The sub-category of the product.

The colour e.g. red, blue, green, black, white.

The shape or design of the product.

What the casing of the product is made of.

Size of the display for this product, measured diagonally, usually in inches.

The number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It is usually quoted as width × height, with the units in pixels: for example, “1024 × 768” means the width is 1024 pixels and the height is 768 pixels. The higher the number of pixels, the sharper the image.

A screen of a laptop, smartphone, etc., that responds to touch so you can control the interface using your fingers.

Type of supported High Definition (e.g. Full HD, 4K Ultra HD).

A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). One type of backlight is made by LEDs, which can be either white or RGB (red green blue). White LEDs are used most often in notebooks and desktop screens, and in virtually all mobile LCD screens. RGB LEDs for backlighting are found in high-end color proofing displays such as HP DreamColor LP2480zx monitor or selected HP EliteBook notebooks, as well as newer consumer grade displays such as Dell’s Studio series laptops which have an optional RGB LED display.

The aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of an image to its height. The native aspect ratio is the one which the projector/display is particularly designed for. Images shown in native aspect ratio will utilize the entire resolution of the display and achieve maximum brightness. Images shown in other than native aspect ratio will always have less resolution and less brightness than images shown in native aspect ratio.

Brightness is the amount of radiating light emitted from the screen. The brightness rating is measured in candellas per square meter, commonly known as ‘nits’.

The difference in light intensity between the brightest white and the darkest black.

The manufacturer that produced the processor.

A family of processors is a group of processors produced by one company over a short period of time e.g. Intel Pentium processors.

The model number for the processor in a computer.

The number of central processing units (‘cores’) in a processor. Some processors have 1 core, others have 2 (e.g. Intel Core Duo) or more (e.g. the Intel Xeon E7-2850 has 10 cores).

The turbo boost is an automatic, managed accelleration of the processor when one of the cores is overloaded.

The speed that the microprocessor executes each instruction or each vibration of the clock. The CPU requires a fixed number of clock ticks, or cycles, to execute each instruction. The faster the clocks rate, the faster the CPU, or the faster it can execute instructions. Clock Speeds are usually determined in MHz, 1 MHz representing 1 million cycles per second, or in GHz, 1 GHz representing 1 thousand million cycles per second. The higher the CPU speed, the better a computer will perform.

A bus is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. The system bus rate is the speed at which data is transferred in this communication system.

Mechanical component(s) that provides mechanical and electrical connections between a microprocessor and a printed circuit board (PCB). This allows the processor to be replaced without soldering.

The process which is performed by the processor e.g. CPU (Central Processing Unit).

Operating modes for the processors that place restrictions on the type and scope of operations for certain processes run by the CPU. This design allows the operating system to run with more privileges than application software.

A computer’s memory which is directly accessible to the CPU.

The type of internal memory such as RAM, GDDR5.

The frequency at which the memory (e.g. RAM) runs.

Design of the memory e.g. 240-pin DIMM, SO-DIMM.

The maximum internal memory which is available in the product.

The total amount of data that can be stored on the device.

Used for the storage of data e.g. HDD (hard disk drive), SSD (solid-state drive).

The Solid State Drive’s data storage capacity.

An optical drive uses laser to read optical discs such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray. Some types of optical drive are: CD ROM drive, CR-RW (CD writer) drive, DVD-ROM.

A card reader is a device that enables reading and, in some cases, writing data to and from a memory card.

Types of memory cards which can be used with this product.

A graphics adapter (often known as a video card) generates images for a display. A discrete graphics adapter plugs into the motherboard, and usually produces much better graphics than an integrated graphics adapter. There are various models of discrete graphics adapters.

Graphics hardware which is built into the motherboard or CPU, as opposed to a separate graphics adapter (video card). On-board graphics uses CPU and RAM for graphics processing.

“Graphic adapter” is the hardware that produces images on a display. “On-board” means that the graphics adapter is intergrated inside the motherboard.

System used to play music or speech.

Microphone that is found inside the product.

Camera at the front of the product.

Popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data or connect to the internet wirelessly using radio waves.

Connection of this device is done via Wi-Fi in a high standard.

The type of wireless local area network (LAN). It can be ad-hoc, where units in a network communicate peer-to-peer, or Infrastructure, where units communicate with each other via an access point A LAN interconnects computers in a small area e.g. home, school or office.

Type of antenna, also known an aerial, e.g. external, internal.

Bluetooth is a low-power radio technology developed to replace the cables and wires currently used to link or connect electronic devices such as personal computers, printers, and a wide variety of handheld devices including mobile phones. Because it uses radio-wave connectivity, a Bluetooth-enabled device has a constant, established connection to whatever browser it uses. This saves the user the trouble of logging on to check for emails or news updates, for example.

The type of bluetooth technology in the product e.g. Bluetooth Smart (v4.0).