Ideas on Purchasing Laptops

Written on February 9, 2009  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment  | 

So I was putting together some laptop quotes for a client today and thought that I’d share a couple of my cliff notes on the blog.

Laptops are a commodity purchase and should be considered a disposable asset. It is unlikely that the laptop will have a useful life beyond three years and it is equally unlikely that the components will be upgraded.  What you’re purchasing here is a consumer electronic – laptops have a limited life, are likely to break before that life ends, and aren’t likely to be improved upon.

You want a good name, a reliable warranty, compatibility with your existing network and applications, and something that will scale well with software to be released within three years. The biggest names in the US domestic market for PC’s are Dell, HP, Toshiba, and Acer. Of course, purchasing a refurb from a local retailer or an online auction may appear cheaper, but likely the manufacturer’s warranties are reduced to 90 days and you’ve been handed sub-par parts to get the price down. You’ll end up paying more later to either fix the unit or to scrape its hard drive contents in a disaster recovery situation.

A couple of things to consider:

1.Function. Quite simply: what will the laptop be used for? If you’re looking to run standard business applications, you don’t need a great deal of screen, memory, or processing power. If you are a power user and want to use your laptop for databases or programming, memory may be most important to you. If you’re a gamer and want to use a laptop, the latest in WiFi specifications, graphic cards, memory, display technology and processor are important. Understanding what you need is at first critical. Standard office-related work shouldn’t cost you more than $800; power user configurations more than $1,500; gamer systems no more than $2,000.

2.Screen/keyboard size. Again, relative to function, but a good size is the standard 15.4″ widescreen. Use that as a benchmark. Models can go lower than this to provide more lightweight, thinner form factors, or, bigger than this to accommodate a 17″ or even 19″ screen. The more screen you have, the more cost you have, and, generally speaking, the more weight you have. Most laptops come with a full QWERTY keyboard with a regular-sized layout… some of the smaller screened units will come with more condensed keyboards; the larger units may come with a 10-key extension. Again, know your purpose and your preference.

3.Battery. The lithium ion batteries in laptops come in a six cell or nine cell variety. If you’re offered, choose the nine; if there is an opportunity to expand the battery, do so. The more battery you have, the better, and the more functional the laptop becomes. When you actually get the unit, just charge it then unplug it – don’t leave the unit plugged in overnight or that could end up “burning” the battery and reducing its capacity.

4.Manufacturer’s Warranty. The main thing that will break on a laptop before the end of its three year useful life is the screen. They are difficult if not impossible to replace, and usually would cost more than the replacement cost of the asset. Besides that, this is a portable device: it’s likely to be dropped, stepped on, or stuff spilled over it. Pay the money for the extended warranty only if you intend to really be mobile with the unit – if it’s just being used primarily in an office and likely doesn’t travel, don’t worry about it; it has the same risks as a normal PC. However, if it’s truly mobile, consider the extended warranty.

5.Processor and memory. Some simple rules. At the time of this writing, traditional office applications: no more than a “cored” or “dual” 2.2 ghz processor with 2gb RAM with a premium video card to handle multiple displays; power user, a mid-market processor, dual-core, 2.5-2.8 ghz processor with no more than 4gb RAM; a gamer, a 64bit processor, multiple cores (perhaps 2-4), 3.0-3.5 ghz, at least 8gb RAM, premium sound and video.

6.Operating system and compatibility. A lot of professionals would encourage you to stick with WindowsXP. If you’re an office user, you want the XP Professional product; purchasing XP Home will prevent your machine from working correctly in the office place. If you do choose Vista, choose Vista Business for the same functionality as XP Professional; choose Vista Home Premium for the same functionality as XP Home.

7.Hard disk capacity. Hard disks are cheap. Get as much as you can. However, if you’re an office user, practically, you won’t store more than 160gb of data on a laptop (we should hope not anyway – see my comments below).  If you’re a power user or a gamer, you’ll need at least 250 gb – 500 gb worth of space.

8.Accessories. I always recommend a good port replicator and a simple carrying case.

9.OEM software bundles. Finally, if you have your eye on a particular piece of software, check out the pricing. Usually, the OEM can offer a 34-38% discount off retail bundled with the laptop. Not a bad way to get that software license and the discount.

A final thing to remember: a laptop is an unsecure mobile device. It deliberately leaves the protection of our facilities and our firewalls to roam around unprotected in the outside world. It’s not invulnerable, it will likely break, and whatever you had on the unit may be rendered foreever unaccessible.

I always tell my clients that you shouldn’t ever put anything on a laptop that you couldn’t stand to lose, or, wouldn’t be completely embarrassed by if it got into the public domain (example: how many times have you heard about a large company, the loss of a laptop, and the exposure of thousands of employee records? Right – don’t put thousands of employee’s private information on a portable media… ever.).

The Windows XP operating system, in particular, makes your data very vulnerable, for if your laptop is stollen (many are), there is nothing native to the o/s that prevents the drive from being read. There are tools that you can use, and versions of Vista, that support encryption on the hard disk, and these are matters you’d want to consider with your technology pros if you’re likely to be toting around personal and confidential information.

All the best for your next laptop purchase-

R