Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - Laptop Day

Spent most of the day online, still trying to find just the right laptop, and was assured by a woman at Best Buy's 800 line that there was an HP computer at the store we went to yesterday that had a non-glare screen. Based on that info, we drove down again, only to discover that information was, again, wrong, that every laptop on their shelves had bright, hi-def screens that all glared like crazy. Interestingly, many desktop models had matte screens, just like we were looking for! At one point, Hubby left me and went to over to a group of sales guys and asked, "Who has all the answers?" They all pointed to one guy, who, reluctantly came to him (just want you want in a sales guy, reluctance to help). Hubby pointed at one screen and asked, "What's the difference between this screen and that screen?" Pointing to one matte and one shiny. The answer was, "None, they're the same." Hubby argued, pointing out the difference between the reflection on the glare and the matte screen. The man with all the answers appeared dumb-founded, as if he had never noticed that before! We were equally dumb-founded that he didn't know the difference. Needless to say, we left without a laptop, and no further along in our search other than what I had discovered online. We then made a few calls, and found there was a CompUSA nearby, so we headed there. At least there the sales guy, Ramel, was VERY helpful. I had read a review online for the Lenovo ThinkPad, which bragged on the keyboard as being one of the best key actions, and I hadn't yet seen one until we went there. Sure enough, their keyboard is raised AND TAPERED, with a slight dip on the top of each key for your fingers to rest in, just like the old IBM electric typewriters, giving a perfect touch experience for a speedy typist like myself. I was thrilled! The ThinkPad also has a matte screen, specifically designed to be an anti-glare surface. I finally started to feel like we were making progress. Unfortunately, the smallest one I could get with those features was 14", which is the absolute largest I wanted to go (I would have preferred about 12", but all those are netbooks without a CD-ROM, which is an essential for me), but everything else seemed perfect. Alas, CompUSA didn't have the exact one I wanted, but I decided I had narrowed it down enough to find something online. So Hubby and I went over the a nearby Starbucks to see what I could find out, and discovered that I could actually have one made to order direct from Lenovo! As I struggled to complete the process (because the glare on my Dell was so bad I could hardly see it while sitting outside), I had a very nice chat with a sales rep who walked me through the entire process. By the time we were done, with the discounts, it cost me less than $800 (a little more than what I had anticipated, but well worth it to get exactly what I wanted), and now I can't wait to get it to try it out! I'm even reluctant to keep working with this Dell, just because it's become even more annoying knowing all the things that have been bugging me haven't been my fault, but the silly computer's. Like I used to sit outside to work, and in fact, wrote most of my book outside, but I haven't been able to since I've had this computer, which means I've missed out on scores of lovely days in fresh air. Looking forward to improving on that!