Why pick a Business Laptop or Desktop

Why pick a Business Laptop or Desktop

Well hey All,

in this article we will discuss our cast experience in helping customers choose a laptop or desktop for their business environment and things you need to consider when purchasing.

what sets corporate machines apart from consumer grade:

  • Vendor warranty: aka – how long does the manufacturer actually think the thing will last. Typically consumer grade machines have only 12 months warranty because the vendor knows that’s about the life you’ll get out of it. Sure there are examples of customers using their consumer grade machines for years and years but remember, vendors have a sample of millions and they know how long their machines last.
    With Corporate grade machines, warranty can be extended to 5+ years and is always onsite, you don’t want to be sending your machine back to manufacturer with a fault as 100% of the time the repair includes wipe of the hard disk…..hope you had backups.
  • Purpose: Consumer grade means it’s built to be used intermittently, ad-hoc on/off, fans that are noisy, poor support (when your trying to install Adobe CS suite on a Toshiba satellite and wonder why the support people hang up on you).
    Conversely, business grade means engineered to be on all the time, turn it on and it works – better components, certified to be used with many commercial packages.
  • Price: Budget is obviously important, but because of the above differences, commercial machines tend to be a little more expensive but if it’s the tool of your trade……spending a little more for a better result is always a good investment.
  • Volumes: commercial grade units account for 95% of all machines sold on the planet. Consumer 5% of less. Businesses buy more units then consumers ..end of story.

Things to consider:

  • Business size : size matters,
    • smaller businesses (with no IT staff and budget concious) need bulletproof machines that will last many years, be built to be on 24/7 and have vendor onsite support
    • Medium size businesses will want a mid range machine that has a long product lifecycle where you can still purchase the same machine (for a new staffer) a year from now.
    • Large enterprise will want the same machine always – one product type to support etc..etc.
  • Use: what am i going to do with it?
    • High end users: Architects, graphic artists, marketers, anything needing graphics processor and/or is using a commercial piece of software (like adobe) need high power computing, a great screen but also a graphics card that is supported by all the major software vendors (like Quadro pro). you want the speed sure, but you also want the hideously expensive piece of software that you just bought work on your machine and if it doesn’t, you want the support people to take your call! Processor : I7 or Xeon, GX card: Quadro or similar: HD 256-1Gb (or even a second disk) : Screen FHD or better: Portability is not great as these units need significant cooling and therefore 3KG at least. battery life is also around 3hrs.
    • Road Warriors: Consultants, managers, technicians and Engineers will want : portability – light weight, mid range I5 – I7 with 8-16Gb ram and HD of 256GB or better + Matt IPS screen (for visibility out doors or in a plane, shiny glass is bad) , long battery life.
    • Productivity: Office staff will want a middle of the road , I5 unit with 8GB ram and a 256GB hard disk. Screen isn’t that important as you’ll probably get a dock with a 2nd screen anyway.
    • Anyone else: It depends on budget however, I5’s are the middle of the road and typically have 8Gb Ram + 256Gb hard disks making them the defact go-to.

When choosing, realize that the spec below is the most bought combination in the business world, comprising of over 60% of all units purchased.

  • Intel I5
  • 8Gb Ram
  • 256Gb Hard disk
  • 14″ FHD screen (1080p) for laptop.
  • Small Form Factor (SFF) for Desktop

If you stick with the above combination as a minimum then you’ll be set for now and for future versions of Office or O/S and/or commercial software.

Any questions, please call us or drop an email.