Readers respond: top laptop priorities

Last week I wrote about a recent phone conversation that I had with Dell’s product manager for the Latitude ATG, the ruggedized notebook I’ve been test-driving. In the conversation, the PM mentioned the top 3 things their user base (mobile workers) cited as most important in a portable: 1) data protection, 2) chassis protection, and 3) an LCD that’s viewable outdoors.

Turns out that while you largely agreed with those points, you had plenty more to add as well. One reader wrote that “secure and universal connectivity” is of utmost importance to him. “I don’t want anyone around me with a device capable of creating wireless ad-hoc networks to be able to do so with my equipment, which means I want something significantly stronger than WEP or even EAP already built in,” he adds.

Another reader took the idea of a viewable LCD one step further, saying he “needs a bright enough screen not just to see, but bright enough to do hours of work (when warm enough I use my old NEC Versa Daylite on my deck to do computer programming all day).” This concern is closely tied to the comment of another reader who wants “better batteries.”

These last two comments struck a chord with me, as I just got a particularly eye-opening lesson on the correlation between screen brightness and battery life. On an especially bright Bay Area day, I took the Latitude ATG with me to the service station where I got my truck smogged. While I waited, I worked outside in the direct sunlight to see just how clear a 500-nit screen could look.

Bottom line: it looked great. The clarity was so good that I felt I could have been looking at the screen indoors. But to achieve that clarity, I had to crank the display brightness up all the way. Knocking it down even one notch caused the screen to darken enough that it bothered me. Yet that action also added nearly an hour onto the estimated battery time that remained.

So for the time being, it appears that the brightness/battery life issue hasn’t exactly been put to bed. But Dell (and other laptop vendors, for that matter) would do well to note that mobile workers beyond the ones they survey have some differing opinions on what matters most in a notebook.