TECH STUFF WITH BILL BENNETT
LOOKING TO BUY A NEW LAPTOP? THE CHOICE CAN BE SOMEWHAT DAUNTING BILL BENNETT DELIVERS A QUICK GUIDE TO WHAT’S OUT THERE.
For years portable computers stuck to the same basic design. You can still get a classic beige clamshell laptop, if that’s what you want, but there is now much more choice.
Your options range from slender ultraportables weighing under a kilogram to hulking beasts tipping the scales at five times as much. Prices for bare-bones bright-coloured laptops suitable for school children start at around $400. You might pay ten times as much for a state-of-the-art machine.
Laptops no longer all look the same. Some, like the HP Elitebook Folio (reviewed on page 44) are so thin they look as if you can cut cheese with them. You could almost hide one between the pages of this magazine.
Convertible touch-screen designs challenge our ideas about what a laptop is. Some lead a double life, changing into a tablet by bending and folding the keyboard. Other models become tablets by detaching the keyboard.
If those choices are not enough, you now have more operating systems to choose from. Microsoft Windows remains the mainstream option for business users. Microsoft pushed touch screen technology with Windows 8. Today’s machines come with Windows 10. It does a better job of switching between a touch and non-touch screen user interface.
Apple MacBooks are a popular alternative. Today they are just as mainstream and can do almost everything a Windows laptop can. For the few cases where they can’t, they can run Windows.
Chromebooks are, for the most part, a low-cost alternative. They only run Google’s Chrome browser, so you use them with cloud computing apps. You may also see Android laptops.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
The choice is overwhelming. If you need a computer for business, you can whittle away some of the more exotic options. First, unless you know you’ll only work with cloud apps, chose a Windows laptop or a MacBook. If you travel a lot, look at the ultraportable models. This makes a huge difference when you spend time on airplanes or carry a bag around town. Many are so light you’ll forget it is there.
Battery life is important. Most quality ultraportables will last for the best part of a working day without a recharge. They use solid state drives so there is no waiting for a computer to boot up, you can open the lid and work immediately. They often come with 128GB or 256GB of storage. If you never store video or music you can get away with the lower amount. Yet it’s wise to buy the extra headroom.
Once you spend more than $1000, every laptop will have enough processing power to meet all your needs. Pay more again and you get better displays, better keyboards, more storage, more power and more of everything. Not everyone wants or likes a touch screen on a laptop, but if you’ve made the move, you’ll find it hard to go back. All convertibles, sometimes called hybrids, do touch. They have the advantage of doubling as tablets. In practice hybrid keyboards are not as good as the ones on more conventional laptop designs. Keep this in mind if you type a lot of words.