After more than a year of enjoying my Asus EEE PC 1000HA laptop, I've decided that it is indeed time for a laptop upgrade.
What I will miss about my laptop the most is the white keyboard and the matte screen, as none of the potential relacements have this. I am not fond of glossy screens, but I guess I will have to deal with it.
My choices are based on the following requirements:
Screen should not exceed 12.1"
Weight must not exceed 4lbs (preferably closer to 3lbs)
Must have bluetooth (or at least support an internal bluetooth upgrade)
Must at least 2GB RAM
Hard Drive - 160Gb or higher
CPU must Intel ULV SUxxxx or AMD Neo (X2) for ultrathin laptops
Battery must be at least 6 cell and should exceed 4 hours with routine use
Price must not exceed US$600
OS: Windows XP or Windows 7 Home Premium (Basic and Starter is crap!)
There are my finalists:
1. Acer Timeline AS1810TZ-4008 (Olympic Edition)US$580 on Amazon
This is the 11.6" notebook I been eyeing the most and longest of the four contenders. I like this over the other acer timeline series as it is silver with the olympic logo. I doubt it willbe available for too much longer as the Winter Olympics has long passed. I'm considering this becasue it has a dual core CPU, bluetooth, and up to 8 hours battery life.
2. ASUS UL20A-A1US$565 on Amazon
This 12" is what i liked best of Asus' offerings. it has a lovely aluminum finish and just has that sexy look that none of the other has. Bluetooth is optional, so I have to be careful to make sure it does have it before buying. User reviews say the 7.5 hour battery life is more like 4 though. Also not fond of the rocker touchpad buttons.
3. Acer AS1410 seriesUS$400 - US$480 on Amazon
This 11.6" laptop is the Well, best value for performance netbooks Acer been pushing for a while now. Available with various colours, CPU and hard drive sizes, the best specs top out at US$480 for a Core 2 Solo SU3500 CPU, 320GB HDD and 6 hours battery life in a red colour. While none of them has built-in bluetooth, I have seen forums showing you how, and it enourages me enough to want to pull out the bluetooth module I installed in my EEE PC and install it in this.
4. MSI Wind 12 U2xxUS$479 on Amazon (U230)
This is a last minute 12" contender i found just before I created this thread. Threre is an AMD CPU version (Wind12 U210 and Wind12 U230) with Neo x2 CPU and HD 3200 graphics and the Intel CPU version (Wind12 U200) with Core 2 Duo CPU and a WHITE keyboard.
None of these appear to have been released yet.
5. Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125US$470 on Amazon
I'm just throwing this 11.6" one in as lagnappe. Brown laptops are just not my thing, but toshiba supposed to be reputed for building sturdy laptops.
OK, so I think I have given you hopefully enough data to help me choose. choose your candidate carefully!
*rests tired hands from all the typing...*