My old PC laptop served me well, but….

I loved my Acer Ferarri laptop when I got it two years ago. Fast, good looking, lots of features like a card reader. It has served me well. When I got the Ferarri, it had Windows XP preloaded on it. I immediately wiped it and installed XP fresh. Ran great for quite while. But a few months ago, I decided that it was time to wipe XP and reload it again, because it was starting to slow down (as windows does over time). This time, I decided to give Vista a shot, since it works OK on some of our other systems here at the office.

More after the jump.

Vista destroys my Ferarri laptop’s performance

Vista went onto the Ferarri without a lot of problems, but I noticed something peculiar: my fan was running constantly, and the laptop got hot – REAL hot. Apparently, the AMD processor was forced to work a lot harder than usual, and instead of my fan coming on only during heavy multi-tasking, it was staying on all the time. The Ferarri got so hot, that it was too hot to put on my lap without a pillow or something. It is pretty funny now, but one time I even smelled something burning – it was the smell of the pillow getting hot (not good). I can laugh about it now, but it was annoying as hell. My battery life dropped substantially, due to the fan and the processor working harder. I ended up getting only 40 minutes of life out of it, and my bootup times were incredibly long.

Time for a new laptop

As I started to shop for a new laptop, I hadn’t intended to get a Mac, but I was aware that they had new laptops coming out. I also heard about the new thin and light line of laptops at Best Buy. I went and checked em out, and bought this Toshiba:

Bought this Toshiba from Best Buy, and took it back

It is a nice 13.3″ thin and light laptop, with a 2.4ghz processor in it and 2GB of ram. I got it home, and was pretty excited about it until the mouse button broke – not good. Took it back to exchange it, and they were out of them. Also wasn’t happy with the 1280 x 800 resolution (ick).

Got a new MacBook, then took it back for a MacBook Pro

What they DID have, was the new Macbooks, with DDR3 RAM (twice as fast as regular ram), and a lot of new features. I can run 99% of my software on the Mac already (Adobe, MS Office, Firefox, Adium IM, etc), so I didn’t have a worry about running Windows apps. I bought the regular Macbook, and brought it home. Once I got it home, I wanted some of the features on the Macbook Pro (express slot to use for a card reader), and the bigger screen (1440 x 900).

My New 15″ MacBook Pro

I had to drive to Concord Pike (202) to the Best Buy up there to get the 15″ Macbook Pro, and I love it. It is super-fast, and I my USB celluar card screams on it. I am going to put 4GB of DDR3 ram into it next week. I haven’t turned on the Ferarri laptop for two days now.

Initial Thoughts

• super-bright LED screen
• backlit keyboard is nice
• nice fast bootup
• two video cards
• great speakers
• Entourage (Outlook for the Mac) works great with my Exchange hosting
• Cellular card browsing is much faster
• Adium is way better than Trillian (for instant messaging)
• Bluetooth mouse works up to 50 feet!
• Nice and thin

So far, so good. I like it.

Engadget Story

Find out what I am buying after the jump.

My Current Laptop – Acer Ferrari 4000
I get about 2 or three years out of my computers, because I either hand them down to staff members, or they just become slow and I am too busy to reinstall Windows on them. My current laptop is an Acer Ferrari 4000, and it has been a pretty good laptop overall. I really like the flat keys and the curved keyboard. The keyboard has been a joy. Another great feature has been the SSD memory card slot in the front of the laptop. I can literally take pictures with my digital camera (a Casio) and transfer the pictures to the laptop by putting the memory card into the front of the laptop – so nice. It really is convenient. Even pictures or music files that I have on my Treo Windows Mobile smart phone are easily transferred to the laptop in the same way.

As far as problems go on the Acer Ferrari, the number one problem that I have encountered is the battery. Not just the life of a charge, but also the life of the battery itself and the rate at which the charge life decreases over time. If you leave the battery in the laptop while using AC wall power, the life of the batteries decreases. It basically cooks the batteries. I have purchased two additional spare batteries for the laptop from Acer, and over time their lifespan decreases noticeably. I only get about 2 – 3 hours max on battery power. One of my batteries only lasts about an hour, so that is the biggest problem with the Acer. Another problem is that the fan ALWAYS runs, and it is loud. It never shuts off. I don’t think that the AMD Turion 64bit mobile processor is a good choice because of the heat. Watching TV and using the laptop on your lap is all but impossible without a sturdy pillow to shield your legs from the heat. The Acer doesn’t come with a built-in WAN EVDO antenna, so when I want to get online I have to insert a Verizon Wireless card into the PCMCIA slot. I could also tether to my Treo to get online, but there is a driver issue with the Acer Bluetooth radio that prevents the tethering from working right with the Treo. An employee of mine that uses a modern Dell laptop can tether with Bluetooth and doesn’t have the same issue. Most of the nicer, newer laptops have the WAN cell antennas built onto the motherboard, so with a newer laptop I wouldn’t have to carry around the WAN card everywhere I go. This laptop has a pretty large 15.4″ screen, so it is pretty large to carry around. When I ride my motorcycle, it is possible to carry it in a backpack ,but you really notice it. The speakers are not loud at all, and that is another annoying thing about the Ferrari. Showing someone a video on the laptop is all but impossible without headphones.

How I handle data backups
Using just one laptop for everything means that backups are extremely important. I use a tiny Western Digital USB hard drive, and I highly recommend this model. It is really small and affordable. It holds 160GB, and it costs $149 retail. It is about the size of an iPod. They come in white or black, and you can get them at Best Buy. Below is a picture of the one I have. It is easy to carry and easy to store.

No gaming laptops for me, thanks.
My next laptop will have a screen smaller than 15″. To me, 13″ or 14″ is the best overall size for a business laptop, as long as the screen has high enough resolution. 1280 x 1024 is NOT enough in my opinion, unless you have bad eyesight. Anything that has a screen smaller than 13″ means that the keyboard becomes too small. I have seen some businesspeople get those huge Dell XPS gaming laptops, or the enormous Sony/HP entertainment laptops, and they look ridiculous to me. To me, it also isn’t very professional looking to give a presentation or have a business meeting using a super-large or gaming laptop. Would you want to do business with someone that puts computer gaming above their job? No. So if your laptop bag has to have wheels on it because you have a gaming laptop, then something is wrong with your priorities. I travel quite a bit, and I need a laptop that is not only powerful, but portable for trips. I’ve also outgrown playing lots of PC games years ago, so I don’t need or want a heavy power hog of a machine so that I could play games. Besides, if I ever decide that I really want to play PC games again, I will setup a desktop gaming machine in my new house that is now under construction. The new neighborhood where my wife and I are building a house already has Verizon FIOS, so that would be great for a gaming rig. For now, the Nintendo Wii rules gaming at our house, and Guitar Hero on the Wii is such a blast, that it is all the gaming I need for now. Yes, I am really, really excited about getting FIOS at the new house. It will also make it nice for off-site backups over the fiber from work to home. Bye-bye Comcast!

Why I don’t like the Apple Macbook Air
I am not against Macs, and I even think that the new MacBook Pro is a contender to my next laptop. But while the new Mabook Air is very sexy, (I played with one in the Apple store), you really give up quite a bit to have a machine that is that thin. For example, I won’t compromise on having a DVD burner or having enough USB drives. I really want to have the DVD drive in my laptop. I am pretty hard on my gadgets, so the Apple Air probably won’t work for me. The IBM x300 is the main competitor to the Air, but the price of the IBM is ridiculous. Call me a protectionist, but since IBM sold their laptop division to Lenovo (a Chinese company), I have all but lost interest in them. I guess in the end that doesn’t make or break my decision on what brand I want, but it is a small factor for me.

So here are the specs that I am looking for:

1. 13-14″ ultrabrite screen
2. High resolution video card/screen – WXGA at the least
3. LED screen backlighting – this is the latest rage with the newer laptops, and it saves power and looks fantastic.
4. Built-in DVD Superdrive burner
5. WAN card to get onto Verizon’s network
6. 802.11N WiMax compatible WIFI
7. Plenty of USB ports
8. 9 cell battery life
9. The latest dual-core, low-voltage Intel Montevina laptop processor

My Number 1 Pick: Dell Latitude e6500

This September, Dell is releasing a new line of laptops to replace their successful D830/D630 lines. Below is a picture of what these new “e family” machines will look like. Notice that the old Dell circle logo is gone in favor of a sleeker, more industrial looking black and silver body, with the logo off to the side. Looks very nice.

The list of features for this new machine is stunning:

• New design with black case or optional colors
• Intel Montevina processor
• Ultra Wideband WAN (3g Wireless broadband)
• WiMax WIFI
• All-day battery (84 watt hrs)
• Intel Turbo Memory 2.0
• Up to 8GB of DDR2 800mhz RAM (fast)
• 5 in one data card reader
• Fingerprint reader
• GPS – woohoo! GPS comes built-in. That will be great for travel.
• LED backlit display (brighter with less power consumption)
• 250GB hard drive, or solid-state hard drive option – I am all over this. A hard drive with no moving parts means that the laptop will be very fast, and use very little power. This feature alone has me super excited. If the solid state drive is at least 80GB, then that is what I will get.
• Pointing stick AND touchpad
• E-SATA port for adding external storage
• Backlit keyboard option
• Camera and mic option
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Discreet nvidia video card
• Price is expensive, but I don’t care.

My second choice is Apple MacBook Pro

For the first time ever, I am actually serious about a Mac. I think this machine makes a fine second choice, but the list of features can’t touch the new Dell. They will also be similar in price once they have all the options installed. I hope that capacities on solid state drives keeps increasing, because they are clearly the wave of the future. I can’t be without my cellular broadband, so the Apple gets killed right there.