Spec Decoder

One spec. One short answer.

Updated November 8, 2026

1440p

What is 1440p? QHD explained

1440p is a screen resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, also sold as QHD or WQHD.

ANC

Active noise cancelling (ANC) uses microphones to pick up outside sound, then plays an inverted copy of it so the two cancel out.

Bluetooth codecs

A Bluetooth codec is the method used to squeeze audio small enough to send from your phone to your headphones.

DisplayHDR

DisplayHDR is VESA's certification for HDR on PC monitors and laptops.

DPI

DPI (dots per inch) is how far your cursor moves on screen for each inch you move the mouse.

Hot-swap

A hot-swappable keyboard has sockets on its circuit board, so you can pull switches out and push new ones in without soldering.

Mechanical switches

Mechanical keyboard switches come in three main types.

Multipoint

Bluetooth multipoint lets one pair of headphones stay connected to two devices at the same time, such as a laptop and a phone.

OLED vs Mini-LED

OLED vs Mini-LED comes down to where the light comes from.

RAM

For most students, aim for 16 GB of RAM.

Refresh rate

Refresh rate is how many times per second a screen redraws its image, measured in hertz (Hz).

Response time

Response time is how fast a monitor's pixels change from one shade to another, usually quoted in milliseconds as gray-to-gray (GtG).

SSD speeds

SSD speed is how fast a drive reads and writes data, usually quoted in megabytes per second (MB/s).

USB-C and Thunderbolt

USB-C is the shape of the plug, not a speed.

Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6E: both can use the 6 GHz band, but Wi-Fi 7 adds 320 MHz channels, Multi-Link Operation (MLO) and 4K QAM.