by Jonathan » Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:31 pm
Sales revenue from LCD monitors recently passed that of CRT monitors.
The reasons are obvious: smaller form factor, better picture with a
DVI-compliant set up, less power consumption. However, before you dive
into LCDs, there are a few gotchas. LCDs have limited refresh compared
to CRTs. Peak refresh is 60 or 75 Hz, depending on model. This isn't an issue
for productivity apps, as the image is persistent. For gaming, though,
not only does it cap your apparent framerate, you also get ghosting
problems because of the image persistence. The less action-packed the
game is, the less this is an issue. Furthermore, some video cards/LCDs
are not really DVI compliant, even though they have a DVI port. Do some
fact checking and make sure your video card is capable of a clean DVI
signal. Finally, LCDs only work at a single resolution, so you must have
a video card capable of comfortably operating at that resolution. Other
advertised resolutions are interpolated and look like shit.
The desknote, as you call it, is part of a major paradigm shift in the
industry. Intel is targeting two markets: portability and mobility.
Portability means desktop replacement: standard desktop components in a
small form factor. Desknotes are the iMacs of the PC business. Fully
integrated, one box solutions. The mobility market focuses on weight and
battery life and is currently served by the Centrino. Centrino is a heck
of a nice package, but Intel is currently charging a pretty nice chunk
of change for those. That price is coming down, but for the most part
you'll be wanting something in a desknote.
Desknotes suffer from the same problems as LCD monitors. In addition,
there's the maintenance problem. Laptops are always of a nonstandard
design. If something besides memory or a optical drive breaks, you
probably won't be able to fix it yourself. Instead, you'll have to send
it back to the OEM for service. This includes mechanical things like the
hinge. The same applies for expansion, of course. Finally, battery life
in this market segment is about an hour, which is too short for anything
except changing desks.
In their favor, desknotes don't have much of a price or performance
disparity with the desktop market. I'd check the specs, but I'm
reasonably sure you can get 800 MHz FSB chipsets in a laptop. Given
that, you can do pretty much anything. The disks will be a little
smaller for the money, but you should still be ok. I haven't kept up
with the latest, but I do believe the mobile video cards are reasonable
interpretations of their desktop brothers. Just make sure you get
something from ATI or nVidia.
Finally, desknotes have that X factor. You can put one on any surface in
your house. You can pack it in your luggage. You can plug in on your
sofa, or the lounge's sofa. Just don't expect to operate unwired.
Weigh the pros and cons and check out IBM, Dell, and maybe some of the
Tier 2 OEMs. See if it fits for you.
Last edited by
Jonathan on Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.