5 Reasons Now is a Good Time to Buy a Notebook

Joanna Stern posted an article today on Gizmodo, arguing that consumers who are shopping for a new notebook right now should wait two months before purchasing. You should read the article to see her complete list of 5 reasons, but her main point is that Windows 7 ($76.54) is being released on October 22, and a host of new computers with new features, faster processors, and lower price tags is likely to follow the new operating system.

Stern makes some solid points, but we have to respectfully disagree with her. If you need a new notebook, there’s no reason not to buy one today. In fact, if you wait,  you could actually be losing time and money. Here are our 5 reasons to buy now:

1. Waiting = lost time and money. When it comes to computers, there’s always something newer and faster waiting around the corner, but if you need a notebook now, there’s a real cost to waiting.

   If you need a notebook for business, how many more hours will you have to work over the next two months, because you’re waiting for a faster notebook? If you need a notebook for school, will you be tied to the electric socket and unable to log on from class  because you’re waiting? If you need a notebook to stay connected from the road and you’re going to travel in the next months, should you just forget about getting online?

2. Windows 7 is a free and easy upgrade. We agree that Windows 7 is a game changer  and everyone should upgrade to it. However, most notebook vendors will send you an upgrade DVD shortly after the new operating system launches on October 22nd. You’ll have to run the install program yourself, but it should take no more than half an hour to go from Vista to Windows 7 and your settings and programs should be preserved.

   Gizmodo argues that “a clean install of the OS done at the factory is more likely to be hassle-free,” than an upgrade you do yourself, but in our experience, Windows 7 runs great right out of the box on every Vista notebook we’ve tested it on. In exchange for the 30 minutes you spend upgrading your notebook, you get to have it and use two months earlier. We’ll take that trade-off any day.

3. Prices may get higher, rather than lower. Another Gizmodo argument is that retailers will lower prices to promote new Windows 7 systems this holiday season. It’s difficult to predict exactly what will happen with notebook prices this holiday season, and if you gamble on lower prices, you might lose.

   Right now, there are a number of vendors who are heavily discounting their current notebooks, both to stimulate consumers in this sluggish economy and to clear their inventory of systems with Vista preinstalled.  For example, Lenovo is currently offering a huge discounts all of its ThinkPad and IdeaPad lines (coupons here) that make pricey notebooks like the X200s, once a $1,200 ultraportable, available for as low as $749. Once Windows 7 comes out and inventories are filled with brand new systems, discounts may not be as steep.

4. The feature you like today may be gone tomorrow. If you like a particular model of notebook today, but think the next generation of it will have to be better, think again. Many times vendors switch parts between generations of a product. For example, the next version of a notebook might have a glossy rather than matte screen. It might have an island style keyboard instead of the traditional style you like today.

   One particularly alarming trend is the move toward 16:9 aspect ratio screens, which have very little vertical screen real estate and force users to do a lot more scrolling. If you want a notebook with a 16:10 resolution like 1440×900 or 1280×800 instead of the pixel-robbing 1366×768 that’s becoming commonplace, you can still find one. A few months down the road, it’s going to become nearly impossible.

5. Nothing worth waiting for. Gizmodo argues that a number of new technologies are just over the horizon and worth delaying your purchase for. Aside from Windows 7, which you will be able to upgrade to for free if you buy a new notebook today, most of the other hot technologies Gizmodo names are either here right now, are going to take a long time to arrive, or are going to be prohibitively expensive. Let’s look at each:

• New Core i7 Processors: When these come they will undoubtedly be very expensive, niche processors. It could take quite a while for them to come down in price and appear in anything but high-end, low-endurance systems.
• Ultrathin Notebooks: Yes, more of these are coming out, but many super thin models are already here, including the MSI X-Slim Series and Acer Timeline Series.
• Multitouch Laptops: More of these are coming too, but today consumers can get an HP TouchSmart Tx2z and businesses can get a Dell Latitude XT2 ($1,959.00), both of which support multitouch gestures and will be compatible with Windows 7’s built-in multitouch. It’s true that right now the multitouch experience on Vista notebooks is lame due to lack of apps, but if you buy one of these systems today, you will be able to take advantage of Windows 7’s multitouch features and all upcoming multitouch apps.
• USB 3.0: There aren’t any devices yet and the USB Implementers Forum only announced last week that it would begin certifying products. Don’t expect to see affordable USB 3.0 devices and notebooks with USB 3.0 ports for a lot longer than 2 months.
• Lower-Cost SSDs: Intel should push the market a bit lower with its new 34nm SSDs, which are already available to buy on their own, but it’s hard to say whether that will have a tangible impact on prices of notebooks that come configured with SSD in the next couple of months.