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The SSD or Solid State Drive isn’t exactly a new term. SSDs have been on the market for quite a few years now, but not a lot of people know what they do. Essentially, SSDs are an upgrade over the older HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and they offer faster boot times, and faster processing speeds but at a substantially higher cost.
Unlike your traditional hard disk drives, an SSD uses NAND flash memory, which can last for years on a stretch. But is it exactly worth the extra bucks for real-life performance? Let’s find out.
Read: Solid State Drive vs. Hard Disk Drive.
Do you need an SSD or Solid State Drive?To start with, there are multiple reasons why you might want to opt for an SSD in place of a standard HDD.
Laptops might take get bumped around when you travelIf you travel a lot with your laptop, chances are your computer is sure to get bumped off in different places when you carry it around. It is better to have a machine that sports an SSD to know that you are protected with a sturdy drive when you get bumped.
Mobility is keyAnother benefit of an SSD is that it is much more portable and mobile compared to the traditional HDD. The SSD ends up saving space to include other hardware in the laptop and even reduces weight and thickness. SSDs also require less power, so your laptop battery should last longer.
Boot times are loweredAnd finally, boot time. If you have been a Windows PC owner for the longest time, you surely have felt the pain of waiting for your system to boot up after a long time. Using an SSD, especially for booting up Windows 10 will help you notice the sudden changes in the time taken to load all your apps on the desktop.
So, now that you have chosen that you do indeed want an SSD for your machine, it’s time to get a bit technical.
Read: Hybrid Drive vs. SSD vs. HDD.
The right type of memory for your SSD
Single-Level Cell (SLC) – SLC memory is practically the faster type of memory on any SSD. It is also the most precise when it comes to reading and processing data, which makes it better for your system’s battery life. But the worst part is that SLC is also the most expensive of the lot and the SSDs with SLC are usually used in Enterprise editions.
Multi-Level Cell (MLC) – MLC memory has a larger amount of storage without an increase in physical size, is available for a lower price than SLCs, but, in turn, has slower and less precise Write and Read speeds. They also suck in more power and are less durable compared to the SLCs.
Triple-Level Cell (TLC) – TLC is the cheapest of the lot and thus quite popular in the consumer segment. But, it also has the lowest and least precise write and read speeds. It is also much less durable compared to the other two memory variants due to increased power consumption.
So, this was a brief summary of what SSDs are and how you should choose the right one. Do let us know if you have any suggestions, below.
Do let us know if you have any observations to make.
Read: SSD Optimization Tips for better performance.
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Best Ssd (Solid State Drive) Laptop
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Traditional storage systems are bulky and slow. If you are looking to purchase an SSD laptop, then I guess, you must be tired of waiting several hours when transferring your files, hate your system for taking forever before booting up, want to do away with that loading screen and want to multiply your workflow speed. However, you can agree with me that it is excruciatingly hard to make a choice, as the market is swamped with thousands of SSD laptops ranging from good to excellent. I have done all the research considering all the nitty-gritty of each product and come up with a comprehensive list of the best SSD laptops available.
List of Best SSD (Solid State Drive) Laptop Here is the complete List #1: ASUS VivoBook 15 – Best Value Laptop SSDIf you are looking for a great value laptop, then going for ASUS VivoBook 15 from ASUS is the right choice. It is one of the best SSD devices featuring an Intel Core m3-8100Y Processor, 8 GB RAM, and 128 GB SSD makes an excellent combination of performance and power. This product with fastest SSD allows users to boot OS, games and other programs from SSD, while the HDD to store up your movies and infrequently used files. As a result, it offers improved performance at a budget.
I like its elegant chrome book style not seen in other devices within its price range. Multimedia users and gamers will find the full HD graphics and 0.3″ NanoEdge bezel appealing and unbelievable at such price.
I like the 178-degree viewing angles, could view crisp color irrespective of the side I was viewing from. The device comes with an agnomical, backlit keyboard, which guide you on your task and meet up with your deadlines.
Also, ASUS VivoBook 15 weighs 3.97 lbs and features a slim, thin 0.7 inches making most systems look old with its aesthetic design. On the con side, the ASUS VivoBook 15 display has a produces only 68% of the sRGB color spectrum leading to a dull display compared to competitors. However, it is capable of handling anything thrown at it including editing software, without getting too hot – thanks to its hardware. The well-featured, high-performance and aesthetic device has become an excellent alternative to individuals who feel MacBooks are too expensive.
Pros
Lightweight
Aesthetic design and durable
Smooth performance
Good sound speakers
Well-constructed keyboard
Responsive Precision Touchpad
Cons
No SD card reader
Below-average battery life
Dull Display
#2: Microsoft Surface Go 3 – SSD Laptop for Creative Minds Adaptive Dial and Pen
This super high-end machine has earned the respect of painters and artists, and have dropped their tablets for Microsoft Surface Go. No doubt, Microsoft has not failed in its design and has produced a laptop offering futuristic and classy design.
If you prioritize versatility, then Microsoft Surface Go should be your choice. You can use this device in three different modes – tablet, laptop, and book. It is an appropriate choice for people who prefer the outstanding design and eye-catching SSD laptop over power and performance. However, this doesn’t mean the system lack enough horsepower. The system is available in five varieties including the pricey variant with 10 inches’ screen and an Intel Pentium processor.
The machine sports an improved Surface Pen with low latency, accuracy, tilt and pressure sensing making it an excellent stylus in the business. I love the Adaptive Dial rotary accessory, which performs general computing functions such as controlling the volume, zooming, scrolling through web pages, etc. The Adaptive Dial can prove effective on some specific tasks while working on creatives tools like Photo editors. It can adjust opacity, sizes of brush and other settings.
Although its 3.2K IPS display may not be up to par with the popular 4K display, it still offers superb visual quality optimized for better battery life and excellent performance. I think it is a decent tradeoff. The machine may not be able to perform excellently as most of its competitors, yet it offers a tremendous performance thanks to its AMD Radeon Vega 11 powered and latest processors.
Surface Go isn’t touted by Microsoft as a device perfect for content-creation like Surface Studio, however, it comes with the same excellent color profile – enhanced profile and standard RGB – making its colors slightly more vivid.
Another remarkable feature is its incredible battery life. The laptop has 70 watts hours with an impressive overall battery life of 11.5 hours. It eliminates the needs to plug in your laptop to a power source constantly. Unlike most convertible notebooks, the product lacks the appealing 360-degree hinge, which makes it easy to flip the display and reattach for tent mode or detach for use as a conventional tablet.
Pros
Incredible long battery life
Excellent cooling
Lightweight yet strong performance
Great audio
Dramatic Design
Adaptive Dial and Pen are cool
Cons
Small trackpad
Very Pricey
No Thunderbolt 3 support
#3: HP Envy – SSD LaptopHP Envy Laptop comes with Windows 10 OS that enables us to easily markup the website on screen using an edge web browser. This Solid State Drive laptop has a 11th generation processor that brings us for way processing performance for HD computing. With this laptop, we are getting 512GB Solid State Drive, which requires less storage space compared to a hard drive; therefore, it increases startup time.
The maximum resolution of the panel you are getting here is 1920×1080, is which is enough for doing office work. The weight of such a laptop is 2.87 lbs, and the design is so appealing that you can easily carry it from one place to another.
The bright view screen of this laptop maintains vivid colors in your video and photos. It offers 8GB system memory for performing multitasking. HP Envy is a basic laptop and suited for those searching for the laptop at less price.
Pros
It quickly boots up.
Run smooth for everyday use.
Offers SD card slot to extend storage need.
It is lightweight.
Provides good battery life.
Cons
Laptop speed is not good.
#4: MacBook Air – Mac OS with Excellent specs and after sale serviceMacBook Air are popular for delivering impressive futuristic devices, and MacBook Air is no exception. Just like the older versions, this device with best SSD for laptop features the same aesthetic and minimalistic outlook. However, it would have been nice to have a different futuristic and classy look.
MacBook Air features a thicker bezel around its 13.6″ IPS display compared to some of its competitors and would have been perfect if it could be slimmed down. The MacBook Air has a 2560 x 1664 pixel panel that offers vivid quality images with a brightness of 354 nits. This laptop is the first to use the Apples True Tone technology feature to adjust color and intensity.
I like the Touch Bar, but it’s still in its infancy. With time, more applications will become compatible with Touchbar making it indispensable. MacBook Air 13.6″ doesn’t weigh more than 2.7 pounds and 11.97″ x 8.46″ x 0.44″ making it slightly lighter and help maximize your desk space better than the majority of its competing notebooks. Its 13-inch variant is designed to offer more portability and less weight, as it only weighs about 2.7 pounds and 12″ x 8.4″ x 0.6″.
Apple has designed to be competitive with windows 10 and other window based machines and is excellent for workstations and gaming laptops. It has an option for the System on Chip (SoC); Apple M2 chip processor and a fantastic 3.2 GHz clock-speed ceiling, which makes it one of the best raw computing performance coming from the manufacturer.
The battery can easily sustain a full workday without charge. For regular usage like streaming videos, surfing the internet, etc. the battery can serve you for as high as 11 hours, which is exceed most battery life experienced with several premium laptops with an average time of 18 hours.
I like the Force Touch Trackpad that has pressure sensing capabilities and cursor control.
Although it is pricey, it is among the very best laptop offering high power and performance right now.
Pros
Fast SSD
Thin and light design
Improved keyboards
Extended battery life
Great sound
Sharp, vivid display
Great and speedy performance
Cons
Very expensive
Port selection still stinks
Warm underside
No USB Type-A ports
#5: Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 – SSD LaptopLenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is one of the best SSD laptops, which consists of 16GB DDR RAM. It has lots of wonderful features that help you to work conveniently. This laptop has a comfortable keyboard and dedicated webcam shutters.
Lenovo laptop offers two connectivity options, one is Wi-Fi, and another one is Bluetooth. They are built-in, so you do not require to attach any external adapter for them. It remains popular for artists and graphics designers due to its flex 15.6’s touch screen. So, it is an ideal laptop which is at ease to write, draw, and sketch.
If we keep our focus on battery, then this laptop will give you 12 hours of battery life. It is one of the best laptops with SSD which uses recharge technology that allows you to recharge up to 80% in a few hours. The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 can be used in laptop mode for working tent mode, sharing data, and stand mode to watch movies. This extremely versatile and fully featured laptop is a worth buying option that can make your work simple and easy.
Pros
It has a good large screen.
You can easily switch to a tablet and a laptop.
You do not need to waste money on purchasing a large amount of disk.
Provides great portability.
Cons
The keyboard is not comfortable.
#6: Dell XPS 13 9310 – Best value in Premium SSD LaptopDell XPS 13 9310 weights about 2.80 lbs and is designed not to eat up your desk space, as it is only 13.4″ deep, 0.45 – 0.66″ tall and 14″ wide. Unlike those flaky and traditional swipe-style fingerprints reader, this 1TB SSD laptop has the reader integrated into the power button.
This is one of the best SSD laptops available ideal for anyone irrespective of your walk of life. The machine sports the 8th generation Intel Intel Core i7-1195G7 processor operating with a clock-speed of 5 GHz. It has a 16GB RAM size, which is more than enough for multitasking and storage of 1TB SSD that can store almost anything.
I like the radiant silver look, and it has give you wireless connectivity option. The webcam is poorly positioned below the display rather than above the display. The poor positioning gives a rising view of your nostrils and chin. In my tests, the battery lasts up to 4 hours of intense gaming and 14 hours watching movies with the windows media player in airplane mode.
You will love the gorgeous edge-edge screen with an Infinity edge design, 13.4in 4K UHD touchscreen display that is perfect for video editors and photographers. This laptop with 512GB SSD has an impressive Intel Iris Xe Graphics dedicated graphics card.
Pros
Amazing 4K resolution touchscreen display
Lightweight, yet impressive performance
Simple aesthetics
Great battery life
Cons
Poor positioning of the webcam
SSD suffers slow write speed
#7: Samsung Chromebook 4 – Best Budget SSD LaptopI am impressed with Chromebook’s plastic build quality which is somewhat surprising considering its affordable price. The plastic has a classic-looking metallic black color which gives it a premium feel. This laptop with SSD drive comes with an 11.6″ screen display with a battery life that can stay as long as 12.5 hours. However, just like most product in this price range, its keyboard does not permit flexing around. The laptop is excellent for anyone who needs a small-size laptop with average performance to take on trips or carry around. The device can easily be tuck under your arm and light enough not to make you sweaty.
I found the resolution of the Chromebook 3 pretty good with adequate brightness, warm tones, and authentic colors. You can see all the colors on the screen from a 45-degree angle and with a screen resolution of 1366 X 768 Pixel the display is not full HD.
Although you may not get that excellent gaming performance from this gadget, it still performs excellently for surfing the internet, word processing, streaming videos, etc. without lagging or taking forever to log. Nothing less should be expected from this gadget – thanks to its Intel Celeron N4020 (1.10 GHz up to 2.80 GHz 4 MB L2 Cache) processor.
Pros
Luminous, accurate display screen
Incredible battery life
Excellent performance
Fun webcam
Cheap price
Cons
Inappropriate as a graphics workstation.
Muddy speakers
Require the internet always to use its apps.
❗ Why Choose a Laptop with SSD Not HDD?If you are not a computer geek, you may find the terms “SSD” and “HDD” mere letters and purchase any as long as the storage numbers in front work for you: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB. About half a decade ago, only thin and high-end laptops featured an SSD data storage, which was often expensive. SSD laptops are not only requested in colleges and schools, but different individuals from different walks of life also make use of these type of data storage for maximum productivity.
Now, what is the difference between an SSD and HDD? Here are multiple reasons to help understand why SSD is highly demanded today.
SSD’s stores and retrieve data about five times faster than any Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Programs load faster and enhance the user’s productivity.
Hard drives needs power from laptop’s battery to spin its moving parts while saving or retrieving files resulting in shorter battery life, while SSD’s helps extend battery life.
SSD takes about 10 – 12 seconds to boot up while HDD takes 20 – 30 seconds more.
SSD’s lack of moving parts, therefore, it makes no sounds.
Durability is another great benefit that comes with the use of SSDs, and any external physical trauma does not lead to data loss or device breakdown.
You might be asking the question, “what will happen to your SSD once the lifetime expires.” Worry not because even as the lifespan of the drive becomes shorter over time, the data on it does not disappear. It becomes a read-only drive. I recommend that you replace the SSD two or three months before the expiration date of the old Drive.
💻 How to Buy the Best Laptop?Looking to purchase a laptop soon? Here are a few factors to consider before buying one:
Choose the right size: Choose the size of your laptop depending on how portable your need for the machine is to you. Sizes vary from 11 inches which are the lightest systems to 1 i8 inch which are famous as a gaming laptops, and I recommend that you pick this size if you don’t intend to move about with your machine often.
Pick a Platform: Chrome OS, Mac, and Windows
Pick your specs: Choose a laptop whose specifications meet your needs. Specs like the processor, memory size, display, storage drive, graphics, Battery life, and ports are important aspects to consider before purchasing a machine.
Price: Plan your budget before you source for a laptop. A budget will assist in choosing a computer that has a better display, high performance, and fast without denting your finances.
Chose a good brand: Laptops are as good as their manufacturer. Invest in a model that has quality, durable laptops so you can get value for money and effective customer support.
Best SSD Laptops – Final VerdictMaking the right choice on the best SSD laptop won’t be a consensus decision, and will vary from person to person. However, I have provided you with a comprehensive list of the best laptops available for purchase to ensure you don’t go wrong. Laptops making out top 6 list have been vetted based on their strength and weakness.
How Much Storage Do You Need On Mac?
When you buy a new Mac, there are just some questions that are more difficult to answer than others. One of these questions is how much storage do you really need. In the case of a new Mac purchase, how you plan to use the computer and what you need it for weigh heavily in your purchase decision. So how do you decide? Here are some of the factors you should be considering.
What Are Your Choices?Before we get into how you make a storage choice, let’s take a look at what your choices are. The November releases of the 13” MacBook Air and MacBook Pro marked a huge leap forward in Apple laptops. With the company’s first in-house processor, the M1, now available for purchase, performance has jumped ahead of the previous generation of Apple laptops across almost every metric. That said, Apple left the storage mostly alone as the MacBook Air arrives with a 256GB SSD standard in the $999 base model. Similar to the previous model, you can upgrade to a 512GB, 1TB or 2TB SSD for $200, $400 and $800 respectively.
The 13” MacBook Pro retains similar sizing as before with a 256GB SSD of storage standard when combined with the M1 chip. Similar to the Air, storage can be upgraded to 512GB, 1TB and 2TB SSD of storage for the same prices as noted above. Things get a little more interesting with the 16” MacBook Pro, which has yet to receive the M1 processor upgrade. Storage starts off with 512GB SSD on the “base” model with upgrades ranging from 1TB to 8TB with the latter costing upwards of $2,400.
Finally, the last consumer Mac hardware is the Mac Mini, which begins at 256GB of base storage. With some upgrades, you can max out memory at 2TB with 512GB and 1TB storage sizes landing in the middle. Like the MacBook models, upgrades max at $200, $400 and $800 respectively.
Where to LookThe best way to get a sense of how much you need is to determine how much you are currently using. On a Mac, it’s super easy:
2. Select “About this Mac,” then “Storage.”
On Windows:
2. Select “File Explorer.”
Getting a look at your existing storage use is a great predictor of how much space you will need for the future. However, adding space to a Mac laptop after purchase is virtually impossible without voiding your warranty, so it’s a good idea to default to the next size up.
Should I Buy 256GB, 512GB or Larger?If you are trying to decide between these two sizes, start by asking yourself some simple questions.
1. Do I plan to keep every photo and video I capture on my Mac hard drive?
2. Do I like to download movies or TV shows and keep them available for watching at any time?
3. Do I not want to worry about having enough space for applications?
4. Do I need more space to edit photos or videos?
The answer to those questions might seem simple, but they are difficult when you remember that you are purchasing something you cannot upgrade. If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, purchase the 512GB. The $200 or so that it costs for the hard drive upgrade is well worth it when you factor in the lifespan of ownership. If you are genuinely concerned about never running out of space, the TB (terabyte) options are available and will serve you well for the whole lifespan of your Mac.
Don’t Forget iCloudWith the introduction of macOS Sierra, Apple introduced a new feature called “Store in iCloud.” Somewhat self explanatory based on the name, this feature does indeed upload files to iCloud when you are running low on storage. The caveat here is that you need additional or enough available storage on iCloud to make room for files, documents, photos, videos and more. Apple offers three options:
50GB – $0.99
200GB – $2.99
2TB – $9.99
Ultimately, this won’t make up for local storage, but adding in cloud storage will allow for additional flexibility by freeing up space on your computer. iCloud storage is first and foremost for cloud backups, especially for iOS and iPadOS, but that you can use this to free up local storage is a great second purpose. The same goes for Dropbox, which also offers a similar feature with “Smart Sync.”
Can You Make It with 256GB?Are you planning to get the base 256GB model? Let’s assume that your Mac is going to be filled with catalogs of music, photos, applications, and likely videos you own, rented or captured. On top of all of that, you also want room for future projects like Mac gaming or video editing. Suddenly, the base 256GB storage doesn’t seem big chúng tôi trick here is to optimize the storage on your Mac. As much as possible, offload all those files you have little use for to the cloud storage or external drive.
A second thought is that you can also get by with less storage on a MacBook or iMac if you have another desktop or primary computer. That won’t be true for most people, but for those who have a second computer, less storage may be feasible. For everyone else, 256GB is more than likely good enough to get by for years to come. If you can pick up the extra storage at 512GB, it definitely provides you with more than enough cushion for well into the future.
ConclusionChoosing the right storage size is never easy. On the plus side, all Mac models come with a base storage of 256GB. Yet on the negative, it doesn’t make the decision any easier. Ultimately, choosing the right storage size depends on whether you have needs for the space. Think about what you really want to do with your computer over the next few years and let the answer be your guide.
David Joz
David is a freelance tech writer with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. He loves all things Nintendo.
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Do You Really Want To Know What’s In Your Baby’s Genome?
In the age of readily available genetic testing, there are a lot of questions about how—or if—an in-depth test might help or hurt the health of a baby. A small study of newborns at Boston medical facilities examined what happens when you sequence an infant’s genome and tell parents at least some of what you find.
Standard newborn screenings include checks for a small number of diseases, “and the criteria for including diseases is very strict,” says Alan Beggs, the study’s principal coauthor and a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. The reasoning is that telling a family too much could potentially cause massive harm, either by unnecessarily distressing them over risks that may never turn into actual illness or by influencing medical decisions made in their child’s first days of life.
Enrollees came from two Boston hospitals and included a mix of healthy and sick infants as well as their families. Of these, half (159) were chosen at random to have their genomes sequenced. Some of the resulting information—primarily information about genetic diseases that were likely to manifest before the age of 18—went to parents, who also received genetic counseling. The other group received genetic counseling and standard screening.
This was a small study, and the subjects, who were mostly from affluent white families, aren’t representative of the country as a whole, Beggs acknowledges. But it’s a significant first step in actually quantifying the potential benefits and harms of newborn genetic screening in a real-world scenario—something that will likely come to affect all of us in time. Here’s what you need to know about their findings:
There were more anomalies than expectedThe researchers were surprised by the number of genetic variations they found in the babies’ genomes. Fifteen of the 159 had genetic variations indicating a risk for childhood-onset genetic disease. That 9.4 percent risk is higher than what had been thought based on studies done in adults, Beggs says. Similarly, 88 percent of the newborns were carriers of genetic mutations that could potentially cause disease in their own offspring—a higher number than the researchers expected.
“It’s interesting the percentage of patients with significant findings,” says Cynthia Powell, a University of North Carolina pediatrician and geneticist who was not involved with the current study. “To finally get some hard data about this is really critical to moving forward.”
Some of the findings had implications for the parents as wellThe screening focused on childhood-onset conditions. “These were infants,” Beggs explains. “They’re not giving consent to the study; their parents are.” As we’ve written before, when it comes to genetic information, it’s possible to know too much. Because of this, informed consent is vital to the ethical decisions clinicians make about what kind of genetic info to give people, and of course, a baby can’t give informed consent. But there were a few instances where the researchers found themselves confronting an ethical question about whether to disclose that a child had genetic evidence of an adult-onset disease. “This illustrates the fact that in genetics it’s not just a one-to-one relationship between a doctor and a patient,” Beggs says.
In the case of a newborn who had a high likelihood of developing breast cancer, something that’s almost certain not to manifest until adulthood, the researchers found themselves in a quandary. Should they disclose this to the family, knowing that one of the parents also had this risk and might not be aware? Or should they not, because the newborn can’t consent to the test? (The newborn can’t consent to any part of the test, of course, but parents make decisions for their children all the time—the difference here is that parents would be using information they otherwise wouldn’t have until their child’s adulthood, when those offspring would likely be making decisions for themselves.) In the end, the researchers asked parents if they wanted to know about things like a strong breast cancer risk. They then built consent for this into their form and went on to have several similar cases. “It was obviously a really upsetting piece of information,” Beggs says. But families appreciated the warning. And he feels that the knowledge also prevents potential harm to the newborn patient, in a way—by preventing the loss of a parent.
There are still a ton of questions left to askThis study is part of a National Institute of Health project called NSIGHT, which currently includes four total projects investigating different ethical, medical, and practical implications of newborn genetic screening. Beggs’s project is only funded by the NIH until the babies are a year old, but he’s seeking support to continue the study.
Both Beggs and Powell say there’s a lot more to learn before we can start talking about changing the standard newborn test. There’s evidence that in the case of unwell babies, genetic testing can help doctors figure out how to make them better, Powell says, but “healthy newborns is an area where we still need to get more information.”
For all that, though, there’s a lot of potential good as well. As an example, Beggs cited a newborn in the study who had a borderline case of biotinidase deficiency, a potentially serious condition that can cause mental impairment. This particular child might never have had noticeable symptoms, he says, and thus never have been diagnosed. Because Beggs’ team was able to establish this borderline case early, however, the newborn’s family chose to start giving them biotin supplements to head off the potential harms of the condition.
“I think there is a very clear case to be made that a subset of children should receive genetic sequencing as soon as possible after birth,” says Beggs. How to define that subset and make decisions about how we treat their genetic information is an ongoing conversation. “It’s important for the public to know still the challenges of doing this,” says Powell.
Do You Need A Chair Mat For Hardwood Floors?
Chair mats are widely used in offices and even home offices. They provide a designated area for chair movement.
In addition, different chair mats, like PVC chair mats, Glass chair mats, are used for floor protection.
Chair mats protect the hardwood floor from office chair wheels. However, using chair mats on the hardwood floor in the long term can damage it slowly. Dust trapped under the mat, studs on the mat, and chemicals present can scratch and discolor the hardwood floor.
Chair mats work great on the concrete floor. However, different flooring has different requirements.
In addition, hardwood floors being delicate, requires careful selection.
This article will help you choose the best chair mat materials and chair mat alternatives for your hardwood floor.
Are Chair Mats Necessary For Hardwood Floor?Chair mats are not necessary for hardwood floors because there are alternatives like rollerblade-style wheels, which defeat the purpose of chair mats.
The chair mat protects the floor from chairs. However, it harms the hardwood floor in the long run.
Therefore, you can use other favorable alternatives for chair mats, like bell glides, standing desks, etc.
Chair mats are an effective way to avoid the damage that ordinary rolling chairs inflict.
However, they are a solution that works best in cubicle-style offices.
Open-plan workplaces are becoming more common, yet floor mats are unsuitable for this workspace style since they restrict movement and reduce collaborative effectiveness.
Advantages of Using Chair Mats on Hardwood Floors 1. Protection From Office Chair CastersThe chair wheels can scratch the hardwood floors, which are expensive to repair.
Using chair mats can prevent the scratches that form over time from long-term usage of office chairs.
The most common problem is that most rolling office chairs have strong casters, easily creating scuff marks.
A permanent scratch on the hardwood floor is also caused by sitting in your chair and sliding back and forth while working.
You can avoid repetitive wear and tear by using chair mats.
2. Spill ProtectionYou might hastily spill some drinks or food on the hardwood floor.
But don’t worry; chair mats protect the floor against those spills.
3. Flexibility and MobilityThe flexibility to move your chair to a different part or side of your desk is critical for multitasking and letting you move your body properly.
As a result, chair mats give you the leverage to move, adjust, and reposition your chair as required.
4. It Provides a Good AppearanceHigh-end office chair mats provide a touch of class to the workplace. The Kuyal Clear Chair Mat will go easily with any office interior.
Chairmats make your home office appear good and make the ambiance clean, tidy, and organized, which is usually more favorable to work than chaotic environments.
Read on to know about flooring options best for rolling office chairs.
Although it has its benefits, it does harm hardwood flooring in some ways, which are discussed below.
Long-term chair mat use can affect hardwood floors because dust can collect in the gap between the mat and the floor. Therefore, you should replace it at least once a year, which might be expensive.
They can leave stains on the floor.
The chair mat can cause scratches on hardwood floors as it slides back and forth.
The area covered by the mat is only the easily moving zone for the chair, so it limits the space you can move.
Chair mats can be pretty expensive, costing up to $900.
How to Choose the Chair Mat for the Hardwood Floor?
It would help if you chose the chair mats for hardwood floors considering the hardwood floor’s proper shape, size, and material.
Here are some factors to consider while buying the best office chair mat for a hardwood floor.
However, before we dive into the details, look at the quick overview of the best features of hardwood floor chair mats.
Chair Mat FeaturesBest options
SizeCovering your roll area
ShapeBulb, Lip, Rectangular
MaterialPolycarbonate
ThicknessUp to 2.5 mm
1. Shape and SizeAn office chair mat that covers your whole “roll area” is a good idea. The roll area is the area underneath your office chair, and it is where you move or shift your chair the most.
Furthermore, you do not want to get a huge office chair mat.
An office chair mat that is too big would most likely crack under the strain of heavy furniture, which could scratch the hardwood floor.
Beveled office chair mats are best for hardwood floors as they have a downward slope on the edges, making it easier to move the chair around.
Moreover, a lip or rectangular chair mat is recommended for a writing table or a desk.
If you have an L-shaped workstation, either bulb-shaped chair mat is ideal.
2. Chair Mat MaterialHardwood floors require extra maintenance and care as they are prone to scratching.
Therefore, choose chair mats carefully for such delicate flooring.
Synthetic rubber (nitrile) is a common constituent in floor mats, and it is a good choice for hardwood floors because it does not leave a mark.
Polyurethane chair mat is made of flexible material that does not discolor or leave markings on the flooring.
Polycarbonate will remain stiff, resulting in a hard, non-denting surface. Due to their rigid structure, they will neither fold nor bubble.
As a result, the polycarbonate chair mat for hard floors won’t have any tiny dimples on the bottom, preventing scratches on the hardwood floor.
Tempered glass does not fold or bubble, allowing your chair to glide smoothly.
When you step on the mat or wheel the chair over it, the bamboo mat absorbs it well.
Overall, a Polycarbonate chair mat is the best material for the chairmat to use on hardwood floors.
3. Thickness of the MatYou do not need to buy thick chair mats on hardwood floors. Mats with a thickness of 2.5 to 3 mm are enough.
You can select your preferred chair mat for the hardwood floor based on the features.
Best Chair Mats for Hardwood Floors in 2023Check the table below for the best recommendations on chair mats for hardwood floors.
Do Chair Mats Damage Hardwood Floors?Chair mats protect the hardwood floor from Office chairs due to constant movement.
However, the chair mats themselves harm the hardwood flooring over time. The hardwood floor can get scratched and worn down even when chair mats are used.
In addition, the chemicals used in the mat production react with the hardwood floor leading to fading and discoloration.
Compared to concrete and tiled floors, hardwood is less water and decay-resistant.
Therefore, moisture can damage the floor if your chair mat is wet and nonwater repellent, like fabric chair mats.
Type of Chair Mats That Damage Hardwood FloorChair mats are available in a wide range of materials. However, choosing the wrong one can permanently damage your hardwood floor.
Here are some chair mats that may damage hardwood floors long-term.
1. Natural Rubber MatsRubber mats are popularly used in gyms to withstand weight drops.
This might mislead you into thinking they will work for your home office. However, they are usually laid over concrete.
Hardwood floor, on the other hand, is softer and more porous. Therefore, it can quickly leave scuff marks on the floor.
Not all rubber mats damage hardwood floors, but some chemicals interact with the rubber mats causing the floor to be damaged.
It can also lead to permanent discoloration. However, you can prevent damage by adding protective paper underneath the mat.
Furthermore, many rubber mats have holes in them. The holes allow water and other liquids to drain so they do not pool on the floor and provide a slipping hazard.
Unfortunately, these have the drawback of allowing dirt and debris to fall through the holes.
When wet, wood absorbs the moisture and expands, eventually cupping, leaving an uneven surface.
2. Anti-Fatigue MatAnti-fatigue mats, often made of rubber or Vinyl, are designed for those who spend a lot of time standing on hard floors.
These Mats can leave color residue on the hardwood floor.
3. Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) Chair MatPVC chair mats can harm the hardwood floor due to the chemicals used in their manufacturing.
If your hardwood floors are coated with wax or polish, they become very slippery.
Using PVC mats on such surfaces can cause the mat to bubble up and fold after some time, as PVC mats are also very pliable.
4. Mats Made up of Natural FibresWhile all types of fiber rugs help protect your hardwood flooring from scratches, none of them are waterproof.
Natural fiber chair mats are quite an unpopular choice. However, people do use fibers like Jute chair mats for the office.
Natural fiber rugs, such as wool, jute, or cotton, are not water-resistant, and water seeping through the strands can cause damage to hardwood floors.
In such mats, the possibilities of bacteria development are also increased.
5. Latex Backed RugsPlasticizers are compounds found in latex, which is a synthetic liquid. Latex produces a slip-resistant, waterproof layer underneath rugs.
This waterproofing also compromises the rug’s capacity to breathe.
When you try and remove a latex-backed rug from a laminated or hardwood floor, you may end up with a mess of adhesive residue or fragments of rug backing.
The backed rugs obstruct regular drying of the floor surface.
Latex-backed carpets can create yellow or white staining due to chemical interactions between the latex and the lamination on the floor and water bubbles.
6. Area RugsThe primary reason why certain area rugs harm hardwood floors is that they are composed of low-cost synthetic materials that scrape the finish.
The damage to the floor is often caused by the rug pad rather than the rug itself.
Cheap carpets are sometimes coated with adhesives to aid their adhesion to the floor, but the glue might harm the surface, create staining, or fully adhere to the floor.
A good area rug pad will help preserve your hardwood floors from damage.
7. Plastic Chair MatsChair mats are commonly made of plastic. However, these materials will degrade over time.
Old plastic will crack and shatter, and the fragmented parts will become trapped beneath the mat.
Alternatives for Chair Mats on the Hardwood FloorYou can use some of the alternatives listed below if you do not want to use chairmats on hardwood floors.
1. Rollerblade-Style WheelsA standard office chair with wheels can wear down your hardwood floor through repetitive movements, which cause scratches on the floor.
Office chair with Rollerblade-style Wheels is made of thick rubber material, which is far more durable than regular wheels.
Additionally, because they move across fewer surface areas, these wheels will lessen the wear and tear on the floor.
They are also effortless to install; remove the old wheels and place them in place.
You can buy a quality pair of roller-blade-style wheels from Amazon.
2. Bell GlidesUsing the chair all day slowly crushes the chair mat into the floor, damaging the hardwood floor.
Bell glides connect to the underneath of your chair’s wheels to increase the surface area of the pressure, resulting in less pressure and, consequently, less harm to your carpet.
Installing chair bell glides, on the other hand, means compromising mobility.
For example, you won’t be able to wheel your chair over the floor with the glides connected, and moving around will be much more challenging.
These durable polyurethane bell glides protect your hardwood floor from pressure damage.
3. Chair Without WheelsChair mats are primarily used to protect the floors from chairs with wheels. If your chair does not have wheels, this is not a problem.
They don’t leave scuff marks on hardwood and laminate floors, so chairs without wheels are great.
However, chairs without wheels should still be handled cautiously to avoid dragging them over the floor.
Flash Furniture Black Mesh Sled Base Chair is one of the best chairs without wheels with the gentle rocking feature.
Read on to lean whether the Chair Better Without Wheels is better for your home office.
4. Standing DeskThe standing desk eliminates the primary need for the chair mats themselves. Since you do not need a chair for a standing desk, the hardwood floor’s damage can be crossed out.
The desks do come equipped with wheels. However, you would not move them around as much as the chairs with wheels.
In addition, they offer multiple health benefits. For example, when using a chair, you sit around all day.
Working at a standing desk decreases blood circulation and makes joints stiff. However, you move around more often while standing, solving the issue.
In addition, they prevent the scuff marks left behind by chair legs. There is also no chance of scratches or discoloration, making them ideal for hardwood floors.
They are very discrete and can not be seen unless you lift the chair.
They do need to be replaced every 3 to 6 months. However, they are still worth it, considering the low price.
For more alternatives, read the article; 7 Best Office Chair Mat Alternatives
Final VerdictChair mats offer floor protection from wheels, spill protection, and mobility.
However, the hardwood floor requires careful chairmat material selection because some PVC fabric chair mats might damage the floor over time.
Do Earwigs Really Live In Our Ears?
As a kid, you might have first encountered earwigs as a kind of playground mythological creature. Although the tiny, wriggling insect lives in the same wood-chip hideouts as pill bugs and other creepy crawlies, the story goes that if you’re not careful, it will take up residence in the deep recesses of your ear canal.
The legend, it turns out, isn’t confined to the playground. A surprising number of medical journals, entomologists, and ethnographers have written about the earwig, and tend to trace the name back hundreds or thousands of years. Depending on who you read, it either comes from a myth of central European or Old English origins where earwigs “crawl into the ears of sleeping persons,” and from there, the brain, perhaps to cause insanity.
But while accounts in medical journals emphasize the scattered reports of earwigs in their namesake organ, entomologists stress that the idea makes very little sense, given what we know about the animals.
[Related: Modern medicine still needs leeches]
While the earwigs, an order of insects with 2,000 different species on six continents, do use their admittedly alarming-looking pincers, or forceps, to hunt and hold one another during mating, they’re too small to pierce human skin. Mostly they eat plants, grabbing dead or slow-moving bugs only when the opportunity presents. (A few types of earwigs suck on rat blood, but those look substantially different from the playground burrowers.) They like small, wet crevices, and when they shelter in houses, often over the summer, they tend to favor basements and floors rather than beds. And though it might seem like a snug tunnel in the side of the head suits the insect’s needs, earwax is actually a fairly effective pest repellent—to the point that at least one paper has discussed its potential as a DEET replacement.
The myth also spans the world. In German, earwigs are called “earworms”; in French, “ear piercers.” A 2023 survey of modern central European insect folklore reported that the critter “climbs in your ear and drills it,” at times causing deafness. That seems to reflect a much older backstory, with some writers attributing it to Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, published in the first century CE.
Writing in American Entomologist in 2007, decorated University of Illinois insect ecologist May Berenbaum noted that although there are case reports of earwigs found in people’s ears, they’re few and far between—so rare, in fact, that even a 1783 dictionary was skeptical of the etymology, describing it as “an instance of such an accident was perhaps never known.” In the 1970s and ‘80s, two reports from Arizona purported to expose earwigs in their namesake habitat. “A light sleeper,” wrote a Phoenix doctor in 1986 of his 8-year-old daughter, “she had been aroused ‘by the sound of little feet.’” Looking in her ear, he spotted what he described as an earwig, which, under the light of his otoscope, “cautiously emerged.”
[Related: Do we still need to save the bees?]
Since then, at least one more case has made it to press. In 2023, a team of doctors at a university hospital in Seoul treated a 24-year-old who presented with tinnitus and was “very agitated.” The physicians were able to remove the six-legged culprit with tweezers, and the patient suffered no lasting harm. Before they did so, however, they took a video of the insect, producing the world’s first footage of an earwig in an ear.
“This lends credence to an ancient myth,” the Phoenix author concluded. That said, it seems that if earwigs were regularly holed up in ears, science would have more evidence of it.
Or would it? Perhaps, the Korean medical team wrote about their finding, earwigs are being overlooked in the flood of other things doctors pull out of human ear canals: “Considering that clinicians meet many patients who have insects in their ears at the clinic, the present case may not be that [rare].”
After surveying the literature around bugs in ears, Erenbaum concluded that cockroaches are by far the most common culprits—probably because they’re around people all the time. In fact, she noted that “of all the arthropod fauna reportedly found in ears, earwigs are conspicuous by their absence.”
[Related: 3 DIY bug traps that actually work]
But that doesn’t rule out the historic stories entirely. Maybe the straw of a medieval mattress would have been a more attractive home for the insects—and from there, the ear. Hungarian lore—which, its cataloguers pointed out, is often quite precise in describing the behavior of other invertebrates—holds that if one were to hang a coat from a tree, earwigs might take up residence.
Bear in mind that writing on earwigs is often colored by how the author wants readers to understand the animals, either as part of an ancient legend or a misunderstood scavenger. Take the often-cited reference from Pliny the Elder: The actual passage instructs a reader that, if they discover a living object in their ear, another person may spit into the orifice to evict the occupant. Sometimes the intruder is translated as earwig, sometimes as insect. Maybe the point is that any bug can be an earwig if you let it get too close to your ears.
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