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246

Track Stick / Trackpoint / Pointing stick / "nipple" is a MUST HAVE

246 points posted to New Product Ideas, Desktops and Laptops by keylime 02/20/07

As a CTO I am having to force our procurement department to supplement Dell with HP as our supplier of systems partly because Dell does not include a proper cursor positioning device on its laptops.

Dell needs a machine that competes with HP's nw9440 (or better). The machine needs at least the following: 17" WUXGA display, T7600 CPU, 4GB RAM, 100 GB 7200 rpm SATA HDD, 667 MHz FSB, DVD+/-RW, 512MB dedicated video RAM, and a pointing stick.

It also needs to be in a chassis that is built like a tank. There should be absolutely no feeling of flexing when it is picked up by one corner while the screen is open. Durability is far more important than weight.

A built-in video camera and a lighted keyboard would be very attractive too.

Finally, the keyboard should be as good as those on an IBM ThinkPad (specifically, the T30). By "good" I mean "with good physical distinction between keys as well as significant travel when depressing a key along with similar tactile feedback". I hate a keyboard where all the keys merge smoothly into each other and have flat (as opposed to concave dished) tops.

fabricationarbory
02/20/07		 Hey, Mr. CTO -

My Dell Latitude D620 has a trackstick AND a touchpad. Look at the Latitude line.

17" displays are for gamers or people who don't move around much. Most professionals I've spoken with prefer a bright, high-resolution 14" or 15" display.

Most of your specs (T7600 CPU, 4GB RAM, 100 GB 7200 rpm SATA HDD, 667 MHz FSB, DVD+/-RW) are easily met by customizing your Dell.

Most of nVidia's graphics offerings for laptops have a decent amount of dedicated RAM, and can also borrow system RAM when they need it. Performance wise, that's actually a good thing - the card gets the ram it needs instead of getting maxed out! Modern shared VRAM architectures like the GMA950 perform much better than before.

Keyboard 'feel' is a personal preference. I happen to like Dell's click-y, low travel keyboards, for instance.

It all comes down to what your staff really needs - flashy, plastic consumer notebooks with webcams or professional, metal-encased latitudes with a service contract and a smartcard reader :)
keylime
02/20/07		 The laptops in question are for developers, hence the 17" displays. They also have to travel, hence the requirement for a laptop. The specs I gave are not available at all from Dell; I have spent the last two weeks bouncing back their attempts at satisfying the requirements with machines built on the M90 which is the nearest they have to offer.

I don't know why you mentioned "flashy, plastic consumer notebooks" since the nw9440 (in the configuration I gave) is a $5,000+ high end machine.

If anyone at Dell reads this and knows if the M90 has a "Track Stick", I can be reached at southcarolina1860-dellm90@yahoo.com
dude8604
10/11/07		 I use track stick exclusively and am looking for a gaming laptop. None of the laptops with the higher-end gaming graphics cards have track stick.
 
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