One question our customers always want to know is what type of laptop they should buy.
What a loaded question!
First, we need to answer some very important questions:
1. Is this a home laptop or a business laptop?
• Home laptops are currently targeted at more entertainment-oriented users. They’re primarily designed with glossy screens, have larger (but slower) hard drives, and have features like Blu-Ray players. Performance is only really a consideration on high-end machines aimed at gamers. And since most home laptops hardly ever leave the house, the fact that it’s a laptop is hardly a concern. Battery life typically isn’t that great, and cases tend to be made of cheap plastic that can’t handle the rigors of travel.
• Business laptops are designed with more rugged designs. They are designed to be worn 8 or more hours per day virtually non-stop. They are also made with higher quality parts that are designed to last longer between failures. They also have longer warranties with better service. Think about it: If these laptops are targeted at Fortune 1000 companies, those companies aren’t going to tolerate hard drives that fail after a year. These factors tend to make business laptops cost 10-15% more than home laptops.
2. How long do you need your laptop to last before you replace it?
• Why am I asking you that? It’s simple: current trends show that most home users replace their laptops and desktops every 2 ½ to 3 years. Generally speaking, it’s easy for home users to move their pictures and music to the new computer and maybe reinstall a couple of simple apps.
• For businesses, there are a couple of additional factors that need to be considered. First, transferring software and data from old to new systems is significantly more difficult and therefore more expensive. While the data is being transferred, the employee is often unable to work, costing the company more money. The second is that companies must follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which tells them that computers must be depreciated off the books over 4 years. So that laptop better last 4 years!
3. Are you going to travel a lot with the laptop?
• Trust me: if you’re going to be traveling a lot, you do NOT want the 17″ monstrosity. It’s 11 pounds, and then you add the cables, laptop case, mouse, and… You’ll see where I’m going with this ?
• If you talk to any of your business friends who have to travel a lot for work, they tend to have smaller laptops with longer battery life. 14″ inches is a pretty standard size for full-featured laptops, and you can even get them with 12 or 13″ screens, but the price goes up a lot for those.
• Here’s an interesting fact to consider: On American Airlines, because of the way the seats are designed, the tray will only easily accommodate a 14″ or smaller screen. With a 15″, the lid won’t have room to open completely and you can’t see your screen unless the laptop is practically resting on your stomach.
4. What kind of budget do you have?
• People ask “what can I get for $500?” to which the answer is “no good”. Always buy 20-30% more energy than you need. Why? Because we plan to keep this for 3 to 5 years. Technology is changing all around us so fast that the system requirements are constantly increasing. Back in 2001, when Windows XP first came out, Microsoft said that it only needed 64 megabytes of RAM to run. After 9 years of updates, fixes and patches it needs 512 megabytes to work and 1 gigabyte to work well. Our software needs are going to continue to grow, and it’s now much cheaper to plan for the future.
• If you buy a laptop for $500 now that barely gets the job done, life will be really bad in 3 years when everything is running at a crawl. For me, the purchase price is $750 (not including software like Microsoft Office) for a good solid business laptop with a 1 year next business day on-site warranty.
5. What kind of warranty does it come with?
• Always ask/find out what kind of warranty comes with the laptop. Many low-end laptops have 1-year mail-in warranties. If something happens, you need to pack the laptop and send it to the repair center. They always say that they are not responsible for data loss on the hard drive, so they tell you to back up the drive first (backing up is always a good idea!). It may take 5-15 business days to get your laptop back.
• What if you are a business user? Can you live without your laptop even for 5 days? Can you have employees without for 5 days? Only buy laptops that have a 1 year next business day onsite warranty, and always see if you can upgrade to 3 or 4 years. After all, if you have to keep it on the books for 4 years, it’s probably worth $150 to have it under warranty the entire time.
6. Do you need “always on” connectivity?
• For years, almost all laptops have come with wireless as a standard feature. Whether you’re at the local coffee shop or in a hotel room, you’ll connect. Recently, we have seen a huge increase in users, especially business professionals, who NEED to be connected all the time. It can be for constant access to customers via email or to use an application over the Internet. To get your always-on solution, you can always go to AT&T/Verizon/Sprint and buy a Wi-Fi USB card and subscription to connect through cell towers across the country. Or now you can buy Wi-Fi connectivity built right into the laptop to make it easier to use. No more dongles!
7. Do you have the right operating system for you?
• There’s no question that I’m a big fan of Windows 7. Just make sure if you’re buying a business laptop that you get Windows 7 Professional or Windows XP Professional so you can connect to your server.
8. Do you really need a full-featured laptop? If not, consider a netbook.
• Well, I’ve already used the term “full-featured” twice. I am referring to the fact that most laptops work roughly like a desktop computer. In recent years, there has been the rise of a whole new class of laptops called netbooks. Netbooks are smaller than laptops (8 or 10″ screens), have very low power consumption (so batteries last longer), and are significantly lighter (some weigh 1 pound). However, at some point there have to be tradeoffs slower than laptops in fact netbooks are closer to par with laptops from 8 or 10 years ago what they’re really good at is quickly checking your email a couple websites, perhaps editing Microsoft Word or Excel files.Most people don’t use them as their only computer, but as a second device for travel.
9. The extras!! It’s nice to have, but usually not necessary.
• Do you want to watch movies on it? Make sure it has a Blu-Ray player and an HD screen. For true HD, you need the resolution to be 1920 × 1080 or higher. Anything less and the computer has to simplify the image to fit your screen?
• Want to connect your phone or a wireless headset? Get Bluetooth built into the system. It’s also good to use with a travel mouse or even a keyboard.
• Use it a lot in low light? Look for backlit keys.
• Do you need to make presentations with him? Make sure it has at least VGA output. The best systems have both VGA and HDMI output.
• Want better graphics? Look for ATI or NVidia video chipsets in the list of features. Both companies specialize in high-end video subsystems and will really make Windows 7, movies, and games great.