The wife announced that she would like to get me a new laptop for Christmas. I am using a 5 year old Toshiba Satellite right now and it does everything that I need. It does have a few drawbacks though. It is brutally heavy and the battery is marginal to the point that I can only watch a 90 minute movie before recharging.I use it mostly for a portable workstation for my business but I do take it with me on holidays. We are going on a Panama cruise this spring and she thinks that it will be too heavy and awkward to lug around with us. She has the same laptop as well as a Microsoft Surface tablet and can't decide which one is better.A nice new tablet sounds inviting but without a DVD drive it limits me on some of my work projects. Is the battery life much better with a tablet? Is there such a thing as a portable DVD drive? I also need a proper keyboard as my calloused finger tips don't do well with a touch screen.Decisions, decisions.

I have an old Toshiba also and I couldn't get on the internet with it. it was full of virus's. had it cleaned out and it still works fine. I use it on trips too. I bought a new Dell 17" screen and it is heavier than the old Toshiba. I also have three tablets, every one of the kids like them, I'm not a fan of the tablets. too old to see the small screens. DW uses a tablets to do her reading. she gets books from Amazon. now a days you can keep every thing charged up through your power points in your truck.

CR CRUISER wrote:A nice new tablet sounds inviting but without a DVD drive it limits me on some of my work projects. Is the battery life much better with a tablet? Is there such a thing as a portable DVD drive? I also need a proper keyboard as my calloused finger tips don't do well with a touch screen.Decisions, decisions.Lots of external DVDs. Try here. Just be aware that some of the newer tablets do not have a USB port.

A little more pricey but a MacBook Pro is what I went to. Small learning curve but Wow, what a nice change! I'll never go back to Microsoft again. I use it for my part time business and vacations. Love it.

Plenty of portable usb driven DVD drives that work really well. If you still need access to work applications including Office or other Windows based apps, I look at the Surface Pro or perhaps the 2 n 1's that are available where the screen comes off and then works like a tablet.Personally the only reason I still own a Microsoft based laptop is for Excel and the availability of a mouse. Otherwise I can do all I need to do on my IPhone or IPad.

To answer the question you asked in the thread title, "Do I need a new laptop/tablet?", the answer would be "no" you don't need a new one. You could replace the battery on the old (can't do much about it's weight though) and continue to use it since it does what you need it to do. Only you can answer as to whether you want a new one or not.Personally, I really like my MS Surface Pro 3 but I bought it more because I wanted it rather than needed it. I suspect that most people buy new computers because they want rather than need. The same with cars, boats or even RVs.

Do I need a new laptop/tablet? | Good Sam Community

NRALIFR
Explorer
Nov 07, 2014
I just bought this from Tiger Direct with Win7Pro on it. Ordered Monday night, it was delivered Wednesday evening, and I didn't even pay for premium shipping. I like it a lot, I'm using it now.

:):)
strollin
Explorer
Nov 07, 2014
camping man wrote:
I have a 5 year old Toshiba, and replaced the fan, keyboard,couple batts., and two screen light bulbs, one last week. This thing lives by a thread, but i don't feel like pulling everything off it, so it just keeps chugging along until the next part fails. If I was you, I get a new one, it's at the age it will start failing.

Your experience with your laptop doesn't predict what may happen with CR CRUZER's. For instance, I have a 6 1/2 year old Dell Inspiron laptop that is used for many hours everyday and has never had anything replaced on it. Dell Inspiron's are consumer grade laptops and aren't considered particularly reliable but mine just keeps chugging along.

It's hard to predict when a laptop (or any computer) will fail but as it gets older the odds increase that a failure will occur.

About 6 months ago, I was having some issues with my 3 1/2 year old work laptop. I contacted our IT dept to have someone take a look at it but they just told me that since it was more than 3 years old to just order a new one because it wasn't worth their time to even look at it. I'm sure that laptop was scrapped when all it probably needed was an OS refresh. Seems a waste but I ended up with a nicer laptop so didn't complain.
glazier
Explorer II
Nov 07, 2014
guidry wrote:
A little more pricey but a MacBook Pro is what I went to. Small learning curve but Wow, what a nice change! I'll never go back to Microsoft again. I use it for my part time business and vacations. Love it.

I have a MacBook Pro, and just recently bought an IMac for our business. We love Apple products, but they are a little different than PC operating systems. If our new IMac works out at my shop we may never go back to Microsoft either.
camping_man
Explorer
Nov 07, 2014
I have a 5 year old Toshiba, and replaced the fan, keyboard,couple batts., and two screen light bulbs, one last week. This thing lives by a thread, but i don't feel like pulling everything off it, so it just keeps chugging along until the next part fails. If I was you, I get a new one, it's at the age it will start failing.
strollin
Explorer
Nov 06, 2014
ReadyToGo wrote:
If you get an external DVD (which I have), you will find that they require 2 USB connections. In planning for the future, be sure you get anything with at least 3 if not 4 USB slot. Do not confuse the HDMI slot as an USB slot.
Why so many? Well in todays environment, a mouse, maybe a printer, an extra hard drive, and the many devices with rechargeable batteries. What do I have that needs recharging?, Camera, mp3 players, Kindle, Tablet (not Apple's) and others might have more things. Either have a lot of plugs that take a USB connection or use your computer for recharging.

There are "ultra portable" DVD drives that can be powered from a single USB port. I have one but have only used it a handful of times, if I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't buy it.

If you plan on using a laptop in a portable environment then you probably aren't going to hang a bunch of USB peripherals on it. If you need to attach a bunch of peripherals and essentially use the laptop as a desktop replacement then you can always get a dock or a powered USB hub for it.

I have a dock for my Surface Pro 3. I place it in the dock and I now have access to external display, mouse, keyboard, wired LAN, external storage, etc... In the dock, the Surface makes a decent desktop replacement.
KA4EBU
Explorer
Nov 06, 2014
sorry double post.
KA4EBU
Explorer
Nov 06, 2014
Keep your Toshiba. I used mine with windows, Firefox and avast. After more problems I switched the Toshiba to ubuntu, Firefox and love it.
ReadyToGo
Explorer
Nov 06, 2014
If you get an external DVD (which I have), you will find that they require 2 USB connections. In planning for the future, be sure you get anything with at least 3 if not 4 USB slot. Do not confuse the HDMI slot as an USB slot.
Why so many? Well in todays environment, a mouse, maybe a printer, an extra hard drive, and the many devices with rechargeable batteries. What do I have that needs recharging?, Camera, mp3 players, Kindle, Tablet (not Apple's) and others might have more things. Either have a lot of plugs that take a USB connection or use your computer for recharging.
1775
Explorer
Nov 05, 2014
Several years ago the trend was toward smaller laptops and netbooks. Then tablets became popular and suddenly laptops started getting bigger. Laptops are becoming desktop alternatives and what I see now when I look are laptops that are ridiculous to try to carry around and the prices are upwards of a thousand and more. Many laptops now don't come with DVD drives (some still do) as they are seen as unnecessary with downloaded software and streaming video. If your current laptop does what you need it to do then hold onto it for awhile longer. If your battery does not hold a charge for as long as it once did, look into replacing the battery. Also make sure that your accounting software will run on Win 8.
ken_burke
Explorer
Nov 05, 2014
CR CRUISER wrote:
After doing some research, I've found out that my accounting program won't work on a tablet or on a Mac based system. Now I have to figure out if my mapping and charting programs are compatable. If not, then I'll stick with what I've got.

No. Do not "stick" with what you have got. You deserve better. Given the age of your old computer, you Need a faster, lighter, better resolution screen than the old computer.
ken

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