Presenting my new lappy!

(I should present it like Strong Bad! Haha!)

My computers have been bonkers for a while – my netbook just wont start (probably having motherboard issues) and the desktop will insist that there is no HDD installed (probably a Hard Disk Drive failure. I still would like to fix it nevertheless. I don’t want to throw it away)

So at length I got for myself a new laptop while I was in Singapore. My pre-requisites were simple – it should be powerful enough for me to do multimedia projects but shouldn’t cost more than $1.3K SGD . After all, I’m not a rich woman 😛

(Should I send this picture to Where Bloggers Blog?)

Initially I had my heart set on the HP Envy Notebook PC since it seems to fit all of my requirements. After visiting Sim Lim Square and trying out some computers however, in the end I got for myself a Lenovo Ideapad Z500. (My brother wanted me to get the Y500, but at $2k SGD, it was way above my budget and I really can’t stand the obnoxious red backlight keyboard)

Aint it a bewdy?

The specs between the Envy and the Ideapad are pretty much the same actually – both are running core i7 processor and has an 8GB of memory. The Ideapad had more storage though, and comes with a DVD drive. But what won me over was their keyboard. I type a lot, so the more solid keyboard from the Ideapad is better for me compared to the soft, rubbery one from Envy.

Nevertheless, I’m still trying to get adjusted to it. Mainly because after years of typing on a netbook, typing on this laptop feels like typing on a giant’s keyboard. I still feel the need to use Cart’s spare laptop when I have to type long posts like the Langkawi series.

In any case, I’ve been enjoying my new laptop. It has Win 8 OS but the clerk installed an app called Classic Shell where it makes the interface look like a traditional windows desktop, so it’s less confusing for me.

The computer is freaking fast by the way! It takes just a few seconds just to start up that it makes me go “ooh!” each time. And every program that I’ve installed takes such a significantly short time to process.

For example, I got for myself Adobe Premiere Elements 11. It’ll take a while for me to familiarize myself again, as there are a lot of changes since version 4. Nevertheless rendering a 1 minute video on that takes just a few minutes now instead of hours. So cool!

(Uploading is another story though, we are doomed to using Fastweb, which is actually slow and makes me even more unmotivated to make more regular video blogs as I used to do)

Other graphics intensive programs, such as Secondlife looks gorgeous to me. Looking at the small details like the water ripples, and the colours of sky makes it even more immersive and beautiful. That makes me want to try to play more games, maybe stuff like Tomb Raider or The last of us … except I’m a little scardey-cat when my characters risk to get hurt. Hahaha!

(Thing is, the direction buttons on the keyboard is kind of dinky. So it’s not that comfortable to move my avatar around)

Speaking of graphics, the screen seems longer at 1311×737 compared to the 1280×780 screens that I’ve been used to so it’s a bit of an adjustment seeing the wider screenshots in my computer. Maybe I should have gotten the smaller Z400 instead?

Nevertheless, I love my new laptop. It’s blazing fast, so editing and rendering is much more time efficient for me which in turn makes it more enjoyable for me to use. I hope to find a shop somewhere in Rome where they could do stickers so I could personalise my laptop with a rinaz sticker! Like how I did for my netbook 🙂

Sidenote : I would have gotten myself a tablet too, cos trying to use this in bed is really cumbersome, but the tablet I wanted, the new gen Nexus 7 wasn’t out yet. Bah!