Glossary of terms for Notebooks

Operating System

It indicates which is the notebook's pre-installed operating system. This can be: Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS or Linux.


Optical Drive

It indicates the type of optical drive that determines the types of discs that can be read or written with the help of a notebook.


Card Reader

This indicates if the notebook has a memory-card support, like SD (SecureDigital), MMC (MultiMediaCard), xD, MS (Memory Stick) or other memory card types. A memory card reader allows you to transfer on to the notebook, the pictures or videoclips stored on the memory card.


Weight

Represents the notebook's weight, having the battery attached.


CPU Type

There are two main manufacturers competing in the processor market: AMD and Intel. Both can run on the same operating systems, run the same software and the same peripherals, although they will require different motherboards and possibly run with different memory.


CPU Speed

The CPU speed is the speed at which a processor executes instructions or at which the data is processed. The processor speed is measured in millions of cycles per second or megahertz (MHz) and generally the higher the value is, the faster it can complete a task.


Display Size

Display size is the size of your notebook's screen, diagonally measured, in inches. A bigger screen may be more convenient to use, but it will also increase the overall weight of your notebook and the energy consumption.


Display Technology

It indicates the notebooks display type which is used to render images, and may be: WXGA (Wide eXtended Graphics Array), WSXGA Widescreen Super eXtended Graphics Array), UXGA (Ultra eXtended Graphics Array), WSXGAP (Widescreen Super eXtended Graphics Array Plus), Full HD (High Definition), WUXGA (Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array).


Resolution

Resolution measures the picture's quality in pixels. More pixels mean a higher-quality and a sharper image.


Capacity

The Capacity represents the data amount which can be stored on the hard disk and is measured in GB.


Spindle Speed

Spindle Speed is the speed at which the hard disk's platter spins and indicates the maximum number of revolutions per minute (RPM).This has the following values: 4200, 5400, 7200 or 10000 and a higher spin rate means that the data can be read much faster from the disk for a single operation.


Interface

The Interface represents the type of connection that your hard drive uses, so that it can be connected.


Technology

This refers to the type of RAM technology supported by the laptop's motherboard, such as DDR (Double Data Rate), DDR2 and DDR3.


Installed Memory

It represents the amount of RAM memory (Random Access Memory) installed on your laptop, being one of the components that influences its good performance.


Max Supported Memory

The Max Supported Memory represents the maximum capacity of the physical memory RAM (Random Access Memory) that can be installed in the motherboard's slots.


Memory Speed

Memory Speed is one way of measuring the overall speed of your RAM. Generally, the faster the speed is, the faster your computer will work.


WLAN

It indicates the fact that the laptop supports WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) - a wireless local area network that uses radio waves to enable communication between devices, in a limited area. Common Wi-Fi standards are: IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n.


Bluetooth

Bluetooth provides a wireless connection and data transfer from one device to another, up to a distance of 1, 10 or 100 meters.


HDMI

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is a connection interface to the multimedia devices that can support the HD (High Definition) format, so that it can render the best images.


USB

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a plug-in connection that is used to connect devices to the PC. It has a maximum bandwidth of 12 Mbps (megabits per second) for USB 1.0 and 1.1, of 480 Mbps for the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 or 4.8 Gbps for USB 3.0.