How to get the best Dell deals on Black Friday

Last year, Dell made some very good deals on laptops and desktops in November, trying to stand out from the competition. The company completed the transaction ahead of Black Friday on November 15.

Although we haven't heard anything from the horse's mouth, it is wise to expect Dell to adopt a similar approach for Black Friday in 2018.

We will highlight the benefits of Dell's top products as soon as possible, but there are some special brands and models that can start around mid-November, all of which were significantly reduced last year.

Know what you want before Black Friday

First, you need to consider the overall size of the Dell laptop you purchased. The most common sizes are 13-inch, 14-inch, 15-inch notebooks, and 17-inch models have recently become less popular. (There are some smaller and larger devices out there, but you are less likely to come across those).

Smaller laptops are not only more portable but also more affordable. Conversely, larger laptops will offer a wider screen, and because of the larger internal space, you are more likely to find a more powerful processor and a larger battery.

If you're looking for something you can use anytime, anywhere, you'll need to choose a lighter laptop.

Determine specifications

Taking a long look at the configuration of the Dell laptop before you buy can provide a clear idea of whether the deal is worth considering. If the specifications point to an old or low-power laptop, then the deal may not be as decent as you first thought.

On the other hand, if the specifications point towards a strong laptop that comes with features you'll seldom – if ever – use, then you may be better off saving your cash and searching elsewhere.

As far as performance is concerned, what is most important consider are the core parts inside the machine. That’s your processor, system memory, storage and – to a lesser extent – the graphics processor.

When it comes to the main processor, most of the CPUs you’ll find will be manufactured by Intel. While the Intel Core i5 is a decently powerful model, the Core i7 is the most powerful choice in every case.

Most folks won’t need the kind of oomph the Core i7 offers unless you're deep into gaming, video editing or other heavy-duty tasks. So, the Core i5 is the ideal mid-range option. There’s also the entry-level Core i3 processor, if you’re looking for an affordable machine that you don’t mean to use for anything more demanding than browsing the internet or drafting up documents.

Very slim laptops are likely to house a Y series Intel processor, as they can run without any fans to cool them. The trade-off here is that they're not nearly as performant – an example is the Core m3-7Y30. Note that the Y series chips feature ‘Core m’ models (m3/m5/m7), which is simply another way of labelling these as lower-power CPUs.

Intel Atom processors are widely found in the truly affordable portables and, shockingly, don’t run all that smoothly. If you’re only looking to use the laptop for basic web surfing, you’ll manage okay, but this isn’t a limitation that will be tolerable to most users.

Intel isn’t you’re only choice, however – you could easily opt for an AMD APU, an Accelerated Processing unit, which has a CPU and a GPU (graphics processor) on the same chip. A growing number of devices are coming with AMD hardware, which gives you more options and can generally be found for cheaper than Intel-toting laptops while offering similar levels of performance.

RAM

The next step to consider is system memory or RAM. Ideally, you want at least 4GB, but 8GB is the first choice for future proofing and any type of game. Some of the more affordable laptops still run with 2GB of RAM, but now it's not enough to run Windows 10 - even if it technically meets the operating system's system requirements.

Sometimes the speed of RAM is expressed in MHz, but don't worry too much; in terms of performance, RAM is more important than speed.

Storage selection

Today, you'll find that many Dell laptops use SSD (Solid State Drive) for storage. SSDs provide fast-responding performance that can be converted to fast-loading applications and programs.

More affordable models are more likely to use eMMC drives, and although they use flash memory like SSDs, they are obviously slower.

If you want to save some space, then eMMC drives are usually worth a try because they are still faster than standard hard drives - if only slightly.

Traditional hard drives (which you often find as hard drives or hard drives) are the slowest, but the cheapest, most capacity storage media. Their advantage is that they usually have more capacity - up to 1TB of storage capacity can be found even in reasonably priced hardware.

The revolutions per minute (rpm) is always referenced by the hard drive, while the faster speed runs at 7,200 rpm and the slower drive runs at 5,400 rpm. As a rule of thumb, the latter can be quite slow, but keep in mind that, like SSDs, the performance of individual drives will vary.

Graphics

Most Dell laptops have integrated graphics, which means that the GPU is hardwired to the CPU, and you often find visual performance quite limited. With integrated graphics - known as Intel HD Graphics or Intel Iris, talk about Intel chips - you will be able to play casual games, but that's it.

This is fine for regular laptop users, but those who want to play some of the more heavy-duty games need a separate GPU - a graphics processor solution that is independent of the general-purpose processor.

Screen

Most mid-range notebooks come standard with a full HD display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080.

However, when you reduce the price range to a more affordable model, you will still find that many products offer only 1,366 x 768 resolution. But don't let this scare you.

This resolution is actually very good, especially on laptops with smaller screens. In fact, smaller resolutions are usually good for laptops that drive its weaker hardware, because that means fewer pixels are moved by the CPU and GPU, making things more likely to run smoothly.

This is also something that gamers may want to remember. While the 4K display looks and sounds like an amazing idea, it can have a major impact on the core components of the machine. Sometimes, for a smoother frame rate, it's worth sacrificing a bit of image quality.

4K displays will also consume the laptop's battery faster.