Dell 700m, Asus M5N, ?: small, light cheap machine

[Ian Worthington]

I'm looking for a small, light laptop to take with us on holidays and trips.

It doesn't have to be super powerful but does have to be able to connect to our cameras to download photos and burn security copies to CDs as well as attend to email etc., etc.

It has to be reasonably small and light, but not so expensive that its theft would be a major loss.

Being able to watch DVDs on it would be nice but as airline seat pitch is now so tight that one can't even eat without asking the guy in front to straighten up his seat, I don't see it getting much inflight use, so battery life is probably not a major issue either.

Although I don't need, and would rather not have a widescreen (to save some space) the Dell 700m seems relatively small and light (99 sq in footprint, 4.1 lbs), meets my connectivity requiements, and is available from $929 (or refurbished from $895).

I also looked at the Asus M5N (100 sq in, 3.4 lbs), but even buying the cheapest barebone and putting in the cheapest processor, memory, and disk it comes out at more $ than the Dell.

Is there anything else of comparable size/weight I should look at?

ian

[fishfood]

fujitsu makes a 13.3" model

The Dell can be bought for pretty cheap with nice specs using the coupon codes.

The Asus S5N is nice too (very light...optical drive is not built in)

I think that HP has some ultraportable business-class notebooks. IBM also has an ultraportable line.

[lapboy]

Dell 700m will be the cheapest.Check out Averatec 3300 series

[ZaZ]

I think the quality of the Fujitsu is worth the extra $$$ over the Dell. You can pick one up on NewEgg for around $1300. You can get a ThinkPad T42 for around that price as well. Another one to look at is the Compaq v2000/HP dv1000.






I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *

[Rahul]

May I recommend the HP DV1000 or Compaq V2000?

[Ian Worthington]

Thanks to all who responded. I'm guessing the others are better quality, but they're a *lot* more expensive that a refurbised Dell (saw one yesterday at under $800).

But still looking & thinking.

ian
...

[fishfood]

There are some excellent coupon codes for the Dell 700m. check out Dell Coupons at the top of this page.

If you spend 1999, you get 800 off. So you could get one with a 4 year onsite warranty and great specs for 1200. There are other coupon options too.