   Choosing a portable laptop
  I'm looking around for a laptop for school, and I'm looking for a portable and practical laptop. I've upgraded my desktop 4 months ago, so I don't need any performance out of my laptop.What I'm going to be using it for:- Internet- Word- Programming (light, no graphics)- No gamesScreen size: I think 15.4 inch screen is the most practical size from both display and usage point of view. Any body have experience with using 13/14 inch screen? Is it worth the sacrifice for the extra portability it offers?Processor: It looks like at Bestbuy, the 3 class of processors for budget laptops are Celeron 550, T2390, T5750. CPU bench mark says 5750 is about 10% faster than T2390, the price difference is around 150 bucks. Is it worth that extra?  I've tried a T5550 at work and I think it performed good enough.Ram: 3gig.Price Range: CDN$ 600-800Brand: Dell-ishIt would've been nice if Macbooks were offered at this price range. I wish they offered a price cut instead of offering the touch. I don't need the touch if I have a laptop to carry around. If anybody knows when apple will go on another clearance sale before they discontinue the current model, let me know.CandidatesLaptop 1 $60015 inchT 23903 gigsIntel GMALaptop 2 $75015 inchT 57503 gigsIntel GMALaptop 3 $90013 inchT 55503 gigsATI express 1250What would be the right balance between price/size/performance?   
  15 inch screens are nice but I don't think they're anything remarkable in terms of portability; they're just more comfortable (for me) to look at. It's just an ordinary laptop. I was faced with a similar situation recently and just went with the best deal at Best Buy: a $600 Toshiba Satellite with an AMD Turion64 X2, 3GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. I'm quite happy so far. It performs great!   ;  I say just look on red flag deals(Canadian deal site) until something cheap and good comes out, I paid $600 for the laptop I used throughout school, and it worked really well(was a Dell 15.4 AMD X2 system with ATI XPress graphics, surprisingly has run everything I've thrown at it, including Crysis on low, has 2GB of RAM).   ;  HP just launched some serious discount deals (read the SECOND post) you might want to look at.   ;  Thanks promit,I'm gonna consider that deal.But I'm afraid more powerful cpu and gpu may cut back on the battery life.   ;  i bought a 12" and it's great to program on (most 15.4" have the same resolution: 1280x800 or so, so while bigger, you have no gain..) and very portable. (in my case a tablet, hp 2710p).better test some notebooks in a shop, take them in your hand, get a feeling of their portability. except netbooks (asus eee etc) nowadays all notebooks are powerful enough for all the basic tasks.one thing you should look for is a fast performing harddrive. it's the only thing where performance is feelable and matters.anyways, those where my two cents.   ;  You are making the right decision going for a small/light laptop.Several years ago when I started college I went with a big heavy desktop replacement laptop ... it was as powerful as any desktop sure ... but it was also heavy and it had laughable battery life.  It was a mistake. When you are going to carry this computer around with you all day every day, and you need to work in areas where you don't always have access to AC power ... a desktop replacement is not the right choice.(You would be surprised how much heavier it feels after you've been lugging it around for 5 hours in addition to all your books and papers.)*Towards the end of 2007 I started looking for a light and portable laptop, and I did quite a bit of research into the subject.  My primary goal was portability.  I finally choose a Dell m1330.  At the time, after looking at just about every ultra-light laptop I could find, the m1330 just proved to give me the best bang for the buck.  So I would suggest checking out how the price on that model compares.Anyways, I've been using mine for months now and I would definitely recommend it. Personally, I don't find a 13.3 screen to be too small, and the OLED display is very nice.  I don't think I would be nearly as happy with a 15 inch laptop, because the added size makes it that much bulkier to carry around.  Whereas your average 13.3 in laptops are only slightly larger a 3-5 subject spiral-bound notebook.So yeah ... er ... I guess the gist of my post is, take a closer look at 13.3 model laptops before you make your decision.  The screen doesn't really feel all that small after you've used it for a couple minutes and you would be surprised how much of a difference that small reduction of weight and size will make after a few hours of carrying it around.   ;Quote:Original post by brent_wYou are making the right decision going for a small/light laptop.Several years ago when I started college I went with a big heavy desktop replacement laptop ... it was as powerful as any desktop sure ... but it was also heavy and it had laughable battery life.  It was a mistake. When you are going to carry this computer around with you all day every day, and you need to work in areas where you don't always have access to AC power ... a desktop replacement is not the right choice.(You would be surprised how much heavier it feels after you've been lugging it around for 5 hours in addition to all your books and papers.)Towards the end of 2007 I started looking for a light and portable laptop, and I did quite a bit of research into the subject.  My primary goal was portability.  Anyways, I finally choose a Dell m1330.  At the time, after looking at just about every ultra-light laptop I could find, the m1330 just proved to give me the best bang for the buck.  So I would suggest checking out how the price on that model compares.Anyways, I've been using mine for months now and I would definitely recommend it. Personally, I don't find a 13.3 screen to be too small, and the OLED display is very nice.  I don't think I would be nearly as happy with a 15 inch laptop, because the added size makes it that much bulkier to carry around.  Whereas your average 13.3 in laptops are only slightly larger a 3-5 subject spiral-bound notebook.So yeah ... er ... I guess the gist of my post is, take a closer look at 13.3 model laptops before you make your decision.  The screen doesn't really feel all that small after you've used it for a couple minutes and you would be surprised how much of a difference that small reduction of weight and size will make after a few hours of carrying it around.I'm with you on this one, I plan to get either something in the M13xx series, or somethign else of that kind of size. I was originally planning on getting something with an awsome GPU and an e-penis CPU, but it occurred that, since im trying to make a game for casual gamers, I need a machine with integrated graphics to test it on.   ;  If you don't plan on doing any work requiring a high performance machine such as gaming, video-editing, watching HD videos with software codecs etc., resist the oh-shiny!-factor and go for a model with the least powerful configuration possible. It will get you a cheaper, quieter, lighter and cooler machine with longer battery life. Max out the amount of RAM and get a good harddrive though.As for screen-size, I personally consider 14" to be just barely acceptable to lug around. I'd say that the keyboard is the deciding factor for a portable. Go for as small laptop as possible, but make sure that the keyboard is still comfortable to type on for long periods of time. ;Quote:I'd say that the keyboard is the deciding factor for a portable. Go for as small laptop as possible, but make sure that the keyboard is still comfortable to type on for long periods of time. Yeah, keyboard was the deciding factor in how far I was willing to shrink.That would be the biggest reason I didn't go for a sub-notebook like the Eee, anything less than standard key size I just don't feel comfortable typing on. I don't think you can get any smaller than 13.3 or maybe 12 and still get standard sized keys.  (Look at widescreens for wider keyboards.)   