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PC Laptops are kinda disappointing

So today I decided to take my Acer TravelMate C110 home instead of the PowerBook. As I left my office, I closed the lid, and stuck it into my bag, and stuck it into my car.

Well you can imagine my surprise when 2 hours later, I took my bag out and felt that it was pretty darn warm. You can imagine my horror when I took the laptop out, and it was so hot I had to put it back down right away!

Of course, the laptop had stayed on, at full power. Yipes!

To this day, I continue to be perpetually disappointed with the PC laptop experience. They're almost always ugly, they have poor power management, they don't go to sleep guaranteed on on lid close, you can't change batteries without plugging them in, and the OEMs always add weird stuff to the machine.

For example, why did Toshiba add that stupid “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” on lid close feature? I mean, did they really envision a scenario in which a person who closes their laptop lid lets everyone in a 50 foot radius know “HEY! My Toshiba's lid is closing!! Look at me!!”

Then there are Sony Vaios with the jog wheel that doesn't do anything, and support for memory stick which no one uses.

And finally, there's my Acer, which has a bunch of extra rubber flaps that don't do anything.

I hope Longhorn will fix some of the weird OS/Hardware integration issues.

But for now, Apple definitely do laptops right IMHO.

Published Thursday, April 01, 2004 10:12 PM by decheung

Comments

 

Omar Shahine's WebLog said:

April 2, 2004 2:58 AM
 

M.Statton said:

My brother has a DELL and I completely understand what you're saying. Luckily, I have a 1GHz Powerbook. Wouldn't trade it for 100 Wintel / WinAMD laptops. If you don't have one...got down and buy one. I guarantee you won't be sorry.
April 2, 2004 7:29 AM
 

Melangell said:

And the stickers.... Yuck.
April 2, 2004 8:33 AM
 

LD said:

The same thing kept happening to me with my Dell Latitude. Of course, when I plug in an external monitor and *want* the machine to stay on with the lid closed, it goes right to sleep.
April 2, 2004 9:01 AM
 

Dennis T Cheung said:

Mine only has 2 stickers fortunately:
-Intel Centrino
-Designed for Microsoft Windows XP

Unfortunately, they're slightly raised, and they're on the wrist rest.
April 2, 2004 10:06 AM
 

S said:

Have G3 Powerbook 400 MHz (Pismo) and a new PowerBook 17 inch. They are fantastic. Super machines. Also retain their value for a long time. Excellent!

You can't go wrong with a PowerBook.
April 2, 2004 10:26 AM
 

Dennis T Cheung said:

Well I dunno about that either... there sure seem to be a lot of screen problems lately... especially in the older 15's
April 2, 2004 10:31 AM
 

Kevin Dente said:

The PC laptop experience varies wildly by vendor. For example, my IBM laptop goes to sleep just fine when you close the lid (and can also be set to hibernate, or sleep for a while then hibernate). While it seems that most desktop PCs are getting more similar than different, the same doesn't seem to be true for laptops.

BTW, my girlfriends PowerMac G4, which she has had for about a year, has a fine imprint of the keyboard keys on the screen (from when the lid is closed). I lost some respect for Apple engineering when I saw that.
April 2, 2004 11:18 AM
 

John Papola said:

Apple has addressed the keyboard fingerprint issue with the latest round of aluminum laptops, though I still put a leather protector down when i close it.

Apple's laptops are the best. People are just baffled by how quickly my powerbook comes out of sleep. And the fit and finish are beyond anyone else. No shoddy plastics allowed in cupertino.

I have only one issue with mine (15" albook) - the screen latch. It's minimalist and invisible, which is good, but it doesn't hold the screen down firmly enough. The screen often pops open if it's tapped. It's gotten better over time as the hinge has lost it's initial tightness but a more firm latch would be just about the only thing i'd change.

The only backlight keyboard in the industry. That says it all.
April 2, 2004 12:17 PM
 

StickyC said:

I hear ya on the iBook. Truely, the only thing I've found wanting is the trackpad support and a little less flimsy case (dual USB iBook). Coming from a Sony VIAO, I was completely spoiled by being able to use the top and right edges of the pad as a scroll and tapping to click. It seemed so obvious, I was rather suprised the Mac didn't support it. Fortunately, there's 3rd party apps to cover, but they still seem to require a keyboard modifier.

I was forced to break down and buy a PC laptop to code on. I ended up with the Dell 8600. Hopefully, the raw horsepower and fat screen at the right price will make up for any shortcomings - we'll see. She doesn't ship for another week and there's a satisfaction guarantee - but who to turn to if the Dell sux0r?
April 2, 2004 2:38 PM
 

Eric said:

re. iBooks/Powerbooks above ... Aren't these two different beasts ... one consumer, the other professional? Perhaps you should have sprung the dosh for the powerbook.
April 2, 2004 3:31 PM
 

Nick said:

Those screen marks appear on any laptop screen over time. They are from the oils in your fingertips. They are quite easy to clean off with a camera lens-suitable cloth and a tiny bit of water.
April 2, 2004 7:51 PM
 

Jay said:

I hear ya on the iBook. Truely, the only thing I've found wanting is the trackpad support and a little less flimsy case (dual USB iBook). Coming from a Sony VIAO, I was completely spoiled by being able to use the top and right edges of the pad as a scroll and tapping to click. It seemed so obvious, I was rather suprised the Mac didn't support it. Fortunately, there's 3rd party apps to cover, but they still seem to require a keyboard modifier.


Try a freeware app. called Trackpad, It should do exactly what you want. You should be able to find it in versionTracker, tucows.com, or download.com
April 2, 2004 9:56 PM
 

Wayne's Microsoft Blog said:

April 3, 2004 5:38 AM
 

NT said:

There is a driver called SideTrack which seems to do tons of fancy stuff
April 3, 2004 4:18 AM
 

bbum said:

Both SideTrack and uControl (google searches will reveal both) have virtual scrollwheel features for the trackpad (or mouse).

SideTrack takes the always-on approach. uControl's virtual 2D scrolling feature is enabled when you hold down the [fn] key.

I prefer uControl. Others prefer SideTrack. Both work flawlessly. uControl also remaps caps-lock to whatever you want, if that is your thing.
April 3, 2004 9:23 AM
 

Scooblog said:

April 4, 2004 12:51 AM
 

Scooblog said:

April 4, 2004 12:52 AM
 

Ron Bannon said:

I bought an iBook clam shell in 2000 and its been through Hell -- even droppd it off a high dinner table while it was open and running . . . bounced . . . remained running, but the keypad popped off. Popped the keypad back on and I was back to normal. It's built like a brick sh*t-house and just won't die. Even running the lattest OS and it still feels fast. A word to the wise Wintel switrchers -- if you make the switch try to avoid Microsoft products. There are plenty of good applications for OS X and you don't need to use Microsoft products anymore.
April 4, 2004 7:08 AM
 

Dennis Cheung said:

"There are plenty of good applications for OS X and you don't need to use Microsoft products anymore"

Yeah! Don't buy those M$FT products because they always get great reviews! Who wants products that gets great reviews and increase your productivity? Fight back for the Mac by crushing Micro$oft!!

Because once Micro$oft dies Apple will rule the world!!

As they say on Fark... "Not Likely"
April 4, 2004 12:38 PM
 

Steven Nguyen said:

It's true, I work in a school district with 63 elementary schools that buy a lot more Inspirons and Latitudes than iBooks recently, but it's a shame our school board isn't here with the teachers trying to use them everyday, or we'd buy 100% iBooks. The iBooks do everything we ask them to without much fuss--even our own video editing, music, and presentations. The Dells, well, keep support very busy. You know how people say there's so many more apps out there for XP? Well it's a constant headache and delay for techs trying to get this software and that hardware configured to work together, if at all, on our Dells. Great for the tech biz, bad for our taxpayers. And the Dells are obviously made with cheaper, flimsier materials, albeit this environment is kind of hard on laptops, but the iBooks hold up much better.
April 4, 2004 5:15 PM
 

Jonathan Hardwick said:

April 5, 2004 1:44 AM
 

Dan Crevier's Blog said:

April 5, 2004 1:47 AM
 

Scott said:

My Toshiba laptop, one of the wide-screen Centrino models, has worked flawlessly since day one.

I specifically chose it over the 15" PowerBook. In fairness, the latter has high-end features aimed at the graphics pro. They are of no use to me. Also, Apple's iLife package, aside from casual iTunes use, holds no interest.

The keyboard/trackpad design of the Toshiba was a big selling point. I much prefer it over the layout of the PowerBook. The hardware switches for wireless and volume control are convenient as well. They help to reduce tedious trackpad use.

Quality control was another factor. Apple's track record with their portables has been less than sterling in recent times.

Anyway...
April 10, 2004 9:14 AM
 

Jerome said:

you're mainly complaining about the software... auto-sleep on lid close shouldn't be a hard and fast rule. i personally would hate my laptop if it did that. well, it used to but i turned that "feature" off.

btw trackpads suck for hardcore keyboard users.. if the laptop doesn't have the little eraser-style pointing device (ala thinkpads) it destroys my productity. having to move your hand away from the keyboard to move the cursor is not a good thing.
April 22, 2004 3:22 PM
 

Jonathan Hardwick said:

May 1, 2004 12:19 PM
 

jhjk said:

nbvjb
July 11, 2004 2:11 AM
 

Nigel Blake said:

Most of you have no idea what you are talking about... There are so many different varieties of laptops, it's not even worth the thought of comparing. Where has the link between PC and Microsoft come from too? Has anyone heard of *nix, BSD, etc...? They all run on PC hardware too. In fact... Just for a second, recognise that Apples are now running a varient of BSD as well. All machines are built differently, and saying that you think PC laptops are worse that Apple, due to the fact is didn't shutdown/sleep/hibernate when you shut the lid is pathetic. Try taking two seconds out to configure it how you want it to react, and suddenly you'll find it works... Just the way you want it. I've used almost every O/S that's existed in the past 10 years, and each has their own merits. I love windows for the fact it does what it does. Try sticking a new random bit of hardware into an OS 9 Mac and get it working... Not within any reasonable amount of time from my experience. Try getting a windows machine to run any service without falling over after a few days... Again, not likely from my experience. Try doing decent artwork on a *nix box. Not fun, I still prefer Photshop over the Gimp, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Think before you speak next time.
July 14, 2004 5:59 AM
 

Kevin Tessner said:

Coming from an Atari ST background, I've always been an Apple fan on principle. School and work have forced me to use PCs so much however, that whenever I go to use a Mac I just find the lack of a second mouse button & context menu so daunting that I've never enjoyed the experience. Watching the taskbar of OS-X is always fun though, and it always astounds me that multi-gigaherz PCs just can't do things with the same smooth authority. Laptop-wise though, I'd agree with the sentiments on ugliness, klunkiness, bad power managementness, etc. That is, right up until I purchased my Gateway 200ARC with XP Pro this past January. My only complaint is with the Fn key placement at the bottom left where every touch typer knows the Ctrl key oughta be, other than that it's worked beatifully and it's power management and sleep settings have been flawless. I also turn off sleep on lid close though (when I'm in a meeting I want a low profile and keep the lid closed, but want that sucker hot and ready for 30 seconds of note taking here and there whenever I pop it open) and have configured the power key for hibernate since that works so well on this machine/OS combination. Wouldn't trade that beastie for the world!
July 16, 2004 8:53 AM
 

Faz said:

Kevin said:
" I also turn off sleep on lid close though (when I'm in a meeting I want a low profile and keep the lid closed, but want that sucker hot and ready for 30 seconds of note taking here and there whenever I pop it open) "

But on my iBook, opening the lid make it instantly come back to working state. In fact I understand why most of the PC laptop user don't like sleep mode: it's a little bit long, maybe 10 seconds. On a mac, it's really instant. So the "sleep on closing lid" feature is transparent.

Also, on my mother's powerbook, it's really easy to work with an external bigger display and external mouse/keyboard, lid closed. The PowerBook guess what you need, and act accordingly. My Father's Vaio seem a bit more complex on that issue, with more options but none that "guess": if you choose "sleep when lid is closed" you cannot have closed lid operations, even with Keyboard/Video/Mouse connected.

But Macs lack the "hibernate" feature, wich put the memory on the hard drive, and thus use no battery to sustain the memory. I miss that feature, sometime.
July 22, 2004 9:45 PM
 

pragmat said:

PC laptops have at least two buttons over the trackpad, as a rule. That Apple products throughout the range have one is pretty darned annoying.
July 27, 2004 11:10 PM
 

Jonathan Hardwick said:

These have been hard days for Microsoft laptops. First Dennis Cheung's Acer doesn't autosuspend, then...
September 14, 2005 11:59 PM
 

Jonathan Hardwick said:

These have been hard days for Microsoft laptops. First Dennis Cheung's Acer doesn't autosuspend , then

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