What is a small yet cheap notebook?

[Cares]

As the topic says, what is a small but cheap notebook? My friend is looking for one and he wants 10 inches. I don't know of any that exist that small, maybe a Sony, but that's really expensive. He says he doesn't need it to be 1.8GHz or anything like that but just small. The best solution I have in mind for him is a 700m. Any other suggestion?

 

[SilentVixen]

Averatecs are great!
Also, if he doesn't need really fast, I'd check out an older Toshiba Portege.

 

[Cares]

Anyone else?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Second on the Averatec, but a price range would be helpful.
HP dv1000's start @ $699 for a 14" widescreen weighing ~5lbs.
Dell also just came out with an ultraportable, IIRC 12" screen.

 

[Tom]

Here ya go

 

[fbrdphreak]

ROFL

 

[Cares]

Originally posted by: Tom
Here ya go

How much? I think I'll pick one up myself.

 

[crabbyman]

How about an iBook?

 

[kd2777]

I no you said 10, but my wife's Dell 700m (12 inch) was only 800 during one of the many Dell coupon deals. IIRC you could have goten it for 750, but I wanted a couple of extra items. Just search Dell in Hotdeals.

1.6 Dothan P-m
512 RAM
CDrw/DVD combo
XP Pro
8 cell extended battery

 

[ArjSiv]

I'd say go for a 12 inch iBook/Powerbook if you don't mind switching to OSX, you can get them very cheap if you are a University student from your on-campus Apple dealer.

I'm not going to go into the advantages of using a Mac because I'm sure that topic's been done to death.

 

[Pandaren]

I'd stay away from PowerBooks. They are a bitch to service: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/hdfailure.ars/2

I had to remove the battery, three screws in the battery bay, the memory card and a screw and weird little piece of metal in the memory bay, three pieces of sticky aluminum shielding, three little cables of mysterious origin (seemingly to the trackpad, the power button, and the microphone), F1, F2, F11, F12, more hidden screws, the entire keyboard, and finally the top aluminum face of the case (11 screws). There it was, the hard drive, the bane of my existence, with just two screws and a cable holding it down. 45 minutes.

Hope your friend doesn't ever care to update or replace the HDD...

I'd go with a Dell or IBM.

 

[hopejr]

Aren't all laptops a pain to service? Isn't that their nature?

 

[loup garou]

Sharp Actius MM20 is relatively cheap. No powerhouse, but it's about the same size as the Vaio X505. Very small. Good construction and a great screen.

 

[ArjSiv]

Originally posted by: Pandaren
I'd stay away from PowerBooks. They are a bitch to service: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/hdfailure.ars/2

I had to remove the battery, three screws in the battery bay, the memory card and a screw and weird little piece of metal in the memory bay, three pieces of sticky aluminum shielding, three little cables of mysterious origin (seemingly to the trackpad, the power button, and the microphone), F1, F2, F11, F12, more hidden screws, the entire keyboard, and finally the top aluminum face of the case (11 screws). There it was, the hard drive, the bane of my existence, with just two screws and a cable holding it down. 45 minutes.

Hope your friend doesn't ever care to update or replace the HDD...

I'd go with a Dell or IBM.

Don't get me started on servicing IBM's. To insert a MiniPCI card it took him approximately 2 hours after having to take it apart.