Buying and using a laptop - articles, tips and advice

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The Lack of Quality in Laptops Today

I remember the times when only businessmen bought laptops. I was a little boy and used to look at those laptops in the shops and magazines would be drooling for a week.

Then I actually became a businessman and got given a company laptop. They were very sturdy and looked like megabucks, you could do all your word processing in them although the battery never did last for too long.

In those times I have gone through a lot of laptops, then I left the I.T. business and just played around with a desktop for some years.

Then, a year ago, I started buying laptops for customers. Must say I was shocked by the total lack of build quality they have nowadays. I have gone through Toshiba, Sony, Dell and Asus. The quality of the plastic casing has gone down tremendously.

Another thing is with the keyboards; supposedly a laptop is mainly used for writing papers, documents, e-mails, etc. Why are the keyboards so bad? I've had 3 Toshiba laptops go in because of faulty keyboards and on the others the actual pressure and the spacing is not right. Anyone who had a laptop before and tries one of the new ones will notice that.

These things used to be looked after before, I know because I've gone through a lot of them. But now it is just a case of stick any keyboard there and put a cheap plastic case covering it and there you go.

I've even see two break at the hinges of the screen. No quality at all.

Must we think this is because it is no longer a businessman's product? Does the consumer market have to stand for this?

It seems that is the case. I have also tried a few so called business laptops and the quality is not remotely close to what it used to be.

My advice here would always be that if you are serious about buying a laptop, check the quality of the case and check if the keyboard will really suite you. A laptop is a computer you carry around, It's better for it to be sturdy than to have the latest graphics card and best shiny screen that breaks if you open it too hard built in.