Do I need a new laptop/tablet?
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...
Forum Discussion
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.
