The perfect laptop for the programmer

For what?

I drive to work and back home. On the day, I spend 3-4 hours in public transport (depending on traffic). A bit far, isn't it? In order not to be bored, I needed a working stallion on which I would work on the road.

A number of qualities

For myself, I have identified a number of qualities that are necessary to engage in programming.

15 '' seemed to me too big to keep him on his knees in transport. That's why I chose 13 ”—the optimal screen for programming (I use NetBeans). Looking ahead, I will say - 13.3 '' turned out to be even a bit too large for transport.
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After weighing the friends' laptops, I came to the conclusion that I want a weight below 2.5 kg - optimal for dragging with me (and having held an EEE for 1.5 kg - I generally experienced puppy enthusiasm for its lightness).

Particular attention is paid to the layout and keyboard. The keys should be big enough, and the arrows should be comfortable. Page UP / DOWN should not be in the ass world .

Internet on the road I do not need. In a way, he is distracting. Therefore, I didn’t pay much attention to the G4 models (with WiMax).

But to cut with friends in the multiplayer - not bad. In order for the laptop to allow this, the processor would be more interesting than the Celeron, and the video card is more powerful.

And surely (from where I started the story), the laptop should live. And do it for quite some time - at least 4 hours.

Under my gigantic queries, Yandex.market found 3 laptops suitable for me (actually more, but many models did not fit after reading reviews).

• HP ProBook 4310
• Acer Timeline / TravelTime 3810
• ASUS UL30VT

All laptops cost about 30k rubles.
I think you will guess what I chose.

A laptop	Weight	Video	Working hours	CPU	Keyboard
HP ProBook 4310	2kg	HD 4330	4 hours	C2D 2Ghz - 2.5Ghz	Small arrows
Acer Timeline 3810	1.65kg	HD 4330	8 ocloc'k	C2D 1.4Ghz	Small arrows
ASUS UL30VT	1.5kg	GF 210	8 ocloc'k	C2D 1.3Ghz (1.7Ghz)

Challenger for crash number 1: weight, HD4330 is 1.5 times slower, the processor is nothing.
Challenger number 2: a bit heavier, HD4330 video card.

More detail about ...

The keyboard is comfortable, has a distance between the keys. The arrows are the right sizes. However, due to this, it was required to sacrifice the size of Right Shift, which is not usual. I hit the up arrow several times, trying to press Shift + Enter. Got used to the day.

Page Up / Page Down / Home / End are close to the arrows - it is convenient to control the cursor on the document. Thanks for the full-length arrows.

The body is beautiful, metal. Dirt does not linger on it.

The screen is fashionable glossy. The reflection is perfectly visible - checked in the bus. Spitting, however, on the screen (and in its reflection) did not. It is programmed with the sun perfectly - I noticed my reflection only when I remembered that the sun should disturb me, looking for reflection in a split second. As soon as I immersed myself in programming, only the text of the program remained, without glare on the screen. The brain very well filters the text from the background (hello, captcha).

But films and pictures are difficult to watch - glare strongly interfere even at maximum brightness. There was a reflection of the clear sky - everything, no films.

Lovers of the mat - fixing any under-screens for 460 rubles 41 kopecks (brightness and contrast of the LED screen - allows).

And so

News one: there are 2 video cards on this laptop at once.

• Intel GMA 4500
• nVidia Geforce 210

Switching between them occurs by pressing a single key. Switching itself a bit turns off the applications (I have 1 external monitor connected) and takes about 8 seconds of waiting in a dark realm.
Despite the low-end Geforce 210 - you can play it. In many games - even on High settings.

By speed, Geforce 210:

• 1.5 times faster than GF8600 / GF105 / HD4330
• 1 to 1 with the GF9500 / GF310 / HD4570 / HD5470
• 1.5 times slower than GF9600 / GF220 / HD3670

* Here only Mobile versions of video cards are considered.

The second video card, Intel GMA 4500, is 5 times slower than the GF210. A great option for programming, the Internet and watching movies.

And here

News two: the speed of the processor can be changed by simple means.

ASUS delivered a weak Core 2 Duo 1.3 Ghz processor and added a simple (one-button for single-cell) interface for overclocking!

In normal mode, the processor runs at 200 Mhz bus frequency and 6.5 multiplier. What gives 1.3 Ghz. After pushing one button (and rebooting), ASUS accelerates the bus to 266 Mhz, getting 1.73 Ghz (and an increased memory frequency from 800 Mhz to 1 Ghz, wow!).

And for energy saving, you can reduce the multiplier from 6.5 to 4 (60% of the performance in the power settings) by getting 1 Ghz on the 266th (or 800 Mhz on the 200th) bus.

	Multiplier x4.0 (energy saving)	Multiplier x6.5
Bus frequency 200	0.8 Ghz	1.3 Ghz
Bus frequency 266 (turbo)	1 Ghz	1.73 Ghz

Super PI

1 Ghz	1.3 Ghz	1.73 Ghz
46.2 sec	36.6 sec	28.7 sec

For me, this is quite an interesting and important point. I do not care at all - the script is executed in 100 ms or 180 ms - I evaluate the results of a few seconds. Thus, I work freely with maximum energy savings.

And what does it give me?

Having a battery (namely, I have it) for 5600 mAh - you can work 10 - 11 hours (with WiFi turned off, on the GMA 4500, a turbocharged processor and max power saving mode. Opera + Apache + NetBeans). If you choose a video card GF210, but continue to idle (program or read) - 8 hours of work on the road. Turning on WiFi reduces these numbers by 1 hour.

In maximum performance mode, on the GF210, playing an online 3D game over the Internet via WiFi and talking on Skype - I got a little more than 2 hours of work on one battery.

Watching movies on the go, 720p showed about 5-6 hours of work.

Very quiet - you can sleep well. Under load - no noise. The fan, of course, is audible - but only at night, when you listen.

And the most amazing thing is that happiness weighs only 1.5 kg. True, it feels harder than any 10 '' - 11 '' fellow. All because he is longer than them (remember the physics and the moment of force). In short, one hand over the edge is still hard to hold. With two hands, he holds like any other 2 - 2.5 kg laptop.

True, there are drawbacks of such a large (13.3 "") laptop. Not every bus fits. In some buses, the seats are so close that the screen can be opened to the maximum - perpendicular. That is the problem. The matrix of the TN laptop, and the laptop itself lies on the knees, so the image from above is very poorly visible (liquid crystals, well, turn around to me peled, eh? Well, please!). And on the knees (top view) - you can work if the screen is opened 110 degrees.

In the subway, it is better to sit from the very side of the seat so that you can stick your hand in the hole (and always opposite the exit - he saw cases of robbery sitting next to the exit). In other places, the seats will surely be cramped on you, from the left and right flanks, so any path to retreat is what you need for comfortable work.

I’ll finish with the most important difference - the stickers on the case are glued very smoothly - this very well underlines the quality of ASUS products.

ps appeared ASUS U30Jc - Core i3 2.26 Ghz, 2.1 kg, DVD and a bit thicker than the UL30VT.
Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820T should appear soon