REQ: Small & light laptop

TJM

I nearly put my back out lugging a conventional laptop around Heathrow recently. Any suggestions for cheap, light and slimline laptops that won't break the bank?

MadDogGreener

Check out the Philips X range in PC World.

IIRC they're around €1000 and very light at ~1.9kg. Samsung also do cheap-but-light. The Q35 I think.

dwaned

I picked up a sony vaio VGN - C1S in curry's up the north for €1000. 13.3 widescreen, 100 gb hd, 1gb ram, wlan and only weighs 2.3kg. Has the xblack screen too, really nice lap top and doesn't get real hot like my old one.

Highly recomended.

witnessmenow

heres the linkt to dabs.ie small ,light (less than 2kg) section
http://www.dabs.ie/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11105&NavigationKey=46320000&NavigationKey=4294959538&NavigationKey=46270000&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1&PageOffset=0&RecordOffset=0#Paging
Dabs seem good value for everything , dont really know about the laptop end of things though

Sony above my comment seems excellent though!

copacetic

MadDogGreener wrote:

Check out the Philips X range in PC World.

IIRC they're around €1000 and very light at ~1.9kg. Samsung also do cheap-but-light. The Q35 I think.

q35 is nice, I got my mum one earlier on in the year. really light/powerful and
seems to be working well.
she needed a thin and light one as she has a v bad back..

marktsang

i also recommend the q35 - thin, light, decent battery life and powerful at the same time

mark

Spipov

doesnt have an internal microphone does it?thats the main reason im not getting one of those q35

The_Conductor

Peats are clearing a lot of the their Sony Vaios for really good prices.
I didn't see anything really light in the Whitewater branch (Newbridge) but its entirely possible that there may be serious bargains to be had.

copacetic

Spipov wrote:

doesnt have an internal microphone does it?thats the main reason im not getting one of those q35

i'm actually not sure, they have bluetooth though if you want to use a headset with it..

The_Conductor

copacetic wrote:

i'm actually not sure, they have bluetooth though if you want to use a headset with it..

It has a microphone jack- for use with an external mike or a headset (which is what most people use)

copacetic

smccarrick wrote:

It has a microphone jack- for use with an external mike or a headset (which is what most people use)

good point. what would someone want an internal mic on a laptop for? it'd give crappy sound wouldn't it? no matter what way they did it..

KTRIC

I started a new job a couple of weeks ago and they gave me a Lenovo (IBM) X60, its light and not too small. I never really liked carrying a laptop but this thing just fits into a normal shoulder bag and I don't even know its there.

Spipov

copacetic wrote:

good point. what would someone want an internal mic on a laptop for? it'd give crappy sound wouldn't it? no matter what way they did it..

the thing is, when you have an ultralight laptop, you dont really want to be bringing around a microphone.

ive always gone for laptops that had it. most of those 12.1" business laptops have it, and ive been happy with their quality (skype/msn).


not to get me wrong, i love the q35's style and samsung in general, but i feel they should have incorporated the mic as its really a standard thing. laptops dating from the early 2000's (acer 735) came with it

copacetic

Spipov wrote:

the thing is, when you have an ultralight laptop, you dont really want to be bringing around a microphone.

ive always gone for laptops that had it. most of those 12.1" business laptops have it, and ive been happy with their quality (skype/msn).


not to get me wrong, i love the q35's style and samsung in general, but i feel they should have incorporated the mic as its really a standard thing. laptops dating from the early 2000's (acer 735) came with it

and do you use the laptops speakers for the calls too? have never tried it, would have assumed it wouldn't have worked great? will try it out.

personally I use a bluetooth headset for skype etc with my own laptop, it's tiny though so not really a problem carrying it around..

witnessmenow

its possible to connect up a bluetooth wireless headset to your laptop, there not exactly very big, and seeing as the laptop would have b.t. already there would be no dongle. headsets go for fairly cheep this weather. I think you need Widdcomm drivers rather than microsoft to connect it up though, but you can just google it.

Spipov

copacetic wrote:

and do you use the laptops speakers for the calls too? have never tried it, would have assumed it wouldn't have worked great? will try it out.

personally I use a bluetooth headset for skype etc with my own laptop, it's tiny though so not really a problem carrying it around..

yep i have. provided u have a good spec'd laptop, there wont be any echo. make sure u choose the right speaker setting in control panel.

also, if the other party is using speaker and mic as well (integrated) then thats not going to work. there will be terrible echo and noise.

but if only one side does, thats fine, no echo.

i tend to use my ipod earphones as im carrying them around anyway and the laptop speaker. less gear to traipse around with