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Way OT – Laptop or iPad?
Mostly off-topic, but I respect the brain pool here….
My wife’s laptop is getting old and some of the keys on the keyboard don’t work so she has to plug in an external USB keyboard. Cleaning the keyboard with high pressure air only helps for a few days.So, a new laptop may be under the xmas tree for her this year.
My question for the group is this:
She uses her laptop almost exclusively for web browsing and games on Facebook. A cheap laptop would be all she needs. Or, should I buy her a low-end iPad?Thanks – Steve.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
12 Replies
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A netbook may be your best bet.
If it has Windows 7 starter, not if it has vista of any sort on it. The sony viao ones have good screen resolution for a netbook but only if her eyes are still good. Then, of course, you need to spend a day ridding it of all the cr4pware that our beloved Sony insist on adding to it.
Also – you will want to upgrade the ram to 2gig if it (like most) only comes with 1. This will make up for the rather slow Atom processor.
iPads are sexy for sure but, for the money, they’re not much else. You can bet she’ll want a mouse/keyboard eventually. So you’re ending up with a clumsy netbook anyway if you start down that route.
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If she really does what you say she does, buy her the iPad. It works fine. She can sell it if she doesn’t like it and likely sell it for what she paid for it, or close. I’ve had debates with friends about whether the subscription for 3G is worth it. Friends who have the 3G love it. For folks that really use lots of programs on a laptop, like Vegas, an iPad like device is likely not for them. And it’s lack of a physical keyboard (though you can get add one on a docking station) will take a bit of getting used to. The screen keyboard seems to work fine. If she likes the idea of using iTunes then she’ll love the iPad. (if she already has and uses an ipod, for example). But the iPad lacks some basics, like USB. It also doesn’t yet support Flash, which is a real problem for those of us who like movies.
The stupid hybrid netbooks are underpowered, they take longer to boot up than an Ipad, and can’t really be upgraded to any degree. I’ve used a few and they really seem like the worse of all worlds. They ought to be solid state with instant boot.
I’ve used an iPad that a friend had, and loved it. I assume I’ll get one some day, but my MacBook Pro and Samsung Windows 7 machines are fine for now, I use an iPhone for my cell, so I read email on it (but don’t respond to email on it) and I don’t really need another damn computer (G).
Alf
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I agree with what you say other than the bit about how she plays lots of (FaceBook) games. Mostly requiring a mouse!!! To me, this will make the iPad an annoyance.
Re netbooks, the solid state comment is a true one. I (rather extravagantly) put one in the girlfriends netbook and now it runs crazy fast. (It also has 2gig RAM, like I said above).
If she really doesn’t do anything that creates saved files though, then you can get a very small SSD for a netbook.
Fred
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A netbook is certainly in the list, but I wouldn’t buy anything with Vista on it.
Don’t knock the crapware – I hate having to delete all of it as much as anyone, but the crapware pays a big piece of the hardware costs for you. The manufacturer probably doesn’t want to clutter the O/S either, but the money from the crapware authors is too good to say no.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Well, there are a couple of questions to ask.
First one: is it “mostly” web browsing and online games, or ALL web browsing and online games. Does she use any actual Windows applications at all?
Second one: does she just surf the net, or does she do much writing. The lack of a keyboard on the iPad isn’t bad if you’re a content consumer only, but it’s an issue if you do any real writing.
Next… the games. I don’t know about every game on Facebook (or elsewhere), but Adobe Flash is probably the most popular game environment on the web at the moment. Apple doesn’t support this on any iOS device. Maybe they have special iPad apps for some of those things, or maybe she’s going to miss out.
And finally… like all Apple products, the iPad is pretty seriously overpriced for what it is. At $499 basic, it seems “reasonably priced” to Apple fans, but that’s only because the cheapest Apple laptop starts at $999. The average non-netbook laptop sold in the USA in 2009 ran about $550, and while I haven’t seen the 2010 stats, you can bet they’ve fallen a bit. I have seen fully functional (Windows 7, low-end CPU… but still 4x-8x as fast as the one in the iPad, 2GB DRAM, etc) Windows laptops on Christmas specials as low as $300. Windows 7 laptops aren’t as “cool” to some people as the iPad, but they’re dramatically more useful. And a basic one costs less. Some examples:
https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6491156&Sku=A180-15641
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200077&cm_mmc=BFUS-_-32-_-N82E16834200077&nm_mc=BFUS
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146839
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157535Dell has 35% tomorrow on select models. HP has a basic laptop starting at $349 tomorrow… check out https://www.shopping.hp.com/go/CyberMonday?aoid=35252
A netbook type laptop is also an option. The main difference… no optical drive, scaled-down x86 processor, smaller (10″) screen. These are typically as low as $200, so maybe even cheaper if you shop for “Cyber Monday” sales tomorrow. Keep in mind, the typical Atom CPU is about half the performance of a Core 2 or Celeron processor per clock cycle, but it’s actually comparable to the ARM Cortex A8 per clock… and usually clocked 1.5x-2.0x faster. Sure, Windows is a bit more burden than iOS, but you also get more capable web browsers on Windows… there’s something for that CPU power to do. The main complaint of netbooks for some people is the 10″-or-so screen, vs. 15″ for discount laptops. But the iPad has the same issue.
And don’t forget, if portability isn’t an issue, a desktop is still a better deal.
Now, sure, there are some people who want the iPad for what the iPad is. If you’re just a content consumer, if there’s a value to nearly all-day battery life (vs. 2-4hrs. on a laptop or 4-8hrs on a Netbook), if you’re interested in iPhone/iPad style gaming (iOS is actually the leading platform for mobile gaming, having surpassed PSP, GameBoy, etc), etc. you may find this a reasonable thing to buy.
I was thinking about getting my wife a new low-end laptop or netbook for Christmas this year. But she’s pretty much decided she’s taking over my fairly tricked out laptop (2.4GHz dual Core2, 4GB memory, 1.2TB HDD, 17″ screen… ok, it was bit more impressive three years ago). We also have a Dell I bought at a yard sale for $8.00… perfectly functional, once I killed all the viruses and spyware. But it needs another 512MB to be useful… about $70. I think the netbook would be a better investment.
-Dave
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I will probably go with the low-end laptop. She had Office 2003 installed, but I don’t think she’s used it in months. So, for all practical purposes, she doesn’t need a keyboard. (The keyboard on the laptop is kaput and she uses a USB keyboard.)
Thanks to all who replied.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Best of luck Steven. I always get a laugh out of reading these kinds of comparisons. Windows users always gripe about the price they pay would have to pay for anything Apple, then immediatetly talk about upgrading their new ‘cheap’ Windows hardware to get the right performance out of it. Pay me now or pay me later. Given Apple’s share value compared to Windows for the last ten years, the general population is finally waking up to this arguement, and paying more now. And just so folks don’t think I’m an Apple Fanboy, I own two Windows 7 machines ( a state of the art Samsung laptop and HP desktop for Vegas) and two Apple machines for my work. While there is much to love in Windows, it’s much vaunted cheapness is a mirage.
As much as I could work on either machine for my personal machine (not talking about my Vegas production desktop or my Mac Pro for FCP needs), I find that I instinctively reach for my Macbook pro for the kinds of things you say your wife does daily. While not a tablet, it comes out of sleep almost instantly, compared to my new Samsung, and I use it for Facebook, Email, Web surfing, Netflix, NY Times online, etc. much like your wife would. I would never trade the weight of my MBpro (or it’s much faster boot & wake up from sleep mode) for the slow response time of a ‘cheaper’ netbook with a tiny screen, cramped keyboard, or underpowered CPU with little upgrade capacity. I might though for an iPad. The iPad is fast, extremely lightweight, it’s battery runs for hours longer than a Netbook, it doesn’t need a CPU, memory or hard drive upgrade out of the box, you can get it without a subscription service and simply use Wifi, the apps are outstanding, many of my friends have abandoned Quicken for instance, and I finally use an apple app on my iphone and really track my mileage effectively. I’ve been amazed at the utility of my iphone over every other cell phone I’ve ever used. It’s light years ahead of the pack. And there is nothing even close to the Apple app store yet. The nearest competitor, Google, has a bunch of apps that are sort of 1.0 compared to the polish of the Apple apps.
If you really can’t function without a keyboard, yes you can upgrade and get a dock that works with it.
Oh well… sorry for the long rant, you know your wife best. It *could* be that she’s very comfortable with Windows, mine is! In that case,just buy her a netbook. And save the money for your own iPad down the road.
Best of luck!
Alf
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I think that I always was going to get the low-end laptop, but I was hoping that someone had a must-have reason that I would want an iPad in the house.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
If you have an older laptop and any other computers that will work as mainly a sync/backup device, you’ll find the iPad invaluable. If your wife likes flash games on facebook, she’ll love the games she can get on the iPad that work natively with it. My 72 year old technophobe mother loves it. Here are some of her facebook posts from the last month:
“I’m listening to Laura Ingraham on my iPad!” (she loves talk radio, which is free on it)
or
“Am going back and reading old classics that are really hard to find, except on the itunes. I just cannot believe that I can click a book and in seconds it is on the ipad.” (there are lots of free books you can get on it)
or this one from last week:
“After many months of struggling I have successfully completed and WON the game of PLANTS AND ZOMBIES.Yeh!!!! had I had these kind of toys growing up, i would not know how to do anything except play video games. And I probably would not care—-”
and if you install the free kindle app:
” Just ordered my first kindle book on line==amazing==what a world to live in==Each time I am pushed to learn all this new technology, i go from fear of it to amazement that it can work.”In this forum, you’ll probably get quite a few naysayers on Apple products. Sexy doesn’t sell millions and millions of devices – function does. With the new 4.2 software allowing folders, printing and multitasking, the iPad is an even more of a smart purchase.
Some other cool things I do with it are:
-monitor my swann home security cameras
-detect motion in my home if somebody walks in front of my macs (iCam app)
-sync files with drop box and mobile me
-stream video to my apple tv
-use log me in to control every computer i have at work or home instantly
-search google with voice prompts instead of typing
-free sms texting
-netflix searching
-way too many games to count
-alarm clock
-baby monitor
-use DSLRemote to trigger and monitor a camera (the camera has to be plugged into a laptop, which then streams the signal wirelessly to the ipad)
-read and buy books from Amazon, B&N, and all other online book sellers.
-stream media files from my computers to the ipad
-no more wasted paper – we use it like a notepad.
-use keypad pro to turn iPad into a control surface for After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Final Cut
-skype audio chat with family
-1 word – SCRABBLE (or an online version called ‘words with friends’)
-teach the kids how to read with plethora of preschool aged appsThe only negative thing I can say is, likely there will be a product refresh in March which will probably add a camera for facetime chatting. If that’s not important to you, go for it. You’ll probably find like we did that one iPad isn’t enough anyways. The flash thing is a moot point. You won’t miss it at all – farmville is even an app on the ipad now.
One last anecdote – after a week of 10 relatives in my house for Thanksgiving, our two iPads never got put down. Nobody touched the netbook. How’s that for cannibalization?
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am faced with similar question in my house, but have decided most likely purchase is the Dell Inspiron Duo – tablet when one wants it, fast netbook when one needs the keyboard / beefier applications.
Due this week, IIRC
🙂
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