(WARNING: Content may be to geeky for the average person.)Some ramblings and a touch of sentimentalism. My faithful companion and ever-loyal partner in my day-to-day survival (No, not my girlfriend, I am yet to find a broad that's loyal enough *read: loyal. No ifs, no buts. Period.* without requiring high maintenance, but that's another story.), an Acer Aspire 4710, has recently reached what appears to be the end of its life... At least as far as its casing is concerned. After a long time searching on all the stores time and again for the best laptop I can get for the least possible price, I was at last able to find one... And it certainly was no easy feat.
I remember, it was way back November 2007 when I got my Aspire 4710. At the time it wasn't exactly top notch. However it wasn't exactly cheap either. At PHP39,990(Around $800 at the time) it was among the 'newer' models released. It was equipped with a Core Duo processor, probably among the last 'Core Duo' 32-bit processors there is. It had an 80GB hard disk which may not sound much these days, but at the time was the norm among laptops. It would've been categorized as a multimedia laptop.
This wasn't my first laptop though. But what makes this one particularly special was the fact that I bought it without an OS. Basically it became my ticket to freedom from the shackles of the Windows Prison. It has its challenges, though. Freedom comes with a price. for one I needed to "fend for myself", and it's mostly unfamiliar territory at the start. This was probably the period when the most interesting years of my personal computing life has begun. No longer that I thought like everyone else, it has fairly helped me avoid most PC games which, would've wasted my time (even if it would've been such a sweet and enjoyable waste of time!). I found personal computing more enjoyable and fulfilling... Even without PC games. It was pretty much all I needed to survive my computing life.
However, nothing lasts forever. The software may last long by updates and upgrades, but the hardware, however, eventually gets worn and torn. Eventually the hinge got so worn that it can't hold the LCD anymore, the whole casing started looking like roadkill, and let's face it. It's good but it's no longer as interesting. Everything now works out of the box. It worked so well that it made the Windows way of doing things (install, install driver, update, install apps, update if needed) feel ridiculous.
I went on and looked for a worthy replacement for my companion. Top candidates were the usual brands: Acer, Asus, MSI... And I also considered Lenovo. I didn't include Sony, because it's very overpriced in my opinion, Macs, well they're awesome, OS better than Windows but I still have the same beef about it: Overpriced. And the software's not my cup of tea. As for HP (and HP-owned Compaq), well, I don't like those brands anymore. My first laptop was a Compaq and its screen was littered with dead pixels just shortly after its warranty expired. And it would've cost me around half its sticker price just to fix the bloody screen. So I decided to just forget it and that's when I got my then new Acer.
After searching far & wide I got a tip from a good friend regarding a laptop with an affordable price and good specs. It must've been a sale so I was lucky. The outer shell looked modest but, but I didn't really care. Common folks may be swayed by nicely colored or any other fancy featured extra, but to some like me, computers are about their computing power. Not their looks-- though it's a good bonus and a nice tie-breaker if ever. I was more impressed when I saw the laptop in the flesh-- er, plastic/metal/ anything in between. I'd say at the minimum, the Lenovo B470 is elegant. Modest looking it may be especially when placed beside Macs & other computers but it certainly wasn't all cheap. Matte black all around with some gloss surrounding the screen. And yeah, build quality was nice as well. It's not exactly something I'd smack a person with but it appears to be durable enough to last the normal use.
I went on and looked for a worthy replacement for my companion. Top candidates were the usual brands: Acer, Asus, MSI... And I also considered Lenovo. I didn't include Sony, because it's very overpriced in my opinion, Macs, well they're awesome, OS better than Windows but I still have the same beef about it: Overpriced. And the software's not my cup of tea. As for HP (and HP-owned Compaq), well, I don't like those brands anymore. My first laptop was a Compaq and its screen was littered with dead pixels just shortly after its warranty expired. And it would've cost me around half its sticker price just to fix the bloody screen. So I decided to just forget it and that's when I got my then new Acer.
After searching far & wide I got a tip from a good friend regarding a laptop with an affordable price and good specs. It must've been a sale so I was lucky. The outer shell looked modest but, but I didn't really care. Common folks may be swayed by nicely colored or any other fancy featured extra, but to some like me, computers are about their computing power. Not their looks-- though it's a good bonus and a nice tie-breaker if ever. I was more impressed when I saw the laptop in the flesh-- er, plastic/metal/ anything in between. I'd say at the minimum, the Lenovo B470 is elegant. Modest looking it may be especially when placed beside Macs & other computers but it certainly wasn't all cheap. Matte black all around with some gloss surrounding the screen. And yeah, build quality was nice as well. It's not exactly something I'd smack a person with but it appears to be durable enough to last the normal use.
Well, the really good part was I got it at a cheaper price. I got away with upgrading the memory to 4GB, which is double the original 2GB memory and the amount I had to pay was still cheaper than the sticker price-- What's more was despite all that it was still half the price of my old Acer (I only paid around PHP20,000! Sticker price was around PHP 22,000). I also got some surprise for that price: Fingerprint scanner & an HDMI connection!!! It's probably the best bang for my buck I had this year.
However the story doesn't end there. The really gory, geeky & nerdy journey comes after the purchase-- But that'd be for another post.
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