How To Select A Laptop or Notebook for Your Needs

People buy computers for different reasons. Here's what I can think of...
1) Movies / Music / Web Surfing / Email / Video Chatting / Facebook
2) Heavy Gaming
3) Surfing / Emailing
4) Video Audio and 2D/3D Design and animation work.
5) Software development
6) Online shopping / Online selling

Now that tablets are very popular, are there anyone still interested in laptops or notebooks? There are times where I find that I need the full power and keyboard of a laptop when I need to do things fast like using Photoshop and putting my products online to sell. For normal web browsing I still use my Android tablet.

There are several categories of users I would like to cover. These are:

Senior citizen
Lower powered laptops are required for this group of users as their only need to do mainly emailing, some websurfing ( like checking recipes seen on tv ) and filling out government related application forms. Most services in Singapore are now online eg CPF Inland Revenue Department, ICA, MOM and some others. I recommend the lower cost range of 'Core 2 Duo' 1.8ghz 2gb ram laptops because these processors are very fast for what they do and they are fully 64 bit processors which can be upgraded to the latest Windows 8 if needed. The older 'Core Duo' is not 64bit therefore I dont recommend it.
These laptops are usually priced in the $200 range and easy to move from point to point. The screen is also larger and easier to look at. Older folks like to type on a physical keyboard instead on a touchscreen. Netbooks are all still very slow to this day and the older Core2Duo is anytime faster than the fastest Intel Atom processors.

Students (5-10yrs)
This category can use the same specs as the Senior citizen category as this will be in introduction to the world of I.T.

Students (teenagers)
Students use laptops for the most number of reasons. From watching movies to downloading many types of content to backing up Android or Iphone contacts and chatting on yahoo to school work and light games. This best kind of laptop for this group would be the newer 2009 -2010 faster core 2 duo laptops. The first gen Core i3 or i5 also suits this group if they have more budget.

Gamers
This group demands the highest configuration possible. Laptops must have discreet graphics like the Nvidia or ATI for fast 3D gaming performance. Laptop of choice would be at least a first generation  Intel Core i5 2.4ghz with Nvidia or ATI graphics

Graphic Designers / Web Designers
Graphics and Web designers require laptops to be fast, about similar to the students category. Processor speed should be the faster 2009-2010 core 2 duo processor (2.4ghz) with 4gb of memory as minimum. Discreet graphics not required. The faster Core2Duo processors actually outperform the first generation Intel i3 processors. The only advantage with the i3 tis the newer manufacturing process which results in lower power consumption. Webcam not needed.

Video Editors / 2D & 3D animations
This group needs the most power possible. Recommended configurations are Intel Core i7 quad core processors and 8GB of memory. 2nd Generation i7 and newer is recommended. Webcam not needed

Corporate Workers
This group of people need the newer faster core2duo and first generation i3 or i5. The chipset that come with these processors support VGA output as well as HDMI output. This is important for powerpoint and video presentations. 4gb memory recommended. Webcam might be required for webinars.