Need a small, cheap laptop

[brownbox]

I need a small laptop. Not for gaming, but for those cold winter nights when you want to sit in front of the fire, sipping a coffee, watching tv, and surfing the web. I have looked at the Asus Eee, but I want something with a bigger screen for the size. Want to keep it under $550. DOesnt matter if its a couple of years old. Any suggestions?

[benwynn]

Just get an older Mac- 12" Ibook G4. Will run all of that really really well, and its nice and small too

[brownbox]

Nice, nice. Hows the battery life on that?

also, would prefer bluetooth on it, for more integration with my N95.

[benwynn]

Macs usually have a good battery life, often close to 2hrs or more. Not sure about Bluetooth though- When people bought them new, they had the option to put these things in- So im not sure. Perhaps check ebay for one that has it put in.

[Kelburn]

try trademe

[Anthony]

to the iBook.

The 1.33 GHz models should have Bluetooth.
Earlier models were optional, but if the seller was any decent, they would say if it has BT or not.

Excepting that, there is a nine inch Eee PC model coming to NZ very shortly (May or something I think).
Still smaller than the iBook, but bigger than the original Eee.

Cheers
Anthony

[brownbox]

TBH guys, I really dont want to go near macs. They just scare me away, after the closure of ipods and steves endless attempts of killing peoples fun with hacks. Linux or windows is what I want.
Moving on, I have looked and looked, and I found the Acer Travelmate 3002WTCi which is a 1.7Ghz centrino, 512mb ddr2 533 RAM, 60gb hdd, bluetooth, wifi, up to 6 hours of battery, a gorgeous glossy 12.1" wxga screen, dvd writer, and to top it off, windows xp pro. Its dimensions 11.7 x 8.3 x 1 inches and weighs in at 1.6kgs. Cost $450-500

But the Asus Eee keeps coming up. Yes its terrible value for money (900mhz celeron m, 512mb ram, 4GB of hard disk space, no optical drive, 7" screen), but its small, its compact, at 8.9″ x 6.5″ x 0.82″ and weighing in at .9kg. Cost $450-550 included is 8gb sd card, windows xp pro

You would think the decision would be easy to make, but you have to remember
The travelmate is 3 years old, whereas the eee is 4 months
the eee has size and weight on its side

but the travelmate has,
almost 3 times the cpu speed,
5 times the harddisk space, and a bigger screen.

[HardCorePawn]

Do you want the 'bells and whistles' of a desktop in laptop form... or do you want a small, lightweight machine about the same size/weight as a hardback book?

you cannot have both for the price you are wanting...

[brownbox]

I went for the Eee. Sure, it was slightly overpriced for its specs, but I got one very cheap (400$), and you cant beat its size (about 1/4 of a 15" laptop, and 1/2 a 12.1" laptop).