Entries in Dell (1)

Wednesday
Jun152011

I can never find one that fits.

I have a message for the people who design laptops: You know those 12 keys at the top of a desktop keyboard that say "F1, F2, F3, etc?" Got them? Good.  Now leave them alone!

A few months ago, my laptop was stolen.  Before my fellow geeks chastize me about the usual stuff, like backing up data and changing passwords, let me regain my geek-cred by saying my data was already backed up and I changed all my passwords.

My problem now, apart from not having enough money to buy a new one, is finding a laptop that I like.  I've never been a fan of the overly simplistic design of Apple's laptops.  (To be fair, I really don't like anything Apple does, but their design department was one of the first real gripes I had with them.)  In the process of dumbing down the user interfaces of their software, they've let the over-simplification spill into their hardware design.  When you purchase a 17" Macbook Pro, you do indeed get some decent hardware (albeit overpriced).  But in terms of where the user actually interacts with the machine, you get very little.

A mere 78-key keyboard and a touchpad with one button that's hard to find.

Given that much space, I would have tossed in a numeric keypad, some media keys or a fingerprint reader.  Hell, there's space on there for some auxiliary displays! And would it kill Apple to accept that modern mice have at least two buttons and a real scroll wheel?

My old laptop was an HP HDX-16. It had a 16" 1080p 16:9 screen, a full-size keyboard with number pad, capacitive touch media buttons along the top, Blu-Ray drive, a fingerprint reader and TWO mouse buttons!

Granted, it wasn't without its downsides.  For instance, faux chrome on ABS plastic isn't particularly durable to moderately heavy day-to-day abuse. Over two years, the hardware was having trouble keeping up with newer models, despite it being pretty zippy out of the box. And since the screen hinge was the sturdiest part, there was a bit of flex in the body that discouraged a few people from holding it with just one hand.

Of course, the biggest downside today is that I don't have it anymore, but that's a given.

For whatever reason, when I tell people I'm in the market for a new laptop, they say "Why don't you get a Mac?" I'd understand if I only got this nugget of "wisdom" from die-hard Apple fanbots, but I get the same advice from normal people on the street. (I use the term "normal" loosely, but for sake of argument it'll have to do.)

I suppose since Apple is chic now, they've become the go-to brand recommendation people think of when they need to think of something specific to sound smart.  Let's face it: no normal person is going to tell me to "Make sure you get a second-generation Sandy Bridge chipset when you do buy one," "Upgrade to the Blu-Ray drive," or "You'll need at least 4 gigs of RAM to take real advantage of a 64-bit OS." People are going to recommend what's trendy and has the most positive buzz, regardless of whether it really fits my needs.  It's the same phenomenon you see when people recommend cars.  It's always "You should get something fuel-efficient," not "If you're towing, get something with lots of torque. A diesel is good for that, but if you're in a cold climate you'll need an engine block heater."

I'm not trying to throw flame-bait out there, but I will never get a Mac for personal use. Period. They're too expensive, the design doesn't thrill me at all, and, as stated above, I hate the layout.

I liked having a set of dedicated buttons for play, stop, track skip, mute and volume.  Having them meant the music wouldn't start playing when I tried to refresh a web page, or the volume wouldn't change when I wanted to go to full screen.

Lots of laptops have now taken Apple's cue: integrating the media keys and other special functions specific to laptops into the F keys at the top of the keyboard.  Either they're media keys by default and to actually hit F5, you have to hold down another key, or they're F keys by default and changing the volume becomes a two-handed affair.

I suppose the designers will try to say it's for style's sake.  I'm sorry, but who decided that looked good? Is Apple the Armani of the tech world? No! The thing about styling is it's supposed to branch out in all directions, with each expression catering to a different person.

Anyway, I did find a laptop that's the size I need with the buttons I desire.  Problem is that it's a $2200 Alienware.  And I'm back to square one: penniless square.