There's been a debate on the Editors' Association of Canada mail list recently about what notebook computers people recommend.
As you can imagine, the thread has run wild. I love A. I hate A. I had a great B. What?! No end of trouble with B.
Do I dare get into the PC vs Mac minefield?
Some thoughts:
I suspect you deal with outliers when you ask people for recommendations. I think people tend to remember, and gravitate toward, their best and worst experiences, and the best and worst things that their peers have told them.
I lean toward doing some initial research with PC Magazine, and other trusted industry publications, because the reviews/results tend to jibe with what my friends and associates talk about. PC Mag rates some Dells great, some lousy. It rates some HPs great, some lousy. It rates some IBM/Lenovos wonderful, some weird. And though it's a Wintel-centric publication, it rates some Macs fantastic, some lacking.
And there are personal-preference intangibles such as keyboard feel -- I happen to love IBM/Lenovo notebook keyboards because to me they best replicate the full-size, full key-travel, clicky IBM keyboards of yore. I dislike "chiclet" keyboards, and soft keyboards, but some love them.
So be it.
And appearance -- I think the plastic white Mac notebooks are ugly, and like my matte black, businesslike IBM. But that's my personal perception. I think Macbook Pros look cool, though I've never had one.
So I think that people should check Consumer Reports, PC Mag reviews and surveys, and on that basis dump the worst-performing/reviewed 20% of all the available notebooks out there, and then go out and try a dozen or more machines in real life. Use them. For more than a minute or two.
And then decide what you want to interact with every day, what feels right, what moves YOU. You're going to be spending hundreds of hours with this hardware.
If you love it, and it lasts 18 months, you'll still remember loving it. You'll excuse its early failing -- because you loved that hunk of circuits and plastic.
If you're uncomfortable with it, and it lasts five years, you'll still give it at best grudging respect.
Happy Hunting, Paul.
Posted by Paul at September 18, 2009 10:33 PM