kompyuta – Kikuyumoja

HP Elitebook 840 G6 & Lenovo T480s

Earlier last month, I upgraded my two Win10/Linux computers from 6th gen intel CPUs to 8th gen intel CPUs, and the reason I am mentioning this is because I used to be a Dell fanboy, but have since switched to HP and Lenovo.

The Dell Latitude E5470 ex 2018 on my desk.

My two beloved 14″ Dell Latitude E5470 and E7470 business laptops (that ran on their docking stations, connected to an external 27″ Dell U2722DE 2K monitor and managed via the highly recommendable Logitech MX Keys keyboard) were fully equipped – even with LTE-modems/WWAN – but had reached a point where I was longing for a bit more CPU power. Continue reading “HP Elitebook 840 G6 & Lenovo T480s”

Arbeitsgeräte

Als ich vor vielen Jahren damit anfing, in meiner Freizeit irgendwelche Mobiltelefone zu zerlegen und zu reparieren, hatte ich anfangs natürlich nur so ganz billige Schraubendreher, mit denen die Arbeit nicht immer klappte und die nicht sehr stabil waren. Irgendwann nahm ich dann mal Geld in die Hand und kaufte mir richtige Schraubendreher für diese feinen Schrauben. Alle Torx-Größen T2-T30 zum Beispiel, einzeln, von den Herstellern Wera, Wiha, Gedore usw.. Ich schrieb hier schon mal darüber, erwähnte auch den überaus empfehlenswerten Knipex-Zangenschlüssel, der bei mir ein ganzes Set an Schraubenschlüsseln ersetzt.

Kurzum: Das Leben ist zu kurz für schlechtes Werkzeug und diese Dinge müssen einfach verlässlich funktionieren. Wenn sie dann ein paar Jahre halten, dürfen sie sicherlich auch etwas mehr kosten.

Immer wieder erlebe ich es aber, dass die Leute diese einfache Wahrheit bei Werkzeug anerkennen – was sich übrigens auch in hochwertigen Küchengeräten bemerkbar macht – bei Geräten & Software aus dem IT-Bereich aber oft den Wert nicht erkennen und dann zur nächstbesten Lösung greifen. Continue reading “Arbeitsgeräte”

Dell Latitude E5450 vs. Dell Latitude E5470

I recently upgraded my office laptop from a Dell Latitude E5450 to a Dell Latitude E5470 – two laptops which appear to be very similar from the outside and don’t differ so much. There are quite a few minor things though that made me go for the upgrade. And please be reminded that I always only buy second hand hardware, unless we’re talking about iPads or iPhones. Consequently, my “new” E5470 is a used laptop that I managed to buy via eBay after a longer search for a good deal and the right CPU.

E5450 vs E5470 — The Dell Latitude E5450 (left) vs E5470 (right)

Continue reading “Dell Latitude E5450 vs. Dell Latitude E5470”

Wieso ich meine gebrauchten Dell Latitude Notebooks mag

Wer in 2019 ein gutes Notebook* für zu Hause, für die Kinder oder als privates Zweitgerät sucht, schaut sicherlich bei den großen Händlern online und bekommt dann interessante, moderne Geräte mit relativ langer Akkulaufzeit, einfachem Prozessor, schönem IPS-Display und ein paar Anschlüssen angeboten. Meistens starten die Angebote für solche neuen Notebooks bei 400 EUR, und die Auswahl (und die Verwirrung) ist online sicherlich noch größer als bei den großen Elektromärkten in der Innenstadt und den Einkaufszentren. Mich regt das immer etwas auf, weil ich bei dem Thema “Laptopkauf” etwas leidenschaftlich unterwegs bin und hier daher endlich mal einiges von dem aufschreiben möchte, was mir bei dem Thema so in den Sinn kommt.

tl;dr, die Kurzversion: Statt neuer Laptops/Notebooks* mit geringer Ausstattung empfehle ich für den Privatgebrauch gebrauchte Business-Notebooks wie die Modelle Dell Latitude E7440, E5450, E5470 und HP EliteBook 8470p.

Continue reading “Wieso ich meine gebrauchten Dell Latitude Notebooks mag”

HP 840 G1 vs. Dell E7440 vs. Dell E5450

HP Elitebook 840 G1 vs Dell Latitude E7440 vs. Dell Latitude E5450

A visual comparison between three 14″ business laptops that may be of interest to some of you. My Dell Latitude E5450, my Dell Latitude E7440 and an HP Elitebook 840 G1. These are the sort of laptops that are about two to three years old and are sold as used items on eBay. I received the E5450 as a new item though, otherwise it would probably be in a worse shape as the body is not as strong as the one on the e7440. Continue reading “HP 840 G1 vs. Dell E7440 vs. Dell E5450”

Dell Latitude E6220

My backup laptop during the last two years has been an 11,6″ Acer notebook in a netbook size. “Backup”, as in “a second computer that works when machine no.1 doesn’t and else works as a logbook for amateur (ham) radio and other experiments”. Armed with an 1,5 GHz Intel Pentium 987 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and an SSD, it scored okayish on Geekbench and also has a very portable power supply (which in my mind is one of the most important aspects of mobile computing). The Acer, however, lacks VT-x, which prevented Virtualbox from running properly. And the irony is that I also have an identical Acer Chromebook C710 with a partly broken screen that I had bought for spare parts and managed to restore – which has a Celeron 847 CPU and thus an enabled VT-x. Continue reading “Dell Latitude E6220”

Email clients on MS Windows

The following could be a long rant on bad email clients for MS Windows, but instead of describing the agony I’ve experienced with various email clients in the past few years, let me just ask this one question (from a user perspective):

“Why do we have really smart apps on our mobile phones, but when it comes to email clients on a desktop computer, there is no perfect solution?”

Yes, there may be legal reasons for this development (i.e. patents) and the fact that most consumers just don’t care, but then: it’s email, the most important (business) application next to Excel or Word. How come this still !!!!! has such a low priority? I don’t get it.

I keep coming back to this blog post on the subject. Matteo is a Linux dev who occasionally uses a Windows machine. For a project, he required a “perfect desktop mail client”. Ha! Welcome to the club, Matteo. They obviously all suck for one reason or another, and my particular requirements are rather mundane:

Fast and reliable IMAP sync
Decent HTML rendering
Integrated calendar and contact sync
Global Inbox

That’s it. And yes, support for encrypted mails would be a huge bonus, but one step at a time.

Going by this list of requirements, I have now eventually switched from MS Outlook 2010 to eM Client. Which also means: no Postbox, no TheBat!, no Mailbird, no Thunderbird, no Windows Mail (lol), no Eudora, no EssentialPIM, no Sylpheed (which is really nice). Conversation threading? Hell, no. Or the new N1 by Nylas? Not yet. Just a client that looks like MS Outlook 2010, imports all the stuff from there (!) but also doesn’t bug me with idle time. All email accounts accessible via IMAP, calendar and contacts sync without issues (like they used to with plugins in other clients) and all mails show up in a global inbox and global junk mail folder.

Looks like MS Outlook, but with less bugs: eM Client.

Em Client is advertised as the “best email client for Windows”, which Mailbird 2.0 btw also claims. The Bat! also claims to be “the best secure email client software”. Which is probably true, but also begs the question: if they are all “the best”, how come they are still not as popular as the rest? Costs? Em Client is expensive, a full licence costs around 47 EUR (incl. VAT), no discounts granted. A free version is available, but limited to two email accounts. I will still cough up that amount because a good email tool should cost money. Which is why I also bought Postbox in the past. I am willing to spend money on good software. A) to support the developer and show my appreciation and b) because I don’t want my data to be their business model. But that’s just me, others are more into open software, or even the “free” (as in free beer) side to it and probably don’t agree.

Coming back to my initial question: how come that we have a lot of nice apps on our mobile devices, while email is so neglected? Why can’t email as an application be as smart as SMS or the use of other Instant Messengers? Kids have their mobile number and user name as an entry card into the digital world – not necessarily email (like we did). While this may answer the priority on optimized communication channels, it still doesn’t answer why MS Outlook or even ~~Lotus~~ IBM Notes (and Thunderbird for many private and Linux users) should be the best options. Could we please have a great email client software? Something that just works?

Upgrading from a Dell Latitude E6430 to an E5450

My Dell Latitude E6430 has a great performance, has enough room for an extra SSD, has never let me down during the last two years and came as a refurbished, 1yr-old laptop from a dealer in the UK. It also shares the same birthday (date) with me and is just a very, very solid workhorse. The keyboard is great, it has extra keys for volume control, the touchpad does support two-finger scrolls, it has a very durable frame and to clean the vent, I just need to remove 5 screws. Even it’s bulky size and waste of space (= 14″ laptop in the body of a 15″ machine) are okay in the end. I don’t care about that extra inch or the weight. I am a tall person and small laptops look stupid on me. Continue reading “Upgrading from a Dell Latitude E6430 to an E5450”