Calling all geeks

[andrewducker]

is_not_well need a laptop. Budget of £500. She'd like basic word processing, etc. Must run SPSS. And an add-on that can do midi in/out.

Anyone got any suggestions for good brands/models?

Comments

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

15.4

I#m going to be really picky about this.


I want a light, dinky thing.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

And feel free to tell me I'm being unreasonable and 1 inch is not going to change the laptop that much :)

[andrewducker]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136299
14" screen.

£50 more
Exactly the same weight :->

[ratmist.livejournal.com]

If you want a light/dinky thing, can you deal with a screen smaller than 14"?

Colin's Thinkpad is unbelievably light and dinky and would more than do for your needs, but it's got a smaller screen than 14". It's 1.6kg in weight and very cute.

He bought it here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150201084954

Reviews of it here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/23/ibm_thinkpad_x31/
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/43305/ibm-thinkpad-x31-tk1c8uk.html?searchString=x31+thinkpad

The thing that sends me drooling about his laptop is the battery life. His has been happily working away for four hours I think without dying, but "[i]f you buy the extra-life battery, which fits snugly underneath the main battery via the docking station port, you could keep using the ThinkPad for around eight hours - it lasted an unmatched nine hours in our tests." (from the PCPro website)

For the record, I also have a dinky/light Acer, weighing 1.46kg. It's this one:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/72893/acer-travelmate-3004wtmi.html

Best thing I ever bought, and I too use SPSS, word processing, etc. The reason I needed the extra processing power was due to the GIS work I do, and I basically wanted a straight swap from a desktop PC to a laptop that wouldn't break my back carrying it.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

How small are you willing to go?

Fujitsu makes awesome microtablets, with a 5.4" touchscreen and foldable full keyboard. Those tend to be fairly expensive, though.

Acer makes perfectly acceptable machines in 14" with standard options plus bells and whistles like a webcam and microphone setup for about $700 CDN. $600 CDN if you don't want XP Pro and are willing to put up with the fully-hardware-supported Ubuntu Linux.

With the current exchange rate, that should be well under budget.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

If you want to go *really* light and dinky there's always the Asus EEE PC. The screen's tiny tho.