Laptops

I've been thinking about getting a laptop for next year. Wouldn't I look good with one of those 12" laptops, sitting at a table in one of those starbucks-like coffeshop (no, not the other kind), working on some project or assignment? Well if I want that look, I definitely need to pick the right one.

It all started with Fred talking me into admitting that the apple 12" laptops were great. Think about it, it's less that 2kg, and it's so small it doesn't fill up your bag or backpack. It's got a dvd player, that can be upgraded to a dvd burner on the powerbook. It has a Mini-DVI output, so that would be good if I had a DVI monitor... er... yeh... maybe one day. It comes with 512Mb or RAM, a 5200rpm 80Gb harddrive Wifi or 802.11g rather, bluetooth, a Gb ethernet, a 56k modem, firewire, usb 2.0 and --- guess what --- a line-in and a headphone jack how awesome is that? Hmmm not so, it's still €1.729 ($2,149.00 CAD). btw what's the warranty on that?

So that sets the standard for me: 12", at 512Mb of RAM and a 5200rpm harddrive.... and lightweight. Is the bar too high?

I read somewhere (don't remember but here's a link to spymac) that Asustek was manufacturing parts of the iBook, since I prefer the look of that one, and it's much lighter, let's start there. Asus has a nice iBook like laptop, the S5N (white, pearl rather) or S5000N (black) in Europe. It's 12" XGA (1024x768), with a 40Gb, a DVD reader (CDRW burner) and 256Mb of RAM... oh by the way, the DVD reader is external. :( All this for about $1699CAD or €1024. Needless to say it would need an upgrade to match with the "standard".

I looked around some more but found nothing as interesting sizewise and pricewise. Until I stumble upon a tiny laptop with DVD±RW. This Medion SIM2000 is almost perfect. It costs $1499CAD (with 60Gb) here and €929 (with 40Gb). Unfortunately it has a SiS graphic controller that shares its memory with the system's RAM, and even more unfortunate, it has a 4200rpm harddrive. Still a good buy. (Update) This laptop is also being sold by MSI. It's the MegaBook S250, with the same price range.