Laptop rants

After 2 years of being the owner of a Dell XPS M1330 here are some thoughts about it and about laptops in general.

  • OK. A 13 inch display screen isn’t really that small and having a 1280×800 resolution (like many of the 15″ laptops) means you get a decent amount of space. Most IDEs like Eclipse fit just fine on the screen but I wouldn’t recommend doing any graphic editing since that does require a little more than this resolution has to offer.
  • BAD. Capacitive media buttons are cool for about 5 minutes.
  • AWESOME. The remote control that fits into the express card slot is awesome. Apart from shielding the slot from dust (which would be otherwise covered by a useless piece of plastic) it proves quite useful at presentations or watching a movie.
  • USELESS. Fingerprint reader is also cool for a few hours. I haven’t even installed the drivers anymore. So it’s useless at this point for me.
  • USELESS. Who uses a DVD unit anymore? Even Windows can be booted and installed with an USB stick. If I could I would remove it completely and probably buy an external USB unit for emergencies. Now it only uses space, power and adds to the laptop’s weight.
  • BAD. The power button should be positioned on one side, not beneath the screen. You may want to connect the laptop to an external display + mouse + keyboard and disable the laptop’s monitor. But now you still have to open the lid to power it up.
  • BAD. Not having an edge to edge monitor screen means you get dust and dirt stuck right on the margin above the actual pixels.
  • OK. The integrated webcam and microphone are rarely used but prove useful when the need arises. The bluetooth and card reader are great as well.

So what would I look for in a laptop If I was searching for one right now:

  • A maximum 13″ display if you want a mobile unit. Otherwise let’s just call it a desktop replacement :).
  • Power button access without opening the lid.
  • Multimedia remote control (play, pause, mute, next, etc).
  • Volume controlled by a physical wheel situated on one side. Yes, it’s not so cool but is extremely fast and easier to use than buttons for +/-.
  • HDMI output. This is a must have.
  • A minimum of 2 USB ports.

I would also not worry about the HDD’s capacity too much. Out of a 250GB HDD I’m only using 50GB (Windows 7 32 bit and all software needed is installed). All the important and heavyweight data (photos, movies) are stored at home on my NAS.

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