[thelist] notebook pc reviews?

martin burns martin at lists.evolt.org
Wed Oct 4 08:27:52 CDT 2000


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At 13:50 04/10/00, Nick Koleszar wrote:
>I am looking for the smallest, lightest notebook PC I can get away with. My
>requirements will be:
>Run Windows and, perhaps, Linux.
>light and small but durable (I am generally very careful with kit but I want
>something less flimsy than typical Tosh/Dell)
>Keyboard not so compromised that really cannot use it regularly or for
>extended periods. I prefer to sue the mouse as little as possible.
>
>The apps I run are generally things like Homesite, Linkbot, Outlook, Office,
>Apache, Perl, PHP4 (these for sudden need for local web development) and
>very light Photoshop work.
>I expect to need 400MHz + and 128MB RAM.
This is exactly the buying place I was at a couple of months ago, and a
very similar range of software (although I run PWS/CF rather than Apache/PHP -
I have a cable modem at home so can test on the box it's going to end
up on if necessary).

I went for the Sony PCG-Z600E, which is just nice. As long as you're not
lugging port replicators (it has modem, network & USB internally), external
drives, Palm docking stations etc etc etc about the place, it's a very nice,
light machine. And its screen is fine and legible at 1024x768.

The only quibble I'd make is that the battery doesn't have a long enough life -
typically 45 mins/an hour's worth of writing email. Oh, and I want more RAM -
192 or 256 would be more comfortable, but the Sony RAM is damn expensive.

The trackpad's a hell of a lot easier to use as a regular pointing device 
than the
nipple-thing which IBM use.

And of course, it looks cooooool.

>Any experience of the Sony Vaio PCG-C1XS (Picturebook)? Is the screen too
>small?

Yes. At 1024x768 it's too small, and at 800x600 the LCD distorts and blurs 
a bit.

Cheers
Martin


________________
Martin Burns, Content Management Consultant
tel: +44 (0)778 068 6418
http://evolt.org/index.cfm?menu=9&uid=32
http://www.easyweb.co.uk/
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