mingle home and business every day. As work and home life are becoming increasingly more intertwined, the need for a business and personal laptop in one is starting to be glaringly evident.
For now, there are still vast distinctions between the two styles of the laptop as outlined in the seven key differences above. Laptops have a large range of brands and styles that you can choose from Netbook News. However, surely in the future, those distinctions will start to come closer together until they are no longer apparent to average consumers searching for a high-quality laptop.
