Laptop Rant
I swear, I'm about to start tearing my hair out, here.
Okay, so I said before that I'm looking for a new laptop. Well, apparently most of the laptop manufacturers suck, because I can't seem to find a single device that has everything that I want. I keep finding devices that look good, and I get excited, thinking maybe I've finally found it...but no, it's missing one thing that I need. And not always the same thing! But always something. I want to scream.
I damn near bought an Acer Aspire F5 that I found. It seemed to have all the specs that I wanted, and the price was reasonable. I was honestly just about to order it...until I got a better look at the keyboard. For some ungodly reason, they smushed the arrow keys underneath the right shift key. So the up and down arrows are maybe half-size. Which means they are tiny. And they put the power button on the keyboard. I really don't like that. I fumble and hit the wrong key often enough as it is; the last thing I need is to be accidentally hitting the power button! And as I started looking around, I found that most laptops seem to have keyboards with wonky arrow keys. And some have relegated the navigation keys (Home/End/PgUp/PgDwn) to secondary functions on other keys. WTF, seriously, you guys! First you insist on sticking a number pad on all your keyboards, despite the fact that tons of people never use the thing, and then this is how you compensate? Ugh. I already don't much care for the chicklet style keyboards, but those seem to be pretty much the only kind offered anymore. But, I could adjust to that, I think. But not teeny tiny arrow keys or hidden navigation keys. I use them, and this will not work. Fuck...I just want a laptop with a keyboard like the one my current one has. It's nice! Normal keys, full-size arrow keys and right shift, normal navigation keys, no freaking number pad...why do they not make keyboards like this anymore? They're far more functional!
It's weird, too. There's no consistency. I've seen a few reasonably priced units with okay keyboards (but missing other things I need, so not an option for me), but a lot of them have the crappy ones. So, I start looking at slightly more expensive units. I don't want to have to spend a lot, but if I have to, then I have to. So I start looking at some 'gaming' laptops. I don't need the extra graphics support, but whatever. And it's the same thing...a few have okay keyboards, and many have crappy ones. Hell, I even read some articles on 'best laptops for 2016/17', and I even looked at the fancy, more expensive 'best of the best' options. Top flight Dells, HPs, and the like. All the features you could think of...and those damn shitty keyboards. WTF, seriously.
I really want to know who thought this up. Because, see...I'm a woman, and I have delicate fingers, as most women do. Not overly small of course, but smaller than a man's. And if I would have trouble with those bitty little arrow keys, how the hell are men supposed to use them? And the stereotype exists of men being more likely customers for computer products, so what the hell. Not to mention, I would expect that at least the fancy, expensive options would have better keyboards. That seems to be one thing that gets cut on the budget models in order to reduce prices. They have to offer decent specs, or people won't buy, so they skimp elsewhere.
Not to mention the annoying trend toward making laptops as physically light as possible means that they frequently leave out features that I need. Like using SSD instead of HDD. Well, to be fair, I'd be okay with an SSD, if I could get one big enough. But most I'm seeing are a little over 200GB. Seriously. 200GB. Who uses a hard drive that small? No, I need at least 1TB. And I've never seen a laptop with a 1TB SSD. (And I shudder to think how much it would cost if one did exist.) Also, so many of them are leaving out the optical drives anymore. I use my DVD drive a lot. I guess I could get an external drive, but I hate to have something else to have to carry around. And I use the drive often enough that it seems silly. If it were something I only used once in a while, an external might work. But I use it a lot. And I haven't priced them in a while, anyway. I'm sure they're cheaper now, but I hate the idea of spending big bucks on a laptop, only to have to go out and buy an external drive on top of it.
Oh, and speaking of small? What's with all these 13" notebooks? I mean, I don't mind that they exist, but I'm tired of that seeming to be the default. It seems like almost everything on any 'best of' list I read is a freaking 13". I have a 15" now, and I can't imagine using anything smaller. Bigger might not hurt, though it would be more of a pain to carry around. So, really, I think 15-15.6" is a good compromise. Big enough, but not as bad to carry. But 13" would just be too small.
Also, I want one that's upgradeable. I need at least 8GB of RAM to start, but I want room to grow. Yet a lot of the ones I'm seeing apparently solder some of their RAM in, so it can't be swapped out. This means that either you can't upgrade the RAM at all, or you can only swap out one stick. Which amounts to very little difference. Good lord...why do they do this? Well, no, I probably know. They figure if you can't upgrade it yourself, you'll have to just buy a new laptop. =P Besides wanting room to grow, this is also a problem for now. I might could buy a laptop with one spec that was wrong, and have Dad upgrade it as soon as I get it...if they were easy to upgrade. But many aren't, it seems. Most of the ones I've looked at don't even have the little panels on the bottom, so you can get at the upgradeable components. Oh, no. You have to take the entire bottom of the laptop off. =/ I read somewhere that this is due to the urge to make everything smaller, but that makes no sense to me. The bottom of the laptop isn't any thicker/heavier because it has removable panels than it is without them. So, again...I think they're just trying to make it difficult to upgrade, hoping that people will just buy a new laptop, instead. Which is shady as fuck, honestly.
...And I could probably go on, but I should really stop now. I'm just really frustrated right now. =/
Okay, so I said before that I'm looking for a new laptop. Well, apparently most of the laptop manufacturers suck, because I can't seem to find a single device that has everything that I want. I keep finding devices that look good, and I get excited, thinking maybe I've finally found it...but no, it's missing one thing that I need. And not always the same thing! But always something. I want to scream.
I damn near bought an Acer Aspire F5 that I found. It seemed to have all the specs that I wanted, and the price was reasonable. I was honestly just about to order it...until I got a better look at the keyboard. For some ungodly reason, they smushed the arrow keys underneath the right shift key. So the up and down arrows are maybe half-size. Which means they are tiny. And they put the power button on the keyboard. I really don't like that. I fumble and hit the wrong key often enough as it is; the last thing I need is to be accidentally hitting the power button! And as I started looking around, I found that most laptops seem to have keyboards with wonky arrow keys. And some have relegated the navigation keys (Home/End/PgUp/PgDwn) to secondary functions on other keys. WTF, seriously, you guys! First you insist on sticking a number pad on all your keyboards, despite the fact that tons of people never use the thing, and then this is how you compensate? Ugh. I already don't much care for the chicklet style keyboards, but those seem to be pretty much the only kind offered anymore. But, I could adjust to that, I think. But not teeny tiny arrow keys or hidden navigation keys. I use them, and this will not work. Fuck...I just want a laptop with a keyboard like the one my current one has. It's nice! Normal keys, full-size arrow keys and right shift, normal navigation keys, no freaking number pad...why do they not make keyboards like this anymore? They're far more functional!
It's weird, too. There's no consistency. I've seen a few reasonably priced units with okay keyboards (but missing other things I need, so not an option for me), but a lot of them have the crappy ones. So, I start looking at slightly more expensive units. I don't want to have to spend a lot, but if I have to, then I have to. So I start looking at some 'gaming' laptops. I don't need the extra graphics support, but whatever. And it's the same thing...a few have okay keyboards, and many have crappy ones. Hell, I even read some articles on 'best laptops for 2016/17', and I even looked at the fancy, more expensive 'best of the best' options. Top flight Dells, HPs, and the like. All the features you could think of...and those damn shitty keyboards. WTF, seriously.
I really want to know who thought this up. Because, see...I'm a woman, and I have delicate fingers, as most women do. Not overly small of course, but smaller than a man's. And if I would have trouble with those bitty little arrow keys, how the hell are men supposed to use them? And the stereotype exists of men being more likely customers for computer products, so what the hell. Not to mention, I would expect that at least the fancy, expensive options would have better keyboards. That seems to be one thing that gets cut on the budget models in order to reduce prices. They have to offer decent specs, or people won't buy, so they skimp elsewhere.
Not to mention the annoying trend toward making laptops as physically light as possible means that they frequently leave out features that I need. Like using SSD instead of HDD. Well, to be fair, I'd be okay with an SSD, if I could get one big enough. But most I'm seeing are a little over 200GB. Seriously. 200GB. Who uses a hard drive that small? No, I need at least 1TB. And I've never seen a laptop with a 1TB SSD. (And I shudder to think how much it would cost if one did exist.) Also, so many of them are leaving out the optical drives anymore. I use my DVD drive a lot. I guess I could get an external drive, but I hate to have something else to have to carry around. And I use the drive often enough that it seems silly. If it were something I only used once in a while, an external might work. But I use it a lot. And I haven't priced them in a while, anyway. I'm sure they're cheaper now, but I hate the idea of spending big bucks on a laptop, only to have to go out and buy an external drive on top of it.
Oh, and speaking of small? What's with all these 13" notebooks? I mean, I don't mind that they exist, but I'm tired of that seeming to be the default. It seems like almost everything on any 'best of' list I read is a freaking 13". I have a 15" now, and I can't imagine using anything smaller. Bigger might not hurt, though it would be more of a pain to carry around. So, really, I think 15-15.6" is a good compromise. Big enough, but not as bad to carry. But 13" would just be too small.
Also, I want one that's upgradeable. I need at least 8GB of RAM to start, but I want room to grow. Yet a lot of the ones I'm seeing apparently solder some of their RAM in, so it can't be swapped out. This means that either you can't upgrade the RAM at all, or you can only swap out one stick. Which amounts to very little difference. Good lord...why do they do this? Well, no, I probably know. They figure if you can't upgrade it yourself, you'll have to just buy a new laptop. =P Besides wanting room to grow, this is also a problem for now. I might could buy a laptop with one spec that was wrong, and have Dad upgrade it as soon as I get it...if they were easy to upgrade. But many aren't, it seems. Most of the ones I've looked at don't even have the little panels on the bottom, so you can get at the upgradeable components. Oh, no. You have to take the entire bottom of the laptop off. =/ I read somewhere that this is due to the urge to make everything smaller, but that makes no sense to me. The bottom of the laptop isn't any thicker/heavier because it has removable panels than it is without them. So, again...I think they're just trying to make it difficult to upgrade, hoping that people will just buy a new laptop, instead. Which is shady as fuck, honestly.
...And I could probably go on, but I should really stop now. I'm just really frustrated right now. =/