A dedicated graphics card is helpful for intensive graphics rendering and gaming, but if you don’t need one you can save money and enjoy longer battery life.
What are basic notebooks?
Basic notebooks are notebooks with 15.6in screens along with a processor but no dedicated graphics card. They do well with productivity applications, and some high-end ones do well with some intensive programs or even some low-end gaming. Portability isn’t their strong suit, but they aren’t especially heavy either.
Why would you want a basic notebook?
Basic notebooks are for those that want a normal sized 15.6in screen and enough computing power for productivity applications and some typical intensive programs, for example video encoders. They’re also attractive if you’re on a budget, because the removal of a dedicated graphics card drives the price down significantly.
Why you would not want a basic notebook?
You would not want a basic notebook if you’re planning on serious gaming or need strong entertainment functionality, because neither is well covered in this notebook category. If portability is important then a basic notebook won’t fit the bill either; they’re about average as far as portability is concerned.
What are the specs?
Modern basic notebooks have Sandy Bridge Intel Core processors, but there are a few very cheap examples that make use of first generation Intel Core processors or AMD Phenom processors. They also have between 2GB to 4GB of RAM, and hard disk drives between 320GB up to 640GB in some rare cases. There aren’t any dedicated graphics cards to be seen, but Sandy Bridge Intel Core processors have onboard graphics sufficient for modern games on low settings.
Conclusion
At the end of the day not everyone is particularly fussed about gaming or computing tasks that need hardcore graphics rendering, and for those people a basic notebook is an affordable option that suits their needs.
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