Despite the last few years’ repeated claims of an impending “post-PC” age, when mobile devices would replace personal computers as the most commonly-used medium for computing, more recently, evidence has emerged that PCs are far from dead. In fact, for many of us, the question isn’t whether we should continue using a computer; instead, it’s what type of computer we should opt to use.
The fact remains that, for many purposes, especially business work and academic study, a PC remains the most useful computing device. And, whereas recent years have seen smartphones greatly diversify in their sizes, designs, features and software, computers reached the same stage many years earlier. PCs aren’t dying; rather, as The Verge’s Tom Warren has recently remarked, they have simply “matured enough that you don’t need to replace the one you bought years ago if it’s still working”.
A TALE OF TWO TYPES OF COMPUTER. OR MORE THAN TWO...
Today, computers can be sorted into two broad categories: desktop and mobile. In other words, large and powerful PCs intended to long remain static, and slightly smaller and less powerful computers designed for easy and regular transportation. Strictly desk-bound computers like the iMac fall into the first category; notebooks like the MacBook and tablets like the iPad fall into the second.
However, there are also many subcategories of computer. At one end of the scale, there are small tablets like the iPad Mini; further along that scale, there are medium-sized tablets like the iPad Air, plus notebooks that are almost as portable and good for both media consumption and corporate productivity. At the higher end, there are hefty professional slates like the Microsoft Surface.
Then, right at the top end, there’s the Mac Pro. This is a very different beast to the similarlynamed MacBook Pro - and “beast” really is the right word, as the desktop workstation known as the Mac Pro is the most powerful of all of the computers available from Apple. The most advanced version has a Xeon E5 CPU boasting twelve cores and four 1866 MHz DDR3 slots - that’s awe-inspiring...
KEY AREAS WHERE DESKTOP COMPUTERS STILL LEAD
Desktop processors are typically beefier than the notebook chips; while, for example, MacBook processors can range from 1.6GHz dual-core in the Air models to 2.5GHz quad-core in the 15-inch Retina display Pro, with the iMac models, the range is 1.6GHz dual-core to 3.3GHz quadcore. This is a major plus point for desktops, as their better processors mean better ability to long run new software.
These processors are especially fit for sophisticated editing of images and video, for which a larger screen also wouldn’t go amiss. Apple has already just brought Retina displays to its 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac models, and those displays should better bring to life the gorgeous visuals possible with discrete graphics systems. These systems offer especially strong graphics performance, but appear more often in Apple’s desktop computers than its notebook offerings.
It’s also worth mentioning that the sizes of the new iMacs’ screens comfortably exceed those of the MacBook line, which peak at 15-inch for the largest MacBook Pro models. There’s good reason to believe that those bigger screens could boost comfort and, as a result, productivity. That’s certainly according to an Apple-funded study hinting that the productivity increase could be as much as 50-65%. A decent amount of RAM - this rises to 16GB in the MacBook Pro, but is configurable to 32GB for the iMac - should also allow for smoother multitasking, crucial for particularly demanding work tasks.
Finally, desktops permit many more extension possibilities. For example, the Mac Mini’s hard drive can be readily swapped, while the Mac Pro’s RAM can be updated with little difficulty. Printers, large keyboards and multiple screens can all be used much more easily with desktop computers - largely because these accessories are typically not primarily designed to meet the unique portability concerns of notebook users.
GAME ON! GAME ON THE RIGHT COMPUTER, WE MEAN
Mobile computers can undoubtedly be fun for gaming on the go - and, thanks to both the long-established huge popularity of Windows among game developers and the emergence of iOS and Android as major gaming platforms, there’s now a great choice of big name games on both notebooks and tablets. However, the fast pace and sophisticated graphics of many of the most well-known games demand unadulterated power - and this is not common in mobile computers for two big reasons.
One is that, by virtue of being small for easy portability, manufacturers simply can’t pack as much power into these little things as they could into high-end desktops like Apple’s recently unveiled 21.5-inch and 27-inch Retina display iMacs. Another is that smaller computers can be much less easy to enhance through hardware modifications. These computers include the Retina display MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, which Macworld calls “basically non-upgradable” due to their soldered RAM and hard drives, while iPads have never allowed for expandable storage through the use of physical storage cards.
In fact, the Mac platform has long been considered the far inferior computer gaming platform to Windows - though not quite to the same extent as it used to be. TechRadar’s Matthew Bolton has observed that the Mac is now getting many of the same popular games as Windows, if still often several months later due to various complications of the porting process. He has even declared: “In a balance of gaming power and size/weight, there’s not a lot that can touch the MacBook line.”
DESKTOP AND MOBILE: LOCKED IN A POPULARITY CONTEST
So, do mobile computers today remain secondary in use to their desktop counterparts? Or is it now the desktop that should be considered complementary to the mobile device, rather than vice versa? This is, frankly, a very difficult question to answer - largely due to the lack of publicly available statistics that point clearly to a widespread preference for either desktop or mobile computers.
The market research firm IDC regularly collects data about global PC sales through its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. However, the data focuses much more on differences in market share among different vendors than different types of computers. Further complicating matters, it considers PCs to include desktops and laptops such as ultraslim notebooks and Chromebooks, but not tablets.
One intriguing statistic reported by IDC is that, whereas laptops and laptop hybrids saw “double digit” sales growth in the US last year, in the same period, desktop sales shrunk by 10%.
Nonetheless, we also have to consider that sales of particular types of computers are unlikely to always strictly correlate with how widely they are used. Much of the sales decline for desktop PCs could be attributed not to falling public interest, but instead the ease with which these computers can be modified - meaning that they call for complete replacements less often than more portable computers.
A VERY PERSONAL CHOICE
For all that we have just said about various computers, there can be no completely objective judgment of which type is better; different computers are built for different uses, and so there can only be a question of which type of computer is right for each individual. If you are considering buying one, we can only emphasize the importance of thoroughly researching beforehand to ensure that you get as much return on your spending as possible. Hopefully, we at AppleMagazine have already helped...
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan