small lightweight laptop that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg

Thanks everyone. I ordered this one last night, for 379 bucks:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0260670

I won't be able to take it to Portugal (leaving TODAY) but it's going to Italy with me next month. I'll let you know how it all works out.

Diana - the price was definitely right on this one. It is 5.3 pounds, so not ultra-ultra light but for the 1500+ savings, I can carry an extra 2 pounds. The really light ones (around 3 pounds - Sony makes a tiny Vaio) are around 2 grand and up.

I just want a photo-viewer and for 379 this fits the bill.
 
Just an update, for anyone who is interested/may consider buying a cheapie laptop too:

It desperately needs a memory upgrade (it has a half a gig, not a full gig let alone two) and I believe the screen is not anti-glare - I need to put this one (my nice one) next to it in a variety of lighting sitches to see if there is a difference.

I took it home for Xmas to test it out (only bought it as a road-trip laptop, and mostly for photos) and considering the limited purposes for which I bought it - it's great.

The real test will be in Italy in a few days - both for updating my photos taken daily... and using it in internet cafs.

If you hear from me, from the road - then all's well with it!
 
woodstock said:
Just an update, for anyone who is interested/may consider buying a cheapie laptop too:

It desperately needs a memory upgrade (it has a half a gig, not a full gig let alone two) and I believe the screen is not anti-glare - I need to put this one (my nice one) next to it in a variety of lighting sitches to see if there is a difference.

I took it home for Xmas to test it out (only bought it as a road-trip laptop, and mostly for photos) and considering the limited purposes for which I bought it - it's great.

The real test will be in Italy in a few days - both for updating my photos taken daily... and using it in internet cafs.

If you hear from me, from the road - then all's well with it!
Click to expand...

Which OS? If XP you'll do better with 1 GByte. Vista? 2 GByte. Only have 512 MBytes in my laptop running XP and it's "OK". XP Pro in my IBM T42 at work with 1 GByte of RAM and it runs better - I think. So loaded with our IT departments bloatware that it's hard to tell. :P
 
Ken Ibold said:
Heck bottom of the line laptops from Dell, HP, Acer, and Toshiba can all be had for around $450-550. That's getting into the realm of disposable. Any of them have more computing power than the Apollo program, which would be plenty for your purposes. You're talking 5-6 pounds.

If you want light, you'll spend a little more. HP nc2400 is 2.8 pounds and $1500.
Click to expand...


My wife just got this a few weeks back:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8535347&type=product&id=1188558965982

We're very pleased with it...
 
Ghery said:
Which OS? If XP you'll do better with 1 GByte. Vista? 2 GByte. Only have 512 MBytes in my laptop running XP and it's "OK". XP Pro in my IBM T42 at work with 1 GByte of RAM and it runs better - I think. So loaded with our IT departments bloatware that it's hard to tell. :P
Click to expand...

whoa. it's Vista. so it should have 2 gigs? ouch. there goes the 379 price, I'm going to have to upgrade the memory. I know it's cheap but still...
 
Vista will run usably on 1 GB, but will run better on 2 GB.

Sorry, I didn't notice this thread earlier, or I would have added my $.02; but it would have been pretty much what you received from others.

FWIW at this point, I've had good luck with Acer laptops. My "workhorse" laptop is an Acer Travelmate 4200 with the Centrino Duo processor (I forget which speed offhand) and 2 GB of RAM, running Ubuntu. (It has XP installed, as well, but I don't remember when I last booted into XP on that machine other than to update the roaming on the Verizon Aircard.) I also have set up quite a few clients with Acer laptops, with no complaints thus far. They seem to be a pretty good value; and though they don't "feel" very durable, they do seem to hold up. Mine lives in my backpack and rides in the back of my car, on the subway, and sometimes in airplanes, with no problems.

My previous laptop was an IBM Thinkpad T22 with a 900 MHz P-III and 512 MB RAM, running Fedora Core. When I retired that one, I gave it to my brother, who put Win2K back on it. He's still using it, lol. Those old Thinkpads were some pretty durable machines. I have no experience with them since the sale to Lenovo, though.

Rich
 
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