In the last issue we talked about speeding up you existing laptop. So, you ask, what if it still is too slow? The answer is – maybe it’s time to spend a few bucks and buy a new one. Of course you can use Bali Advertiser to sell your existing one and then take all that money and buy your new and improved one. Here’s what you need to know:
If you go online or walk into RIMO to find a laptop, the chances are you will feel paralyzed at the variety of laptops available. Most shoppers have a general idea of what their laptop should look like and what they want in terms of features, but are often intimidated by the sheer number and baffling complexities of the laptops available, which have grown to include terms such as netbooks, and CULVs, and small business (as opposed to enterprise) laptops.
Laptop Material is a Key Differentiator
Plastics are often associated with cheap laptops. What you should be on the look-out for are designs that employ metals. The most common of those is aluminum. They have a more luxurious look and feel, and can be made thinner than plastics. A metal such as magnesium alloy is more commonly found in business laptops that place a strong emphasis on durability. Carbon fiber is yet another attractive material, but is less used than aluminum and magnesium, as it is expensive to make.
Bigger Screen, Heavier Weight
Weight and screen size are directly correlated to one other. The cutoff point between a laptop that should stay permanently on your desk and one that can be a commuting companion is a 14-inch widescreen. There are exceptions, of course. The Apple MacBook Pro 15 (SD Slot) is one of the lightest 15-inch laptops—lighter, in fact, than many of the 14-inch ones in the market.
Get a screen larger than 14-inches and you’ll have to contend with deeper and wider dimensions, which your laptop bag may not have room for. Screen sizes that range between 16 and 18 inches are usually reserved for media centers, gaming rigs, and desktop replacements, not easy travel.
What to Look for in a Laptop
Even the cheapest laptops come with many of the features you would find on a $2,000 laptop. Ample USB ports (3 to 4 minimum) are pretty standard nowadays, but look for a laptop with one of the USB ports doubling as an eSATA port, so you can expand storage capacity when your internal hard drive isn’t roomy enough.
Although VGA is still the most common way to present Powerpoint slides on a big screen, technologies like DisplayPort and HDMI are better equipped to stream high quality videos and audio.
Unless you’re talking netbooks, a DVD burner is the de facto standard for internal optical drives. Look for one that burns dual layer discs (twice the capacity of a single layer disc), and don’t settle for a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive.
Once you check off all of these standard features, you can go on to look for ones that are specific to your individual needs.
Weighing the Netbook Option
As the competition grows fiercer in the netbook category, these little laptops, which were once considered as mere Web surfing and word processing devices, are now being pegged as primary laptops for everyday tasks. Had you bought a netbook six months ago, you would’ve been dealt with a 10-inch widescreen, a small keyboard, and a basic set of features. For $500 today, the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Asus EeePC 1201, and Samsung NC20 (12GBK) have 12-inch widescreens, a full-size keyboard, and an ExpressCard slot. Though smaller, the Toshiba mini NB205 and HP Mini 5101 have the best typing and navigating experience on a 10-inch platform.
You’ll also find the Intel Atom platform, made up of the Atom processor, integrated graphics, and memory (usually 1GB) in almost every netbook. The Intel Atom may not be the fastest processor, but it’s the most energy-efficient chip you can get on a netbook platform. By the end of this year, a dual-core Atom processor (all Atom processors thus far are single-core), such as the one found in the Asus EeePC 1201, will be more widely available. A new platform, complete with a new chipset, graphics, and wireless chip, will also be introduced at the end of this year.
For more info, check out: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356818,00.asp
ConsumerSearch.com: Product Reviews Extraordinaire
You know how much I love Google. Yet when I want to find a product review, I think I found a Web site that does a better job. It’s ConsumerSearch.com and I found it while I was doing some research for this article. The site’s saved me tons of time because it rummages around the Internet for independent product reviews, supplies summaries of the reviews, and then gives me links to where the review appeared. There are eight major categories, including the usual suspects--computers, electronics, home and garden, fitness and sports, and automotive.
Have a question or problem? Write me at BaliPCAdvisor@Gmail.com. I’ll try and answer as soon as I can.
Bali PC Advisor and other Bali Advertiser article Archives now ONLINE: http://www.baliadvertiser.biz/
If you are tired of trying to type the links you see in the printed articles you go to the Archive and cut-paste them
