Laptop screen sizes...

[Alistair]

I'm trying to buy my wife a lighter laptop for Christmas than the 1420 Inspiron she uses now. Dell's m101z reviews well and looks like the thing... but I don't understand screen sizes in this range. Does anyone know if the screen is 11.6 inches or 10.1 inches? I see both these used and don't know what is the actual screen size. 10.1 inches is probably too small - is that why it's called the m101?

[Ranulf]

Two different models looks like. The 10.1 netbooks (1018 and 1012) and the 11.6 model netbook. There aren't many smaller laptops out there these days than 14'', at least with Dell. All depends on what you want to spend and what performance/features you need. The 10-11'' netbooks won't have a dvd drive and many 13'' models and some 14'' laptops dont have one either.

You might look at the alienware m11x for an 11'' screen with some power to it.

[pg]

I actually bought a M101z cheap refurbished model for like $300. I can measure it to check, it is 11.6" diagonal and about 10"x6" for length and width. I also have a M11x which is also seems to have the exact same screen. My M101z is pretty nice, I just got the cheapest model a with K125 and 2gb of ram. It can handle 1080p flash video amazingly enough even if the CPU almost maxes out at times. I can tell a minor difference between it and the M11x in regular browsing or light usage so the CPU is pretty good even with a lowly K125 (it beats dual core Atom in benchmarks). Battery life seems 4hrs+ but I haven't used it much and I also got a slightly bad battery I think (have to call Dell about that it only has 51WHr). Overall it seems like a great buy for an absolute low price point laptop, but then again you could spend another couple hundred and get something much nicer with an Intel CPU. It is more portable than the M11x much less bulky feel to it and weights less.

[Alistair]

Thanks both - power isn't really the goal - it's portability while not sacrificing much re screen and keyboard - cheers.

A.

[rei]

The Toshiba Portege r705 is pretty awesome.