{"id":89,"date":"2013-11-26T21:32:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T01:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/?p=89"},"modified":"2023-08-31T21:19:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T01:19:41","slug":"peace-on-earth-and-discounts-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/?p=89","title":{"rendered":"Peace on Earth and Discounts For All."},"content":{"rendered":"

Tick-Tock!\u00a0 Black Friday is just a few short days away, and someone out there is contemplating the purchase of a laptop, desktop or tablet.\u00a0 Which do you pick?\u00a0 How do you decide?<\/p>\n

First off, erase your perceptions.\u00a0 Business class Lenovo and Dell systems are, overall, very well built systems.\u00a0 They\u2019re also pricey, and well outside the price range you\u2019re going to find at Black Friday.\u00a0 Why so pricey?\u00a0 They cost more but are made of, as Snapple would say, “better stuff”.\u00a0 Motherboard vendors are locked throughout the duration of the product run, and parts and pieces are picked for quality *and* low cost.\u00a0 While businesses are purchasing Dell Latitude\/Optiplex or Lenovo ThinkPad\/ThinkCentre, consumers purchase (and save) via the Inspiron or IdeaPad\/IdeaCentre line of systems.\u00a0 (Dell uses a single name for the consumer laptop and desktop line.)<\/p>\n

So, how does one decide what laptop or desktop to purchase?\u00a0 (If you\u2019re the instant gratification type that just wants to grab something from the Black Friday fliers, skip the next two paragraphs.)<\/p>\n

First you need to put together a no-BS assessment of how you plan on using your device.\u00a0 Desktops are easy: Productivity, Production, or Play?\u00a0 Will you be running standard office style apps, editing\/producing movies, music or videos, or racking up body count via Battlefield 4?\u00a0 Each step costs more than the previous but, for the most part, the “Battlefield” PC will do an excellent job of handling productivity or production work.<\/p>\n

Laptops are a little more finicky, and solid set.\u00a0 What that means is, a desktop can be upgraded or tweaked should some of your needs change; with a laptop what you buy is what you\u2019re stuck with for the duration.\u00a0 Productivity and production are the two areas of focus, but you\u2019ll also need to consider things like screen size, storage space and whether or not an optical drive is still a necessity to you.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve decided on your needs, it\u2019s time to research.<\/p>\n

Researching a broad spectrum of computer options can be a little daunting.\u00a0 Your favorite search engine can help a little, but the signal to noise ratio can be a little overwhelming.\u00a0 Amazon ends up being my first stop, but any multi-vendor retailer will do (Staples, Rakuten, etc).\u00a0 Plug in the exact model number of the device you\u2019re looking at, and check the user reviews.\u00a0 Two immediate metrics are how many stars it has (0-5) and how many reviews it has.\u00a0 Then\u00a0dig into the reviews, starting with the bad ones first.\u00a0 Keep in mind that some people don\u2019t understand how reviews work so go ahead and throw out the reviews that are angry with a process or experience with the supplier (“My package arrived a day late!\u00a0 Therefore this laptop gets ONE STAR!) and focus on the reviews where people are discussing issues or concerns that might be important to you.\u00a0 (The screen is too small, the fonts look too fuzzy, it didn\u2019t work on arrival, etc.)\u00a0 Scan *ALL* the reviews looking for hints on service from the vendor.\u00a0 You may have a problem someday (this goes double for laptops or tablets), how does the manufacturer handle it?\u00a0 For example, ASUS is reported to make the most reliable systems on the market, but guess who also has the worst customer support when one of them fails<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Before moving on to Tablets, I should clarify that Windows based tablet devices fall under the laptop category for this discussion.\u00a0 They\u2019re nearly interchangeable with exception to two key features.\u00a0 If you\u2019re using a Windows Tablet (or convertible laptop design), look for stylus support and palm rejection.\u00a0 Stylus support means it supports a high quality pen input, and palm rejection means it ignores your hand while you\u2019re writing on the device.<\/p>\n

For ARM (Advanced RISC Machine)\u00a0tablets (Apple and Android) read on\u2026<\/p>\n

How do you purchase a tablet?\u00a0 That\u2019s actually a little trickier than it sounds.\u00a0 Did you know that Android is the most popular tablet operating system?\u00a0 Did you also know that the most popular tablet manufacturer doesn\u2019t run Android?\u00a0 (Those answers also apply to smartphones.)\u00a0 This is where hands-on is key.\u00a0 Visit a brick and mortar store and spend some time test driving the different interfaces.\u00a0 I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you don\u2019t purchase anything online that you haven\u2019t physically held and operated.\u00a0 Once you see something you like, jump back up a couple of paragraphs and start the review\/research process.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFor fun I bought a $35 Android tablet.
\nI would use it as a paperweight, if it weren\u2019t insulting to the paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the tablet market, budget is not your friend, but research is.\u00a0 Also keep in mind your audience.\u00a0 Ease of use is key when dragging Grandma into the digital age.<\/p>\n

If you must press me for recommendations, start your search with Apple or the Google Nexus line of tablets.<\/p>\n

And under no circumstances should you buy a Microsoft Surface RT device.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been warned.<\/p>\n

Happy Hunting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tick-Tock!\u00a0 Black Friday is just a few short days away,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nerd-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lestersworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}