Green Laptops
- Reviews:
Here at The Green IT Company I did a lot of research into what was the greenest laptop when I needed a new laptop in late 2009.
My findings were that on the whole as per usual none were really that Green as after all the materials they use and the manufacturing process is not that green at all.
So what was the Greenest. Well, I'd held off purchasing an Apple for many years, mainly because of the poor environmental performance of the company and the Greenpeace iToxics campaign. However, when i researched again i found that the new Macbook Pro laptops were perhaps the greenest on the market. Carved from a single solid block of aluminium I was satisfied that fossil fuel plastics were kept to an absolute minimum and the solid aluminium case and glass screen meant easier recyclability at the end of its life. Much better than multipart and hard to separate plastics contained in nearly all other laptops. The power consumption of this laptop is also extremely low and is fully Energy Star compliant. I measured the macbook Pro as consuming only 25 to 35 W, not bad for such a high performance dual core intel based computer.
My only concern and real grump with this laptop is wireless performance. It is the worst i have yet experienced in any computer i have ever used. I think the cause may be the bad decision to place the airport wireless aerial in the hinge rather than the screen. Some also say the Aluminium affects the single. You can buy a separate USB Aerial that will boost reception and transmission but this costs £80. Personally I think Apple should give them away to Macbook Pro customers for free. What is it with Apple and bad reception. First the iPhone 4 (I sent mine back and replaced it with a much more reliable and sturdy Android HTC Hero) and also the Macbook Pro, not good, especially from a company that charges a high premium for its products. Mind you at least they sent customers special cases that would help boost the signal.
Aluminium is is also one of the most abundant metals/materials on the planet and easier to mine due to being located fairly close to the earths surface and in the earths crust. This means less energy should be expelled in extracting the material. However I would if possible prefer to use something that has been used before rather than freshly mined so i would hope that in future Apple will be making a lot of its new computers from old ones such as mine. But if you do send your old laptop back will you get a discount?
I visited the Apple recycling website and was quoted £278. This is what i would be paid if i recycled my Macbook Pro which is only a year old. Doesnt seem right does it as i could get far more through ebay or second hand markets. However at least they recycle and pay something so I'll check back again in a few years and see what happens.
You can check how much you would be paid for old equipment recycling through Apple by clicking here.
So in a nutshell, I reckon the Macbook Pro is the greenest laptop out there at the moment, mainly due to recyclability, energy efficiency and reduction of hazardous substances.
However there are some other strong contenders to consider:
ASUS U33JC-RX126V (Bamboo Casing)