Which ultraportable should I buy?
- May 21st, 2008
- Read 1946 times
- 5 Comments
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.
Jon
2008-05-21 10:33:49
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.
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Nate
2008-05-21 11:18:22
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.
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Jonathan Greene
2008-05-21 11:24:46
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
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Bob
2008-05-21 12:47:21
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.
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whiskey
2008-05-21 23:30:21
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!
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