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Saturday, January 20 |
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tips to buy the perfect notebook
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Finger fitting
As notebooks shrink in size, so do their keyboards. If possible, try some simple typing exercises before you buy. The smaller the keyboard, the more creative the vendor may have gotten with key size and placement. Pay particular attention to the spacebar, Shift, Ctrl, and Backspace/Delete keys. Be sure all are in a good location for your hand size and typing style. Touchy, touchy
Computing today relies a lot on mousing. With a notebook, all you get is a touch pad or pointing stick. Unless you plan on traveling with a mouse, test the notebook's input device for comfort and responsiveness. Some touch pads include extra features, such as a dedicated area for scrolling. We've never been big fans of those little pointing sticks tucked in the middle of the keyboard, because precision is tough and the little nubs wear off, requiring replacement. Vying for video RAM
If you're not planning on doing much graphics work or playing 3D games, shared memory should be fine. But if you have a choice, aim for a graphics chipset that shares at least 256MB of system memory. You may not find it in an ultraportable, but other notebook types may offer more robust graphics chipsets. In fact, many high-end notebooks have discrete graphics subsystems with dedicated high-speed video memory. If gaming or intensive graphics work is on the agenda, look for 256MB or 512MB of dedicated memory. A slot for all reasons
Like a PCI slot in a desktop, a PC Card (or PCMCIA) slot in a notebook provides expansion opportunities. Additional USB and FireWire ports, wired and wireless modems, and wireless LAN radios are all available in PC Card form. PC Cards and slots come in three sizes: Type I, II, and III. Type I cards are normally used for memory, Type II for input/output devices, and Type III for mass storage and firewalls. The very latest notebooks include the ExpressCard slot which is set to replace the PCMCIA card format in the long run. Get connected
Ports, especially USB and FireWire, are necessities, but on notebooks they're usually in short supply. At a minimum, look for two USB ports, and if you have any legacy devices, such as parallel printers, look for those ports, too. If you'd like to use a digital camcorder or iPod with your notebook, make sure the notebook has a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Connecting a monitor will require a VGA port. (If you'll be giving presentations, a VGA port is also where you'll connect a projector.) And if you want to output video to a television, find a notebook with an S-Video out.
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posted by ^%&^
@ 11:53 AM
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