Ed Bott
for The Ed Bott Report
| October 21, 2021
| Topic: Hardware
We live in an age of miracles, when machines that fit in our pockets are capable of doing tasks that would have had us charged with witchcraft in earlier times.
If you’re comfortable with a Mac, get a Mac. But if you’re a Windows person at heart and plan to do most of your work on that platform, do not choose Apple’s hardware. You’ll pay a premium for hardware that wasn’t designed for Windows, and forcing Windows to work with Apple’s keyboard layout will eventually drive you mad.
What display options do I need?
Do you want a touchscreen, or can you do without? (If you chose MacOS as your preferred platform, of course, touch isn’t an option.) Will you accept a full HD resolution or do you want the crispness and extra cost of a 4K display? Do you prefer the standard 16:9 aspect ratio or is a 16:10 or 3:2 aspect ratio more to your liking?
And finally, what about screen size? The most common choices are 13-inch and 15-inch, and your choice has a direct impact on the next important decision point: weight and form factor.
What’s the ideal weight and form factor?
By definition, every laptop is portable, but just how portable does your laptop need to be? If your laptop stays on your desktop most of the time, with only an occasional side trip to a conference room or coffee shop, weight probably isn’t that big a deal. For those who travel regularly, on the other hand, an extra pound or two in your shoulder bag can be physically punishing.
Closely related to weight is your choice of form factor. Do you prefer a traditional clamshell, or will you make good use of a 2-in-1 form factor like the Surface Pro (with or without a pen) or Lenovo’s Yoga line?
Best rugged laptops for business in 2021
As for how much space you need on that drive, 128 GB of storage is a bare minimum for basic productivity; that class of machine is best-suited for those who keep most of their data (including email) in the cloud and don’t need to store large amounts of media files. Upgrades to 256 GB are generally a cost-effective way to eliminate data anxiety, whereas larger upgrades (up to 1 or 2 TB) can be expensive but worth it for professionals who work extensively with digital media files or virtual machines.
Related Topics:
Apple
PCs
Servers
Storage
Networking
Data Centers
Ed Bott
for The Ed Bott Report
| October 21, 2021
| Topic: Hardware