So I’ve been limping along sans working laptop for a while and it displeases Shanna mightily because I go in the office and she can’t paw at me. ha!
The things I want from a laptop are pretty simple:
very light
able to be dropped, probably repeatedly
decent battery life
I web browse and chat (IM). I run itunes and occasionally watch movies but I really don’t need a big screen given that most of the time I watch the movie up in the corner while I continue to IM and web browse. 🙂 I don’t program or do anything else processor heavy. I’ve used a Mac for the past few years because I got used to the free one I got from work and just continued after that. I’m not part of any computer religious wars and don’t really give a shit about them. I just want hella sturdy and functional while being light. 🙂
Any tips?
I’ve got a brand-new Acer 1410 — 3.1 pounds, 11.6 inch screen that is at least as wide as the screen on my old G4 iBook, but not as deep. Keyboard is close to full-size. It’s supposed to get 6 hours of battery life. Runs Windows 7, which is a lot closer to Mac than most Windows software. No optical drive, but 3 USB 2.0 ports. Very high-def LCD screen. And it runs about $400.
I am in love.
I actually noticed that you had asked a similar question recently. 😀 I think you ‘use’ more from a computer than me so I wasn’t certain if the recommendations would be the same. 😀 Thanks!
You might want to look at the Panasonic toughbook line for laptops that will stand up to being dropped once or twice.
They look awesome but they are fantastically expensive. 🙂 Good suggestion though. I’d never heard of them.
They’re also pretty heavy. That’s the difficult combo: sturdy but lightweight.
Maybe a netbook of some type?
Would a netbook be able to play a movie? It is my understanding a netbook is a giant smartphone with a big keyboard but less actual computing power.
Then again, I am horribly out of date with regards to technology.
Yes. I’ve got an HP Mini 1000 and it will play Hulu and Youtube just fine. BUT netbooks do not have a CD/DVD drive, so you need to have an external drive or have the content on something else.
Netbooks are “underpowered”, yes. But that really just means you don’t want to run Photoshop or compile on them. It even runs Word and Open Office just fine.
I’ve never used Photoshop nor compiled so that’s hardly something I will have problems with. 😀
At this point all of our movies are on an external drive because we sold off the dvds. Kind of perfect really. 🙂
My Acer AspireOne also handles Netflix streaming just fine.
I’m hearing good things about Acer. I’m going to check them out. 🙂
I’d be worried about the droppability of a netbook. Though perhaps some sort of padding/case might take care of that problem.
That’s what I’m worried about as well. My old ThinkPad handled a 5′ drop with nary a flicker, but it’s way too heavy for my usage these days.
I looked through their line and several of them are not all that heavy. I don’t need ‘cheap’ per se but $3k is probably more than I want to spend. 🙂
Their tablet, for example, is just over 3 lbs. That’s pretty light compared to everything I’ve ever had. 🙂
You can buy reconditioned ones on amazon quite cheaply. They get mixed reviews, though.
I’ve had very mixed luck with reconditioned stuff so I’m leery. :-/
I second the netbook recommendation. You’re welcome to give mine a test-spin anytime – it’s an HP Mini 1000. With the large battery, I think it’s supposed to last 8 hours, and its keyboard is comfortable to use. I think it was around $400 – Marcie would remember better than I would.
Sweet. Thanks! 🙂 Have you ever dropped it?
No such animal
“Cheap” precludes “rugged”. There’s no way around that. Which leaves your next best bet as “cheap enough to not be a total disaster when it breaks”, and factor in an appropriate case/cover to help cushion the fall.
We have had a lot of luck with an ASUS eee PC (1000HE), which has an utterly ludicrous battery life (over 8 hours), a keyboard that certainly works for typing, and yet is small, light, and (relatively) cheap. Amazon will still sell you one for about $370. The replacement model (faster/more storage) clocks in at $365!
Now, because I’m paranoid, I’d replace the spinning disk with a solid-state disk ($140 for 60GB), which also tends to improve your battery life (although the new model already claims 14+ hours, and based on the 1000HE, I see no real reason to doubt them). But this is probably not strictly speaking necessary if you treat the thing reasonably when not actually dropping it.
Then add something like the mCover shell, and/or the “memory foam” book-style sleeves (not the pocket style, they only help when you’re dropping the thing while not using it).
One biggy: they have no CD/DVD drive, so you need an external unit. But they’re perfectly capable of playing SD video (e.g. from a DVD), although they may balk at HD, which strikes me as reasonable because who really needs HD on a frickin’ 10″ screen??
Malc.
Then
I have no advice, but if you decide you want an HP product, talk to us–we get an employee discount.
It’s good to have friends. 😀
I have very little to contribute except being able to say from sad experience that Dell’s Inspiron 9 (mini) will not stand up to being dropped, not even once. 🙁
Our last experience with Dell soured me on them permanently. Ugh. Just not going there again.
Ruth has beat the living crap out of her Dell Netbook (a particular model they don’t make anymore), but I agree that they are a no-buy. The current crop, especially, seems very off-putting, an adjective I choose because they have put me off of them.
I have worked with a tiny Acer 10″, one model cycle older than the current. It does all the things you list, but the keys are kind of small for my fat fingers. I think that, were I willing to put in a couple of hours to come to grips, I could adjust. On first use, I found the keyboard a little cramped. The one in question has been carried to Hawaii and back, used to take notes at two or three Court Reporters’ conventions, and seen daily use for about eight months. I’m sure it’s been dropped a couple of times, but toddler drops can be higher impact, I know.
I like my Mac, but I think I void the warranty if I don’t mention it. Through work, I can obtain for you a small discount on them if you go that way, but the price of them is the price of them +/-.