Consumer Reports - Laptops Computers Articles | January 17 Cheap NBA Jerseys Wholesale , 2007 Laptops account for about 25 percent of sales. It?s not hard to understand why. Small screens and cramped keyboards have been replaced by bigger, crisper displays and more usable key layouts. Processo...
Laptops account for about 25 percent of sales. It?s not hard to understand why. Small screens and cramped keyboards have been replaced by bigger, crisper displays and more usable key layouts. Processors have caught up in speed, and innovative new processors provide some real advantages. Fast CD and DVD recording drives are common, as are ample hard drives. And a growing interest in wireless computing plays to the laptop?s main strength: its portability. A laptop is the most convenient way to take full advantage of the growing availability of high-speed wireless Internet access at airports, schools Cheap NBA Jerseys Free Shipping , hotels, and even restaurants and coffee shops.
The Centrino technology that?s central to Intel?s newest laptop processors has wireless capability built in, and delivers commendably-long battery life. The thinnest laptops on the market are less than an inch thick and weigh just 2 to 5 pounds. To get these light, sleek models, however, you?ll have to pay a premium and make a few sacrifices.
WHAT'S AVAILABLE
Dell Cheap NBA Jerseys From China , Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq (now owned by HP), IBM, Sony, and Toshiba are the leading Windows laptop brands. Macintosh laptops are made by Apple. Laptops can be grouped into several basic configurations:
Budget models. These have slower processors and lower screen quality than others Cheap NBA Jerseys China , but are suitable for routine office work and home software. Price range: $800 or less.
Workhorse models. These have faster processors and more built-in devices, so there?s less need for external attachments. They?re not lightweight or battery-efficient enough for frequent travelers. Price range: $1,000 and up.
Slim-and-light models. These are for travelers. They can be less than an inch thick and weigh as little as 2 or 3 pounds. They generally require an external drive to read DVDs or burn CDs. Price range: $1,500 and up.
Tablet-style. These sit in your hands like a clipboard and have handwriting-recognition software. Some convert to a ?normal? laptop with a keyboard. Price range: $1,800 and up.
IMPORTANT FEATURES
A diskette drive is becoming a rarity in all computers. As an alternative, you can use a USB memory drive (about $20 and up) Cheap NBA Jerseys , which fits on a keychain and holds as much data as numerous diskettes. Or you can save files on a writeable CD or camera memory card. Most laptops have slots that can read one or more types of memory cards.
Windows laptops generally have a 1.5- to 3.5-GHz processor. Pentium 4 processors have the higher speed ratings; the new Pentium M and Celeron M processors have a slower rated speed but actually perform on a par with other processors. Macintosh Power PC processors are measured on a different basis altogether. In short, the different types of processors make direct speed comparisons difficult. It doesn?t pay to try because any type of processor is likely to deliver all the speed you?ll need.
Laptops come with a 40- to 160-gigabyte hard drive and 256 megabytes or more of random access memory (RAM) and can be upgraded to 1 gigabyte or more.
Today?s laptops use a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. In Consumer Reports tests, batteries provided 2 to 5 hours of continuous use when running office applications. (Laptops go into sleep mode when used intermittently, extending the time between charges.) You can extend battery life somewhat by dimming the display as you work and by removing PC cards and turning off wireless devices when they aren?t needed. Playing a DVD movie uses more battery power than usual, but any laptop should be able to play a movie through to the end.
A laptop?s keyboard can be quite different from that of a desktop computer. The keys themselves may be full-sized (generally only lightweight models pare them down), but they may not feel as solid. Some laptops have extra buttons to expedite your access to e-mail or a Web browser or to control DVD playback. You can attach an external keyboard Cheap Jerseys Wholesale , which you may find easier to use.
A 14- to 15-inch display, measured diagonally, should suit most people. A few larger models have a 16- or 17-inch display. A resolution of 1,400x1,050 (SXGA+) pixels (picture elements) or more is better than 1,024x768 (XGA) for viewing the fine detail in photographs or video Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping , but may shrink objects on the screen. You can use settings in Windows to make them larger. Many models are now offered with a display that has a ?glossy? surface instead of a dull one. Those look better in bright ambient light, as long as you avoid direct reflections.
Most laptops use a small touch-sensitive pad in place of a mouse--you slide your finger across the pad to move the cursor. You can also program the pad to respond to a ?tap? as a ?click,? or to scroll as you sweep your index finger along the pad?s right edge. An alternative pointing system uses a pencil-eraser-sized joystick in the middle of the keyboard. You can attach an external mouse or trackball if you prefer.