View Full Version : Looking for Business Ultraportable
I'm looking to replace my lovely MSI netbook (which belongs to me) with a business ultraportable that can do everything on the move, especially around school when I am troubleshooting. My big desktop is fine when I'm at my desk, but I want 80% of its functionality wherever I am (e.g. server administration, SIMS etc.).
I want no larger than 12" screen, proper dual-core processor, 4GB RAM, SSD hard disk (can add this later), wireless-n, built-in 3G SIM facility. I have a capital budget of about £1k.
Currently looking at this beauty (Lenovo X201) with cast alloy chassis and spill-proof keyboard:
http://uk.insight.com/en-gb/productinfo/laptops/LENYA07E8M
Any further recommendations?
Beechwoods
12-03-2011, 17:02
Can you remote desktop from anywhere to your main machine? If you can, then the spec of your portable is far less important. One with integrated 3G / SIM card might be more useful.
Yes I can, Nick, and that is what I do currently from my netbook when away from my desk. However, I want something with the power to act independently from my desktop and also with the power I need when running independently of the network via, say, 3G. I also find that 1024 x 600 is not quite enough resolution for using, say, SIMS. I fancy the 1280 x 800 of the Lenovo.
What I do like about my netbook is the superb virtually full-size keyboard within a small frame. That I don't want to sacrifice.
The Vinyl Adventure
12-03-2011, 18:11
If you buy the lenovo do some research on the trackpad ... I wouldn't buy a lenovo blind again ... We now have the faff of sending them back for refund!
Beechwoods
12-03-2011, 18:16
I have a Lenovo X200 as my main machine at work. It's a 12.1" and just the right size for real work but small too. Processor wise, its man enough for what I do, number crunching and data work mostly. If the X201 is anything like mine, it should be well worth going for.
I buy Lenovos for all our staff, Hamish. Previously N200s, now G550, G555 and G560. We don't have any problems with the trackpads. Maybe yours had a fault?
The Vinyl Adventure
12-03-2011, 18:45
thats what i bought... a g560 ...
nice bit of kit ... apart from the right click button was barely functional, the mouse pointer constantly locked and jumped about, and the left click had to be pushed with some force ...
of course its fine if you use an external mouse ... but that not always an easy option ... mostly when the lap top is on your lap....
this was the case for both g560's we bought!
and searching on the internet we werent the only people to find this issue!
im now using a msi c620 .. which after some fiddling is now sat on my lap working a treat!
next time i get one hopefully the business will have a bit more cash to spend ... we used a lot of our budget on a new mac powerbook for our graphic design man ... he is a snob and wont use a pc .... :)
Processor wise, its man enough for what I do, number crunching and data work mostly. If the X201 is anything like mine, it should be well worth going for.
Thanks, Nick, that's good to know.
MSI are a good brand, too (this netbook has been flawless). As for Mac Powerbooks, I can't believe how over-priced they are. One of our team wants to buy one to help us with support issues, when I asked the price I nearly hit the roof. He is now looking for a used one on e-Bay.
The Vinyl Adventure
12-03-2011, 19:53
MSI are a good brand, too (this netbook has been flawless). As for Mac Powerbooks, I can't believe how over-priced they are. One of our team wants to buy one to help us with support issues, when I asked the price I nearly hit the roof. He is now looking for a used one on e-Bay.
as it goes we havent bought the mac just yet .... £1800 odd quid for the one that joe wants ... we are trying to talk him down to the £1500 one!
the way he justifies it is how long they last ... has has had the last one for 4 years and its only just getting a bit on the slow and ropey side.
but then my argument is that my sony lasted 3 years and was basically still fine ... i dunno ... its money we are going to spend and spend soon, but i cant say i dont begrudge it!
Reid Malenfant
12-03-2011, 20:03
the way he justifies it is how long they last ... has has had the last one for 4 years and its only just getting a bit on the slow and ropey side.
:lolsign: I have had this Acer laptop for over 5 years now & it is in no way ropey or slow :eyebrows:
What a poor excuse :rolleyes:
Apologies as it's not exactly useful to the original question posed by Martin, but in reality it shows how some people treat things that effects the functionality, not the product itself ;)
Indeed, it could easily be wiped and have the OS reinstalled. Same as new.
Martin,If you want a nice budget 12 inch lappy.
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/msi-vr220-ya-edition.aspx
Personaly, I would get the lenovo if money is not an issue.
Hmm, not bad at all, and I do like MSI. I think it would fall down on the robustness stakes as well as being a touch larger than I want.
I do have the capital budget to spend so I think, within reason, I shall spend to its limit. I have already ordered a Kingston SSDNow V+100 128GB solid state hard disk to go with my chosen laptop, after having done my homework.
Oh, oh, chaps, I think I may be waiting for the new Lenovo X220, released in April. It looks superb:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/221585/lenovo_thinkpad_x220_a_look_at_whats_coming.html
Oh, oh, chaps, I think I may be waiting for the new Lenovo X220, released in April. It looks superb:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/221585/lenovo_thinkpad_x220_a_look_at_whats_coming.html
Oooh - that is sexy. Ok, not that sexy - but this stands out for me "the laptop's standard 9-cell battery offers up to 15 hours of battery life" - OK, so in the real world, it won't be 15 hours, but if it even gives half that it would be fab!
I can only speak for myself, but when I need a PC away from the office or home, I usually have no access to power, so battery life is vital, too. I get a measly 2 hours max from my HP laptop.
Looks good Martin, in other respects - I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Agreed, Alex, battery life is very important to me too, especially when I'm away from home. My netbook gives me about 4 hours, I could do with 6+ hours really.
Oh, oh, chaps, I think I may be waiting for the new Lenovo X220, released in April. It looks superb:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/221585/lenovo_thinkpad_x220_a_look_at_whats_coming.html
I looked at that also but it has NO optical drive!
With no CD/DVD drive (deal breaker)
Everyone who has a notebook or small lappy without a drive hates it.
The Vinyl Adventure
15-03-2011, 12:36
I looked at that also but it has NO optical drive!
With no CD/DVD drive (deal breaker)
Everyone who has a notebook or small lappy without a drive hates it.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/External-USB-2-0-Slim-DVD-CD-R-RW-Drive-Netbook-PC-/140522878213?pt=UK_Computing_Drives_Storage_CD_DVD _Drives_ET&hash=item20b7d0f505
Everyone who has a notebook or small lappy without a drive hates it.
Not me, I couldn't care less (and my current netbook has no optical drive). I just plug one in on the occasions that I need one (or share my desktop's drive over wireless).
OK, if you want to drag another device around but I like haveing it all in one,lets say your on a plane and you want to watch a DVD or rip CD's to your library.
I really like haveing that as an option.
As an alternative to waiting for the X220 (I'm now being told April or May delivery), I'm quite taken by the Lenovo Edge 11 with the Core i3 processor and 4GB RAM. It would take my SSD drive too. Looks nice in the understated Lenovo manner. My supplier, Insight, have them in stock and at £591 it's a lot cheaper than the proposed price of the X220. Decisions, decisions...
http://img.katalognotebooku.cz/files/produkty/cz/4/4296/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-11-0328-3pg-nvy3pmc.jpg
This rather nice video must have cost them...
HLeqmXgKc48
Now ordered - delivery tomorrow :)
I've been playing with the Kingston SSD in my current netbook and my word, does it go! I've never known such short boot times and responsiveness to commands. Word 2010 opens in about 2 seconds - on a 1.6GHz Atom machine!
The Vinyl Adventure
17-03-2011, 09:43
Does an ssd make that much difference does it?
I thought you wernt so sure about them?
My laptop came with windows preinstalled with no disk...
How would I go about changing the hdd
Without having to buy windows again?
Nice looking bit of kit that lenovo
Yes, I'm surprised myself at the difference, especially for a low performance laptop.
If you buy an SSD kit like the Kingston SSDNow V+100 kit, you get a cloning CD and a nice disk caddy to put the hard disk that comes out of the laptop into so that it can be used as an external backup device. The cloning software (in this case Acronis) will let you copy the complete HD to SSD so that you don't lose anything.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-128GB-SATA2-2-5inch-bundle/dp/B004APRLVC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=computers&qid=1300360038&sr=8-2
Does an ssd make that much difference does it?
I thought you wernt so sure about them?
My laptop came with windows preinstalled with no disk...
How would I go about changing the hdd
Without having to buy windows again?
Nice looking bit of kit that lenovo
A solid state drive is can be much faster than a hard disk drive,but just like there is different speed disk drives SS drives can range from fast to stupid fast.
Your hard drive should be partitioned with a copy of your OPS on it.I belive you can copy it to an external drive then load it to your new drive,You should have a product key on your computer,you may be able to get a disk from someone and use your own product key to install it.
Be warned SS drives are lucky to live much more than 3 years with regular use as they have a life of limited rewrights and they are always rewighting.
Martin,Would this be to big for you?
Look at all the specs and read the physical size.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152256
As an alternative to waiting for the X220 (I'm now being told April or May delivery), I'm quite taken by the Lenovo Edge 11 with the Core i3 processor and 4GB RAM. It would take my SSD drive too. Looks nice in the understated Lenovo manner. My supplier, Insight, have them in stock and at £591 it's a lot cheaper than the proposed price of the X220. Decisions, decisions...
http://img.katalognotebooku.cz/files/produkty/cz/4/4296/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-11-0328-3pg-nvy3pmc.jpg
I belive it comes in an i5 aswell.
Well, I took delivery of the Lenovo Edge 11 Core i3 yesterday. The first thing I did (before starting it up) was to put the SSD into it (and my O2 SIM card from my mobile dongle) and put the 320GB HD into the Kingston caddy provided. Booted up the cloning software on the CD and cloned the HD to the SSD. Easy peasy. Then I fired up the laptop and W7-64 set itself up without problems.
I then spent a while loading up our volume licence Office Professional Plus 2010, SIMS, Server Administration, Exchange Management and all the other stuff I need. Everything installed lightning fast down the network because of that superb SSD.
Hamish - it's confirmed, a good SSD such as this Kingston V+ 100 makes a huge difference to performance.
Jeff - this 11.6" 1366 x 768 screen is excellent and as large as I would want it. Also, the Core i3 processor goes like stink, there really is no need for any more power in a laptop. All the Office apps open in less than 2s. Battery life seems very promising at about 5 hours but I will need to rate it over a few cycles.
Oh, and network comms are superb and seamless - I can switch in Wi-Fi and WAN (mobile) as I please and it all works without a hitch. No more external dongle!
Pics later.
Hamish - it's confirmed, a good SSD such as this Kingston V+ 100 makes a huge difference to performance.
Probably the biggest upgrade you can make to a PC is putting in an SSD, even Netbooks are improved hugely.
I recently bought a 17" DELL Vostro, with an i3 and I put a 128GB Kingston SSD in, I was very impressed with the performance when it arrived anyway, but when I put the SSD in :stalks: and as I have a NAS, the drive space is not a problem. I also put 4GB RAM in there and 64bit Win7 and it does indeed fly. Hamish, an SSD is a tremendous boost to a laptop PC. It will also lower the heat produced and improve battery life.
pJMGAdpCLVg
This is tongue in cheek in parts, but it does give you an idea.....
Now if I could only just pluck up the courage to dismantle my desktop computer and sell it - horrible big ugly old thing!
My problem with SSD is they are just to small to hold my itunes.
If I could pick my OPS and Drive for speed it would be 64 bit Ubuntu with a very fast SSD in a computer with 6 gigs of DDR3 and a nice i5 core.
But Ubuntu dosent do itunes,Id need a SSD of min.300gigs. 150 gigs.just for itunes.
and here is my laptop pick.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152256
On just a 7200 RPM Ubuntu has a start up time of 28 sec. and a shut down time of under 5 sec.
This ones nice and would just give me my ops and itunes and a few small programs .
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139110
So here it is, Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 with Core i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, wireless-n, WWAN (O2), Windows 7 64-bit SP1, about 6 hour battery life. No frills, no useless consumer stuff, purely business focussed. So far it satisfies the criteria of the smallest ultraportable that meets my systems management needs both at and away from work. Total cost about £800.
http://www.mtc.me.uk/images/LenovoE11.jpg
Very nice Martin.
You can't go wrong with a thinkpad.
Rare Bird
21-03-2011, 14:35
I have an ancient IBM Think Pad 700, built like i tank & still works perfectly
I'll get mi coat :)
All ThinkPads are good. We have a lot of R60e and they are wonderful, nothing ever goes wrong with them. I upgraded them all to 2GB and installed W7 and they still work fine. For desktop replacement, I also think the 4:3 aspect screens are better.
My school wants me to research iPad connectivity and educational apps for their possible use in junior classes. So it arrived this morning and I left it untouched until tonight. Now setting it up, the first thing it wants to do is be connected to iTunes. So I have to install one of the most loathsome applications I know onto W7 in order to get it going :eek:
What better punishment, then, than to install iTunes onto my lovely Lenovo above and make the iPad's first action to have to talk to its superior. LOL!
we've been buying in the HP 2540p's at work and people seem to love them.
We dont seem to have any issues with them (I run the support team)
we get the i5 with 2gb (as we only do the 32-bit XP OS - we can only run XP at the moment due to some of the Core systems we use)
it's small light and easy to use. I know a few of the staff whpo have taken them all over the world for business and they all love them for the lightness of them.
Well compared to the other units we get 6730b / 6550b's
If you only want something for travelling with and keeping in touch via email/web then I'd still be tempted for the Samsung NC10 with the 2gb Upgrade
Interestingly, some of our staff ask for a netbook sized laptop (notably our Headmistress) and they get a Lenovo S-03, but most staff prefer a desktop replacement sized machine, which is why I buy the Lenovo G560 series. Some pupils have HP laptops and they give very little trouble, so they are one of our respected brands.
My requirements are rather different from the average staff needs, which is why I treated myself to the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11. In the main, the Lenovo brand has served us very well.
Mark Grant
13-05-2011, 12:07
The Lenovo Edge 11 looks great.:)
I am still looking for a small laptop, does not need to be fast, only used for oulook for emails and internet browsing and storing photos while on holiday etc.
There are some good prices on Lenovo at the moment, must be new ones on the way.
I have been looking at a Lenovo U160 with Celeron processor as they are low price at about £289 inc VAT, thats only £240 + VAT :)
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenovo_U160_Windows_7_Laptop_in_Black_M436MUK/version.asp?PID=1476
The Edge 11 with a AMD Athlon II neo 1300 Mhz is a low price of £332.97 inc VAT, that is only £277.48 + VAT :) :
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Lenovo_Edge_11_AMD_Athlon_II_Neo_Dual_core_K325_2G B_250GB_BT_11.6_INCH_HD_L_NVZ3QUK/version.asp?refsource=LDfroogle
Buying an extra 2Gb of memory for these would only be £18 or so from Crucial etc.
Any opinions on the Lenovo Edge 11 with AMD ?
Only slightly more expensive than the U160 and it has Windows 7 professional rather than home.
Will be slower than an intel i3, but might be OK.
I haven't used anything with the Athlon Neo, Mark, but looking at the specs I would say it should be fine for general browsing and e-mail use. I find the i3 substantially faster than I expected. Extra RAM always helps and I have an SSD in mine but that isn't necessary either.
If you can stretch to the Edge over the U160 I think you will be pleased.
Mark Grant
13-05-2011, 14:04
Thanks Martin,
A google search suggest that the spec is listed incorrectly on many sites:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-Edge/Edge-11-NVZ3QUK-confused-retailer-CPU-specs/td-p/386339
looks like PC world have the correct spec listed for that part number which has the K145 1.8Ghz single core processor, not lighting fast but should do I guess:
http://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/buy-rent/Lenovo%20ThinkPad%20Edge%2011%22%202545%20-%20Athlon%20II%20Neo%20K145%201.8%20GHz%20-%2011.6%22%20TFT/A0691092?from=category&heat=txt
looks like they are these
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/quickPath.do?quickPathEntry=25453QG
product number 2545-3QG I think.
So a NVZ3QUK it will most likely be.
Is there any way you could stretch to dual core? I would avoid single core with an OS like W7 if at all possible.
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