I start with a disclaimer. This article was drafted in early August 2005 and will rapidly become obsolete in detail, if not, in principle.
The price of Notebook computers has plummeted in the last 6-12 months. Accordingly, an increased number of people are considering them, whether as a supplement or a replacement for a desktop.
I am no great expert on notebooks but have owned a few, including one bought this year. I'm making comments herein in the hope that some may find them useful, or better yet, others will correct or add to my comments and produce something more useful.
Firstly "What's the best laptop" is like "What's the best car", namely that, much more than for a desktop, the answer depends very much on what you want to use it for, and that is regardless of cost etc.
For
me, questions to resolve before/when buying a new notebook computer are:
1 Do you really need/want a notebook?
Despite price drops they: are still dearer than equivalent power desktops; more fragile (a cup of coffee spilt in their keyboard is usually more serious than in a normal machine, they are easily dropped, sat on, stolen...); have very limited expansion capability; much less expertise is available for repairs and fault finding; generally much less ergonomically sound...
Have you considered alternatives such as portable storage devices?
Another area to look at is the world of PDAs and other sub-notebook machines. I know even less about them than notebooks, but they are getting amazingly powerful for many uses, and are lighter and cheaper, can run slide presentations, connect to a GPS, the Internet....
2 New or Second Hand?
Obviously budgetary considerations are a prime factor, but to me the recent drop in prices tend to make second hand ones grossly overpriced due to reluctance of an owner to accept that a more powerful new machine can be bought now for much less than half the price they paid for their machine less than twelve months ago. If looking at buying second hand you should also consider whether you need features which are now commonplace but were not a year or two ago, for example multiple USB 2 ports, DVD and CD writers, inbuilt modems LAN connection, wireless networking.
3 What do you want to use it for?
Even ignoring budgetary considerations, it is very much horses for courses. I can think of a number of prime reasons one may want a Notebook, and that ignores the common "status symbol/mine is bigger than yours/fashion accessory" type reasons. For example:
a. Everyday machine when space is short or temporary
(eg. kitchen table) and/or don't want cluttering cables.
b Portable power/desktop machine, moved between two or
more office/home locations.
c. As a portal to the
Internet while travelling (eg. plug into motel phones).
d. For short period
use away from mains power (eg. flying Canberra-Melbourne; at business
meetings).
e. Ditto but much
longer periods (eg. Canberra-Perth; at Public Service meetings).
f. Sustained use
(many hours) away from mains power (eg. data logging).
g. As for f), or
others, in harsh environments.
Each of these uses has different priority features. For example, weight and battery life are of low priority for 3a and 3b uses.
Note
also that the defining use may not be the most common use. For
example, I suggest that, for most users most of the time, their notebook is used
for 3a or 3b purposes, but if 3d or 3e use is required some of the time, then
factors like lightness and battery life get higher priority.
Some factors involved in making a decision are:
Screen size/quality
The bigger the screen the bigger the cost and the more power used. For home and office use a big clear screen is important, but for other uses it may be of lower or even negative importance - a big screen means a bigger heavier more power hungry machine, and one which is more disturbing of others if used on an aircraft or other confined space.
Several regular 'traveller' users have commented to me that a 15" screen, let alone a widescreen machine, is too big for comfort in an economy class aircraft seat.
Machine power/CPU type and speed
In a desktop environment most of us want as much grunt as we can get for our money, but it's not that simple for a notebook, primarily due to the fact that more horsepower means more electricity consumed and more heat and sometimes noise generated.
You should also look carefully at the precise type of CPU used, not just Pentium versus Celeron versus Athlone versus... For example there is a big difference between a Celeron "D" series CPU and a Celeron "M" series. [Notebooks exist with both, but the D series is mainly aimed at desktop machines, runs up to 3.2GHz, typically a 256KB L2 cache. The M series aimed for notebooks, runs up to about 1.6GHz but has a bigger L2 cache (512K/1MB/2MB) and uses less power]
Disk Capacity
Be aware that many/most manufacturers snaffle a multi-gigabyte partition (eg 5GB) for hibernation storage, system recovery information and so on, and you have far less options regarding addition of space, so get enough to start with. I know there are lots of nice external disks which plug into a USB 2.0 port. These are great for backup, but for routine use on a notebook it is another cluttering cable, and another box to pack up when moving - there are already too many with power supply, leads, media, external mouse…
At the time of writing 80GB notebook disk drives can be bought for around $160, a big drop in last 12 months.
Memory
Cheaper machines tend to come with 256MB RAM, but may also have shared video, effectively reducing that value. You may wish to consider adding RAM, and should factor that into the cost of the machine.
Battery Life
"Cost/power/battery life - pick any two".
In practice long battery life and high horsepower are incompatible, though power usage can be minimised by all sorts of cunning management schemes. For most users most of the time this is not a big issue, but clearly it is for people who must use the machine for long periods away from mains power.
Battery life is usually regarded as an important factor, but I suggest that in practice most users rarely or never use their machines away from mains power supply. Consider your real needs.
If it is an issue, check both battery capacity and power consumption, and note figures cited by sales people are typical of figures quoted by sales people.
You should carefully read your manual before even switching on your machine. Many manufacturers specify an initial battery conditioning regime, which if not followed will reduce battery life.
In some cases it may be more cost-effective to buy a cheaper machine and a second battery pack.
Moral: If you want to impress people by playing with a financial spreadsheet all the way to Perth, pick a less powerful machine. The battery will last longer - and the slower speed will make it look like you are doing more.
Power consumption
This is usually closely related to battery life, but not always, as I discovered in an attempt to continuously log input from a GPS on a long drive running my overly-powerful new notebook off a car battery through an inadequate inverter. Modern machines are power-hungry: newer technology ones probably less so per horsepower than older ones, but the trend is there. Some examples:
· My wife’s 3 year old 950 MHz Celeron : 75 Watts
· Current 1.5GHz Celeron M : 60 Watts
· Current 1.6GHz Pentium M Centrino : 90 Watts
· My early 2005 2.66Ghz Celeron D : 135 Watts
· Current 3.2GHz Pentium 4 : 175 Watts
The 'current' notebooks were noted at random in a store last week. There are other brands which have lower power consumption.
Clearly my 2.66GHz Celeron with a 15” screen is designed for home/office, not my attempted use, which in hindsight would have been much better handled by my wife's 950MHz Celeron with a smaller screen, which is used for home office/limited space purposes. Although I now have a higher capacity inverter, next year's trip will probably be with the older machine, making both of us happy!
Note that all these machines run Windows XP.
Size/Weight
Notebook users all dream of a small thin light robust notebook with low price, a giant screen, big keyboard, extremely powerful, long battery life, inbuilt sound, modem, LAN, wireless, DVD RW... All features weigh something, and lighter features cost more.
To quote a long-time user of notebooks while travelling the country on work with them:
"The three most important factors to consider are weight, weight, and weight".
But for a home/office usage this is less important, particularly as light weight equates to high cost and a smaller screen.
Pointing Device
I've never met an inbuilt touchpad device I've liked - good ones may exist but I've not yet met one. For desktop uses this is not a problem as about 100% of users switch to an external mouse, but for laptop uses, such as in an aircraft, getting one with an inbuilt device you find the least annoying is a significant decision factor.
Other
The list is endless. I will briefly mention some factors.
Video graphics. There are a variety of chipsets, and obviously you do not have the luxury of being able to change PCI or AGP cards to get what you want. If it is important to you, check it out before buying.
Less and less machines have serial & parallel ports. If you have devices which need them to connect, there are serial->USB converters available, but make sure they work for your device. For example, I have a cable which supports my 4800bps serial-connection GPS to a USB port but won't support another one which connects only at 38000bps.
If you want to use the notebook to give digital presentations, make sure it can connect to an external monitor. Most do but I don't know about all. Check resolutions and precise operational mode. Some simply mirror the inbuilt screen; others act as a second monitor; some can do both. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages.
Think about optical devices. The current base level standard seems to be a combo DVD reader/CD writer drive. DVD writers are available but cost much more. What do you need?
Floppy disk drives - Few machines seem to have them nowadays. I don't care, but you might.
Modem. Most now seem to have an inbuilt modem, but check. I found mine useful when combined with an ISP with a local-call-Australia-wide number.
Most seem to have inbuilt 10/100 LAN connection but you should check. It is useful for most types of use, as even portable uses often want to go home and connect to a home network.
Wireless connections are becoming more popular and widely used. Check your needs and the machine’s capabilities.
If connection to the outside world (modem or LAN) is needed I think internal connection is the way to go, particularly if on the move, if only to reduce the number of external boxes to keep track of and pack.
Keyboard. Most are less ergonomic than normal keyboards, but most people seem to stick with it (unlike the pointing device). It may be an issue for you, particularly on smaller machines.
USB ports. Make sure there are enough for you, particularly if you are using them for and external mouse, LAN, Internet connection and so on. Nowadays I assume all new machines will be USB 2.0, but check.
PCMCIA slots. The standard always seemed to be two or more, but some machines only have one, or perhaps even zero. I find one enough with inbuilt LAN, Modem, and four USB 2.0 ports, but one remains my minimum.
Firewire, infra-red. If these
matter to you, check them.
Alan Vidler
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