Glossy Lenovo Thinkpad

How to choose a new business laptop from Dell or Lenovo

Picking out a new laptop for work can be particularly confusing. With so many options available, it's hard to tell which model, features, and price range will best suit your needs. Customers often approach us and want to know what certain terminology means and how they should configure their laptop. I will explain the terminology you should be familiar with to purchase a laptop online from Dell or Lenovo that meets your needs.

Let's start with a brief overview of product lines for Dell and Lenovo laptops (business-grade only).

Dell Vostro: Mid-range laptop. Runs from around $400 to $700 plus tax and shipping where applicable. XP "downgrade" available. Balance of features, build-quality, and price.

Dell Latitude: Dell's high-end business laptop. Runs from around $600 to $1000 plus tax and shipping where applicable. XP "downgrade" available. Good build-quality and features available.

Lenovo Thinkpad SL-series: Entry-level business laptop. Solid build construction (don't be fooled by the outdated looks!). Priced between $500 and $700. XP "downgrade" available."

Lenovo Thinkpad R-series: Mid-range laptop with more features and options than the SL. Priced between $700 and $900.

Lenovo Thinkpad T-series: Lenovo's (and IBM's) long-standing flagship laptop line. The T-series has all the goodies available, along with excellent build-quality. Price varies from $800 to $1300+.

Next, I'll introduce you to some technical terms you'll encounter when browsing or customizing a laptop on Dell or Lenovo's site.

Processor: What you'll be interested in is the Intel Core 2 Duo (C2D) technology. Essentially, it can be described as two processors (cores) on one chip. There is a very noticeable speed difference from processors offered in laptops 4-5 years ago.  They also run much cooler temperature-wise and more efficiently than their predecessors. If you're wondering about the differences in the processor numbers (e.g. T7xxx versus a P8xxx), the differences are very minor. Generally speaking (leaving out the technical mumbo jumbo), as long as the processor is a Core 2 Duo over 2.0 ghz the speed will be more than adequate for office applications, web browsing, presentations, etc. Stay away from the Celeron processors as they are quite a bit slower (less cache).

Memory (RAM): Not to be confused with hard drive space (where you save files), the speed and amount of memory allows determines how much "stuff" you can have open simultaneously and how quickly programs load. These days it is advisable to have at least 2 gigabytes (gb) of ram for Windows XP and 4 gigabytes for Windows Vista. Prices for memory have dropped dramatically in recent years making these larger capacities attractive.

Hard Drive: The size of your hard drive largely depends on what kinds of files you'll be saving,. If you're mainly dealing with email, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, small quanitities of PDFs, and the occasional picture, any hard drive over 60gb will suffice. If you store files such as large amounts of PDFs, video files, or a heavy amount of graphics, seek a hard drive capacity of 120gb to 250gb.

More importantly, opt for a 5400rpm speed drive. It's typically the standard option and is a good balance between speed and battery life. 7200rpm drives are also available for an additional cost and will help with loading times in general at the expense of battery life.

Screen size/resolution: For the screen size, I generally recommend 14.1" inches. This size gives you a nice balance of size, weight, viewability for people who take their laptop on the road. If you plan on keeping it on a desk with only the occasional moving around, you should consider 15.4".  Remember, the larger the screen, the heavier the laptop.

Additional options for a screen might include some type of glossy finish - avoid that as it creates a lot of glare in bright light environments.

As far as resolution goes, 1280x800 pixels is fairly common in recent widescreen notebooks. If your eyesight isn't so good, stick with that. If you have good eyesight, you might want to opt for a higher resolution like 1440x900 pixels. This allows you to "fit" more on the screen at the expense of text and icons being smaller. LCDs are not like the older CRT monitors where you can change the resolution and everything will stay sharp - text will look blurry if you change an LCD's resolution to anything other than what it's made for. Choose wisely.

Graphics card: Another option you may encounter is a discreet versus a built-in graphics card. To keep things simple, only get the discreet graphics card option if you plan on doing a lot of 3D rendering or high-definition video playback (1080p). They cost more and sometimes are problematic. The newer built-in (non-discreet) graphics cards can easily handle DVD playback, outputting to an external monitor, and your office applications, so that is what we generally recommend to customers.

Battery: The minimum I would recommend is a 6-cell battery. Generally speaking, this will give you between 2-3 hours of battery life on a laptop from Dell or Lenovo. The 9-cell battery may bulge out from the laptop a bit, but gives you more life.

Wireless card: If you have a newer wireless-N network setup, take advantage of it by getting a matching built-in wireless-N card for your laptop. It offers higher transfer rates and signal strength than the older wireless-b/g technology.

Other options to consider:

• Docking station - Highly recommended if you shuffle your laptop back and forth from work to other locations. Allows you to connect an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and other peripherals without having to disconnect and reconnect every time you leave.
• Warranty length - Most manufacturers offer 1 year of warranty service for free (though Dell has 3 years standard on its Latitude line).
• Included software - Stay away from buying office productivity tools from laptop manufacturers because they charge more. You're better off buying and installing the software on your own.

I hope that these tips have helped clarify the process of purchasing a business laptop. One of the best things you can do when purchasing a laptop is to have a list of requirements (ex. needs to run Windows XP, has to run my companies' software, must have 3 hours of battery life) beforehand, so that you can match those requirements while you browse and configure options.

If you are located near Nashville, TN be sure to visit our site at http://www.compuways.net for all of your small business and residential computer needs.

About the Author

Compuways offers computer repair and related services for individuals and small businesses in Nashville, Franklin TN, and Brentwood TN. Our attention to customer satisfaction is why we are #1 in the area. Computer Repair Nashville | Computer Repair Franklin TN | Computer Repair Brentwood TN

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