[nfbcs] Choosing a Laptop

Nancy Coffman nancy.l.coffman at gmail.com
Sun Mar 18 20:32:08 UTC 2018 

Hello:

One thing I look for when buying a laptop is a setting in the bios that allows use of the function keys without the fn key. Some laptops require you to use the fn key with a function key to perform a windows or application function. Without it, the function keys control media functions such as volume, play and display settings.

I also enjoy having a button for wi-fi, a mute button and a volume switch if I can get it. 

In my opinion, assistive technology requires more computing power than something running without assistive technology. As well as good processor speed, you want one with fast memory and good drive speed or a solid state drive.

I am not inclined to buy computers from places like Office Depot because I think they tend to sell computers with slower parts such as memory and motherboard. I have had good luck at Best Buy and I appreciate that they give 0% financing for several months, depending on the cost of the machine. Being a developer, you probably also want a numeric keypad on your laptop.

Good luck in your laptop search. The next thing you will probably want to do is remove apps and programs you don't plan to use. Business computers tend to have less unnecessary apps.


Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 18, 2018, at 1:12 PM, Jude DaShiell via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Before buying any solid state drive, I'd check based on price for similar capacity drives in older technology.  Reason for that is solid state drives have failed to live up to their hype and are no more reliable than the older technology they try to replace.  At least one report to this effect was in the howtogeek.com newsletter but even before that, I have a source still working for the Navy who is definitely on the side of technical things tell me this as well.
> 
>> On Sun, 18 Mar 2018, Nicole Torcolini via nfbcs wrote:
>> 
>> Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2018 14:02:15
>> From: Nicole Torcolini via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>,
>>    "'undisclosed-recipients:'" <MISSING_MAILBOX at MISSING_DOMAIN>
>> Cc: Nicole Torcolini <ntorcolini at wavecable.com>
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Choosing a Laptop
>> 
>>    Be careful if you buy a Lenova. Their battery life is great, ut some
>> of them have really weird keyboard layouts.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jeffrey D Stark
>> via nfbcs
>> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2018 4:29 PM
>> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'; undisclosed-recipients:
>> Cc: Jeffrey D Stark
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Choosing a Laptop
>> 
>> I'd never buy a laptop without a SSD.  I just finished a purchase about a
>> year ago of Lenovo T500 series laptops for myself and both of my parents.  I
>> ended up replacing the hdd in the laptop with a SSD because I really wasn't
>> happy with the performance without the SSD.  They ended up replacing theirs
>> too, for each of their laptops.
>> 
>> Why I bought this 1 was the fact that while it was heavier/larger, it had a
>> full size keyboard with numeric keypad and was designed to run all day.
>> 
>> Most companies sell both a consumer and corporate series.  The corporate
>> devices are designed to last longer and be used more frequently.
>> 
>> The consumer devices tend to have better video cards and the corporate
>> devices tend to be more upgrade-able.
>> 
>> Our IT shop buys Lenovo for similar reasons.  I did not buy my ram or SSD
>> from Lenovo but bought these afterwards and added them to the device
>> manually to save tons on the cost.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfbcs <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Lanie Molinar via nfbcs
>> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2018 12:01 PM
>> To: undisclosed-recipients:
>> Cc: Lanie Molinar <laniemolinar91 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [nfbcs] Choosing a Laptop
>> 
>> Hi, everyone. This is Lanie Molinar. I'm sending this to a lot of lists at
>> once. Some are tech-related, some are related to software development, and
>> some are for students. I might have to get a new laptop soon and have a few
>> questions. First, let me give you a little background info to help you
>> understand what I'm looking for. I'm a college student getting a degree in
>> Software Engineering, so I'll be working with code and developing things. I
>> also have several disabilities and health issues in addition to my
>> blindness, so I can't do much physically and spend a lot of my day on the
>> computer doing schoolwork, taking surveys for extra money, gaming, and doing
>> lots of other stuff. I'm fairly sure that I want a computer with Windows 10,
>> not a Mac, although I'm willing to look into a Mac if that seems better. I
>> would also be happy with something running Linux. I definitely want
>> something new, not used, with plenty of RAM. There are so many options that
>> I'm just not sure what to look for or where to get it. Again, I also need
>> something that can handle being used all day, gaming, and developing
>> software. My family is low-income, so I need to get it from somewhere that
>> offers good payment plans. Can anyone give me some advice on how to choose a
>> laptop, good places to buy one from, and what I should get? For those on
>> software development- related lists, I'm interested in what would be best
>> for a developer. I would really appreciate any help. Thanks.
>> 
>> 
>> ---
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