Compact notebooks compared

For some reason I am thinking of buying a new laptop. I already have enough PC's to work on, but recent 13 inch laptops might offer a good compromise between my Asus eee and my full-size HP laptop.

The Asus eee is nice, but for tasks involving lots of typing, the keyboard is just to small. Also screen real estate becomes too limited when doing more then casual browsing. It is in those situations that I also pick my 17 inch HP laptop from the desk and take it out into the garden, the couch or in bed. But it is heavy, gets hot quickly and, most importantly, is just too large.


The screen resolutions compare as follows:

• Asus eee, 9 inch: 1024x600
• various 13 inch models: 1280x800
  
• HP 17 inch: 1680x1050
  

That's why I compared a few laptops on materiel.net. They all feature a 13 inch screen and a 2,4 Ghz Intel processor. Their main characteristics are:

	Toshiba Satellite Pro U400-18A	Sony Vaio SR29VN/S	Apple Macbook C2D 2.4 GHz
Price	958,90 €	1278,95 €	1478,90 €
Weight	1,9 kg	1,9 kg	2,36 kg
Memory	4 MB	4 MB	2 MB
HD	320 GB	320 GB	250 GB
Battery life	3 hours	3 hours	5 hours

As you can see, the different laptops don't outrun each other by much. The Macbook has less memory but sports a bigger battery. When it comes to price, you pay a 50% premium for the Apple logo over the Toshiba. The Sony positions itself between the two.

A tough choice, maybe I don't need another laptop after all.