This morning I put together a quick email for a friend who had asked for some advice on buying himself a new laptop. I thought this may be of interest to others as well, hence the decision to post it here on the blog.
Further to our chat..
Take a look at this page on Dell’s site.
Dell basically sells 5 laptop “sub-brands”. XPS, Inspiron (what I have), Precision (quite popular), Studio (the sexiest), and Latitude (probably the most popular).
Within each of these 5 models you can get a whole range of specs. Much like Toyota has the Corolla, Yarris, Camry, etc, and then within the Corolla range you can get a 1,3L, a 1,6L, a 2L, a 2L “Sport” model, etc.
So even though Corolla might be considered “less” than Camry, a top of the range Corolla might outperform an entry-level Camry.
What I did was opt for the Dell Inspiron, because within the Inspiron range one can get a huge 17-inch screen (which was important to me seeing that I’ll be using this laptop to develop code all day long). I don’t need super-fancy graphics capabilities – I won’t be playing the latest games on this laptop – so the Inspiron offers more than I need in terms of graphics power as well. Some of the other brands (think XPS) offer stonking graphics capabilities, but unless you’re a serious gamer you won’t need them. Even my somewhat “average” graphics capabilities on the Inspiron will more than handle working with photos, playing movies, etc.
All Dell’s are robust, give decent battery life, come with good warranties, can read / write CD’s and DVDs, have wireless / bluetooth capabilities, etc. Those are considered standard across all Dells much like all Toyotas have brakes.
What differentiates one model from another is who they’re aimed at (think marketing). The XPS range is aimed at graphics guys, they’re taking on the Apple iMac. So they have all of the above, plus top of the range processors (to handle games and seriously large video files), plus top of the range graphics (again, to display games and really large graphics files – much, much bigger than working with photos etc).
But other than the processor power (how fast the computer can work things out, aka the “CPU”) and the graphics power (“Graphics card”, or “GPU”), pretty much everything else inside these laptops is the same. Or to elaborate, they’re using the same components, made by the same manufacturers, but just using different specs.
So they might all have hard drives built by Seagate for example, but the XPS (geared at graphics guys) will probably come (in standard form) with a larger hard drive than the Latitude (geared more towards business). That said, if you buy directly from Dell.com (like I did), you can tell them exactly what you want in the laptop, so you can ask for a Latitude, but with a seriously big hard drive as opposed to what normal Latitudes come with.
I chose an Inspiron because I wanted the bulk, then I basically chose every component inside the laptop myself.
A “2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo processor” basically means “what was the top-of-the-range processor 6 – 12 months ago”. You’ll pay an extra R5,000 for the ”top-of-the-range-today” processor, and in 6 months time when something faster hits the market your expensive top of the range CPU will drop in value by R5,000. And in real terms at this level of processing power you won’t really feel the difference between what I chose and the top-of-the-range CPU.
RAM is something you need to look out for. RAM is memory. When you use your computer it will read stuff off your hard drive (which is slow, relative to the other components), and stores the data / programs that it’s read off the hard drive in RAM. It can then work with that stuff in RAM (memory) rather than off the hard drive – RAM is a heck of a lot faster to read / write to. So the more RAM you have, the less your laptop will need to access the hard drive (sort of), and the faster it will feel. I’d say it’s more important to save money on the processor and get lots of RAM. I chose 4 GBs of RAM which is a lot. 512 MB (half of 1 GB) will make your laptop feel dog slow, even if you have a top of the range CPU. (MB – Megabyte, GB – Gigabyte, 1 GB = 1000 MB). 1 GB of RAM will work, but your laptop won’t be as snappy as it could be with 2 GB. Anything over 2 GB is luxury. The noticeable difference between 512 MB and 1 GB is HUGE, 1 GB to 2 GB is very big, 2 GB upwards you won’t really notice the difference unless you’re really pushing your laptop hard.
The other thing (other than RAM) to look at is the hard drive space. The bigger your hard drive, the more stuff (programs / data /photos / etc) you can store on the laptop. Most laptops come with an 80 GB hard drive. That’s more than adequate for most users. I’d say you’re probably going to be using about 15 – 20 GB of space to store your programs (that’s a lot, and would include Windows, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Photoshop, and a bunch of other stuff). Then you still have 60 GB to store data files (Word documents, Excel documents, photos, etc). I’ve got several thousand photos on my laptop and I think they’re using about 4 GB of disk space. If you’re planning on storing videos on your laptop that will use serious space – more than anything else. One video (movie / DVD) can easily use up to 5 GB of hard drive space! So 10 videos and you’ve used up 50 GB!
Again, I opted for a huge 200 GB hard drive, and the Inspiron has space for a second 200 GB hard drive (200 GB + 200 GB = 400 GB!) if I want more space later on.
Lastly, I’d recommend asking if you can buy a second battery. This is good to have as a spare for when the first battery starts to pack up 2 years from now. And also when you’re on the road – if you have two fully charged batteries you can simply shut down when the first one is empty, stick in the second one, and keep going for another couple of hours. Very useful for airports when your flight is delayed and you can’t find anywhere to plug your laptop in. Also, laptops usually include a 6-cell battery. Dell also makes 9-cell batteries! These are a little bit heavier, but last much longer. I have two 9-cell batteries for mine.
Hopefully that gives you some info as to what to look out for. I’d recommend going to a shop that stocks Dell’s and trying them out to see what size / model “feels right”. Then look at the specs, focusing on hard drive space and memory. Memory (RAM) is probably the most important thing. A year from now you can easily buy another hard drive (this isn’t made by Dell, there are a number of companies that make hard drives), so you can replace your hard drive if it brakes (highly unlikely), or if someone releases an 800 GB hard drive that you really want to get, or whatever. But RAM can be hard to source, especially down the road.
As I said, things like the CPU (processing power) and graphics card (“GPU”) won’t really concern you very much. All new Dells will have more than enough power to run the sort of programs that business users will use. It might be tempting to get the top-of-the-range CPU, but it’ll cost you a lot more and you won’t really feel the difference. All Dells will include wireless (“wi-fi”), bluetooth, USB ports, a CD-ROM drive etc. It’s worth asking whether the laptop you’re looking at can burn CD’s as well as DVD’s – some will read CDs and DVDs but only burn CDs, others will read CDs and DVDs and be able to burn CDs as well as DVDs. Again, you need to decide how important it is that you can burn a DVD.
Sorry, this was going to be a quick email before my first cup of coffee <g>. Anyway, I hope it helps. Feel free to phone me anytime.
Love to the family,
Gary.
PS – Last thing… All new laptops will include Windows Vista (the latest operating system from Microsoft). Most guys in IT (myself included) will tell you how rubbish Vista is compared to XP (which came before Vista). I do prefer XP from a development point of view. But you can’t get XP anymore (not without a lot of effort), and Vista is the way forward, so we might as well embrace it. It does look very pretty… And in all seriousness, it works fine.
PS2 – Dell isn’t the only good brand. I know a number of guys who are happy with Sony’s, Asus, etc. IBM also make fantastic laptops. But I know of many guys who purchase laptops for large corporates who swear by Dell, and I’ve never heard anyone complain about their Dell, ever! They just feel solid. And they are solid. Little things like how they respond when you plug in a projector (perfectly), or when you shut them down, or how far apart the USB ports are – it’s all just perfectly designed. Not the sexiest laptops (Sony or Apple are probably more sexy), but I’m a HUGE fan.
PS3 – On the topic of sexy.. Some of the Dells now come in really stunning colors other than the traditional black / silver. You can get red, green, “cappuccino”, etc. I was very tempted to get mine in red, but eventually decided that boring old black is probably more professional.
Think about this for a second…. Apple have exactly 2 types of laptops. A Macbook, and a Macbook Pro.
Macbook’s come in 13inch, and the Pro come in 15 or 17inch. Thats pretty much all there is to it, as all the small spec changes aren’t that large a gap – and only really technical people care about it.. the man on the street has 3 options. 13, 15 or 17 inch – or uses the size of his wallet to choose one.
This goes back to the whole thing where if a person is presented with a million choices, they can’t decide on any of them, but offer a person 3 things, they will easily choose one.
Just a though to ponder.
(BTW, I still like MS, I just love Apple more.)
Hi Jason,
Not convinced hey.. In my mind Apple are targeting either people still under the old assumption that “serious graphics guys should use Apple”, much like the old “serious photographers should use Nikon”, or I suppose “serious off-roaders should driver Landies”.
Except that I agree with the 3rd assumption above.
There’s also a huge sex-appeal factor with Apples. They do look very sexy, no denying that. And the whole “we’re against Microsoft” thing does have a certain appeal, much like the rebel skateboarder who bucked the system that we all aspired to being when we were 14.
But the cons outweigh the pros for me..
For the same price you can get a much more powerful non-Apple laptop.
Trying to find a technician to work on an Apple laptop if you’re not in a major city would be pretty much impossible (or highly foolish).
Parts are expensive.
Then the biggest issue for me is software. Not much runs on an Apple. If you’re a web-developer then that’s not an issue, because most of that software will work. But if you’re a programmer (where 95% of your clients will be running Windows), or if you’re a business user (MS Office, Outlook Express, etc) then there’s a huge learning curve, lots of extra expense, and plenty of banging heads against walls.
To me it feels a bit like electric-cars. There is a good argument why we should use them, but there are just too many issues (performance, support, costs, reliability, inconvenience, etc, etc) that just put me off the whole idea.
But that’s just me.. They do look very sexy, I’ll give them that..
Thanks for the comment, still bummed I never got to say howzit to you properly at WordCamp.
Cheers,
G.
I don’t agree with the software thing – if you designing desktop software, then obviously you shouldn’t touch a mac, but for anything web other than .Net development, I really do think a Mac is quicker and easier to develop on.
If your a business user, IMO, a Mac is so much easier to understand than Vista. Office 2008 for Mac is just like its counterpart on Windows, and configuring a mac to connect to wireless networks, or getting your printer working is a lot easier on a mac.
I’ve worked on both, and still do (got an XP and Vista machine at home) – and I really have found the mac to be so much simpler to use. I find myself working more on my mac, than fiddling around before working on my PC.
We should do coffee soon at Dulce and swap stories and chat.
I have followed the debate with interest – shoukd i get a “dellapple”?
Hi Nath,
I can see so many potential issues with getting a Mac (Apple) as opposed to a Microsoft-based system (like a Dell), and other than the cool factor, sexiness factor, and bucking the system factor, I can’t see any reason to go with Apple.
It’s the same argument that we hear from the Linux guys – go with Linux, it’s soooo stable! Until it breaks. Then you can’t find anyone to fix it, and you spend way more on IT support than you would if you had just bought Microsoft to start out with.
Apple is cool. No question. But it’s not Microsoft.
Linux can be stable. No question. But it’s not Microsoft.
Microsoft is evil, they squash competition, monopolize the industry, yada yada yada. But they’re been the biggest dog in the kenel for the past 30 years, and as long as Bill Gates is alive they’ll most likely stay that way.
So why take on the headache of running a non-Microsoft laptop (Apple or Linux) in a Microsoft world?
If fighting with software interests you, then no problem. But for someone like yourself who (as I understand it) uses IT as a means to and end, and doesn’t want to spend his weekends trying to figure out how to use his laptop (because none of his friends can help him because they all use Microsoft), I’d strongly suggest sticking with Microsoft.
One fairly trivial example of the frustration that an Apply would cause you is this.. You’re using Canon camera equipment. Camera includes a bunch of software with their hardware, like ZoomBrowser Ex, and software to expose RAW image files off your camera, etc, etc. NONE of that will work on an Apple! It’s all designed only for Microsoft systems. Why? Because 99% of Canon’s clients use Microsoft.
Or if you’re doing consulting work and you need to work with something like Pastel, to look at a client’s financials. Pastel is by far the biggest accounting package used by South African business, and it won’t run on Apple!
Those are just two examples. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of other ones.
Support will be a huge issue, especially here in Africa. Parts will be another issue, especially in the Eastern Cape. If you take on work for a corporate and their IT staff need to give you access to the company network, you can almost guarantee that none of those techies will have ever touched an Apple, and won’t have the faintest clue how to set it up for you.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for competition and I think that guys like Apple and Linux help to keep Microsoft on their toes. In the same way that battery-powered cars have helped to pressurise manufacturers to make petrol-powered cars more efficient.
But I’d rather be driving my petrol car at 140 km/hr than pushing my broken battery-powered car down a hill at 30 km/hr, trying to find someone who has the faintest clue how it works to help me fix it.
G.
Here’s a case in point. I just blogged about the new web browser from Google, called Google Chrome.
No doubt this will receive a lot of interest from all circles.
What does it run on? Windows. Is there a version for the Apple Mac? Nope.
Granted, Apple have their own web browser, but the point is that even developers like Google with their massive development resources don’t really bother supporting Apple. That’s what worries me. With Apple you’re completely out of the main stream.
G.
Gary, that’s the price Apple users pay for stability. There is an Mac version of Chrome being developed (I actually read the lead developers blog – forgot the link.
) and yes, obviously you should start developing for Windows, but is having another browser really going to change our lives? 
Hi Gary, just been reading your letter about Dell laptops.
Thought you may like to know that under the Dell Vostro badge in the UK you can cho ose xp professional as a downgrade from Vista pro.
I bought one about 3 months ago and it was great to see xp on the screen when I switched on. My desk top which is about 3 .5 yrs old runs XP home and I don’t notice any difference between the home and the xp pro.
There is the normal choice when buying a Vostro such as what cpu, memory etc and if you would like a matt screen(which I have).
Thanks for the AVG patch but why didn’t AVG sort it out with an update?
Regards from John..