In early December of 2018, I purchased a new laptop. I’ve been looking for a new laptop for a couple of years now. The last one I purchased was from 2011 and a seven year-old laptop is a relic. The old HP I have has run slow for years, even for basic things like web browsing. As such, I’ve been looking for a replacement but since it’s not a critical item for me, I’ve been waiting for something that was a reasonable price.
Along with a reasonable price, I wanted specific requirements. I wanted a 13″ screen, 1080p resolution, and not a crappy mobile Celeron or Pentium processor, so an i3 or above. I found such a laptop from Dell in December, post-Black Friday, all for less than $500. In my mind, the Dell Inspiron 13 5378 was a good deal.
I didn’t realize how useful having a new laptop would be. I was afraid that I wouldn’t use it that much since I have a powerful desktop that can do everything, including gaming. In the month or so that I’ve had my new laptop, I’ve used it quite a bit though. I have it on my dining room table and it’s become the computer I use to do productivity tasks, like filling out paperwork, sending out e-mails (to the property management company, insurance brokers, etc.), paying bills, and other financial matters. When I’m on my laptop, it feels like I’m more efficient and more productive.
I think I do better work on the laptop because I don’t waste too much time on it. On a 13″ screen, you can’t really have too many windows open at once. There’s no YouTube video to distract me from my tasks. On my desktop, with my 24″ monitor, I can have many windows open and my attention is divided amongst several things. My laptop is not powerful enough to game, so when I’m on it, I know I can only do non-gaming things.
Anyways, I hope this new machine will run a lot better several years down the road compared to the budget HP I still have. What to do with that one now?