Less is More v. Bigger is Better
Mar 25 '02
The Bottom Line The frequency of your travels and your love of movies will determine the best laptop for you
First off, watching DVD movies on a laptop is the greatest thing for frequent travellers since the paperback. Most business poeple will deny it, claiming they need to DVD drive for those large corporate database apps that are "just around the corner", but the plain truth is unless you are stuck working on the plane, its great to pass a long flight or layover with a movie.
Actually, the arguments business travellers weigh in choosing a laptop are the same arguments made by students, writers, or beach bums; the more you plan to carry it, the less it should weigh. Of course, this is balanced against the opposite argument which is that the fewer drives/ports/etc included in the laptop itself, the more junk you will have to carry and fumble with.
I work full-time in a job that has me all over the city on a given day. After work, I attend law school in the evening. My laptop is an essential tool for both work and school, while at home it replaces my newspaper, tv guide and is used for the normal home computing functions of burning music CDs for the car, surfing the internet, occasional game play and a whole lot of email. In addition, each summer my family flies to S. Korea (a 12-hour flight), during which we enjoy choosing out own in-flight entertainment in the form of DVD movies. I would say that my demands on a laptop are probably higher than most, in that I need all of the capabilities of a desktop-replacement type system, with the ultra-portability of an executive machine. About the only thing I don't do is art, which is how I can get away with a smaller screen. I know a travelling engineer who draws schematics all day, and despite the weight, he carries his Dell with its 15.7" screen with him.
My current laptop is a Toshiba Portege 3490CT, which is about a year old, and is of the thin and light "executive" type, which also includes the IBM X-series and the Sony VAIO Superslims. These machines lack any built-in drive except for the hard disk, relying on external drives for everything else. They also lack most of the ports that allow for the seemless use of primters and other peripherals, with the exception of USB, which is modern and convenient, though not universally supported in much legacy office hardware. These laptops rely on port replicators to add connectiveity to serial and parallel ports, mive and keyboards (USB excepted of course) and built-in network connectivity. What's nice is that you could have a port replicator on your desk at home, another int he office, then with a single connection, your laptop is a desktop computer, with all the drives (USB), peripherals and the large monitor you expect from a desktop computer. Unplug it, and it weighs between 2.5 and 4 lbs, with in the case of my Portege, nearly 3 hours of battery life.
Of course, most serious laptop users don't use their computers the way the manufacturer intended. Despite the long hours I put in, I don't connect an external monitor, keyboard or mouse to my Portege, as I find the built-in keyboard and 11.3" screen perfectly comfortable. Occasionally I do connect a USB mouse if I plan an especially long session, but usually I don't bother. For long trips, I pack my PC card DVD-ROM drive, which drops my battery life down to around 2:10; enough for a movie.
I disabled the port replicator's network function, instead only using it to connect my 14-year-old LaserJet printer and my USB CDRW and Zip Drives. If I don't plan on using either of those peripherals, I don't plug it in. The floppy drive is also USB, as is my scanner, but those are used so infrequently that I rarely plug them in at all.
I was perfectly content with this arrangement, as any loss of convenience of comfort was mitigated by carrying a machine that only wieghed 3.4lbs, however after a botched service by Toshiba on a minor problem, they have had my computer for two weeks, and provided me with a loaner machine (not common, but it was their fault), a new Portege 4000.
The Portege 4000 is a sort of in-between machine, weighing a full pound more than my 3490CT, not really being any faster (750 v. 700MHz), and having a slightly larger screen and keybaord (very nice keyboard). However, what is making me seriously consider buying this computer is the built-in DVD/CDRW combo drive. This drive would essentially take away 99% of the times when I need to plug anything in other than my printer, which with a cheap USB to parallel converter would be fully compatible with the legacy-free Portege 4000.
The added bulk is noticeable, mainly in heft on the shoulder and in thickness, the old machine being under an inch, the new one an inch and a half. Still, there is a lot to be said for the convenience of built-in drives. This really is a no-compromise laptop, offering all of the functionality of a full-size, in a small and light package. Similar laptops are available from other venders, the Apple iBook (12" model) and NEC Versa Ultralight come to mind, and each of them will do essentially the same thing, at roughly a one pound premium over the single spindle machines like the new Portege 2000 (2.6lbs) or Sony superslim.
The choice really comes down to how much you use the optical drive, balanced against how much you carry it. I'm not really sure that I use the optical drive enough to justify the extra weight, but I'm leaning that way as I'm spending more time on airplanes watching DVD movies. Of course, flying is a main argument for the smaller machnes as well, and in my experience, I only brought the DVD drive for long flights (and an extra battery).
So in conclusion, I have no magic advice to offer. It is a difficult balancing test to pick the best tool for the job, and yes, contrary to what many people will claim, watching movies on a laptop IS an important consideration to most travellers. If you do have the time, it really does make it that much easier, especially during those 3-hour layovers.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
lawman67
|
 in Computer Hardware |
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Andrew F
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 208
Trusted by: 63 members
About Me:
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.