Comments on: Looking for decent compact laptop.

Question: Looking for decent compact laptop.

gb77 — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 05:30:04 -0800

This question was asked about a year ago.... I'm looking for a compact, small screen (12" or less) laptop for travel that's decently priced. Any thoughts/advise?

By: fake

fake — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 06:51:58 -0800

You should really look at the IBM x-series on eBay.

I just bought an IBM x23 on ebay -- it's an 800mhz machine with meager ram, 12" screen, 30gb drive. The construction is excellent and the machine is in good shape. Came with accessories. It will run most anything, has built in WiFi, etc.

260$, including shipping.

By: gwenzel

gwenzel — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:03:59 -0800

I bought a Fujitsu Lifebook P1120 (256MB RAM, ~800MHz Transmeta processor, 9" touchscreen, 40GB HDD) on eBay a few months back for about $500CDN including shipping. It's no powerhouse, but it runs Windows XP and office applications without problems, and is powerful enough to run some older games.

The biggest advantage it has is that it's only 2.2 pounds with the 'standard' battery (2.5 pounds with the extended battery), and the battery life is outstanding. I'm still using the original, 3+ year old 'standard' battery, and I easily get 3 hours of running time. A brand new extended battery has a rated runtime of 9 hours (!).

By: matteo

matteo — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 08:11:26 -0800

buy a used iBook G4, they cost about 300 dollars at this point

By: handee

handee — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 08:24:10 -0800

Second the IBM/Lenovo thinkpad X-series. Not the cheapest new, but they're sturdy and light.

By: outsider

outsider — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:24:36 -0800

the fuji P1120 has a touch screen correct? Is it usable for anything graphics wise?

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:38:41 -0800

I just priced ~2 GHz Dell, Sony and Apple notebooks. Dell seems to be the least expensive. If you do get a Dell, definitely get the extended, on-site warranty. Dell doesn't make the best machines, but their warranty contractors are great.

By: Alterscape

Alterscape — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 10:21:39 -0800

I have a 12" Powerbook G4, and I love it. For travel, you might find the 12" iBook is a bit more rugged and, if you're willing to accept lower specs, also quite wonderful.

I worked as a service tech at a shop that sold/serviced Lenovo/IBM laptops, and did a fair bit of work on X41s. Probably a bit pricy for you, but light, solidly-built, and very easy to work on.

Seriously, the difference between repairing an IBM/Lenovo and, say, repairing an Apple or HP is incredible. If you want to work on your own gear, the IBM/Lenovo gets points there despite the higher cost of aquisition. That said, I was working at a shop with the ability to order spares from Lenovo direct; I don't know about spares availability to an end-user.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:03:23 -0800

Seriously, the difference between repairing an IBM/Lenovo and, say, repairing an Apple or HP is incredible. If you want to work on your own gear, the IBM/Lenovo gets points there despite the higher cost of aquisition. That said, I was working at a shop with the ability to order spares from Lenovo direct; I don't know about spares availability to an end-user.

Have apple notebooks become significantly harder to work on since the TiBooks, or are Lenovos just crazy easy to work with? My old 1GHz TiBook was easy enough to work on. Half of the interesting stuff was under the keyboard, and required no tools. The other half was easy to get at once the bottom plate was torx'd off. But then I've never had to replace a logic board - just reseat the DVD drive every six weeks and upgrade the memory and add Airport.

By: gwenzel

gwenzel — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:40:11 -0800

Outsider: Yes, the P1120 has a touch screen. I'm not sure what you mean about using it for graphics, though. I use it primarily as a readily-accessible replacement for a mouse. It's really intuitive to just tap on things on the screen with my finger (or the stylus) instead of reaching for a mouse.

By: Idcoytco

Idcoytco — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:51:24 -0800

If you want to do substantial word-processing while travelling you need to consider that very small keyboards may be hard to type on, and that the wide-format screens show fewer lines of a document when it is displayed full-width than the standard-format screens do.

By: Aanidaani

Aanidaani — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:39:07 -0800

You might check this one out. It seems like a pretty good deal: http://www.spoofee.com/forums/showthread.php?p=261515

By: soplerfo

soplerfo — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:44:42 -0800

I'm in the market for a similar machine right now - I'm looking at HP and Toshiba's low-end machines as well as IBM's used "warehouse specials".

By: alexei

alexei — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 19:52:12 -0800

Aanidaani: that's a 15.4" (big).

I've been looking at (can't justify the expense currently) this Everex which seems like a good price. Some discussion here.

By: raildr

raildr — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:22:36 -0800

I have an Averatec that is 3+ yrs old and has been through hell and is still ticking. They are not the most durable, but good bang for the buck if you are half way careful.

By: altcountryman

altcountryman — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:23:13 -0800

I'm thinking about the same thing for an upcoming trip to Thailand.

Maybe check Apple's website for a 12" iBook refurb?

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 22:01:39 -0800

Another place to look is uBid - I recently found a Thinkpad x31 off-lease in absolutely perfect condition for $430, which I love dearly.