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Mini-laptop
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 1:23 pm
by alex.barylski
I'm looking for something of ultimate portability. Something I can bring to the beach, connect to my cell phone and work from the warm climes of a sandy beach. Small enough it would fit inside a backpack or similar, to prevent dust or sand/debris from getting on the keyboard.
It'd be sweet to sit on the beach, answer support questions 10 at a time (so I only need to connect once every 30 mins for a few minutes - send out replied, disconnect and repeat.).
Anyone know of anything like that? Preferably Dell, or similar brand?
I'm looking for compact here, that is the keyword. Like less than 8 to 6 inches wide and a compact QWERTY keyboard. Lots of battery life.
Edit I should note, I am not looking for a PDA although something similar in size and portability. Something I can actually work on not just reply to emails from.
Cheers

Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 1:45 pm
by feyd
For sand and salt water environments, I can only recommend Toughbook.
http://panasonic.com/business/toughbook ... puters.asp
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 2:51 pm
by Kieran Huggins
While not a sub-notebook, I think a small Thinkpad is your best option. Great build quality, best keyboard in the genre.
x series (thin and light)
http://www.pc.ibm.com/ca/thinkpad/xseries/index.html
x series (convertible tablet)
http://www.pc.ibm.com/ca/thinkpad/tablet/index.html
And if you ever feel like getting creative, there's the amazing thinkpad wiki:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki
Anything smaller than that is essentially a blackberry.
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 4:51 pm
by OasisGames
UMPC w/ external USB keyboard
Remember the old "Origami" previews? When they were released, the name became "Ultra Mobile PC"
Don't expect them to compare with a regular laptop of the same price though, and always remember what you're sacrificing (keyboard, disc drives)
I hear once you get the default clutter off of them, they can get pretty fast.
Links: Google it, there are so many different places, and none of the official sites are worth looking at.
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 5:29 pm
by jayshields
I've seen some very nice Sony mini laptops around, can't quote model numbers but I'd go check out their website.
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 8:11 pm
by alex.barylski
12.1" seems to be the standard for mini-laptops... :S
I thought for sure there would be smaller, but I guess thats PDA already...
Shyte!
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 8:19 pm
by feyd
12.1" width? Screen-size?
Several of the Toughbooks are 10.7" wide with 10.4" displays.
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 10:20 pm
by Begby
Have you thought about a macbook? I do all my development on a macbook pro. I also boot it into windows vista for games and run parallels for other windows stuff from within macos.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:14 am
by JayBird
Begby wrote:Have you thought about a macbook? I do all my development on a macbook pro. I also boot it into windows vista for games and run parallels for other windows stuff from within macos.
Yep, that is what i would have suggested
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:11 am
by Chris Corbyn
Begby wrote:Have you thought about a macbook? I do all my development on a macbook pro. I also boot it into windows vista for games and run parallels for other windows stuff from within macos.
They're bright white (unless you pay more just to get a black one), glossy and I'll bet the keyboards break easily (the desktop keyboards break really easily if they get wet/soiled according to what people say on their reviews). I could be wrong, but although a Macbook certainly is made to be portable and has things like a snap-free power cord they never struck me as beach-wear

Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:17 am
by JayBird
d11wtq wrote:Begby wrote:...they never struck me as beach-wear

Depends on what we are trying to class as beach-wear.
If he is wanting to do a bit of surfing, jump straight out of the water and fire up DevNet then obviously he is gonna need something tougher. But if he is jusr going down to the beach just to lay in the sun then the requirements may not need to be as touch (although you seem to get sand everywhere no matter what!!)
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 5:04 am
by Chris Corbyn
Indeed. I remember an old walkman I had (when cassette tapes were all in fashion!) getting wrecked from taking it to the beach even though I was keeping it in a backpack

Sand just goes everywhere... just things like the wind blowing carry grains of sand into every nook & cranny

I'm not sure how badly it would affect a laptop though considering the only "moving" parts are the keys on the keyboard. You might even be able to get a sand/water proof cover to protect the keyboards too.
EDIT | Clearly I didn't think about what's inside a laptop when I said the only moving parts were they keys

Getting sand in your CPU fan or power supply probably would ruin a laptop.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 6:50 am
by feyd
As I've said before.. Toughbooks are designed for this kind of environment.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 7:57 am
by dreamscape
feyd wrote:Toughbooks are designed for this kind of environment.
You probably won't get any sand inside the toughbook to "ruin" it, but I guarantee you that the outside, screen, and keys will be covered it in. When you go to the beach, there is no stopping the sand from getting on everything you have with you... Which is why I personally would never take any laptop to the beach; even a toughbook.
You can also throw a toughbook in mud and it will still "work", but who really wants to use a laptop caked in mud? i.e, who really wants to use a laptop covered in sand?
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 8:23 am
by onion2k