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Choosing The Right Notebook

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

If devices are to be rated in order of their use in enabling mobility,

laptops would feature on top. However, in recent years mobile phones have become

almost as feature rich as notebooks. Employees are still using notebooks as

their primary mobility device probably due to convenience of usage. This very

reason has created a new category of devices, smart and feature rich mobile

phones and netbooks. Laptops are as powerful as your desktops and can handle

heavy applications like design or development software or a heavy application

that links to your core business application. So what do you choose for

employees who cannot use netbooks due to their computation oriented work but

still want features like battery backup at par with netbooks? This is the

question we would answer in this part. Netbooks came on to the picture because

Intel saw the need for a low cost, low power consuming processor that can fit in

to a portable computing device, to support basic productivity applications

needed by most users. Most netbooks are powered with Intel's Atom processor,

designed on 45 nm CMOS process. Though it's based on an entirely new

architecture, Atom has been developed for low power consumption while

maintaining compatibility with Intel's core micro architecture instruction set.

Before netbooks, getting ultra portable laptops or devices meant a hole in your

pocket. But the question arises who is the target audience for these netbooks?

The answer is if you want a no nonsense device that you can move around easily

with and most of your work revolves around Internet surfing, then go for

netbooks. Smart phones can be an alternative for Internet surfing but their

screen is not optimized for browsing. This only makes netbooks more usable. If

your employees are designers or developers who work on designing software like

CAD or development IDEs like Visual studio then look for other options because

netbooks won't be able to handle these heavy applications. In this we focus on

notebooks and netbooks, and enlist features of both that are essential and would

help you in deciding to pick right device for employees on the go.

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Connectivity options



Netbooks were built as Internet surfing devices. This makes connectivity options
critical for these devices. While buying netbooks and laptops check if they are

packed with Gigabit LAN card for optimal wired connectivity and support 802.11N

standard for high speed wireless connections. One more thing to check out is

WiMAX and 3G support in your netbook, as both these are slated to become quite

popular wireless connectivity standards in the near future. For local wire free

data transfer check out support for the latest version of Bluetooth standard

(Bluetooth 4).

Ultra low voltage processor



Such processors you can increase the battery backup of your laptops by many

folds. In fact the popular Acer Aspire Timeline series laptop with Core 2 Solo

processor (ultra low voltage processor) like SU3500 and LED backlight were able

to give battery backup of 10 hrs which is enormous from any standard.

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Webcam plus speakers



Good quality webcam and optimally placed speakers are also important. Both

these come handy not only as entertainment features but also are critical for

video conferencing and video chatting which are the integral part collaboration

suits of your organization.

Battery backup



Battery backup of most notebooks vary between 2.5 to 5 hours with 6 cell

battery which can further be increased with 9 cells battery. It is advisable to

go for 9 cell battery if you move too often. But upgrading to 9 cell would also

mean added weight which is already on the higher side for laptops when compared

with netbooks. Being powered with low energy consuming processor with small

screen size battery backup of Netbooks is more when compared with conventional

laptops. Netbooks give battery backup between 5 to 8 hrs with 3 cell battery;

but if you are ready to carry few hundred grams more go for 6 cells battery with

higher battery backup period.

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LED Backlight



Instead of the regular fluorescent lamps that serve as backlights for

typical LCD screen of your laptop or netbook, this new display technique uses

LEDs. This feature not only enables manufacturer produce screens with brighter

image but also helps in enhancing the battery life of laptops and netbooks.

Solid State Drive



To further enhance the power backup of your laptop, you can use SSD instead

of conventional hard disk drive. In an experiment carried out in our labs, we

were able to double the battery backup of a laptop when we changed the

conventional hard disk drive with solid state drive. To know more on this

experiment check out the review of Intel SSD in Dec 09 issue of PCQuest.

Support



No matter how sturdy a notebook or netbook you buy, with the passage of time

you could face problems such as virus attacks to OS, disk crashes, etc. Just

check on the support provided by different vendors. See if the warranty is

onsite or if the manufacturer expects you to carry it to the service center.

Also enquire whether the service is restricted to the hardware only or for the

OS and other apps that it comes pre-loaded with. Find out how much does the

vendor charge for each visit after the product is past its warranty and how much

time do they take to respond.

Next-Enhancing

Enterprise Mobility

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