Comments on: Netbook or thin & light notebook?

By: solrize

solrize — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:02:21 +0000

I have a Thinkpad X40 too. Yes the hard discs crap out, I had two of them fail. The good news is that you can now get solid state replacements, which are silent, use less power, and are a hell of a lot faster. I now have a 60GB KingSpec SSD in my X40 (cost about $200 a few months ago, so sort of barely cost-effective considering the X40′s current low value). Anyway I really like these small Thinkpads much better than netbooks. I like the trackpoint button too, and you can always get a cordless mouse. I hate touchpads.

I’ve been wanting an X200s for a while, or alternatively have been interested in the X100e which is a bit smaller and fits in my belt pack nicely. For use at home I have a full sized laptop, so maximizing the power of my ultraportable isn’t so important. I can do Haskell development nicely on the X40.

Of course for really tiny, there’s the Nokia N900… I’ve been drooling over that but can’t really justify it financially.

By: Björn Buckwalter

Björn Buckwalter — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:00:34 +0000

If you haven’t written off netbooks yet the HP Mini 5102 looks like a very solid choice (http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/hp-min-5102.aspx). Has options for battery, screen resolution, and even touch screen (for those three year olds that haven’t quite figured out trackpads yet), but I imagine it gets pricey somewhere around there. Probably my first choice if I would replace my Eee PC 900HA today.

By: Netbook / Notebook Update | The Changelog

Netbook / Notebook Update | The Changelog — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:10:11 +0000

[...] days ago, I posted about looking for a new netbook or notebook, and asked for people’s advice. Since then, I’ve done some investigation based on these [...]

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:33:21 +0000

One word of advice: Stay away from the Intel GMA500 (“Poulsbo”) chipset.

By: John Goerzen

John Goerzen — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:54:24 +0000

Yes I’ve had more than one Thinkpad with trackpoint-only over the years. Very much annoyed me.

By: Eli L.

Eli L. — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:41:06 +0000

It depends entirely on the type of SSD. I have one with an Indilinx chipset and love it; it’s night and day compared to the 5200rpm harddrive that it replaced.

These are long articles, but well-worth the read:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=1
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631

By: Eli L.

Eli L. — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:35:29 +0000

In my experience with an X60s, default Linux installs aren’t the most power conscious. It might have changed somewhat over the past few years, especially with the netbooks, but when I first got the machine (2-3 years ago) and put Linux on it I was seeing around 2 hours of battery life. After tinkering, I get around 6 now, which is good given the battery’s age.
You will probably have a shorter battery life than if you ran Windows, but it shouldn’t be as bad as you mentioned. Powertop is an excellent tool to point out easy changes you can make to increase battery life and to help you pin down applications that are generating wake-ups. Using it I can see my power usage go from 20+ watts to ~9 watts.

By: John Goerzen

John Goerzen — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:26:55 +0000

I’ve been looking at the Acer 1810TZ that many have recommended, and it looks like a great laptop except for one thing: the glossy screen. I have never understood why people like those, and as notebookcheck pointed out, renders it completely unusable outdoors and a good chance of being annoying indoors. Any of you that have one have feedback on the screen?

On another toppic, SSD on my Eee 901 was terribly slow, but I see some people opting for SSD for performance. Is that a myth or has SSD come a long way since the 901?

By: Eli L.

Eli L. — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:25:01 +0000

Have you spent much time with a Trackpoint before?
My current machine is an X60s. Initially I was concerned about not having a touchpad, but I ended up preferring the Trackpoint once I got over the initial learning curve; it’s very convenient not having to move your hands far from the home row. The only thing I don’t like using it for is image editing, but I find touchpads equally bad for that purpose.

By: mirabilos

mirabilos — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:23:25 +0000

I am now using an IBM X40, which is 12″ and rather decent, except for the position of its Esc key, and that there’s no winkey but two other “weird” keys. It supports APM as well as ACPI, and the hardware should be working 100% on Debian (except for the SD/MMC slot and the Intel WLAN, it works on MirBSD even!). It’s decently fast.

Downside: the hard disc. It will eventually die, or so I heard. It’s 1.6″ and a wrong-gender connection. On the other hand, there are special-made CF adapters for this model and large-enough CF cards which should be even faster (although, as my HDD didn’t die yet, I don’t have one yet either).

In fact, it’s so light I’m exclusively using it with the docking station.

The placement of some of the connections on both right and left side, instead of back, can be annoying when you want to use it 90° turned while lying down, but few people do so ☺ and the docking station helps there too.