Help me debate my next laptop/nettop/UMPC purchase

[jdong]

Ok, I'm in the market for a laptop in the USA. I need something nice and portable that can stand up to a day's worth of classes, note taking, e-mail checking, and such. I am mainly looking for:


Battery Life -- This is #1. Absolutely NOTHING under 4 hours in any circumstances, preferably in typical usage upwards of 6 hours
Mobility -- Preferably less than 3 lbs, designed to withstand the roughness of on-the-go laptop usage.
Cost -- I prefer to stay under the $1000USD range -- I'm not interested in buying something like the Lenovo X300 which goes into the $3000 range.
Everyday comfort -- I want a keyboard and touchpad good enough to be suitable for everyday usage... The Eee 701 would be out of the question (keys on the tiny side), as would a touchscreen or thumbboard driven device.
Reasonable performance -- I want to run regular desktop Linux distros with regular desktop environments (i.e. regular Ubuntu) on an encrypted partition without running into performance issues. This means that Via C7-M's or AMD Geodes are probably out of the question.


So given those criteria, I am looking mainly at Intel Atom and Intel Core 2 Duo ULV type devices.

Currently I'm choosing between the Lenovo X61s, Eee 901/1000H, or the MSI Wind.

As the Wind doesn't seem to be going 6-cell any time soon, I am not at all interested in the 2-hr 3-cell variant.

Any owners of the above systems want to weigh in on your thoughts? Any candidates that I left out in my search?

[Ub1476]

Well, I think the cheapest version of the Thinkpad x200 is around 1,100$, if that's okay. I think it's gonna be on sale before August.

[paul101]

i'd go for the lenovo... their built very well and if you can afford it you can get an additional battery that gives you 11 hours of power (i have the x61 tablet)



one thing, if you do get the additional battery for the lenovo, it sticks out the laptop a bit (not too much tho)

[jdong]

i'd go for the lenovo... their built very well and if you can afford it you can get an additional battery that gives you 11 hours of power (i have the x61 tablet)



one thing, if you do get the additional battery for the lenovo, it sticks out the laptop a bit (not too much tho)

I've heard very conflicting reports of how long the X61's battery lasts -- everything from 4hrs (DVD playback test) to their claimed 10hrs. Which would you say is accurate?

[gn2]

For battery life you will struggle to beat an asus Eee901.

[blairbeckwith]

Hmm, have you considered the Acer One at all? Now, I was looking at buying a UMPC myself, but decided on an iPhone 3G instead, and it suits my purposes quite well.

[gn2]

Hmm, have you considered the Acer One at all? Now, I was looking at buying a UMPC myself, but decided on an iPhone 3G instead, and it suits my purposes quite well.

Insufficient battery life, even with the optional higher capacity battery.

[paul101]

I've heard very conflicting reports of how long the X61's battery lasts -- everything from 4hrs (DVD playback test) to their claimed 10hrs. Which would you say is accurate?

well, if you are doing cpu intensive things like watching movies, i usually get about 5-7 hours. but doing light things like web browsing or word processing you do get the acclaimed 10-11 hours with the addon battery


if you're willing to pay for the extra capacity battery imo it is well worth it

[jdong]

I have decided to get the X61s. I had a chance locally to see the X61s and Eee 901 in action, and the Eee's "7.8" hour battery life is probably with the display unplugged sitting at a grub prompt -- in real world it's more like a 5 hr, 6 hr if you REALLY REALLY try.

The X61s with just the 78Whr 8-cell was easily pulling 8 hours in web surfing and under super pi load, it still reported 5 hours estimation. If we had the 4-cell snap-on extra battery, I would absolutely believe 10+ hr battery life.