Notebook with wifi and intergrated mobile internet

[jamesuk28]

Hi Can anybody recommend a notebook that has wireless capability, is small and light, costs less than a grand new, and crucially will allow internet surfing via a sim card or mobile network when out of range of a wireless hotspot.

I know this is possible via blue tooth, but would like it intergrated in the notebook.

[GHW]

Some of the Sony VAIOs have a HSDPA modem built in. Might be a bit of a squeeze if you want one under a grand though..

[Noger]

More about than there were. Cannot understand why this is only now being offered. Data plans are so cheap now.

HTC Shift - 900kg and a 7" screen ! And has all the connectvity you want and well under a grand. Plus has a groovy WinMo "PDA" built in too for quick checking of mail and calendar etc. Sadly it is no powerhouse at running Vista and that will frustrate, and battery life is poor.

Depends if you REALLY meant "small and light" of course

Otherwise have a look at the Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo U9200. Double the weight of course, but does have HSDPA built in, and with 2Gb and a Dual core will run Vista OK.

Several of the Toshiba Portege devices (certainly the lightweight R500) run HSDPA built in. Might not sneak in under a grand though.

[bingbong]

You can add something like this to pretty much any laptop.
http://www.vodafone-data-card.co.uk/3g-data-card.a...

[chris.mapey]

How about a Flybook?

Also, how about an Asus eee and a USB 3G stick? Much less than a grand (even including the cost of a 3g phone agreement)

Chris

[bobthemonkey]

Dell's Latitude range. Just pick a screen size. I think that even the low end Vostro's can now be had with HSDPA

[Noger]

Flybooks will be well over budget.

Depends on what you are doing as to whether a USB or Express Card 3G device is as good as integrated HSDPA. If you are going in and out of sleep then USB is a PITA (particularly with Vista). And things sticking/dangling out of the side are not nice on portable device.

Once you have had integrated HSPDA it is difficult to go back on portable devices. Makes few odds on a deskbound laptop.

If you are moderately technical HSDPA PCI-E cards are readily available, and many laptops have a spare PCE-E slot.

Edited by Noger on Wednesday 21st May 20:46

[CUE99T]

I am doing it right now, from a HP 6710b as it is neatly stuck inside the battery compartment, very nice with finger print recognition for quick logon and a nice 15.4" screen, 2Gb RAM and a decent DVD/HD setup.

Less than a grand I think IIRC.

cheers
Paul

[rfisher]

Wot - no mention of the OQO?

I've gone OQO mental recently and I now have 3 of them!

I'm planning to stick my own mini pci HSDPA modem in one of them to keep and sell the other 2.

I got 3 as each one has had better specs. so I've now got the 1.6Ghz processor, 1Gb memory, 120Gb HDD 'best'.

Only problem is battery life running Vista. Get around 2 hours but I use either the mains or car adapter most of the time anyway.

[jamesuk28]

I know there is another post about the following, I want to be able to log into my websites and email while abroad in Italy, am I going to get shafted on roaming costs too?

[bulldog_1]

re battery life, I get about 1 hour

[apguy]

Another potential:

Posting this from my Dell XPS M1330. Integrated WiFi and Mobile Broadband. Order it and ignore the blurb about a Vodafone tie-up. Stick your choice of SIM card in and Google for the settings. I had my 02 card working in 5 mins. Comes in at around £600 at the moment, well under budget.

[Olf]

Dell Latitude D430 - Very small and light, you can buy with integrated 3g and if you bargain hard with Dell and don't buy the toppest spec you should hit the magic K. Well under if you're VAT reg.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/feature...

[cyberface]

chris.mapey said:

How about a Flybook?

Also, how about an Asus eee and a USB 3G stick? Much less than a grand (even including the cost of a 3g phone agreement)

Chris

Done both. Flybook is rather expensive new but the guy who bought my old one got it cheap

Asus eee with USB stick is the easy cheap option, but there's a lot of aggro in the UK with batteries (the 900 with the proper screen was showcased with 5800 mAh battery, which would give 3 hours, but units sold in the UK got 4400 mAh batteries, which isn't enough. Other regions all got the bigger batteries, so I'd leave it until Asus sort out the problem - there's a lot of ill will from early adopters at the moment). The Eee 900 UK spec with the 4400 mAh battery and a HSUPA stick sucking power will give you about an hour to 1.5 hours runtime on battery. Useless.

The problem with built in UMTS is that you really need the latest HSUPA for 'reasonable' use with a 7-9" screen - most modern websites will have enough graphics to swamp a GPRS line. And built in with 3G normally means expensive - Noger knows most about the UMPC market here but assuming you want an ultraportable notebook with keyboard and not a touchscreen or pen-based unit, I'd swing with the Eee and a Huawei E172, and a big extended battery (you can get > 10Ah units, not sure how reliable they are though)...

Well that's what I'm doing at the moment, anyway. Granted, Windows has trouble with sleep and connected USB modems but Linux does not. OS X depends on the flavour but isn't legit on any of these machines anyway.

Like Noger - I can't understand why more cheap ones aren't selling - the Flybook is amazing as it's got it all - but at a price. I guess the issue comes down to the market... in the USA, there's no standardisation on UMTS 3G, because there are still two competing technologies (EVDO against UMTS, IIRC) - basically if you offer a 3G sim-card laptop, only the people signed up to AT&T or T-Mobile in the States will buy it, because the other carriers use a different system.

The USB dongles stick out and are fragile as a result as Noger points out. The original 3G Data PCMCIA card is a lot better in that respect, and may do the job - but there aren't many ultraportables with full-sized PCMCIA slots because it's now a legacy port. The Flybook did... Not sure if any cheap ultraportables have ExpressCard slots or whether ExpressCard UMTS units are available, but it's starting to sound expensive again.

The Flybook really did have it all, current models are expensive but I'd try to find a second hand one as it really does do the job. Battery life and CPU horsepower aren't it's strong point, but there are various versions, and if you can find a reasonably recent one at a low price then it may be worth it.