Choosing a Laptop Computer
Form Factor
There are a number of trade-offs associated with the form factor of a laptop computer, i.e., its size, shape and weight. In addition to purely physical considerations such as how heavy a machine is and will it fit in your backpack, form factor will also be a determining factor in screen size and battery life. In fact, that may be the best the best place to start narrowing down the options since it doesn't really matter how thin or how light a machine is if it won't do what you need it to do. Some things to consider here include:
- How many programs will this machine typically be running at the same time?
- Do you need to be able to read the screen from a few feet away or have someone working over your shoulder?
- If you need a big display some times and not others, would it be a viable option to simply plug into an external monitor when you do?
- Do you tend to work near sources for external power?
- How much size and weight you are willing to lug around?
- How much money can you spend?
A big juicy display is obviously a highly desirable quality in a computer, particularly if you need to run several programs at the same time. So are long long battery life, compact size and light weight, a screaming fast CPU and video section and for most of us, the lowest possible price.
Unfortunately, some of these factors are going to be somewhat at odds with each other in practice. Extended battery life typically comes at the price of bigger batteries and/or a lower-performance CPU. Bigger batteries mean more weight and some of the larger screen sizes big screen may put you in the market for bigger backpack, which may not fit coneniently under an airline seat on a crowded flight – not to mention drawing more power, meaning more weight for bigger batteries and/or shorter battery life... and of course all this stuff costs money.
There trade-offs in both directions. Nobody likes working on a screen that's too small for what they're doing or a keyboard that's too cramped to type on comfortably, any more than they like lugging around a big, heavy brick of machine and/or paying through the nose for a computer. There's such a thing as penny-wise and pound-foolish and in this case, one might also say ounce-wise and pound-foolish (with apologies to the metric system). It's up to you to spend some time thinking about how you work and where you're most willing to compromise.
