I’ve been contemplating for some time on whether or not I want to purchase a smaller laptop to travel with or tote around the city. My 15-inch MBP is a great workstation, but it’s heavy and gets crushed on the plane by the jackass sitting in front of me who decides to recline the second he/she gets in the seat. I like the old 12-inch PowerBook G4s and thought about picking up a used one on CL, but my brother steered me clear of that. I like the Lenovo U110, but the X61 is probably a better choice at half the cost. I’m not at all interested in the Eee since it’s a bit underpowered for my tastes. The Air would be perfect, but it can barely do anything and contrary to popular belief (Apple’s at least) I want an optical drive and more than one USB port. I’d like to think that Apple would make another 12-inch, but the MBA puts that thought to rest.
What should I get? Mind you, I won’t actually go through with this until the Montevina chips have been rolled out so I’ve got two months before taking the plunge.
If I were you, I’d wait until the regular MacBook is updated — that’s supposedly the switch to aluminum, and it may shed enough weight to be a happy medium between the Air and the Pro. The size is probably the more important issue than the weight.
It sounds like you want the perfect computer. You want something small, powerful, and inexpensive. All three don’t, generally, go together.
If I was going for small and powerful, I’d go for the u110.
If I was going for small and inexpensive, I’d go for the HP Mini-Note.
If I was going for small, powerful, and inexpensive… I guess I’d be waiting around for awhile.
I got an X61 from work and it’s quite solid. The two gotchas are that the screen res is only 1024×768 and trackpoint only for mobile input. I’ve grown accustomed to both, but would certainly love more screen space. The weight loss has been amazing though – I got a smaller bag and carry less now to fully take advantage
You left out what apps you want to run that require so much CPU. The Atom-based machines should be good performering “net machines” in a small package. Heck, I upgraded my Moms Duron-based PC from OpenSuSE 10 to Ubuntu 8 and she’s very happy with the mild speed boost from the OS switch and browser upgrade (Firefox v3).
I’m looking forward to a light weight, decent battery life, indoor/outdoor 1024×768 display *book to access home and internet servers from.
If i were you i would buy one that (because of it’s specs) would be able to have installed OSX, Linux or Windows… You know? and do it just because you can!
If you got the budget, I suggest you buy ThinkPad T400.
The size is 14.1 inch.
Laptops are usually 12.1, 13.1, 14.1, 15 and 17 inches.
Too small, the screen will be small and difficult to see things. But too big will be too heavy to carry around.
14.1 inches will be just right.