Laptops Are Risky
It is a little known fact that laptops pose a risk to health. Toshiba helped to prove that fact when they sold dangerous laptops to customers around the world. On September 2, 2010 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. found out that 129 people who bought their new laptop got injured from using. Built in China, someone over there messed up and did not take enough time to insure the laptop with the proper parts, resulting in 41,000 laptops being recalled because they burned things. Nice, a pyro-laptop-maniac!
This raises an interesting question: are laptops the best choice for your personal needs or business?
Yes, laptops are easy to access being portable so if you are always on the move, they are the right choice. That is the first advantage of laptops, because they beat desktops in the category of versatility. Portable means they can go anywhere, while the desktop stays on the desk, and in today’s world laptops are becoming the new desktop. But there are disadvantages that you might want to know about.
Ever heard of Repetitive Strain Injury? Most people have, it is when you type on the flat keyboard of a laptop for a long period of time and is like carpal tunnel syndrome. Be careful typing for long hours at the office or home on the laptop. In fact, I am on my laptop right now and I have been typing on this flat keyboard for over an hour. I feel some constricting pain in my wrists and short bursts of pain in my right arm, but that could be from anything.
When Toshiba recalled those laptops, the injuries were minor burns and property damage. A study done with men aged 21 to 25 revealed a scary fact: putting the laptop on the lap actually raises the temperature of your testicles in your scrotum. I know, I cringed too. Another fact, I had to move the laptop from my lap to a table while writing this blog, better safe than sterile!
To solve the problem of overheating get a cooling fan.
But this is often not enough, the durability of laptops is not up to par with desktops because they lack the necessary filtering of dust. After a while, so much dust collects in the cooling system that it overheats and becomes loud with bad noises over time. In order to clean the inside it requires a complete disassembly of the laptop. Quite a pain in the ass.
Another downer is the battery life in laptops. The way to preserve battery is to run the battery down all the way then recharge it to get the full life. But, most people do not do this resulting in batteries that last only an hour. Do not leave the battery in while the laptop is plugged in, take it out so you do not ruin the battery.
Laptops are easy to let fall into disrepair by not taking care of them. Laptops are a great invention and make life a lot easier since they allow any business to travel with you everywhere. But they are susceptible to easy mistakes and easy pitfalls which will turn your laptop into a craptop if you are not careful.
