Best (Ultra) Portable laptop/tablet

_Kaiser_

I've been reading reviews online for the past hour of different "ultra portable" laptops, but can't see any clear winner so I thought I'd ask here.

The Asus EEE PC for example looks like a great machine, especially for the price - but opinions online suggest it's hampered by a low display resolution under XP, despite a new beta driver that works around this. Anyone have any experience of this?

Moving up the scale, a nice 12.1" tablet (Fujitsu T4220 or the HP 2710p) would be great, but the cost would put me off (€1300+), and at that size you're approaching standard laptop size anyway which I could live with if the price was right.

Sooo, here's what I'd be looking for:
- Nice, portable form factor (about the size of your average hardback)
- Must run Windows XP/Vista comfortably - I'm not into Linux at all.
- Wi-fi enabled a must
- Decent-ish battery life
- Tablet functionality is a would-be-nice, not essential
- Cost between say €500 and €800(ish)
- Usage: Office, Internet, Messenger.. nothing too strenuous.

Any ideas?

Oafley Jones

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

I've been reading reviews online for the past hour of different "ultra portable" laptops, but can't see any clear winner so I thought I'd ask here.

The Asus EEE PC for example looks like a great machine, especially for the price - but opinions online suggest it's hampered by a low display resolution under XP, despite a new beta driver that works around this. Anyone have any experience of this?

Moving up the scale, a nice 12.1" tablet (Fujitsu T4220 or the HP 2710p) would be great, but the cost would put me off (€1300+), and at that size you're approaching standard laptop size anyway which I could live with if the price was right.

Sooo, here's what I'd be looking for:
- Nice, portable form factor (about the size of your average hardback)
- Must run Windows XP/Vista comfortably - I'm not into Linux at all.
- Wi-fi enabled a must
- Decent-ish battery life
- Tablet functionality is a would-be-nice, not essential
- Cost between say €500 and €800(ish)
- Usage: Office, Internet, Messenger.. nothing too strenuous.

Any ideas?

You're not going to get an ultra portable with that money. Most new machines start about 2 grand. There is a hefty premium for that small size.

I'm a big fan of the Eee pc, but i've yet to see one running XP, so I don't know what the performance is like. Considering the storage limitations i'm not to sure you'd really want to.

Alanstrainor

As mentioned above, the one thing holding you back is your very tight budget for a umpc. I can't think of any new umpc's other than the eee that fit your budget. I'm typing on my eee at the mo and will agree with most on this forum that it's great. And a 16gb sd card can be bought for in and around 65 squid on ebay. Which gives a lot more storage. But i would say that there's going to be a lot of competition with the eee that will be coming out in the coming months, i've been hearing things about an Acer eeepc killer that's supposedly coming out at some stage this year.
Alan.

_Kaiser_

Well I could stretch a bit on budget for the right machine, but I suppose I meant more that most of the players in this segment of the market (quick scan through expansys.ie for example) reveals companies I've never even heard of, so I was wondering what's worth looking at.

HTC for example was a new one to me, but apparently they're quite good!

Hal1

Sounds like their reinventing the wheel :O, I was looking at this Asus Eee PC Review. Its more portable than what a laptop

AlmightyCushion

I remember someone found an advent 12" laptop on pixmania for around €600/700. I may be wrong on the price though.

Soundman

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I remember someone found an advent 12" laptop on pixmania for around €600/700. I may be wrong on the price though.

Don't see one there now. Only have 15.4" Advents. The only 12" laptop they seem to have is a Toshiba for €1189

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/738/xx/xx/2179/9/criteresn_BA00000918-BV00064946.html

AlmightyCushion

Soundman wrote: »

Don't see one there now. Only have 15.4" Advents. The only 12" laptop they seem to have is a Toshiba for €1189

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/738/xx/xx/2179/9/criteresn_BA00000918-BV00064946.html

I could have sworn it was an advent on pixmania. I'll do a bit of digging and see if I can find the thread.

Laptopsdirect have these. They all seem to be 12" laptops. The first one on the list is the cheapest there and is within your budget. I would recommend doing a search of laptopsdirect here though before purchasing. They don't exactly have the best reputation.

I checked elara but the cheapest 12" they have is just under a grand. Great spec on it but a bit over your budget.

majiktripp

There was one on laptopsdirect recently linked in another thread but I dont see it on their site now.
Yet again I can, within your budget constraints you could do worse than shop on ebay. I bought (begin story mode) a Dell D410 in June 2005 for €600 which for all intents was "brand" new from a nice fella in England (no duty hehehe) which is what I'm using at this very moment, I have nothing but praise for the laptop and it came with 3 years Next Business Day suppoer which was transferred to my name, so I reckon I got a great deal.(story mode/end)
So in essenece you *can* get an ultra portable for your budget, you just have to really shop around for it, for example I'm currently bidding on an IBM 12.1" X41 tablet laptop on ebay which should sell for roughly €500 including shipping so just keep looking!

paleoboy

Ah come on lads. Give the man some good advice. Sure ya can get an XPS 1330 for under a grand. Granted its the lower spec model but its still class.
Checkt the dell outlet buddy!:D

P. Breathnach

he thread people are struggling to remember: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055212262

TPD

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Acer_Aspire_2920Z_Laptop_LX.ANM0X.044/version.asp

Just bought it, recieved it today, im very happy with it. After cleaning the crap it runs vista very well.

Specs:

12.1" screen 1280x800
2gb ram
120gb HDD (Actually partitioned into 2 50gb drives)
Pentium Dual core processor (Sticker says 1.4ghz, computer says 1.6ghz - duno whats going on there)
Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
DVD burner
802.11b/g
Webcam
Shiny paint job n sleek looks

€630 after delivery

Oh I get about 3.5 hours battery with Wifi on, so even longer for a wired internet connection.

kippy

TPD,
That looks like a fantastic deal. Fair play to you for picking up on this.
As a matter of interest I wonder are there drivers available for XP on this hardware?

Kaiser2000 this is defo the machine for you! I think it fulfils all of your needs based on your first post.
Kippy

TPD

kippy wrote: »

TPD,
That looks like a fantastic deal. Fair play to you for picking up on this.
As a matter of interest I wonder are there drivers available for XP on this hardware?

Kaiser2000 this is defo the machine for you! I think it fulfils all of your needs based on your first post.
Kippy

I'm not sure to be honest, It's a SATA drive and there are apparently issues with newer laptops not having the right drivers if they shipped with Vista. I might give acer an email and see what they have to say.

I'll probably keep mine with vista though, need to adapt to the new way to doing things at some point.

P. Breathnach

kippy wrote: »

Kaiser2000 this is defo the machine for you! I think it fulfils all of your needs based on your first post.

It's very compact, and I'm happy with the one I got last week. One consideration: it's relatively heavy at about 2 Kg.

For about twice the money you can nearly halve the weight!