I'm looking for a 14" or below laptop. I came across the compaq presario laptops. They seemto be the best bang for teh bucks. I also really like the averatec 4155, but id on't think paying an extra few hundred dollars is worth it for the smaller size.
If you need to carry it around in a backpack or something, then small factor IS worth paying for. In my case I went for a 12" iBook and don't regret it. I carry it with me all the time and doesn't rip my shoulder off.
http://www.gotapex.com/ DellSB - Inspiron 710m Ultralight Notebook with 12.1" WXGA TFT, 1.7Ghz Pentium M 735, FREE 1GB SDRAM Upgrade , 40GB HD, 24x CD-RW/DVD Combo, and 802.11b/g Wireless for $999!
I highly reccomend the Sony 'S' series notebooks or the Compaq v2000/HP v1000 series with a fast centrio (pentium M 750 or higher) with at least 512mb RAM. Compared to other 'value' small form factor notebooks the Sony and HP/Compaqs are just so much better built. Dells, Avertecs, and iBooks (<- typing on one right now) just feel very cheap, especially the keyboards. It really depends on your budget and what you are looking to do with it. I would still stay as far away from Dell's as you can- Even the new 14" XPS Notebook feels bulky and cheap. The sony is going to be expensive, and you will want the bigger battery but its built like a fucking tank- yet stillvery elegant and sleek. The HP/Compaq clones are also incredably well built notebooks- Stayfar away from toshibas and gateway(arima) as they are mostly plastic and just cheap and slow. Come back with some more info on what you want (what you need to use it for/whats your budget). If you plan to be mobil with this notebook i HIGHLY reccomend sticking with a sub 14" notebook as you will definatly find your self using it much more than a 15.4" monster (unless you are looking for a DTR notebook). *using my iBook 12" for the past week has made me despise the thing. The keyboard really is complete and utter crap. Probably going to sell the thing off one I get home.
I will be basically doing this for simple desktop workstation I want to watch dvd's on it maybe do a bit of 3d cad do electronics pcb schematics ummm simple word processing/general school work. maybe play some small games, so a video accelerator card would be nice I also want to use linux as a desktop environment so far, i came up with this http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pr...d=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10070871&catid=#MoreInfo I fell in love with the 13" averatec 4155, until people complained about the shitty battery/build quality with it. But yea, I think I'd prefere a 13.3" if I can find one. i'm hoping to spend maybe around 1400-1500 cdn after tax for this laptop.
That compaq is a nice choice, although the battery life is going to be a little less than something like this: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10067980&catid= The turion is a decent mobil offering, although nothing can really compete with the current mobile king, Centrino- The biggest problem with the Compaq/HPs is the lack of a true 3d graphics cards- Don't expect too much from either of these notebooks on the 3d front. You'll need to spend more on a Sony for a true graphics card. Also conisder some form of acendintal protection plan if its offered, especially if this is a school notebook-
so far, I'm leaning towards this one http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=89,90,91,4957&webid=635098&affixedcode=WW will the ddr333 be slow? how about a 4200 rpm harddrive? i hear if your cpu is amd, ram speed won't' matter as much but then again, the 4200 rpm seems kinda slow. wish I coud buy a minimum spec, and upgrade the harddrive
Here's a few you can check out... Sharp Actius MM20 http://store.sharpsystems.com/product.asp?sku=2488398 the monitor is pretty small on the sharp (10.4") WinBook X505 http://www.winbook.com/notebooks/x/x_overview.html
i'm going to have to agree with the sony, the things are amazing -- they're extemely light, noiseless and the build quality is godly.
You should really look into a 1.6gHz or faster Pentium M based notebook. The Turion based units arent any faster and don't have the battery peroformance.
say i want to do programming on this laptop, and I'm considering a 12.1" but i haven't really seen one in real life yet. Does having such a small monitor cause strain on your eyes when doing programming or whatnot in a small screen? I don't really need a video card, but I'd like stuff to load up fairly quickly
Go to a computer store and try it for yourself. Of course you can't get the full feel of using one for an hour or two, but if you have never seen/used a 12" monitor, you may find them to be pretty dang small at first, so check one out before buying.
well just a small update. I endd up getting the compaq v2570 I chose this laptop basically because it was cheap, and i wasn't going to play games or anything like that on this computer. I'm also planning to add another stick of 512 meg ram and maybe upgrade the harddrive to a 60 gig 5400 rpm
I consider the 12" on my ibook just right for a laptop... I've used a 15" powerbook before and thought it was nice but a bit excessive (especially when using it as a laptop rather than a desktop-laptop)
