Buying a New Laptop

[Joe Holloway]

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 7:08 PM, Christofer C. Bell
<christofer.c.bell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 2:19 PM, Jason D. Clinton <me at jasonclinton.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 13:46, Christofer C. Bell
>> <christofer.c.bell at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> While there may or may not be better supported hardware from a driver
>>> perspective in other laptops, the design and construction of PC laptops
>>> compared to Macs is embarrassing.  I can only assume the reason people
>>> continue to buy such garbage is that there are simply no alternatives
>>> available.  Even Lenovo machines are awful these days (based on the
>>> selection at MicroCenter).
>>
>> That's just not true. If you want *form*, there's the HP Envy 14. If you
>> want *function*, there's Lenovo ThinkPad (but not IdeaPad). Both are
>> cheaper.
>
> Both are 16x9 which is painful to use.  I don't have to care about cost so I
> get to buy the best.  I don't have to settle for cheap plastic garbage PC
> laptops because they're less expensive.   Every single appeal I've seen to
> the worth of the PC laptop centers on cost.  I do not care about cost, at
> all.  It is absolutely not a consideration when I am buying a machine.

I am with you on the 16:9 thing.  It's getting harder and harder to
find even desktop displays at 16:10.  Is this because manufacturers
can sell more if the box says '1080' or 'HD'?

Anecdotally, last year I was 'upgraded' at work to 2 x 22" 16:9
displays to replace a single 24" 16:10 display.  On paper it sounded
like an upgrade, but after a couple weeks it became clear that the
squashed displays and extraneous horizontal real estate were causing
neck strain and fairly noticeable loss in productivity.  I now have a
25" primary 16:10 and a secondary, but smaller 16:10 (at both work and
at home).

Apologies for drifting somewhat off-topic, but I think Chris is making
a good point about the importance of aspect ratio in selecting a
laptop; especially if you're 'producing' content (coding, writing,
etc) as opposed to merely consuming it (browsing, watching videos,
etc).