Compare Laptops

It’s easy to compare laptops. There are even websites with special application that allow you to choose between different laptop models and they will show you a table with a column for each laptop model and a list of all the specs, side by side, to see which one has better performances.
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Be careful not to compare a $4000 laptop with an $800 dollars one. Laptop comparison is used when you have similarly priced laptops and it is difficult for you to decide which one of them to buy. To compare laptops may sometimes turn out more efficient than to read a 3,000 word review. Reviews are ok because they explain just how each of that laptop’s component works and some reviews even tell you how your laptop is better or worse than the main competitor models.

Let’s see an example. We shall compare the Dell Vostro 1310 with the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400. They are both budget laptops dedicated for basic and medium business needs. The starting price for both of these laptops is $800 but it can rise depending on the components you choose (if you want faster processors or more RAM) and the extra features you want (like a green color for the Dell of a fingerprint reader for the Lenovo).  The Dell Vostro 1310 has a 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 processor. The Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 on the other hand, has 6 different processor models you can choose from. They are all Intel Core 2 Duo models. There is the T9400 at 2.53 GHz, the P8600 at 2.4 GHz, the P8400 at 2.26 GHz, the T5870 at 2.0 GHz and the T5670 at 1.8 GHz. Even if the Lenovo offers more choices as far as the processor goes, the Vostro has more options for the operating system. The Lenovo can give you your unit with Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic, Genuine Windows Vista Business, Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate and Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium while the Dell Vostro allows you to choose between Genuine Windows Vista Business, Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate, Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic, Genuine Windows XP Professional, Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate to XP Professional Downgrade Rights and Genuine Windows Vista Business to XP Professional Downgrade Rights. Although there was not such information available, my guess is that you can probably get these laptops with Windows 7 installed.

The display of the Vostro is smaller than the display of the ThinkPad. The 14.1 inch display of the ThinkPad SL400 comes in WXGA VibranView, WXGA Anti-glare and the WXGA+ Anti-glare screen options while the Vostro has a 13.3 inch Widescreen WXGA which is simple or with TrueLife. Both of these laptops have only 2 choices for the graphics card. This is no surprise considering that they are low budget laptops which are not meant for gaming and if you don’t wish to play Far Cry, then the weak video card is not going to concern you very much. The Dell Vostro 1310 comes with an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 or the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS with 128 MB of video memory. The Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 offers the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X450 or the nVidia GeForce 9300M with 256 MB of video memory.  The Dell lets you choose between a 160 GB and a 320 GB hard disk but the Lenovo has far more options, of 80, 160, 250 and 320 GB of available storage space. We like to see that we have many options to choose from, although most of us like to have a lot of storage space in our laptop because you never know when things start to add up.

Since it has a smaller display, the Dell is lighter at the weight of 4.45 lbs while the Lenovo is as heavy as 5.5 lbs. And now we are going to compare the number of ports and connections of these 2 laptops. I think it’s important to choose a notebook that has many ports and connections because you may end up using most of them even if at the beginning you though they were pretty useful. Many USB ports will come in handy if you need to attach an external mouse, a memory stick and even the digital camera cable to download pictures simultaneously. It can be annoying to keep removing one when you need to attach another.  The Lenovo has 4 x USB 2.0 ports, an external display, RJ-11, RJ-45, plus the headphones and line-out, external microphone and the HDMI port. As for the Dell, it also has 4 x USB ports, a VGA out and an Ethernet jack. This result in not surprising since smaller laptops have fewer ports and fewer connections because it’s difficult to cramp everything in small spaces.

However, both of these laptops are very good if you plan to equip a small office or even a bigger one if you give it to employees with basic tasks. They will be good for the accountant as well as for the secretary. These laptops are ok if you need to surf the internet and read or write some e-mails. They are good for such research and they can run office applications like Open Office or Microsoft Office suite. They are both trustworthy brands. Lenovo even has some very powerful laptops. We have written before about those dual screen computers that are excellent for people who work with graphics programs. I’m sure we will meet with those laptops again.Keep in mind to compare laptops with similar prices. Otherwise, comparison may be useless and quite unfair. Also remember that if the web site where you compare unit does not offer such information, you can always check the manufacturers web site to see if you can choose between different components for that model that you want to buy. Comparing laptops is an excellent way of finally deciding which would be the wisest purchase choice. Come to think of, I’ll go see who is better: the Toshiba Qosmio or the Dell XPS gaming laptops.