New Laptop

For all of my undergrad I had been using a clunky 19 inch Dell laptop. It is still working after 5 years with only a few repairs, and most were under warranty. It is still my main computer but for medical school I wanted to treat myself to a new laptop, a super tiny portable laptop that I could throw/gently place into my backpack everyday and take everywhere with me. I was originally thinking of going with the new Asus eee pc with the bigger screen. I had heard reviews of the 7 inch one being a pain because you had to keep scrolling left and right to veiw webpages.

So these are the three main computers I looked into and frankly I didn't do a whole lot of research because I knew what I wanted and I bought this kind of impulsively.

First, the new Asus eee pc 1000....
Price: $559 in Canada
Screen: 10 inch
Memory: 1GB
Hard drive: 80GB
Operating System: Windows XP or Linux
Battery life: ~7 hours with 6 cell battery
Weight: 1.45 kg
Plus built in webcam

The new HP Mini-note which has had some good reviews
Price: $599
Screen: 8.9 inch
Memory: 1GB
Hard drive:120GB
Operating System: Vista
Battery life: 3 or 6 cell
Weight: 1.27 kg
You can also get it with a Linux OS which would probably be preferable to Vista because I have heard that Vista is quite a processor hog.

Acer Aspire One...new this summer, not a lot of reviews on this one
Price: $429
Screen: 8.9 inch
Memory: 1GB
Hard drive: 120 GB
Operating System: XP or Linux
Battery Life: 3 or 6 cell
Weight:1.26 kg

They are all very similar and the asus eee pc is far better known. And each subnotebook comes with prices plus or minus $100 depending on which OS you choose, how much battery you want, etc. Basically I chose based on price, which the acer is superior in. However I am still waiting for mine to come in the mail, as it is not in stock at most places. The only reviews I read about it were for the Linux OS with the small 8GB hard drive. They were all pretty positive and I have pretty high expectations for my new little laptop. I tested the basic version at a store and it is much smaller in person! I think the keyboard on any of these little guys would take some getting used to. I have heard that the HP mini note has a pretty slow processor and a lot of places are stocking it for around $700 or more which is the same price as a basic normal sized laptop these days (this is the main complaint about this one). Basically after taxes, the Acer is still cheaper than the un taxed price of either of these computers, Mine will even come in a nice shade of blue. Plus at under $500 I can afford to replace it in a few years when something better comes along. And in the field of subnotebooks the competition is getting fierce and I feel that going for too many fancy features defeats the purpose of getting an ultra light, portable laptop. When my old laptop finally bites the dust I think I will invest in an ultra fast desktop, which can be reasonably purchased for around $1500 with all the bells and whistles I could possibly want.

I originally wanted a tablet PC, the kind that you can swivel the screen and write on. However, even though these computers are in the 4th or 5th generation now they are still very expensive and retail around $2500 or so. Plus I am limited by location. Canada tends to be a late adopter in most electronics and getting my hands on a decent tablet for a reasonable price would have been hard. Hopefully when I graduate I will be able to buy a cheap tiny tablet pc (there are rumors of them being made in japan already). But my next purchase will probably be a combination phone/pda for third year like the ones vitum medicinus was reviewing here. Hopefully increased competition will give Canadians more choices in blackberry/i-phone ish things for good prices.

I would probably not use this as my primary computer just because it is very small and doesn't have certain things I might want like a CD drive in certain situations, but it should be pretty good for day to day use. I will be adding a new post with my initial thoughts of the acer aspire and how useful I think it is if it ever arrives! Ah, the trials and tribulations of being an early adopter. I hope this helps anyone looking for a cheap laptop to complement an existing laptop or desktop.