Advice on going from Desktop computers to Laptops

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#1498843 24-Feb-2016 22:01

Are you better sitting or standing when working on a computer for a couple of hours at a time? Regardless of the computer solution, would an electrically operated adjustable desk be appropriate?

For fitness reasons I've been using a standing desk and a high-lift chair for the last year. Now when my office phone rings, I walk across the room at least once (cordless headset) to get the blood flowing a bit.

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#1498845 24-Feb-2016 22:08

Due to disability I um unable to use a standing desk. I am very strict on moving and use my watch to remind me to move

nicks

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#1498918 25-Feb-2016 06:18

MikeB4: Lots of food thought. Is there any MacBook Pro users that can shed some light?

I have a 15inch MacBook Pro. More than powerful enough to handle anything a three or four year old desktop will. I have the best of both worlds though. External monitor, mouse, and keyboard (all Dell) with the MacBook sitting inside a cupboard unless I want to use it somewhere else. So I suppose for all intents and purposes I have a desktop PC!

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#1498919 25-Feb-2016 06:40

I think laptops are the worst of both worlds. Under-powered, expensive, prone to break, very uncomfortable to use, clunky to carry and really need a table where they take up a bit of room if they have a screen big enough to see. Trackpads were designed by the devil and then his minions positioned them below the keyboard for added torment. Granted all mine have been business class, solid but not swish. I vastly prefer a desktop or a tablet.

I used to hook my laptop (work provided) up to a keyboard and monitor at home and use my iPad for couch, mail, news, books. audio, streaming video etc. and if you're going to do that to a laptop you might as well have a desktop. A laptop hooked up like that takes up about as much room too. More probably. But these kinds of decisions are very personal and your mileage may vary.

My husband's desktop is on wheels so we can roll it into the living room in winter with minimal fuss if we want to. He uses an iPad for the same things I did. The times he has had a laptop (work subsidised) he never used it; always preferring his desktop or iPad.

Full disclosure: I'm trying out a Surface Pro which would meet my needs nicely if it worked like it should but it has some (firmware? hardware?) issues. Also if it were me designing it I would cut the trackpad off the otherwise decent type cover.

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#1498926 25-Feb-2016 07:20

JayADee:
I think laptops are the worst of both worlds. Under-powered, expensive, prone to break, very uncomfortable to use, clunky to carry and really need a table where they take up a bit of room if they have a screen big enough to see. Trackpads were designed by the devil and then his minions positioned them below the keyboard for added torment. Granted all mine have been business class, solid but not swish. I vastly prefer a desktop or a tablet.

I used to hook my laptop (work provided) up to a keyboard and monitor at home and use my iPad for couch, mail, news, books. audio, streaming video etc. and if you're going to do that to a laptop you might as well have a desktop. A laptop hooked up like that takes up about as much room too. More probably. But these kinds of decisions are very personal and your mileage may vary.

My husband's desktop is on wheels so we can roll it into the living room in winter with minimal fuss if we want to. He uses an iPad for the same things I did. The times he has had a laptop (work subsidised) he never used it; always preferring his desktop or iPad.

Full disclosure: I'm trying out a Surface Pro which would meet my needs nicely if it worked like it should but it has some (firmware? hardware?) issues. Also if it were me designing it I would cut the trackpad off the otherwise decent type cover.

May I ask what were the main tasks you did on a laptop and what was the affects of the trackpad location on your work.

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#1498945 25-Feb-2016 08:39

Sure. Microsoft Office type stuff, a bit of server and network administration, some hobby Python programming via Rice University; when hooked up to a keyboard and monitor PhotoShop, lnDesign and related Adobe software for a few jobs I did and one upcoming hopefully, some presentation software.

The trackpad makes the lousy ergonomics of a laptop keyboard even worse. Lots of people I know end up hitting it by accident when they type. Hand position on a laptop keyboard IMHO is terrible. I historically just turned mine off and used a mouse. Using a trackpad compared to a mouse (for me) results in frustration and productivity slowdown. Since I use a mouse or now a pen the trackpad on the Surface just gets in the way of the keyboard and results in being further away from the screen. When I use the Surface as a tablet I use the pen as input. Which is absolutely brilliant when the pen behaves. I am using it right now but for "real" work I would use a keyboard and for "sustained" typing of a lot of text it remains to be seen whether I'll go back to my gaming keyboard. Probably. If you are a trackpad kind of person Apple's are supposed to be the best. The Surface's is the nicest I've tried in person.

When I got sick I got hand and wrist pain and wrist and finger mobility issues and switched to a very responsive gaming Keyboard and gaming mouse which helped a lot with the pain problem. Most of the pain is gone now but movement is still a problem that does affect my typing speed and accuracy: I think with some practice I'll be able to compensate for that but most of the time speed doesn't matter.

Hooking up a laptop to externals is a real pain. Wires every where, lack of USB ports, a large footprint and lack of grunt and having to unhook everything to move it...I was doing that regularly for about nine years.

I kicked myself for buying a laptop a few years ago.

Edit: I love my wireless mouse for mousing.

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#1498954 25-Feb-2016 09:00

Due to disability I use one hand most of the time how do you think this would work long term with a laptop. In the past I have only used them as temporary pc's

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#1499025 25-Feb-2016 10:28

MikeB4: Due to disability I use one hand most of the time how do you think this would work long term with a laptop. In the past I have only used them as temporary pc's

Just found this topic. I would definitely go into the store and test some Laptops, get a feel for the buttons as some trackpad buttons I found some to not be very sensitive and some too sensitive.

Working one handed you might find a Laptop easier as all the buttons are closer together including the track pad/mouse buttons. You may also find using a touch screen Laptop easier especially since you already have a tablet, I don't think Apple have touch screen Laptops though.

I currently have a Desktop, iPad and iPhone and have recently decided to sell my Desktop and buy a Laptop. The reason being that I no longer game on my Desktop so don't need the power and the portability would be more beneficial.

The main reason to buy a Laptop would be portability, I don't know the extent of your disability but you could use the Laptop in bed, on the sofa, in the garden or the local coffee shop. The desktop you would be confined to the desk, which I struggled with but mainly as I work at a desk 5 days a week so sitting in a coffee shop appeals to me.

Regardless of your decision you may find it easier to invest in a gaming mouse, they have a lot more buttons so you can use it to assign buttons, I have one that has something like 15 buttons.

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#1499027 25-Feb-2016 10:35

I bought a PBtech built barebones PC from PBtech a couple of years back.It has 8GB of RAM and I cant remember the processor spec. Has a clean windows 7 install on it.

It goes like a freight train - even now it still impresses me how quick it is. Probably around $600-$700 excluding OS

My wife wanted and got a very large screen HP laptop around 12 months back - fast processor, plenty of RAM etc. Around $1800 from memory and I cant stand using it - seems sooooo sloooow! I find laptops at work annoyingly slow compared to desktops as well.

Oh - forgot to ad - she doesnt like the touchpad or keyboard in the laptop, so its got a full size wireless MS keyboard and mouse attached to it!

The other thing I would suggest against laptops is that they seem to generally have a much shorter lifespan - Obviously moving them around can cause excess wear and tear - but I have found even laptops that dont ever move from one spot seem to have short lives compared to desktops. Guess the cooling is worse - probably parts crammed a lot closer together doesnt help either.

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Technofreak

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#1499028 25-Feb-2016 10:36

I haven't had a desk top for over 12 years. I'd never go back to one. My wife got a flash new desktop about the time I upgraded my laptop, she went from a laptop to the desktop. A short while later she decided she needed another laptop. The desktop hardly gets used now.

I find the screen size quite OK. Currently a 14 inch screen. My big beef with most laptop screens is manufacturers prefer to sell them with a nice shiny reflective screen. Looks nice in the shop but a pain to use with all the reflections. I've fitted a screen protector to mine which cuts down the reflections to some extent.

I agree about trackpads, they are the pits, I always use use a wireless mouse.

At home I put the laptop on a stand to raise the screen and move the screen further away and also use a wireless keyboard. I find the laptop keyboards acceptable but for prolonged use a full size stand alone wireless keyboard works very well.

We have a NAS for the heavy lifting so far as storage goes.

Downsides of a laptop are, fewer USB ports and in most cases today no optical drive. My laptop has only two USB ports and I rarely have a problem.

Upsides, they're not restricted to being used in one place, if the power goes off they still work.

If it were me I'd by a good quality laptop with a non reflective screen and an SSD as well as a wireless mouse and keyboard.

What influences my preference is my need to use my laptop in various locations. If you have no need to ever move it then a desktop will be a cheaper option. Have you considered something like this http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html and attaching the peripherals you require?

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#1499031 25-Feb-2016 10:44

I work from home and only have a laptop. I like being able to move around the house if necessary and occasionally I plug it into the back of the tv.

I usually sit with it on a table but find I need to have it on raised stand to have the screen near eye level. This means that the keyboard is too high, so I have bought a cheap second keyboard. When I want to move it I can quickly pull out all the plugs.

When buying a laptop make sure it has all the points you need, eg. ethernet and hdmi plus of course as many usb as you need. The only thing I think I would need a big screen for would be digital imaging at a pro level. In some families a fixed pc might be better if the laptop is likely to go wandering, e.g. kids/teens.

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#1499034 25-Feb-2016 10:48

leo0787sx:

MikeB4: Due to disability I use one hand most of the time how do you think this would work long term with a laptop. In the past I have only used them as temporary pc's

Just found this topic. I would definitely go into the store and test some Laptops, get a feel for the buttons as some trackpad buttons I found some to not be very sensitive and some too sensitive.

Working one handed you might find a Laptop easier as all the buttons are closer together including the track pad/mouse buttons. You may also find using a touch screen Laptop easier especially since you already have a tablet, I don't think Apple have touch screen Laptops though.

I currently have a Desktop, iPad and iPhone and have recently decided to sell my Desktop and buy a Laptop. The reason being that I no longer game on my Desktop so don't need the power and the portability would be more beneficial.

The main reason to buy a Laptop would be portability, I don't know the extent of your disability but you could use the Laptop in bed, on the sofa, in the garden or the local coffee shop. The desktop you would be confined to the desk, which I struggled with but mainly as I work at a desk 5 days a week so sitting in a coffee shop appeals to me.

Regardless of your decision you may find it easier to invest in a gaming mouse, they have a lot more buttons so you can use it to assign buttons, I have one that has something like 15 buttons.

My disabilities vary, I have periods where I can walk and use all my bits and pieces, there are times when I am unable to walk and have limited use of my arms and hands to varying degrees. It can even change day to day

where I go to bed being able to walk and wake in the morning unable to walk.

I know that no two trackpads are the same and when I was working I used Acer, HP, Lenovo and Dell laptops and they mostly had horrible trackpads. I have used a MacBook a few years back and it had a fantastic trackpad

that felt like glass and the curser movement was the same as a mouse. My Wife has a HP Enterprise Laptop and its trackpad is average at best but it has one of the Thinkpad like buttons that works the curser quite well.

I would like to be able to use a computer in my wheelchair inside and out, I have an iPad and as excellent as it is it is not quite the same. The Surface 3 I have is only partially useful on the lap.

Maybe I should make some enquiries about demo units to see what would suit me best.

MikeB4

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#1499036 25-Feb-2016 10:53

Technofreak:

I haven't had a desk top for over 12 years. I'd never go back to one. My wife got a flash new desktop about the time I upgraded my laptop, she went from a laptop to the desktop. A short while later she decided she needed another laptop. The desktop hardly gets used now.

I find the screen size quite OK. Currently a 14 inch screen. My big beef with most laptop screens is manufacturers prefer to sell them with a nice shiny reflective screen. Looks nice in the shop but a pain to use with all the reflections. I've fitted a screen protector to mine which cuts down the reflections to some extent.

I agree about trackpads, they are the pits, I always use use a wireless mouse.

At home I put the laptop on a stand to raise the screen and move the screen further away and also use a wireless keyboard. I find the laptop keyboards acceptable but for prolonged use a full size stand alone wireless keyboard works very well.

We have a NAS for the heavy lifting so far as storage goes.

Downsides of a laptop are, fewer USB ports and in most cases today no optical drive. My laptop has only two USB ports and I rarely have a problem.

Upsides, they're not restricted to being used in one place, if the power goes off they still work.

If it were me I'd by a good quality laptop with a non reflective screen and an SSD as well as a wireless mouse and keyboard.

What influences my preference is my need to use my laptop in various locations. If you have no need to ever move it then a desktop will be a cheaper option. Have you considered something like this http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html and attaching the peripherals you require?

I am not a fan of glossy screens, the wife's HP is non reflective and looks nice, its 14" 1080. I use a NAS for most of our storage along with cloud. On my iMac I have a 1TB drive that still has about 860GB free and my PC

has a 3TB drive that still has around 2.5TB free.

leo0787sx

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#1499053 25-Feb-2016 11:16

MikeB4:

My disabilities vary, I have periods where I can walk and use all my bits and pieces, there are times when I am unable to walk and have limited use of my arms and hands to varying degrees. It can even change day to day

where I go to bed being able to walk and wake in the morning unable to walk.

I know that no two trackpads are the same and when I was working I used Acer, HP, Lenovo and Dell laptops and they mostly had horrible trackpads. I have used a MacBook a few years back and it had a fantastic trackpad

that felt like glass and the curser movement was the same as a mouse. My Wife has a HP Enterprise Laptop and its trackpad is average at best but it has one of the Thinkpad like buttons that works the curser quite well.

I would like to be able to use a computer in my wheelchair inside and out, I have an iPad and as excellent as it is it is not quite the same. The Surface 3 I have is only partially useful on the lap.

Maybe I should make some enquiries about demo units to see what would suit me best.

I echo that, I have an iPad and its awesome for social media, browsing and watching video but anything design or typing its a nightmare.

I would explain your situation and see if you can get a loan MacBook to try for a week or something either from someone you know, a store or through an organisation.

The main reason to go with a desktop would be the power but I have used mid-range Laptop with Photoshop and no issues, long as it has decent memory and a SSD you'll be fine. There's also the option to keep a desk handy with a monitor, mouse and keyboard and have the best of both Worlds.

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#1499075 25-Feb-2016 12:07

The main differences are

Speed, Storage, and screen size.

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