The Rebel Faction

So I'm looking in to a Subnotebook/Notebook/EPC...

And I'm wondering if anyone has any advice. Models, makes and reviews...

It will primarily be a writing/text machine so input (keyboard) functionality is key, as are the display parameters and so on. The standard seems to be around 160Gig HD, 1Gig Ram, Intel Atom Processor... So I have a pretty good idea what I'm looking at.

But what I'd really like is to know what you, my friends, think. So, let's have it.

My main computer is a Dell Vostro laptop. I don't have the specs memorized but I bought it on ebay for about $520. It's served me well. The only annoying thing I find (it's my first laptop; and first/only computer with Vista) is the scroll pad under the keyboard that my thumb will sometimes tap when I am typing which causes the screen to suddenly begin scrolling down.

But most laptops have that touchpad under the keyboard so..


I'll play an occassional game on the laptop (Total War: Rome Barbarian Invasion, Galactic Civilizations II, Cossacks, Command & Conquer Tiberiun Sun) with no problems (other than getting them to work w/Vista). I do not play World of Warcraft so I don't know if it would hold up to that.




I just purchased my wife an Acer Aspire One mini-laptop off Amazon.com but she will not be opening the gift until this weekend so I cannot say whether or not it was a good investment.

In the reviews, the only bad thing I read was the cooling fans seemed noisier than the reviewers were used too (or was enough for them to notice) and it has a battery life of about 2-3 hours (I am being conservative in this, I don't remember exactly what they wrote but the Acer's battery life would be enough for what it was to be used for.. namely a writing notebook for school and internet surfing.

My girlfriend just got some new tiny LG notebook from her Dad, its got crap battery life (say 2 hours). Which when you have 3 hour lectures makes no sense whatsoever. But she thinks its cute. That's my only experience with small laptops.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6400, never really had much problems with it, started out with a battery life of around 5-6 hours, now 2.5 years later its down to around 4.5 hours when the screen is dimmed to its lowest setting. I have problems with the newer Command and Conquers with it (Command and Conquer 3), but Command and Conquer Generals and Tiberium Sun work just fine on it. Pretty heavy when its in my backpack though.

Intel integrated graphics are the devil.

I find that the overheating of the laptop varies from brand to brand because of where the mfg decides to put the fans or whatnot.

There is a way to turn off the security questions everytime you click on an executable program (I just live with it since I don't have a virus protection program on it which is, I guess, kind of like running down your neighborhood street naked but ...) but I don't remember what you do. When I get back home to my laptop, I'll pull up that info again.

As for the Explorer Windows all closing, I do not think I have that problem. That being said, I might but not really noticed it so I will go home and check it out. I am sure there is a way to stop it from doing that.


And Kach is right... Minimum of 2 gigs with Vista.