South Carolina Trial Law Blog

Time for a new laptop. What features am I looking for?

• Weight Under 4 Pounds – This is a definite requirement. The lighter the better. I take my laptop with me everywhere that I would take a pad of paper. It needs to be in the 3 pound (or lighter) range. There needs to be a serious reason to bump up into the 4.1 or 4.3 pound range.
• Keyboard – This is a bit of a surprise for me. In dealing with ultralights, or any laptop for that matter, there are certain tradeoffs and the keyboard is typically one of them. After a few weeks, your fingers get used to a different keyboard configuration for the laptop, and get used to a cramped keyboard layout. My Panasonic had a full size 19mm keyboard and I really enjoyed not having to switch keyboard sizes between my main computer and laptop. So, I’m putting a lot more emphasis on the keyboard than I used to.
• Screen – Preferably an backlit LED, as opposed to an LCD screen, something that looks sharp, but I don’t need a tremendously high resolution as I’m over 40 and my eyesight is not what it used to be. I need something at least 12.1 inches. I’ve seen 10” screens and they’re too small for me. If I’m looking at a laptop and not a toy, the ultraportables with 7” or 8” screens aren’t even an option. I love the size, but not the crispness of the 14.1” Panasonic that I have now. A 13.3” is probably optimal.
• Hard Drive – I would prefer a solid state drive. They come in 32gig and 64 gig models. Solid state drives are faster, lighter, use less power, are more reliable (and more expensive). I have a desktop computer and a home computer, so the size of the hard drive isn’t important. I just need the hard drive large enough to carry video depositions in Sanction for trial. If the laptop doesn’t have a solid state drive, it needs to be at least 7,200 rpms. There’s nothing worse than slow hard drive speed.
• Ports – The only port that is criticial to me is a VGA monitor port. I speak in enough places where I have had problems with cable hookups for an S-Video or HDMI ports. Give me a standard monitor port anyday of the week. Built in wireless of course. An SD card reader would be handy, but is not a requirement. Other than that, lots of USB ports, and a biometric reader, expresscard (instead of PCMCIA) would be nice. None of them are dealbreakers.
• Coolness/Fashion sense – Yes. I hate to admit this, but I want a laptop that looks good, that draws some attention and is fun to own. Think “sports car” or “convertible” for laptops.
• Operating System – I would seriously prefer Windows XP instead of Windows Vista. I want to stay away from Windows Vista as long as possible. (Although, I don’t know if it will be possible).
• Speed – I don’t really care about speed. I primarily do word processing, e-mail and research on the internet. The case management software is straightforward calendaring and contact management database software. Even the videos for mediations and trial presentation don’t take up that much processing power. Any of the computers currently out will be more than fast enough for me.
• Optical Drive – This is not an important factor. It used to be, but not anymore. In my last laptop, I said “I want an internal cd/dvd player, so that way I don’t have to tote an extarnal player, plus I don’t want to be caught without help on that. It turns out that in three years, I have only used the player a handful of times. A nice feature, but not critical or a dealbreaker.
• Price – Sadly, this is not important. This is my personal laptop that I will take everywhere with me and will hopefully have for three years. The difference in price between the cheapest laptop on the market and the most expensive one is not that large that price is the primary factor in deciding. And when I am looking at a 2–3 pound laptop, with a solid state hard drive, lots of memory, a good keyboard and a nice screen, those specs don’t come cheap.

Next up. I’ll preview the three laptops that I am considering.

i need a computer that is atleast $100 to $200 dollars email me me if there s any available