I think one of the most crucial factors of deciding on a notebook is the design of it. Now, I’m not talking about how visually appealing a notebook looks – many people come about their shopping decisions based on how “pretty” it looks. Unless it’s a small form factor netbook/sub-notebook device, of course; where what most people are looking for is a small and usable ‘typewriter’ for documents and some web surfing, with hours and hours of battery life.
I think people should really try out and have a look at a notebook in-person, and look at its exterior design (and I mean the arrangement of ports, practicality and such), before saying “this is definitely for me”. Despite looking like someone who’s in the market for “colorful, trendy” or “stylish thin” notebook, looks can definitely be deceiving. Loud, rainbow, shiny, or super-thin notebooks simply won’t cut it for me, if they have just one USB port with a proprietary display connector or if they have 10 USB ports stacked side-by-side with no spacing in between – I don’t care how beautiful the notebook looks.
Yesterday I met with two proud new owners of Brand “F” notebooks (both people bought the same model) and I managed to have a look at the notebook’s design. 3 USB ports on paper, but in my opinion, only 1 or 2 are usable in real-life (Depends on device). There was one USB port on the left – no problem – but turn to the right, and I found 2 other USB ports there, stacked right on top of each other, slightly recessed AND sitting directly next to the optical drive. Now you tell me – assuming I’ve already used the left port – how I’m supposed to plug 2 USB devices (one flash media, another can be a cellphone/camera cable) at the same time into both ports? What if I want to load in a DVD? Is Brand F telling me that I have to unplug both devices, load in my DVD and plug the USB devices back in?
I’ve seen many, many notebooks of all brands, and really, I think HP has one of the more practical designs. In most of HP’s notebooks (however, “most” does not imply “all”), mainly business notebooks but there are some good consumer ones too, it seems that someone actually sat down and used the notebook for a few days before sending the design plans to the production lines and factories.
The USB ports are one such example – since they play a large role in a PC, besides the display/modem ports. It’s always good to have more of them on your notebook PC… but it is also equally crucial that there’s sufficient space between them and other ports, so you can plug in several devices at one go. Shown in the picture above is the HP Compaq 6510b business notebook (it’s current, direct successor is the 6530b), which features 2 nicely spaced USB ports on EACH side. Yup, it’s quite rare that you see a 14 inch screen-class notebook with four USB ports. Can I utilize all four simultaneously? Absolutely… again, there’s quite a bit of room between them.
Heck I could even plug a bunch of SanDisk Cruzer flash drives (Which happen to be quite wide) and all of them would fit, without blocking one another or other ports. Now THAT is practical.
