Cheap, small laptop with car charger
Discussion
I'm still shaking down my car and although once it's running happily I shouldn't need to talk to the aftermarket ECU every time, a breakdown last weekend proved how invaluable it would be to have a laptop in the car. It needs to be 12" or smaller, have at least one USB port, run Windows (preferably 7, but I understand this won't be easy on a new machine) and I need to be able to power it from my cig lighter socket.
Does anyone know of anything available? I've seen small laptops in Currys for £150-200, but they don't come with a car charger as such. I know there are inverters available to generate 240Vac from 12Vdc, but it seems a bit overkill to convert 12Vdc to 240Vac to 24Vdc to charge a small laptop.
Does anyone know of anything available? I've seen small laptops in Currys for £150-200, but they don't come with a car charger as such. I know there are inverters available to generate 240Vac from 12Vdc, but it seems a bit overkill to convert 12Vdc to 240Vac to 24Vdc to charge a small laptop.
Most Windows tablets use micro-USB, so could charge off a USB cigarette lighter adapter if it'll deliver 2A or more.
Used to have an ASUS T100TA which would fit the bill, touchscreen tablet with keyboard dock that holds the laptop rather than using a kickstand. £130 here: http://amzn.to/2bHoME9
Base has a USB port, main laptop has micro-USB which is used for charging or you can plug in devices with a USB-OTG adapter.
Don't have mine anymore as my dad nicked it to keep in his car for pretty much the same reason!
Used to have an ASUS T100TA which would fit the bill, touchscreen tablet with keyboard dock that holds the laptop rather than using a kickstand. £130 here: http://amzn.to/2bHoME9
Base has a USB port, main laptop has micro-USB which is used for charging or you can plug in devices with a USB-OTG adapter.
Don't have mine anymore as my dad nicked it to keep in his car for pretty much the same reason!
Edited by Thorburn on Saturday 27th August 09:36
The cheap Acer cloudbook in PC World for £149 is a crappy Celeron processor and the screen is awful, but a) it's only £149 and b) the battery life is 10 hours
It's not particularly high powered, but it runs Windows 10 just fine, so I'd imagine if you're not trying to do anything too funky, it'll do what you're asking and not need a charge for a while
It's not particularly high powered, but it runs Windows 10 just fine, so I'd imagine if you're not trying to do anything too funky, it'll do what you're asking and not need a charge for a while
I don't imagine Emerald's software is very resource hungry. What put me off buying one of those Acers is the lack ease of charging it in the car. Yes, 10 hour battery life is very good, but you can guarantee it would go dead at exactly the wrong time when you're halfway to the Nurburgring and the car has a wobbly.
For car power I think a 150W inverter is going to be the way to go. They're cheap and easy to get and will work with pretty much any laptop you can think of, by contrast a car compatible charger is slightly more specialist and probably not going to be any cheaper?
And you can use the inverter for more than one thing.
I know it doesn't seem to be an optimal solution but I suspect it's the practical one.
And you can use the inverter for more than one thing.
I know it doesn't seem to be an optimal solution but I suspect it's the practical one.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff