Tim Mahoney

Netbooks are for bloggers, students, or whoever needs portability with decent speed. I have one, and I like it a lot. Unfortunately, it’s too small for me. (Something I never thought I’d say, because I desperately wanted a computer that was small and light to do my work on.)

It would be great, but I’m a web programmer, which means I’m switching back and forth between multiple programs, need to run things like Photoshop and Illustrator, and other programs that are pretty beefy. I guess you could call me a power user, although I think there’s many people that use more powerful machines than I do.
The netbook just isn’t cutting it though. It doesn’t feel like it fits in my lap, it isn’t very fast, doesn’t have enough RAM for running many programs at once, and the screen size (9″) is too small.

I have a work laptop, but the damn thing (Dell XPS m1730) is a monstrous beast, weighing in at 12 lbs. I’m no weakling, but I also don’t want to be carrying around a heavy backpack everywhere I want to be computer. Never mind the power consumption of the damn thing; it’s got SLI built in for christ sakes.

Things I need in a laptop:

• Core 2 Duo Processor
• 4GB Ram at least
• 500GB hard drive
• 13-15 inch screen
• GOOD graphics processor (NOT Intel’s garbage)
• 6-8 hour battery life
• HDMI, Wifi, Bluetooth, Card Reader, DVD DL Writer, etc.
• Thin and Light

Is it too much to ask?

Elizabeth just got a new Macbook Pro. I didn’t like Macs for the longest time because of the different architecture, but I might have to take a look at the 13″ MB Pro for the simple reason that it definitely has most of the stuff I want built in. Unfortunately for my wallet, Apples cost a buttload of money.

For a 13″ Macbook Pro, 2.53 GHz, 4GB ram, 500 GB hard drive, and a couple of little extras (DVI thing, remote) it comes to $1,697.00.

Is it me, or is that a little much? That doesn’t even include Applecare.

For comparison, I built a 14″ HP dv4i series laptop with the same specs, the only difference being that it has 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4550 Graphics in it, for $1339.00 with a 1 year Accidental Damage warranty.

I’m not going to quibble over 400 bucks if it means getting what I want, but i’m not too sure what the difference is between these 2 computers apart from the graphics card.

I’m not going to buy anything anytime soon anyway; I might wait for my birthday (August) or something to get gift cards before making a move, but I’m going to have to really canvas all the brands to get what I want.