[NCLUG] A laptop computer

[Stephen Warren]

On 03/22/2012 06:24 AM, Kerry Miller wrote:
> Hello NCLUG,
> 
> I am in the market for a new laptop computer.  I have been told by a 
> couple technicians that ASUS makes the best laptop computer.  I have 
> receintly become aware that some laptop computers have a SATA disk 
> interface to an external disk drive and it sounds like I might like to 
> have such an interface among the other interfaces I think should be.  I 
> would consider offered opions.

One recommendation: Test the laptop (preferably using Linux) in person
before you buy it. A little story:

I used to have a Dell Inspiron 9300 (purchased about 6.5 years ago).
During that time, I simply could not understand why people didn't like
laptop touchpads (as opposed to external mice or the Thinkpad stick
pointer things).

About 1.5 years ago, I purchased an ASUS, and found the following input
device issues:

1) The touchpad is terrible. It's somewhat bad in Windows too, so I
think it's just the HW design. Testing the laptop in person probably
would have found this.

2) The idiots put Insert and Delete keys on the same physical key, so to
cut/paste, instead of pressing Ctrl+Insert/Shift+Insert, I have to press
Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Fn+Insert. This is very annoying considering I use
a desktop at work that doesn't have this issue, so I have to use the
keyboard differently. I might not have noticed this during testing, but
anytime I look at a laptop design now, I am careful to look at photos of
the keyboard layout.

3) The arrow keys aren't separated from the rest of the keyboard in any
way (no space around them, and they're in the same aligned set of
rows/columns as the other keys). This makes it hard to move my hand to
the arrow keys and back to typing position without looking, so I often
press left arrow instead of down arrow or similar)

(I have no idea if these issue apply to all ASUS, or just some). Buying
something someone else has and likes or e.g. visiting a Fry's
electronics or Best Buy might help.