Dinky little laptop needed, any ideas?
Dinky little laptop needed, any ideas?
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Discussion

thepeoplespal

Original Poster:

1,694 posts

307 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
I have to be away from my home pc a bit more than I'd like.

Therefore I'd like to be able to have a very light wireless enabled laptop that doesn't always have to be plugged into the mains. Even little laptops seem to come with a huge brick for the power supply, and I'd like to avoid that, bearing in mind I'll have to carry it for several hours every week.

All I really need it for is web-surfing, answering emails etc, so a powerhouse would be wasted on me, I'm alsoo happy to go 2nd hand. I've seen a few HP models (on the train) that look suitable, but I can't seem to locate them and I can't tell just how large they are from the pictures on the web.

I've even thought of PDA with a qwerty keyboard, but I'm not sure it would be able to hack it or be able to render some of the webpages I visit properly?



Edited by thepeoplespal on Tuesday 20th June 11:22

zumbruk

7,848 posts

290 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
Toshiba Libretto
Sony Vaio

thepeoplespal

Original Poster:

1,694 posts

307 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
zumbruk said:
Toshiba Libretto
Sony Vaio

There are so many versions of Sony's Vaio, it is hard to know which ones are the small ones. I've had a look at Toshiba Libretto's, boy are some of the old ones small, size of a VHS video, not sure about the wireless capability though.

Kinky

39,944 posts

299 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
Lenovo ThinkPad x Series

ehasler

8,579 posts

313 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
I'm toying with the idea of getting a small laptop too, and have narrowed it down to these two:

Sony Vaio TX2XP
Fujitsu Lifebook P7120

Both look very good, but my preference is for the Fujitsu as the Sony I looked at was a bit flimsy.

agent006

12,058 posts

294 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
thepeoplespal said:
I'm alsoo happy to go 2nd hand.


Dell latitude C400. Laptop is tiny, power supply is tiny, standard battery lasts a good 3 hours or so and you can get a large battery for 6 hours or so. OK, so you'll need a wireless card as it doesn't have any built in. Can pick up a good 1.2ghz one from Ebay for £300 tops.

_Deano

7,414 posts

283 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
every thought about a XDA exec?
only say this as i had the same problem. just wanted to be able to look at the web and reply to emails. Went to O2 (i know some people don't like them) and ended up getting the O2 XdA Exec on a £55pm contact. And i get the O2 200 voice contact with double time and txt for life and 200mb for data. It's been working like a treat and then when i get home, i just sync it with the home PC so that is up to date.
Might be worth considering.

cyberface

12,214 posts

287 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
How about one of these? (sorry, crap photo)



It's a Dialogue Flybook, pictured here with a normal CD for size comparison - it's very small and light, loads of connectivity (wifi, bluetooth, even a GPRS mobile phone built in) and loads of ports on the back - even a PC Card slot for a 3G modem if you fancy. If you're travelling a lot and need internet connectivity everywhere you go, then it's hard to beat this out of the box...

Can be used as a tablet (touch sensitive screen) as well as a normal laptop. Only downside is battery performance, but I believe that the new version (with the Intel CPU) has better battery life. I wouldn't recommend one for heavy keyboard use as the keyboard is just a bit too small for comfortable typing, but for emails and the occasional letter it's fine.

Mikey G

4,898 posts

270 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
I spotted a small Phillips laptop in Currys the other day, had Wifi and bluetooth i think. Didnt take too much notice but it looked good at a glance and stood out with its size compared to the portable desktops you normally see..

mitchp

110 posts

255 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
Dell X1.

Got one in work - it's wide screen format and high resolution.
It's very very thin and very light. It comes with a nice leather slip case and the keyboard is a good size... I like it!!



Edited by mitchp on Tuesday 20th June 23:01

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 20th June 2006
quotequote all
All the Libretto U100s have been sold and I dont think they are making any more.

Cant go wrong with an X series though, I've got an old X21 and its been an absolute trooper.

Neilus

908 posts

312 months

Wednesday 21st June 2006
quotequote all
Another vote for the Dell X1.

Only weighs 1.1kg, good battery life, only downside is the cd/dvd/floppy? drive all connect via an external media bay.

Neil.

bga

8,134 posts

281 months

Wednesday 21st June 2006
quotequote all
Neilus said:
Another vote for the Dell X1.

Only weighs 1.1kg, good battery life, only downside is the cd/dvd/floppy? drive all connect via an external media bay.

Neil.


Glad you guys like it, I've just ordered one for my dad

zcacogp

11,239 posts

274 months

Thursday 22nd June 2006
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Plotloss said:
Cant go wrong with an X series though, I've got an old X21 and its been an absolute trooper.
I've got an X31, and it is great. You can get smaller, lighter machines now, but this was as small as they came about 5 years ago, and still works a treat. (And can be had for very little on eBay these days.)

Beware of very flimsy machines - if you are carrying them around alot, they do get quite creaky and wobbly quite quickly. Fujitsu machines always used to be terrible in this respect ...


Oli.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Thursday 22nd June 2006
quotequote all
zcacogp said:
(And can be had for very little on eBay these days.)


Indeed.

A PIII 700mhz with 256mb and a 12Gb disk for £150 delivered is an utter bargain for such a machine.