WDB
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Post by WDB on May 3, 2017 22:25:06 GMT
With the imminent end of my job (did I mention that?) I can no longer rely on my corporate drone laptop for job hunting and other duties, and the low-spec HP that was hardly state of the art in 2011 won't do either. So I need a new laptop.
Part of my Me Time strategy during the interim is to take pictures and to learn some better digital editing techniques, so the new machine will need the power to do that. I'm thinking an i5 chip and 8GB of RAM.
I will also want to take it to interviews and similar, and not to feel encumbered or embarrassed by it, so a 13-14" screen is big enough. And a bit of solid, non-flashy style will help.
Full sized SD slot and HDMI port reduce the need for adapters. Keyboard needs to feel nice and ideally will be backlit.
I found an excellent candidate yesterday: Dell Inspiron 13-5000, current-gen i5, 8GB, 256GB SSD. It was on the counter in front of me in Currys and they wouldn't sell it to me. So I need to look elsewhere. The Dell would have cost me £567 but similar machines run to £850 or more.
Today in John Lewis I saw the Dell XPS-13, which is tiny delightful but short of full-size connectors and costs over £1000, do probably not. Any hot tips?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2017 22:49:04 GMT
Mmmm, if you are intending to take a laptop to interviews then we need to talk.
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WDB
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Posts: 7,425
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Post by WDB on May 4, 2017 5:38:18 GMT
Not routinely. More that I'd like it to be small enough to have in the bag to write up my thoughts afterwards. But some interviews these days require the candidate to make a presentation, and I'd prefer my own kit to look fit for that task.
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Post by commerdriver on May 4, 2017 7:25:20 GMT
Small expensive laptop eh?
I have just switched, courtesy of my employer, to a MacBook Pro 13in with SSD
Certainly small
Definitely expensive
Would do you proud except for the ports, it has only 4 USB-c ports and a headphone socket, so you would need adapters, the ones I have are fairly small & don't look out of place if that matters. In a networked cloud based world
I don't anticipate much need for adapters except occasionally attaching a projector
I love it, after more than 20 years of clunky, heavy but reliable Lenovo's it has a great feel to it.
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Post by Hofmeister on May 4, 2017 8:55:09 GMT
I have just changed my 6 year old 11inch Macbook air for a 13 inch macbook air (rumour mill says it is going to disappear) Although generally disparaging about Apple and everything they do, the Macbook is so good
that it overides that distaste.
They are incredibly well built and robust (the 6 year old one is still going strong, tho the battery is now 40% knackered after 2000 charging cycles), handles heat dispersion really well and the OS is really light on disk space and CPU usage. Amazingly its never been reloaded, and where windows would be a cripple by now, this still boots up speedily. I edited all my youtube vids using the built in app "Imovie" on it, and all photos using the free "iphoto"*
Apples implementation of bluetooth is shit, and you might need to buy a couple of thunderbird port interfaces (cheap on ebay) but I think a macbook would suit your needs admirably
*Iphoto has been updated, and is nowhere near as good as the old one. You can transfer the old app to a new one tho.
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Post by Hofmeister on May 4, 2017 8:56:02 GMT
Oh and there is a short but steep learning curve if you are a windows spert, and have never used one before.
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Post by commerdriver on May 4, 2017 9:13:28 GMT
Oh and there is a short but steep learning curve if you are a windows spert, and have never used one before. amen to that about a week to find all the normal use functions and get used to the trackpad I suspect I will still be finding new things about Mac usage for some months to come Have been v impressed on how it has fitted in as a work machine, all my email / MS office requirements etc, even Citrix type access to servers / sql etc |
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Post by Humph on May 4, 2017 9:28:38 GMT
Good luck WDB. Never an easy time job hunting when you need one. But, sometimes change is ultimately for the best.
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Post by Hofmeister on May 4, 2017 10:07:34 GMT
Oh and there is a short but steep learning curve if you are a windows spert, and have never used one before. amen to that about a week to find all the normal use functions and get used to the trackpad I suspect I will still be finding new things about Mac usage for some months to come Have been v impressed on how it has fitted in as a work machine, all my email / MS office requirements etc, even Citrix type access to servers / sql etc An hours free lesson at an apple store is a good place to start. |
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Post by Hofmeister on May 4, 2017 10:08:37 GMT
Good luck WDB. Never an easy time job hunting when you need one. But, sometimes change is ultimately for the best. Sounds like it was planned? |
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Post by commerdriver on May 4, 2017 10:19:12 GMT
amen to that about a week to find all the normal use functions and get used to the trackpad I suspect I will still be finding new things about Mac usage for some months to come Have been v impressed on how it has fitted in as a work machine, all my email / MS office requirements etc, even Citrix type access to servers / sql etc An hours free lesson at an apple store is a good place to start. might have been a good idea but missed that now, would that have been possible since no apple shop was involved with the acquisition? OTOH I have never been one to read the instructions before I start :-) Biggest natural instinct I have to quash is going to the top right to minimise a window rather than the top left, but I expect it will come in time. |
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Post by Hofmeister on May 4, 2017 10:22:49 GMT
Have been v impressed on how it has fitted in as a work machine, all my email / MS office requirements etc, even Citrix type access to servers / sql etc Is the old firm still using Notes? |
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Post by commerdriver on May 4, 2017 10:40:58 GMT
Have been v impressed on how it has fitted in as a work machine, all my email / MS office requirements etc, even Citrix type access to servers / sql etc Is the old firm still using Notes? Sure is, even that works OK on the shiny thing. |
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Post by tyrednexited on May 5, 2017 7:00:53 GMT
Is the old firm still using Notes? ....I've still got my complete Notes archive from work, complete with an installation that still works on Windows 7. Haven't looked at it for a long time* ...but you never know. *when I do/did reference it, I sometimes wonder at the obvious competence of whoever it was that wrote all that stuff......  |
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WDB
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Posts: 7,425
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Post by WDB on May 5, 2017 7:02:04 GMT
Thanks, chaps. No, the job change wasn't planned - not by me anyway. The landing is a reasonably soft one after nine years - and got a little softer yesterday when I coaxed an improved allowance against my legal fees out of the HR department.
So I'm applying my best man-maths and thinking that the legal money was spent anyway, so the extra can go into the laptop fund. That puts my budget into the £1000 region, which brings some very smart machines into range - perhaps importantly, machines with better screens than a £600 machine would have.
I'd not seriously considered a MacBook but you're persuading me that I should. Elementary question: will my Office 365 licence, currently employed on the old HP at home, simply transfer to an Apple device? I don't think there's much other paid-for software I'd need to re-purchase, except perhaps for PaintShop Pro, and my version needs updating anyway, so it might be time to learn the Apple or Adobe equivalents.
The Macbook isn't a convertible or a 2-in-1, of course. I do like the idea of one of those. But I'm also impressed by Sven's six years without a rebuild; Windows's habit of fouling its own nest and gradually grinding to a halt is infuriating and seems not to have gone away, which does make me wary of spending £1000 on another machine that will probably go the same way.
Perhaps I'll forget about Currys for now. Buying shouldn't be such hard work, so I'll try John Lewis for a more rewarding experience.
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