Comments on: Laptop comparison http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/ Random musings which I rather not say out loud :) Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Prasad http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/comment-page-1/#comment-1443 Prasad Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:48:40 +0000 http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/#comment-1443 @Ashish - you are welcome :-) @Niyant - The parameter I had said was simple cost. What you are indicating though is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) which a lot of procurement managers swear by. A line comes to mind on TCO ... "If TCO is the parameter to choose, then buy a pencil" :-). However good point made, but why would you want to upgrade from XP to 7? I have a monster machine at home, I still run XP on it. @Ashish – you are welcome :-)
@Niyant – The parameter I had said was simple cost. What you are indicating though is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) which a lot of procurement managers swear by. A line comes to mind on TCO … “If TCO is the parameter to choose, then buy a pencil” :-) . However good point made, but why would you want to upgrade from XP to 7? I have a monster machine at home, I still run XP on it.

]]> By: niyant http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/comment-page-1/#comment-1442 niyant Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:22:10 +0000 http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/#comment-1442 It's a great chart and will help make an objective decision. I've been a Toshiba user for a lot of years now - my first laptop was a Toshiba and so is my second one though I might lean towards the Apple when I consider my next purchase. I have a slightly different opinion wrt Apple being rated only '1' on Price. Agreed Apple's macbooks are priced at a premium when compared to the PC-based laptops but it may not be as simple as considering the upfront cost. I was having a discussion with a friend who's been using a macbook pro for the last 7 yrs or so and he explained that if his were a pc-based laptop he would've had to upgrade because he would not be able to run the latest version of the windows os at a decent speed on older hardware. He said that with macs, this ain't the case. He runs snow leopard with equal ease on his old machine -- OSX is more efficiently built and better integrated with the hardware. While one might have to go through a forced upgrade of a pc every few years (based on one's individual tolerance limits), this may not be the case with macs. So, consider I bought a pc-based laptop for $900 in YR1, and my friend bought a macbook pro for $1500 at the same time. Now its Y5 and my windows OS is two generations old (WinXP -> Win7), and loading the latest windows OS makes my machine crawl - so I scrap my laptop and get a new one for another $900 (or more with inflation kicking in). On the other hand my friend is still getting great performance with his macbook pro. So, I end up spending upwards of $1800 on my pc-based hardware while my friend has yet spent only $1500 on his mac. So, whats more cost-effective? ;-) It’s a great chart and will help make an objective decision.

I’ve been a Toshiba user for a lot of years now – my first laptop was a Toshiba and so is my second one though I might lean towards the Apple when I consider my next purchase.

I have a slightly different opinion wrt Apple being rated only ’1′ on Price. Agreed Apple’s macbooks are priced at a premium when compared to the PC-based laptops but it may not be as simple as considering the upfront cost. I was having a discussion with a friend who’s been using a macbook pro for the last 7 yrs or so and he explained that if his were a pc-based laptop he would’ve had to upgrade because he would not be able to run the latest version of the windows os at a decent speed on older hardware. He said that with macs, this ain’t the case. He runs snow leopard with equal ease on his old machine — OSX is more efficiently built and better integrated with the hardware. While one might have to go through a forced upgrade of a pc every few years (based on one’s individual tolerance limits), this may not be the case with macs.

So, consider I bought a pc-based laptop for $900 in YR1, and my friend bought a macbook pro for $1500 at the same time. Now its Y5 and my windows OS is two generations old (WinXP -> Win7), and loading the latest windows OS makes my machine crawl – so I scrap my laptop and get a new one for another $900 (or more with inflation kicking in). On the other hand my friend is still getting great performance with his macbook pro. So, I end up spending upwards of $1800 on my pc-based hardware while my friend has yet spent only $1500 on his mac.

So, whats more cost-effective? ;-)

]]> By: Aina http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/comment-page-1/#comment-1441 Aina Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:44:03 +0000 http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/#comment-1441 And I am very thankful for the comparision! And I am very thankful for the comparision!

]]> By: Prasad http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/comment-page-1/#comment-1438 Prasad Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:01:20 +0000 http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/#comment-1438 @durga - Shucks, I experienced excellent service from Dell on both occassions. Maybe because for both the times I was associated with one institution or the other. Their retail service might be bad. @Ni - Changed the price weightage. Thanks for pointing that out. Another approach that comes to mind is to list down your expectations. And work from there. @durga – Shucks, I experienced excellent service from Dell on both occassions. Maybe because for both the times I was associated with one institution or the other. Their retail service might be bad.

@Ni – Changed the price weightage. Thanks for pointing that out. Another approach that comes to mind is to list down your expectations. And work from there.

]]> By: Niharika http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/comment-page-1/#comment-1437 Niharika Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:52:12 +0000 http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/#comment-1437 WOW! love the interactive excel. one thing tho, the wt for price is missing. i would give that the highest wt. cos even tho according to this scale apple and sony score high, they also come at a higher price so to make it a fair comparison and also show the importance ppl give to price, there shld be an option to put a wt to it. Another approach is to figure how people make buying decisions...most people start with a budget and then move backwards to get the best deal in that budget according to their needs. Livemint had made an analysis of laptops using this approach. Chk it here... http://www.livemint.com/2010/01/26230008/Before-the-last-lap.html WOW! love the interactive excel. one thing tho, the wt for price is missing. i would give that the highest wt. cos even tho according to this scale apple and sony score high, they also come at a higher price so to make it a fair comparison and also show the importance ppl give to price, there shld be an option to put a wt to it.

Another approach is to figure how people make buying decisions…most people start with a budget and then move backwards to get the best deal in that budget according to their needs. Livemint had made an analysis of laptops using this approach. Chk it here… http://www.livemint.com/2010/01/26230008/Before-the-last-lap.html

]]> By: durga http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/comment-page-1/#comment-1434 durga Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:05:43 +0000 http://kidakaka.com/blog/2010/03/12/laptop-comparison/#comment-1434 I dont know about other laptops, but I am not too very happy with DELL support nor with laptop as it is. Firslt, The motherboard screwed up as early as in 3 month and then I had to constantly call them up for a tech person. The tech person as well missed schedule I remember. later now, after 2 yrs ( i know the laptop degrades with time), my cd drive doesnot work any more. A replacement would be provided but only with 285$ for tech install :(, I gave up. I dont know about other laptops, but I am not too very happy with DELL support nor with laptop as it is.
Firslt, The motherboard screwed up as early as in 3 month and then I had to constantly call them up for a tech person. The tech person as well missed schedule I remember. later now, after 2 yrs ( i know the laptop degrades with time), my cd drive doesnot work any more. A replacement would be provided but only with 285$ for tech install :( , I gave up.

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