Hi all,
I bought myself a new laptop a few weeks back, and while I know no one ever says "don't buy what I just bought . it's terrible!", I thought to share what I found in case anyone was looking for the same type of item. I wanted a powerful fast laptop with a large comfortable keyboard, and if possible, a numeric keypad built-in. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a touch-screen or a high-resolution tablet that I couldn't use; and I didn't want it to be too heavy to easily carry around. I inlisted the help of some sighted relatives, and finally decided on a Dell E6530 (the primary reason was that their laptops were very configurable when you ordered one; you had an enormous number of options). To get one which had more emphasis on capabilities, and less emphasis on touch screens and gaming features I had to order from the Dell Small Business collection. This is important to know if you want the same type of notebook/laptop; small business usually means less trendy graphics options. I got a 15 inch screen, but with a large comfortable keyboard which has a numeric keypad, and a full set of modifier keys on both sides of the spacebar (the one key which is missing is the "applications key", usually found to the right of the space bar, it can be used to bring up a context menu, the same as shift-F10). It has a full set of function keys (which are configured as function keys and not preset to execute various programs), a set of "six pack" and arrow keys, and buttons for mute and volume controls. I chose the 32-bit form of Windows 7 (you had your choice of Win 7 or 8, and 32 or 64 bit; my reading tells me the extra memory usable by the 64 bit version of windows is rarely a big enhancement, while the troubles and incompatibilities of the 64-bit requirements can be quite aggravating; in any case, you can have it your way whatever you want). I chose an I7 dual-core processor (next to their best; their best being a quad-core, but which automatically upgraded the graphics card and the resolution of the monitor, throwing a lot of money into the graphics options). The performance numbers for the process and memory are all around 7.2 and 7.6. I chose a hybrid hard drive (a standard hard drive which has a very very large memory cache to enhance speed and reduce power consumption by allowing the drive to spin down). You also have choices for just a traditional hard drive of different sizes or a SD hard drive (which is small, but which is memory only). It has a bay for removable devices where I keep the CD/DVD RW device mostly, but if you buy other devices you can pop out the optical device and put in something else (another battery, I'm not sure what all they sell for the bay). It weighs around 5 pounds, and I got the 9-cell extended battery, which gives me around 5 hours (or sometimes more) of operating time. You need to buy a larger capacity charger when you buy the extended battery, because it has a feature where it can charge the battery to 80% capacity in less than an hour. It's physically somewhat wider than my last 15 inch laptop due to the full-size keyboard. It's very cool when sitting on your lap. You can get a cell modem as an option, an SD card reader, a wireless link for the video to a monitor somewhere in the room, and of course various levels of WiFi and bluetooth. It also has several USB 2.0 and 3.0 connectors. An unusual option I purchased is a docking station; it allows you to keep the power and any external video and USB and Ethernet devices plugged into the doc, and you can just lower your laptop into the dock and it can start using all of these without you having to fiddle with the connections (and the dock will accommodate the extended battery). The dock also comes with the larger capacity charger mentioned above. One unusual feature is the audio connector for a headset. It's a new standard in that it accepts a four connection 3.5 mm plug for a stereo headset with mike, but will also except a standard 3.5 mm stereo earphone connection (no mike). When I went looking on the internet, I had trouble finding a stereo headset with mike which had one of these new four connection 3.5mm plugs. There is no separate 3.5mm mike input, but you can buy an adapter from places like Radio Shack which gives you the separate mike and headphone jacks. I see a 2.5mm jack as well, which I think is for a cell type of headset connection, and another which I think is a mike input. The internal speakers are extremely good (and quite loud) as compared to my last laptop. There's also a mini-pci card slot, and an e-sata connector (for external disk drives I think). If you need to share with a sighted user they also offer this in a variety of screen sizes and resolutions, and a separate graphics card for anyone who wants "gaming level graphics". The price is so dependent on your choices for all of the options that it makes little sense to place any value on the number I finally paid (somewhere around $1400 I think); it's not going to be the cheapest notebook, but it can be configured to be anything you want, and it certainly is easy and comfortable to use. With that price I obviously chose every expensive option. Oh, BTW, Dell made a point of saying they gave you an option of having no extra software installed from third-parties by them (which I chose), and indeed, it came with no "shovelware" at all! Not one thing! Finally, I purchased a backpack carrying case from them instead of the traditional shoulder bag; I'm very impressed with the backpack, which has a lot of places for books and water-bottles and cell phones, not just the laptop (and is black with orange trim). Hth, Chip If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv.
