Laptop suitable for travel

crackity_jones

Morning all,

I will be heading off to do a bit of travelling at the end of this year/start
of next and I was considering buying a laptop to handle digital photos, email,
music etc etc.

Could any of you recommend a small, lightweight laptop which would be
suitable for the above which doesn't cost an arm and a leg? I was very
tempted to pick up the Aldi laptop last week but opted out at the last
minute as it didn't strike me as the most portable of machines and I didn't
fancy arriving home in 18 months time to a machine I'd only want to upgrade.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

CJ

Shabadu

It's gotta be an iBook. Light, dinky, handy as a small pot. Buy it online at the apple store and get a neoprene cover. It's about an extra 20 quid and it means you can pretty much carry it in your hand luggage safely. They are pretty much drop proof. Mine has survived several bouts with my toddler.

It doesn't come with microsoft office obviously, but you can order that online from the apple store too. If you're a student you get a discount on the whole lot. The mac OS has come very far in the last couple of years, and it's pretty much compatible with everything.

A 12" iBook with bluetooth, neoprene cover and Word etc. will still cost you less than 1,500 E and that's without the student discount. It comes with iTunes and photo software too. Go look about on the apple site.

Shabadu

Also, the charger has this dinky way you can switch the plugs depending on where you are. You can buy all the different plug adaptors on the apple store too.

crackity_jones

Hi Shabadu. Thanks for the reply.

I just had a quick gander at the Apple site and the iBook does look ideal.

A 12-inch iBook with 512mb ram (I might bump this up to 768mb) and
a 80GB hard drive comes to 1,229 including VAT.

Not too sure if I need Bluetooth or not.

Also, is AppleCare a good idea? It's normally a given to get as much cover
as you can afford when buying a laptop as they are guaranteed to need some
maintenance at some stage. Is the iBook any different?

Thanks again.

CJ

Shabadu

I didn't bother with applecare cos I have the nerdy type mac boyfriend and friends, but maybe if you're travelling it's a good idea? iBooks are sturdy little things though, going on 8 mths and mine hasn't crashed once, and only froze on one occasion when it got a bit confused after falling off the sofa. Bluetooth is handy for sending pics to/from phones/laptops, I use it quite a bit but a lot of people wouldn't.

damnyanks

Just get open office for free instead unless your a heavy office user. If you are just using it for what you stated about I don't see why you would need more then 512 ram.