Laptop decisions

So, a few things. On account of me taking a job on the other side of the city, and my resolve to use public transport, I started thinking about how bored I got during the hour and a half travel via train and then bus, to work, and then the same in reverse, home again.

I investigated laptops a little, having heard about the ASUS EeePC, thinking it’d be an excellent travelling companion. It’s a small laptop, otherwise known as a subnotebook, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to be using on public transport. I tried one out at a local shop, and while it was usable, felt it wouldn’t meet my needs. At $500, it was cheap, but not cheap enough, taking into consideration its limitations; specifically, the tiny 7″ screen and its paltry 800×480 resolution (which isn’t large enough to fit most websites on). Additionally, the tiny compactness of the unit is both a pro and a con. It means the keyboard is proportionately tiny as well. The keys were miniature, and too hard to type on while sitting still, let alone on a bumpy train or bus. So although it’s a very nifty piece of tech, I don’t think suitable for my needs.

I read about the upcoming HP mini-note 2133; a subnotebook in a similar vein, with both a larger screen and keyboard. It seemed to be right up my alley. A few weeks passed, and it was released. I was excited; but then immediately disappointed by the pricing schemes, the apparently stupidly glossy screen, and its poor performance. I applaud the screen size and resolution (9″; 1280×768!) and the keyboard, but again, other compromises had to be made. The touchpad is tiny with oddly placed buttons, the performance is woeful and the pricing is terrible – the top of the range version goes for about $900 AUD, and boasts a 1.6Ghz CPU, 2Gb of RAM, and 120Gb HDD. All of which still fails to keep up with the near half-price EeePC. Also, you can’t buy the 1.6Ghz version without Windows Vista, which is akin to saying that people who want Linux don’t need as much processing power. Or, it’s like saying that Windows needs faster, more expensive hardware to do the same job as Linux on slower hardware. Anyway, it’s a poor SKU decision on behalf of HP.

So I then turned to larger notebooks, looking at anything in the 10″ to 13″ range, and came across a few models which caught my eye. Many of them were very good, but each time I took a step up in terms of price or performance, the next model up boasted that many more features that I couldn’t step down again. I knew I had a hard cap on the screen size, 13.3″, because anything larger would be simply too impractical for use on my actual lap, as a laptop. I investigated the LG E300 which can apparently be had for around $1200; I investigated the Apple Macbook, the Dell Vostro 1200, and the Dell XPS M1330.

The Macbook is awesome; it’s got the performance, the presense, it’s great. Beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, backed by Apple, and with OS X, pretty much unstoppable. But, the keyboard sucks, and it’s pretty heavy for a small notebook. Not as portable as either the E300, Vostro or M1330. So, it was stricken from my selection criteria. The E300 is an unknown, because I can’t find any brick-and-mortar retailers who stock them. I can’t test one out. I’m not going to spend $1200 on something I can’t touch before buying.

That left the two Dells. The Vostro 1200 has a 12.1″ 1280×800 screen, and aside from that and the exterior styling, is mostly the same as the XPS M1330 (bar the XPS having an nVidia GeForce graphics chipset, with the Vostro sporting a more power- and business-friendly Intel solution). When I went to visit the Dell kiosk to try them both out, I discovered that the Vostro, in overall physical size, was literally only a few millimetres smaller than the XPS.

Which left only the XPS. In terms of price, I can’t really go wrong. Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 160Gb drive, GeForce 8400GS, multimedia keys, DVD, whatever. You name it, it has it. There’s an optional WLED-backlit LCD, which is thinner, brighter, and overall better than its traditionally-backlit counterpart. The thing is small, light, and comfortable, with a near full-size keyboard to compliment the tidy layout of the unit. Coming in at $1600 though, it’s the most expensive of the bunch. With good reason, I suppose.

At the time of writing, Dell currently has an 8% discount on these laptops, so I could actually have one for about $1460. Thing is though, can I justify the cost?

Which is the reason for this post. I’m not really asking anyone to decide for me, I just need to write this all out so I can make a decision. I’ve lived my computing life without a laptop since I started using computers. I used to think of laptops as annoyingly-restricted inconveniences, only to be used in the absense of real computers. I know now this isn’t the case. Many people I’ve spoken to, have read talking on forums, etc, have all said that once they bought a laptop, their desktop machines went mostly unused. That’s really cool and all, but I spent a fair whack of dosh on my desktop, and it’s not exactly broken. It works great, just as good as when I first bought it. Only thing wrong with it is it’s not portable.

Therein lies the unknown. What can portability of computing bring to my life? I could spend more time with family and friends. I wouldn’t have to go home to perform all my computer-related tasks anymore. I could sit in the lounge with my laptop and have actual conversations with my family instead of being stuck in my room. I could take it to friends’ places and get things done on the run. I can, as mentioned earlier, take it with me on public transport. I can lay in my bed and watch movies; and not have to sit in the expensive desk chair I paid for (haha, I just can’t drop the money issue, can I?) — but by the same token, I can go outside and sit under a tree, and compute wirelessly. I will have freedom.

Is that freedom worth $1500 to me? I don’t know.

And this post hasn’t helped. Sigh.