Advice on going from Desktop computers to Laptops

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#1499078 25-Feb-2016 12:20

Well I am with the group saying don't switch to a notebook. I have used both extensively but I am considerably more productive on a Desktop. Notebooks are useful for portability, but if I had to have a notebook it would be attached to a good quality dual screen setup with a docking station, full keyboard and mouse.

I am with the others who say notebooks not as good for performance than desktops.

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#1499080 25-Feb-2016 12:27

MikeB4:
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.

A LIGHT laptop will suit you well. Need good battery life too.

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#1499090 25-Feb-2016 12:42

Laptop localised heat output & fan noise can be mildly annoying. That said, macbook is better than most for vent design. Except for complex photo work your CPU loads look on the low side.

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#1499130 25-Feb-2016 13:23

MikeB4,

You're getting a lot of good advice but I think you should be clear that there are two sets of issues: the technology and the way you work.

I apologise in advance if it seems like I'm trying to teach you to suck eggs. I've gone into detail for anyone else who reads this thread.

The workstation should be your focus rather than the hardware

You should first look at how you want to work and what you want to achieve before deciding on the technology which provides the best solution for you.

This also explains why different people have different opinions on whether to use a laptop versus a desktop because it is the human workstation that determines the better option. The workstation is where a person works. It is unfortunate that the term has been co-opted to mean the computer technology in the human workstation.

Many parts of us are affected by the quality of our workstation: posture, eyesight, performance/fatigue, creativity, memory, etc. Personally, I wouldn't choose a laptop if it had a negative impact on my health or performance. This means that I do most of my work on my laptops with a docking station and external screen, keyboard and mouse.

The primary difference between laptops and desktops is portability which is currently tied to power use

Portability is the key factor because it means that the solution requires an independent power supply and smaller, lighter casings and components.

Power use is a secondary factor but it is, at present, tightly coupled with portability. The requirement for an independent power supply means, with current technology, that batteries are used and there is a need to minimise power consumption. At some point there will be a shift in the economics of portability, either to a new computing technology or a continuation of the present technology with an independent power generator (e.g. solar, hydrogen cells) added.

All the other factors are secondary and only really matter when you bring cost into the comparison. At the same price point, the higher cost of providing portability means that other factors "performance, storage and screen size" then become relevant.

Laptops are neither designed for or good for using in your lap

Vents and inlets on the bottom of the laptop are evidence that laptops are not designed to be used on an uneven surface, like our laps, where those vents can be blocked.

Ergonomic (human to machine interfaces) factors also show this. For example, it is best to view screens at the same level as our eye-line. It can take as little as an hour for a user to become aware of the negative impact of looking down at a screen in their lap.

Just because you don't notice anything negative doesn't mean that you're not laying down trouble for yourself later on. You might not even notice a small increase in fatigue or a lowering of your performance. Postural and eyesight issues can take a long time to have obvious and sometimes irreversible results.

It is better to keep electronics away from our bodies to reduce the impact of heat and electromagnetism.

Don't confuse the input device options with the laptop versus desktop issue.

If I want a more compact keyboard then I don't need a laptop to get it. If I want a separate keyboard with a ThinkPad-like stick in the middle then I can buy that too.

Likewise with touchscreens, I can get a standalone touchscreen for my desktop.

The suggestion of using a gaming mouse or one with more buttons is a really good one if you are one handed because you won't have to move between the mouse and keyboard anywhere near as much. But that is not a laptop versus desktop issue.

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#1499134 25-Feb-2016 13:25

The decision seems harder than I though it would be.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

MikeB4

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#1499136 25-Feb-2016 13:31

Hammerer:

MikeB4,

You're getting a lot of good advice but I think you should be clear that there are two sets of issues: the technology and the way you work.

I apologise in advance if it seems like I'm trying to teach you to suck eggs. I've gone into detail for anyone else who reads this thread.

The workstation should be your focus rather than the hardware

You should first look at how you want to work and what you want to achieve before deciding on the technology which provides the best solution for you.

This also explains why different people have different opinions on whether to use a laptop versus a desktop because it is the human workstation that determines the better option. The workstation is where a person works. It is unfortunate that the term has been co-opted to mean the computer technology in the human workstation.

Many parts of us are affected by the quality of our workstation: posture, eyesight, performance/fatigue, creativity, memory, etc. Personally, I wouldn't choose a laptop if it had a negative impact on my health or performance. This means that I do most of my work on my laptops with a docking station and external screen, keyboard and mouse.

The primary difference between laptops and desktops is portability which is currently tied to power use

Portability is the key factor because it means that the solution requires an independent power supply and smaller, lighter casings and components.

Power use is a secondary factor but it is, at present, tightly coupled with portability. The requirement for an independent power supply means, with current technology, that batteries are used and there is a need to minimise power consumption. At some point there will be a shift in the economics of portability, either to a new computing technology or a continuation of the present technology with an independent power generator (e.g. solar, hydrogen cells) added.

All the other factors are secondary and only really matter when you bring cost into the comparison. At the same price point, the higher cost of providing portability means that other factors "performance, storage and screen size" then become relevant.

Laptops are neither designed for or good for using in your lap

Vents and inlets on the bottom of the laptop are evidence that laptops are not designed to be used on an uneven surface, like our laps, where those vents can be blocked.

Ergonomic (human to machine interfaces) factors also show this. For example, it is best to view screens at the same level as our eye-line. It can take as little as an hour for a user to become aware of the negative impact of looking down at a screen in their lap.

Just because you don't notice anything negative doesn't mean that you're not laying down trouble for yourself later on. You might not even notice a small increase in fatigue or a lowering of your performance. Postural and eyesight issues can take a long time to have obvious and sometimes irreversible results.

It is better to keep electronics away from our bodies to reduce the impact of heat and electromagnetism.

Don't confuse the input device options with the laptop versus desktop issue.

If I want a more compact keyboard then I don't need a laptop to get it. If I want a separate keyboard with a ThinkPad-like stick in the middle then I can buy that too.

Likewise with touchscreens, I can get a standalone touchscreen for my desktop.

The suggestion of using a gaming mouse or one with more buttons is a really good one if you are one handed because you won't have to move between the mouse and keyboard anywhere near as much. But that is not a laptop versus desktop issue.

Excellent post, thank you very much for this. I am starting to think that maybe I should just replace my aging iMac with a new iMac. Gives me a smaller footprint to the desktop/tower I am currently using and the price differential between

a well spec'd MacBook Pro and an iMac is not that big. I could then use my iPad and Surface for portable duties.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#1499138 25-Feb-2016 13:33

Hammerer: Laptops are neither designed for or good for using in your lap. Vents and inlets on the bottom of the laptop are evidence that laptops are not designed to be used on an uneven surface, like our laps, where those vents can be blocked.

Macbook is an exception to this rule for many years now. No vents or inlets on bottom.

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#1499160 25-Feb-2016 13:57

gzt:
Hammerer: Laptops are neither designed for or good for using in your lap. Vents and inlets on the bottom of the laptop are evidence that laptops are not designed to be used on an uneven surface, like our laps, where those vents can be blocked.

Macbook is an exception to this rule for many years now. No vents or inlets on bottom.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that for the MacBook although there is usually a number of laptops on the market with no vent on the bottom even if they are only a ruggedised design. I'd still argue that MacBooks are not designed for laps based on not achieving good ergonomics.

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#1499203 25-Feb-2016 14:41

Hammerer:

gzt:
Hammerer: Laptops are neither designed for or good for using in your lap. Vents and inlets on the bottom of the laptop are evidence that laptops are not designed to be used on an uneven surface, like our laps, where those vents can be blocked.

Macbook is an exception to this rule for many years now. No vents or inlets on bottom.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that for the MacBook although there is usually a number of laptops on the market with no vent on the bottom even if they are only a ruggedised design. I'd still argue that MacBooks are not designed for laps based on not achieving good ergonomics.

I 100% agree with the staring down bit. My neck hurts after less than an hour of looking down.

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#1499214 25-Feb-2016 15:10

I think the word "Laptop"as applied to a portable computer is a misnomer. I can't think of a worse way to use any computer.

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#1499216 25-Feb-2016 15:18

That's why marketing came up with 'Notebook'. Notebooks have been used on laps for hundreds of years!

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#1499220 25-Feb-2016 15:37

I have big desktops and a little laptop (notebook). I use both and am glad to have them. Different things work best for different purposes and flexibility gives the best of both worlds. If feasible, I would recommend not making it an either/or situation, or at least keep a period of overlap until you see how it works out. Of course a laptop can also be a desktop with external keyboard, monitor, and usb drive.

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#1499237 25-Feb-2016 16:35

I recently went from a desktop (i5 Intel NUC with a 27" 2K screen) to a 13" MBP and have not regretted the move at all. I now do most things on my lap and only use the kitchen table if I'm doing a large amount of typing.

MBP trackpads are the bollox! Great keyboard and screen resolution - I use a 3rd party add-on to enable running at higher resolutions then osx retina settings.

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#1499300 25-Feb-2016 18:06

I use a 2009 15" MacBook Pro with 8gb Ram and SSD. I mainly use it as my desktop since it's connected to a 24" 1080p monitor, speakers and got the apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad.

When I do have to use it as a laptop I just unplug it. Simple as that. Best of both worlds.

Yeah I am a believer that if you don't need a computer for professional video editing or gaming then a notebook can easily double up as a desktop.

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#1499445 25-Feb-2016 21:47

I shifted from a desktop to a macbook air a few years ago.

It took a long time to adjust to the portability, and actually using the decent battery life.

My main lesson from it all was this: Get wireless and bluetooth peripherals if at all possible because plugging stuff in sucks, & because if your chosen device is 'ultraportable' then ports will be scarce. Also get plenty of built in storage for the same reason.

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