With or without CD/DVD drive, what type of laptop do you prefer?

Published on May 19, 2011 By CharlesCS In Personal Computing

You know, I have never considered this idea before. The last time I bought a laptop a few years ago I had gaming in mind so I bought a fast, powerful laptop with a 17” screen. I was excited that it came with a blue-ray drive but to be honest I only bought one movie just because I had the drive. Never used it from there on except to install software once in a while or burn a CD/DVD.

Well, that laptop is no more as I, apparently, pushed the limits of it’s gaming abilities and eventually burnt out the video card and it turned into a 10 year old PC at that point. Have not bought one since. Lately I find myself interested in getting one again but this time I am more interested in one for media purposes such as watching movies and listening to music on the go or at family and friends house and be able to access the Internet thru a wifi hotspot of families network. More than anything, although I would love to get my hands on an iPad or Android Tablet; I actually would rather spend $500 to $900 on a laptop that can do more than just the basic stuff these tablets can. I just can’t currently justify paying that much money for a device that cannot (for the moment) connect portable drives, either don’t have SD card readers or are not currently active (Motorola, I’m looking at you), and requires specific software in order to use it properly (yes I am talking about iTunes). I also don’t like the idea of using a screen keyboard because not only it takes screen realestate but can also be annoying to be tapping a screen. But this is just my issue.

I would prefer a laptop that can do just about everything these devices can do plus more, for the same price and maybe even same screen size and possibly weight. The touch screen thing is cool but not and end all, be all necessity for me. I also know start up times on laptops are slow compared to tablets but again not a big concern for me, I am not one who desperately needs to have the desktop up within 2 seconds of turning on the device.

Now that I got all that out of the way, selecting a laptop is the deal here and I had never before considered not having a CD/DVD-rom on the laptop. What do you think? Do you have a laptop without a CD/DVD-rom and is it worth not having it? I can actually think of several reasons not to need one on a laptop but it’s the few reason that I might need one that make me think twice. I guess it’s because I had never considered an external CD/DVD-rom before either. In doing some research I found that external CD/DVD-roms are actually pretty cheap averaging $35 and pretty slim and easy to keep inside laptop cases. Considering how little I might actually use it, the speed USB connections may provide to an external CD/DVD-rom may not be a bit deal, unless it takes an hour to burn what would normally take 5 minutes that is.

So what do you think? Would you prefer a laptop with an external CD/DVD-rom or would you rather have a laptop with a built-in CD/DVD-rom?

Comments

Dr Guy

on May 19, 2011

The Netbooks do not come with the drives. I bought one for my wife - because she wanted something that would fit on the tray of a plane. And I bought her an external DVD RW to go with it. She has downloaded a ton of movies and series, but never used the DVD drive (I did for a job at work). She did by a 500gb passport (the netbooks do not have big HDs).

I bought a Netbook for my son. He used the external DVD drive once as well. With memory sticks and passport drives, you really do not need a DVD drive these days. Sooo.......

If you want small and light to carry anywhere, get a netbook and buy an external drive. That way you have small and easy - with the DVD when you want it. You get longer battery life too.

But if you want an all in one, the price differential is not much. It is just I very rarely use a DVD/CD drive these days, just like you. (I used mine to play some of my favorite CDs on the plane - no, I had not ripped the songs. )

CharlesCS

on May 20, 2011

LOL, yea, these days games don't even need CDs. I can't remember the last time I went to a store to get a game. No wait, I can, I bought Call Of Duty Black Ops on CD, for nothing because after I registered it with Steam I was able to reinstall it right from the Steam program.

If I happen to need a CD I use vertual drives and mount the ISO versions. I have back ups of all my previous software I had bought before cloud computer became the norm for software installation. I still play some of my old games and all I have to do is mount the ISO image and install, it's actually faster than a CD and I don't have to worry about scratches.

I was always curious about a netbook but was not thrilled with the screen size. Now, compared to an iPad or a Xoom, I wouldn't mind one. I think the touch screen and graphics are cool and all on the pads but I need more functionality. The pads are like having a Toyota that looks like an Exotic car. They look nice and can do cool things, but are far from the real deal. but that's just my opinion.

Dr Guy

on May 20, 2011

The Screen - that is the trade off. To get small and really portable, you have to sacrifice the screen size (they have not made folding screens yet). I like big screens (yes, even on my laptops), but suffer for small when necessary. Having used a touchpad (not an ipad, but another), I hate the lack of input. There is no "typing". It is all hunt and peck and very unforgiving of fat fingers (more so than a key board).

So if I have to have small, I still prefer a netbook - unless I am sitting in a DMV office waiting for my number to be called.

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