[REQ] Small laptop (<15")

dawballz

Looking for a laptop with a fairly small screen, must be less than 15".
Specs don't have to be the latest and greatest, but I a DVD writer and a large HD would be lovely, but not essential.

Along the lines of:
any half recent/decent processor
256mb RAM or more.
30GB HD or more.
LAN.

That's pretty much it.

Anyone know any good laptops I should look out for with approx the above specs.

http://pcworld.ie/productDetails.aspx?productRID=561&image=Packard_Bell would be ideal, except for the large price tag (1249).

I could sacrifice the large HD on that one too for a reduction in price.
Thanks.

Chalk

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_3002LC_LX.A5505.222/version.asp

buy an acer

dawballz

that one has a 15" screen.

I already have an acer ferrari but this one is for the gf

She wants a small one, with less than a 15" screen.
Is there any acers out there like that?

rainbow kirby

Get a 12" iBook if she's willing to get a Mac. There's a deal going on them at the moment in 3G and the O2 shops where you get 512MB RAM for the same price as 256MB. They're 999 euro. (that's with 1.2GHz PowerPC G4 CPU, 30GB HDD, 512MB RAM).
The battery life is really good, and it's light too (2.2kg).

Nukem

Dell and sony do lovely ones to be honest,might be worth a look think their both 12"

Chong

Get yourself a Dell Latitude X1.

Nukem

Ya there are some more than i thought,some 14,13 and 12" even a sony 10 which is very small check Dell and Sony

odie

There are some refurbished dell 12.1" notebooks here

http://www.europc.co.uk/home.aspx?ProductDetailID=1&ProductID=34991&refId=kelkoo

maidhc

If you are going to go for a refurb dell, wouldnt it be better to buy from the outlet? Probably better chance of getting a good machine and having a full warrantee.

I bought a Dell x300 from the outlet before christmas, and its great. Tiny, and so easy to carry compared to a 15". It was a DOA, but Dell had a new motherboards in it the next day, and it has been perfect since. so no complaints there. I paid €950 for 1.2pm, 640mb, 60gb, 11b/g, and 8X DVD+RW (external). The x300 is gone now, but the x1 looks lovely (although I dont know about the benefits of a widescreen with so small a laptop.)

sceptre

maidhc wrote:

I bought a Dell x300 from the outlet before christmas, and its great.

Don't bang the back of the screen too hard. Or plan on dropping it. Apparently it's a big part of the reason why it got replaced with the also-Samsung-designed X1. Unlike the rest of the just-gone Latitude line the hard drive was pretty well protected (rectified on the whole Latitude line now as far as I can see), the problem was that the screen wasn't.

At the price you paid you got a real bargain. Less chance of getting an X1 on the outlet store I suspect, though I could be wrong. The X1 takes under a minute to strip for parts (the only things added to the base unit are memory, hard drive and keyboard whereas the x300 takes far longer to strip with more parts in multiple places)

but the x1 looks lovely (although I dont know about the benefits of a widescreen with so small a laptop.)

Indeed it does and I'm thinking of getting one for when I trundle back to college this Autumn (my current inspiron 7500 is a little less portable than I'd like - what I'd like is something that weighs almost nothing which would point toward the x1 or the x300 if it was still around). If anything it's the widescreen that would put me off the thing - I haven't got any need whatever to be using a laptop on a plane so the single practical benefit to having a small screen widescreen is wasted on me. And who's going to be watching movies on a machine with a 12 inch screen and an external optical drive. I might consider something like the D410 though the underside of that tends to get a little hot with extended use.

The downside of the X1 is the price tag. Seems to stick around €1549, which is more than dawballz was not thinking of paying for the Packard Bell. From my point of view it's rather cheaper than the £2500-odd my current behemoth cost me before laptop prices went into freefall (it's five years old and if it wasn't for the weight of about 3.2Kg it'd probably serve me well for another five years with what for the time was a fast machine with a big dirty 15.4 inch screen).

At the price mentioned (or less if there's a studenty discount) a little iBook sounds interesting (at least to me) as well. Most of the stuff I'd be running on the machine would be generically replaceable or open source but I don't know if losing Windows would suit girlfriend-of-dawballz. A copy of Open Office (or Microsoft's Mac effort) and whatever free rubbish comes with the Mac would do most people when they get over the gooey-change though.

WizZard

The X300 is still available in the Dell outlet. I'm prob gonna get an X1 in a couple of months, when I get the cash together.

maidhc

I'll have to mind my screen then! Apparently the round Dell logo can leave a mark on the screen too - I'd love to know what Dell's policy on replacement under guarantee is...

I think the problem with a small widescreen is that with such a laptop you will spend most of you time typing (in word, open office or whatever). I think its nicer to be able to see more of what you have typed, as you will with a conventional aspect than lovely grey borders with the widescreen.

The X1 does not have a PCMCIA slot; so forget it if you have a GPRS card. Are Packard Bell and acceptable buy now? I remember a time when they were a horrific overpriced machine, with awful reliability problems.

Karoma

If you got the money: A SONY VAIO T2XP !
http://vaio.sony-europe.com/view/ShowProduct.action?product=VGN-T2XP%2FL&site=ite_en_GB&category=VN+T+Series

Display:
Diagonal Size (in)10.6
Display Type X-black LCD
Resolution Format 1280 x 768

512MB RAM, DVD burner, 60GB HDD... beautiful...just beautiful...

dawballz

Karoma wrote:

If you got the money: A SONY VAIO T2XP !
http://vaio.sony-europe.com/view/ShowProduct.action?product=VGN-T2XP%2FL&site=ite_en_GB&category=VN+T+Series

Display:
Diagonal Size (in)10.6
Display Type X-black LCD
Resolution Format 1280 x 768

512MB RAM, DVD burner, 60GB HDD... beautiful...just beautiful...

Bet you paid for it though....

SixShot

Get an Apple ibook 12'' or a Apple Powerbook 12'' if you got the Money great Power Great battrey life PowerPC Chipset which will piss all over intel sets any Mac OS X tiger For Reloyablitly & ease of use & Microsoft Office Is avalable for Mac's as is Photoshops

maidhc

Aren't Apple changing to Intel processors soon?