Dustin Curtis on the “best”:

“The best” isn’t necessarily a product or thing. It’s the reward for winning the battle fought between patience, obsession, and desire. It takes an unreasonably long amount of time to find the best of something. It requires that you know everything about a product’s market, manufacture, and design, and that you can navigate deceptive pricing and marketing. It requires that you find the best thing for yourself, which means you need to know what actually matters to you.

He later concludes that it can take a long time to find what is best which is what I see happening to me, now.

I’m in the market for a new laptop. I know my MacBook Pro is almost four years old and, I feel, has about one year left before it gets too slow for my needs. I’m in the process of comparing the 13” MacBook Pro with a Retina Display, 13” MacBook Air, or an 11” MacBook Air. I’m also debating my next iPad purchase.

While I have time to decide what laptop and iPad is “best” for me, I’m already looking at my options. For the laptops, I’ve looked at the screen sizes, resolutions, and weight. I’ve also compared benchmarks and comfort during use. I still don’t know what’s best. Whatever I decide will affect my family since it will be our only laptop when traveling.

Similarly, I’m looking at the iPad mini and trying to determine if the smaller, lighter screen is worth it compared to the larger, denser 4th Gen iPad screen. It’s more important than one might expect. Having carried an iPad 2 and a 3rd Gen iPad with Retina Display, I can easily say the iPad 2 is easier to use. The weight of the battery in the 3rd and 4th Gen iPad is heavy enough that it affects how long I can hold it. On a crowded Subway car, it’s difficult to hold the larger iPad without bumping into someone. On the other hand, many iPad mini reviews say there is a noticeable difference in the screen because of the lower resolution. Even with a slightly higher density, it’s not as crisp as the Retina Display.

So here I am, months or even more than a year away from buying these devices and I’m not even close to finishing my research. But I can assure you that whatever I get – regardless of the “cost” will be the best.