Portable computer

[Garboni]

Would anyone be able to recommend a particular portable computer that does not cost a very large sum of money and that is neither very big nor very small?

Thank you.

[PPLandry]

The Acer Timeline series is really nice. Thin, and 8hr battery. Here in Canada, I've seen it for $599

[zridling]

What PPLandry  said. And if you're in the US, go to Walmart and spend $400-$500 on an Acer 12.1" notebook. They also have an Acer 11.6" subnotebook for $298. Both come with 2Mb of memory and a 320Gb HD.

Here are more:
http://www.walmart.com/browse/Computers/Laptop-Computers/_/N-2pbgZaq90ZaqceZ1yznsvi/Ne-aqgg?ic=48_0&ref=125875.126124+500848.4292529390&tab_value=341440_All&waRef=+500848.4292529390&catNavId=4070

[4wd]

Both come with 2Mb of memory and a 320Gb HD.

Wow, they sure pack the OS in these days.  How much is left for running your apps?

[PPLandry]

Both come with 2Mb of memory and a 320Gb HD.

Wow, they sure pack the OS in these days.  How much is left for running your apps?

I do all my dev. work on my 6 year-old Acer with 750MB of RAM... on XP SP2. It is much faster than a newer one with 4GB and Vista...

[Innuendo]

Would anyone be able to recommend a particular portable computer that does not cost a very large sum of money and that is neither very big nor very small?

Well, the deal is over, but Wednesday Best Buy was selling an Acer Extensa laptop (2.2 GHz Celeron, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD, 15.4" screen, Windows 7 Home Premium) for $250.

It's early in the holiday shopping season, too, so there's bound to be more killer deals like this one.

[Ath]

You should avoid the Celeron processor if you want to use that laptop for any serious computing, like playing a movie while on the road, these processors have serious performance issues, as in being sloooowwww, any day of the week.

[Shades]

Slow plying of movies depends on the type of compression that is used on such a movie file. Celeron's don't have problems showing a normal DVD. At least the laptop I bought for my ex didn't, it also could play Xvid compressed movies without any hiccup (on a 1Gbyte Vista machine).

The latest drivers for your video and/or audio cards together with the correct codecs will work wonders, even on a low end Celeron. I used to watch compressed movies on a Celeron 500Mhz back in the day.

You should not use a Celeron to create compressed movies, that will take forever. Most AA-class game titles will not run smoothly, even if you spend a lot on getting extra RAM. It is better to buy a 'fully equipped' processor instead of the Celeron, but for general use they are not so bad as Ath portrays them to be. Especially the newer versions aren't too bad.

My first encounter with the Celeron processor was the 300MHz one...and that was a really bad processor. We were setting up a helpdesk with 32 Compaq Celeron systems...but man, those processors were giving unreliable results when they work and had a habit of breaking for no apparent reason. At least 80% of all systems were replaced within a year...with Celeron 333MHz machines. And those were the complete opposite, reliable in any way. Intel learned their lesson with that one.

As always, your mileage may vary.

[Innuendo]

You should avoid the Celeron processor if you want to use that laptop for any serious computing, like playing a movie while on the road, these processors have serious performance issues, as in being sloooowwww, any day of the week.

I agree with what you are saying in principle as I'm what people would call a power user so a Celeron isn't for me, but we actually bought one of those laptops to be a Christmas gift for a teenager & as I've been setting it up for them the performance hasn't been bad & for a casual user it would be fine, IMHO.

And going back to the original post, I think the way Garboni worded his post price is a bigger factor in his decision than performance.

[alivingspirit]

Be sure to get a nice warranty with Acer. From my experience they haven't been to reliable. 

[tomos]

Be sure to get a nice warranty with Acer. From my experience they haven't been to reliable.  

Acer have a very bad rep (here in Germany anyway) - I've seen [many] stories online of people sending off their laptop & getting them back not properly fixed but with additional problems
Something else to consider...

I'm looking at the Samsung NC10 netbook (sub-notebook) supposed to have a very good screen (but only 10.2 inch) and good keyboard. There's an older version - called 'BBT' here (NP-NC10-KB03DE), which is almost 100 euro cheaper than other models - I think the reason is that it doesnt do wireless (which suits me fine)

[Garboni]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.