Comments on Laptops

I just have a general question on which option you guys would choose and why.

I am sure the answer totally depends one's needs but I want to see what you guys say anyway.

If you were to choose between:

1) a 14" laptop with an opitcal drive
or
2) a 13.3" laptop without an optical but will buy an external one

All other specs are equal. The prices also come out to be almost the same.

Which one would you choose and why?

I guess it depends on how often you would use an opitcal drive VS. portability.

If you are going to use the optical drive a lot, get the 14" with the internal drive. It is a pain to take everything out and hook it all up only to put it all back in the case later. If you don't use it much, get the smaller laptop. One of the main things I look for in a laptop is weight. After lugging around heavy laptops for my job for the last 15 years, I only go for smaller lightweight laptops now. Make sure the case is light too. That makes a big difference. What I do now is have a mini-tower PC in the office and at home and use a small netbook on the road. That was actually cheaper then buying a nice laptop. Since desktop computers are always faster then laptops (and cheaper), I have a better computer in the office and at home with a more portable solution on the road. Best of all worlds. This is the solution I am starting for all my employees too and they all love the idea so far.

I've got a Fujitsu with 13.3" and optical drive which is very easy to carry just about anywhere. If you search you can find them even smaller, if you're wanting both small and with the drive internal.

kaichu dento said:

I've got a Fujitsu with 13.3" and optical drive which is very easy to carry just about anywhere. If you search you can find them even smaller, if you're wanting both small and with the drive internal.

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Yeah I did look at the 13.3" with an optical drive but the prices go up significantly from the 14" with an optical drive or a 13.3" one without.

If I can find one 13.3" with an optical drive around the same price point, it would be great.

I am looking at the CULV ones.....ultra low voltage so that I get 6 to 9 hours of battery life. ASUS UL80s UL30s, Acer Timelines....etc....anything with a SU7300 Intel CPU or similar.

Depends on uses. My peers have carried a range of laptops but now with data exchanges being the sizes they are, optical media is quickly dropping favor. We tend to pass along USB flash drives. Both aspects since carrying CD/DVD media becomes bulky where a small USB key is easy. I can get data, load it on my netbook and I'm good. That obviously lacks CPU power but the size and battery life excellent. Well, the screen size bites too but the main point for my uses, is I have it and can work on it within the confines of the little netbook. It travels well so that was my priority in choosing.

From a corporate angle when somebody explicitly requests an optical drive for no defined reason we assume they are using it to watch movies.

IMHO, all portables suck and are inferiour to desktops in every way. They cost more, don't last nearly as long, and suffer 'performance entropy' 3x as fast as the same priced desktop.

Where portables take advantage is such as that; being portable. When used with net based apps and not anchored down by bloated down office/graphics suites they are then productive tools.

Optical drives aren't as useful today as they were a few years ago. They are like floppy discs all over again. As tre says, internal is better -if- you're going to use it a lot. But keep in mind how limited their capacity is compared with today's hard drives, and how cheap USB flash sticks have gotten.

Yeah, laptops are more expensive than the equivalent desktop hardware, but they're a lot more convenient. I haven't used a desktop at home in years. If your living space is at a premium, desktops take up way too much of it. It's worth taking that into account when deciding what to buy.

What's the budget? I mean I have a 13" with an optical drive and I know that there are cheaper ones available.

My (long) two cents:

Like most others mentioned, I wouldn't focus too much on disc media unless you absolutely need it. SD cards and the like are the darlings now. Case in point, I threw out a bunch of burned CDs from the vehicle back when I got an SD card stereo and I will never look back! I've put a few hundred songs on a 4 gig card and only used half the capacity. Having disc media binders here, spindles there, jewel cases here, a wayward loose disc there, was getting real old. Now, outside of the remaining DVD movies I have, all my files are done via SD cards/usb drives or those small usb-powered external drives.

I would say, if you've already made the transition to HDTV, and the budget can swing it, go get a netbook and a desktop tower, hands down.
But just the tower.
Throw out the desk, monitor and chair you may have around, then hook up the tower to your LCD TV. I just done that very thing recently with a tower I had. Couple it with a wireless mouse and keyboard then you can do PC duties from the comfort of a couch or plush recliner like I'm currently posting from.

People will say just use a laptop instead and do that. but trust me I have a netbook and it's just not the same. The keyboard weighs nothing in comparison and the fear of spilling something into the laptop or dropping the screen while relaxing isn't there. The mouse works just by gliding on the arm of the chair. (heck, works on your stomach too if so inclined. lol)

Not to mention you've just made yourself an oh-so-comfortable workstation, that also happens to now double as a media center to play media from DVDs/usb drives/sd cards/external drives to be viewed on your TV. The same goes for streaming videos from Hulu, music from places like Shoutcast, etc. Between all of that you have an almost limitless choice of entertainment. You also can scrap the standalone DVD players and such. I have a pair of PC speakers with subwoofer just laying around that I hooked up to the TV, works marvelous. Infact I was happy enough with its sound that I won't be bothering with a speaker/receiver setup.

So yeah, I say go for the two-prong solution of a netbook for travel and a tower/LCD TV for home.

There is no substitute for screen resolution. My current laptop is a 15" 1680x1050 and I've played with the idea of getting a dual screen model (Thinkpad W701DS, 17" 1920x1200 main screen with a 10" pop-out screen). A lap desk (they make them for large laptops) gets the weight off your legs or spreads it so it's easier to deal with.

Another thing about laptops, they tend to be much quieter than desktops (fewer fans etc). Noise bugs me so I find quiet to be worth paying extra form.

My opinion is that we are currently in a transitory period where DVDs and CDs are still important, but are getting less and less important every day. If you knew you needed an optical drive you wouldn't be asking us, so I'm going to go with the general usage cases.

If you have, or intend to have more than one computer, it is not so important to have your new laptop with an optical drive. If you intend on the new computer being your only computer, you need an optical drive (external is OK).

If you do not intend to carry the computer around, or only very occasionally, then you should consider the model with an optical drive. They are still useful enough to justify having, but not necessarily at the expense of portability.

You may find it handy to have an optical drive, although a cheap USB external will suffice. My experience is that I use an optical drive rarely enough that I would not be bothered by needing to use an external one, and your usage patterns will tell you whether it would be a bother.

As a side note, paulr you are right about not having a substitute for screen resolution. Right now I am using a spacious dual-monitor setup for a total of 3840x1080 pixels. I recently made the switch to a desktop as my primary computer for that convenience (and for higher performance) and I have not regretted it. With a wireless mouse and keyboard and remote, as Lit Up mentions, my computer easily transitions into an entertainment setup with Netflix Watch Instantly (through Boxee) and Hulu. I use my Xbox to watch DVDs when "necessary" and also to play games on my second monitor (which is an LCD HDTV).

I rarely need a computer for travel or on the go and when I do the iPhone or my aging 5-year old notebook suffices.

I haven't used an optical drive in ages. All my data is in external hard drives; much more practical, not to mention cheaper, safer and more practical to use.
As a result, I wouldn't consider the lack of an optical drive a problem. In fact, my desktop computer doesn't have an optical drive from the day I removed it to make space for a huge fan. I've never missed it.

I find even the 13.3" models to be too large; if a computer is truly portable, it shouldn't be notably larger than everything else you're carrying. Which is why I'm typing this on an 11.6" Acer ultralight - it's slightly bigger than a netbook but with a dual core processor. I can do audio editing, watch HD movies, anything a full-power notebook can do, and it stacks neatly and comfortably with any books I happen to be carrying, no big carry bag required.

Should I need to use an optical drive, I can just network the one in my wife's 15" monster notebook, presto, full wireless external disc drive. Actual external drives are pretty cheap nowadays though, as long as you don't get carried away with the features..

I've worked, and currently work, in workplaces that lock down or completely disable USB for security reasons. The last couple years actually pushed me back towards MORE optical drive use.

To keep it simple, I'd say if you're going to use the optical drive more than once a week, get it built in.

Since there isn't a huge size difference I'd say get the internal drive. The slightly larger screen is also another plus for viewing purposes. If however carry size is really important to you then you are probably looking at too large of a computer in the first place. You might consider something around the 10" range.

I think once you hit 40, you will wish you had a 15 in screen. 13 in screens are good for eye strain, and that is about all.

As far as optical drives - my laptop has one, and it is virtually never used.

A good laptop with an LED backlit screen, 8 gig of ram, and any decent processor will run a long time on a charge. You can always adjust the power settings (low power / medium / full blast) as needed on the fly. I do this all of the time and just use one laptop for everything.

I hook it to an external monitor for desktop use.

baterija said:

I've worked, and currently work, in workplaces that lock down or completely disable USB for security reasons. The last couple years actually pushed me back towards MORE optical drive use.

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The optical drive will have the same security issues, and if it's a personally owned computer then the corporate security policy wouldn't apply.

HarryN said:

As far as optical drives - my laptop has one, and it is virtually never used.

Click to expand...

The same story for me!
Never used the optical drives.

carrot said:

As a side note, paulr you are right about not having a substitute for screen resolution. Right now I am using a spacious dual-monitor setup for a total of 3840x1080 pixels. I recently made the switch to a desktop as my primary computer for that convenience (and for higher performance) and I have not regretted it. With a wireless mouse and keyboard and remote, as Lit Up mentions, my computer easily transitions into an entertainment setup with Netflix Watch Instantly (through Boxee) and Hulu. I use my Xbox to watch DVDs when "necessary" and also to play games on my second monitor (which is an LCD HDTV).

Click to expand...

It just absolutely rules, doesn't it?
I definitely still have my netbook, but it's admittedly been camping out in its case since having gone with the TV set-up.

I don't have a netflix account but wish they would support Linux natively, then I'd consider it.
They may have to reconsider its stance as net service speeds increase and more companies are entering to get their piece of the streaming vid market pie. Best Buy and Wal-Mart are looking to stretch their legs, too.

Gonna be a world of 2TB SDXC cards, streaming video/audio and city-wide (nationwide?) wireless broadband service. (clear.com - 40 a month unlimited - currently launched in limited markets) I can't wait!