Choosing laptops a serious business

Choosing laptops a serious business

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

So you decide to buy a laptop but then stop dead in your tracks
when you actually go to the local computer store to pick one out.

Given the plethora of laptops available today, choosing the
right one to suit your needs could indeed prove to be as
intricate and daunting a task as choosing, perhaps, a life-time
partner.

And unless you're an Britney Spears-Warren Beatty kind of
person, who sails through the opposite sex like a boat through
water, you are likely to find that the relationship with your
significant other will far outlast the one with your portable PC.

Girlfriends and boyfriends, husbands and wives, don't go out-
of-date after a couple of years and need replacing -- although
some of you out there may disagree.

Part of the limited life problem is that unlike desktop
computers, whose components are more flexible for later upgrades,
with laptops, you're most likely stuck with the specifications
when you first bought them -- save adding memory and some
external peripherals -- so optimizing the specifications from the
start would likely ensure the longest lifetime.

The main consideration is keeping that "does it suit my needs"
phrase in mind while asking yourself such questions as: "What is
the laptop for?" and "Do I even need a laptop?" If you only need
to organize your contact numbers and jot down some notes, a
personal digital assistant (PDA) -- or those new snazzy cellular
phones that nears becoming PDAs themselves -- would probably do.

Carrying on, laptops -- like boxers -- are classified
accordingly to their weight. And unlike the debatable question on
male sexuality, size and weight does matter for laptops, as it
has a trade-off relation with their performance and mobility.
Laptop prices, however, has a rather queer relation with the
other variables.

Standing in the heavy-weight class, are the "power notebooks"
or "desktop-replacements", weighing up to 3 kilograms or more,
which are little beasts packing a performance that matches those
of grunty desktops (hence the name).

Next comes the "standard laptops", the vanilla-flavored
notebooks weighing between 2 and 3 kilograms with performance
running on a laptop-tailored processor.

Finally, there are the "thin-and-light laptops" and the
"ultraportables", the flyweights of portables, weighing 2
kilograms at the most, and stripping out almost everything except
the bare necessities.

We could also add to this list the "sub-notebooks"; but laptop
purists are likely to object, complaining about their
inconveniently small displays and cramped keyboards.

As a rule of thumb, if you are going to use the laptop for
light browsing, email and text editing, consider purchasing a
standard, budget notebook.

The following are tips for laptop components, which are of
course basic in nature, but since you've been reading this far,
it is worth continuing, rather than ditching The Jakarta Post and
grabbing a more comprehensive computer review magazine.

Processor: The Central Processing Unit (CPU) can be likened to
the computer's brain. Most laptops today come with the mobile
versions of the Intel Pentium (the Pentium-M) or AMD XP (the XP-
M). There are also mobile Intel Celeron and AMD Sempron for
budget laptops. Only choose the mobile Pentium 4 or AMD 64-bit
processors if you really need the power. As for the "Intel
Centrino" buzz we've all been hearing about, it is not actually a
CPU by itself but a package of technologies consisting of the
Intel Pentium-M, the Intel 855 or 915 chipsets and the Intel
PRO2100/2200 WiFi board.

System Memory: Random Access Memory (RAM) is where data
resides when computers are on. Laptops today commonly come with
256 megabytes (MB) of RAM, and stick to that, as most software
packages need at least 128 MB to run.

Video Memory: Most laptops implement a "shared" 64 MB video
memory, which is adequate for ordinary users. However, opt for
"dedicated" memory for more powerful display needs.

Harddisk: The norm is 40 GB today, though budget notebooks
suffice with 20 GB. Get a bigger drive if you have a huge library
of data.

Other drives: Keep the DVD or CD-ROM drive to install
software. Floppy drives are becoming obsolete as flash drives
gain popularity.

Connectivity: Most laptops today come with Wireless Fidelity
(WiFi) cards and the Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0) -- to connect
those popular flash drives and other peripherals -- replacing the
legacy serial port, while parallel ports are becoming obsolete as
well. Consider a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port and memory card
readers if you have a digital camera.

Batteries: Opt for lithium ion (LiON) over nickel metal hybrid
(NiMH) ones, as they last longer on a single charge, have a
longer lifetime, and are relatively more environmentally friendly
(though any battery technology is always debatable for
environmentalists).

Lastly, the places to look for your laptops.

The Mangga Dua shopping complex in West Jakarta is the city's
computer capital. Another place worth browsing around is the Mal
Ambassador in South Jakarta, particularly if you're looking for
refurbished or used laptops. Ratu Plaza is also gaining a
reputation for looking for anything "computerish", having stores
Apple products with for all you Mac lovers. The Bhinneka website
(http://www.bhinneka.com) is also a comprehensive place on the
Internet to browse around.