Portable World: Laptops

Netbooks

Not too long ago, a giant, clunky laptop was your only entry into the world of portable computing. These days, even cellphones can handle web-browsing and basic document editing, but if you are after a proper keyboard and respectable size screen then the smallest device you should consider is the netbook.

You may have heard netbooks are only good for browsing the net and after using a few, you may agree, however it all depends on the individual using it in the first place. Most netbooks these days will give you between six and nine hours of battery life. Need to finish that report during a long distance flight overseas? No worries. Got a big assignment due tomorrow but would like to spend all day lounging around your local coffee shop in a big comfy lazy-boy? Birds, meet stone.

Another bugbear often heard about netbooks is their lack of optical drives. This shouldn’t really be a huge problem these days as most software, including Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office applications, is available for download from the internet (legally, we’re not referring to the hack and crack variety).

The biggest problem most users find is the size of the keyboard and screen. They’re fine for using for short periods of time to do simple tasks or for just a wee bit of web browsing, but being hunched over a tiny little netbook squinting at the screen and pressing three keys at once with clumsy fingers isn’t much fun (although admittedly some models are better than others in these regards).

Netbooks are cheap though – the Gateway LT21 featured in this article was recently advertised on sale for $399. They are also handy for giving guided Skype-tours of your house to out-of-town friends and family via the webcam and wireless network connectivity.

Notebooks

To achieve any respectable level of mobile productivity, you want to go for a notebook. These devices were formerly known as laptops but I suspect the name was changed for health and safety reasons – some of them pump out a lap-scorching amount of heat (not to mention the fact that your lap probably isn’t the best place to rest something that emits electromagnetic radiation). There is an absolutely massive range of notebooks available on the market.

For around $1,000 - $1,500 you can get a decent workstation, suitable for most Office-type applications, which come with much bigger screens and keyboards than you would get with a netbook. They are also typically a bit more powerful so you can use them for watching HD movies or even some graphic design.

The downside is that they are slightly less portable. Weights of between 2 to 3kg are common, which is not exactly back-breaking until you have to carry it around all day. Battery life is also reduced to around two to three hours depending on usage – not even enough to get you across the Tasman on a long-haul flight.

Everything else

If you want a full-size notebook with long battery life without the weight, ultraportables are here to save your day. Toshiba make a few good ones in the Portege range, with most of them weighing less than a feathery 1.3kg and offering up to eight hours battery life. They manage the lower weight and longer battery life mainly by using higher quality components with better energy efficiency – you pay for this convenience of course, with the basic models starting at around $2,500.

Lastly, at the wallet-busting end of the curve, are the so-called desktop replacements.

These machines are designed to do everything that your main desktop PC can do, in a portable package. Many different brands offer high-power desktop replacements with impressive specifications, but many of them neglect the video processing side of things – one brand that doesn’t often forget this aspect is Alienware, recently bought out by Dell.

A good video card (or two) is important for being able to play the latest 3D games if that is your thing, plus these days you can also use them to crunch big numbers for scientific research or to render movies and images if you are into video editing or 3D modelling.

Don’t expect much if any change from $5,000 in this corner of the market.

As a general rule, expect a notebook to cost about 50% more than a desktop PC for any given level of performance. In other words, if you want a notebook that can perform similarly with comparable features to your $2,000 desktop PC at home, expect to shell out roughly $3,000 for it.

Try not to skimp out on the initial purchase price either – notebooks are not easy to upgrade. Sure, a memory upgrade is fairly straight forward, even the hard drives are pretty easy to replace, but it is extremely difficult to put a better CPU in and downright impossible to upgrade the video processing unit, so make sure you leave a little headroom in these capabilities upfront.

Most importantly, to avoid buyer’s remorse make sure that it does what you want it to do and that you will be happy lugging it around and staring at it for long periods of time.