In the computing world, people tend to have a skewed idea of what things should cost. On one end of the spectrum, I see people forking over their life savings for a MacBook Pro, and on the other people spend $499 on a mini-netbook which will barely satisfy their needs for one and a half years. Sort of like buying a car, there is a price point at which you get everything you need; if you go more expensive you are paying more for things that don’t matter, go less and you are missing features that you will need. For a car, the equilibrium price is about $22,000. For $22,000 almost everyones needs will be taken care of. The $16,000 car will not do much of what the $22,000 car can do, and the $22,000 care can do almost everything the $33,000 car can do. If you blindfold yourself and walk into a dealer with a $22,000 bank check, whatever you walk out with is almost guaranteed to be what you want / need.
When shopping for a laptop, $1000 is the magic number. Last week I was given a hard limit budget of $1000 for a new laptop. I went to my favorite reseller’s website and found the best laptop (by model number) I could find. The price was about $929 for a HP Elitebook 8440p. I ordered a $70 memory upgrade which busted the budget by a few dollars. Most people could live without that upgrade. I barely looked at the specs of the laptop and when it arrived I was floored.
The elitebook is a 14 inch laptop, that size screen is just big enough to be looked at but small enough that the laptop is not a honking piece industrial hardware. Have you ever tried to travel with a laptop that has a 17″ screen? The screen has a webcam built in, I never us it, but frequent ‘cammers or video conferencers will appreciate it. The bezel is a smooth brushed aluminum which reminds me of the $2,400 MacBook Pro. HP has improved its keyboards. The new ones have raised typing surfaced which makes it nearly impossible to strike two keys at once and provide decent tactile feedback. Mine does not have a 10-key but the larger screen versions do. The 14.1″ inch screen has a maximum resolution of 1366 by 768, which is not bad from the base level video card. You can spend more for a higher resolution card, but you don’t need it.
This laptop comes with all the things you expect. I was surprised to find an external SATA port. Few people will ever use that, but those who do will appreciate it. It comes standard with 2 gigabytes of RAM, which is less than you want, the upgrade is only $50 to $70. The true star in this laptop is the Core i5 mobile processor. It runs at a respectable 2.4 GHz with 2 cores. This processor includes Intel’s hyper-threading technology. This should mean nothing to you except that it allows the processor to have double capacity. Windows 7 thinks this computer has 4 processors, even though its a dual core processor. The result is an interface that has zero waiting time. Even with too little RAM you are never left waiting for your computer. This is an area people tend to go cheap to save money. The i3 is a fine processor, but the i5 will deliver much better for a lot longer.
As far as software is concerned, it is not worth using the XP “downgrade” option. Windows 7 is far better in every respect and pretty much every PC software manufacturer has made sure its products are compatible. Don’t spend money on anti-virus, get Microsoft’s free “Security Essentials” software found here. Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 (2010 if its available) is everything you need. If you actually use MS Access you need to get the pro version. This may push your budget over $1000. Skip it and install later if your budget is inflexible. You may want to get the three year 24/7 support, but that will run you. Consider this carefully. Most of the time you will never use this service. IT departments buy it because it eases hardware replacement logistics by a wide margin.
This budget laptop will get you pretty far down the road. The manufacturer does not matter, a similar Dell is within $50 of my rig. Consider the more expensive alternatives. The i7 processor has more cores but its slower. Most applications you run will not be able to use 8 cores anyway, so you are better off with the i5. Memory is easily upgradeable after the sale and often at a lower price. You could get the higher quality video card, but you will only notice an improvement if you must have HDMI output or if you are using a program like AutoCAD. The base card has great resolution.
Larger screens make the computer more bulky. Mobile 10-keys make the keyboard even more cramped. Get an LCD monitor for $90 and an external 10-key for $10. For $100 you get much better parts for a fraction of the cost. You get the added benefit of being able to use 2 monitors which gives you a lot of screen real-estate.
Do you have a budget computer that exceeded your expectations? Tell us about it in the comments section.