I want to be able to take my laptop places, so I want it small and light. At the same time, I know I'll want as much screen real-estate as possible. These are conflicting requirements. I was leaning toward a small one, with 1366*768 resolution, but I'm wondering if I won't be happier with a larger one, probably 1600*900 (those seem to be the only values in my size range). I don't think I'll go any bigger than that.

Background: I'm trying to choose a laptop for school and development. At some point I'll want it for mixing and recording music. Most importantly, this will be my development machine for a while, the foreseeable future really. It will need to be able to run Linux for daily use, dual-booted with Windows as a backup. It doesn't really need to do intense games. Price range is around $1000 dollars max.

I've been leaning toward Toshiba or Asus, maybe Dell. Toshibas have a good rep; the guy I talked to at BestBuy said they have fewer problems. On the Toshiba side, I would probably get a Satellite of some sort.

So what I want are your thoughts on what side of the screen-size/portability question I should come down on. While I'm at it, I would appreciate any other things you think I should keep in mind. Thanks!

[Edited by - theOcelot on October 15, 2010 11:50:53 PM]

What I did was get the smaller MacBook, and then connect it to a larger monitor.

So when I'm at my desk, the monitor is big, and when I'm on the go, it is small and portable.

The cost of the monitor was significantly less than the premium of buying a top sized MacBook Pro instead of this MacBook.

Instant win.

I wouldn't necessarily trust advice from BestBuy employees. I prefer a much better resolution. I was hoping to get an HP Envy 14" with a 1600x900, but they apparently discontinued that model and I decided to go up to a 15.6" laptop instead with a 1920x1080 resolution.

I much prefer the smaller laptops, but low resolution screens drive me crazy. If your preference is a low resolution screen like 1366x768, you'll have plenty of options to choose from.

Toshiba and Asus are both very solid brands in the notebook space.

What it comes down to really is how you'll be using the machine. From what you've described it seems to me like screen resolution would be a definite winner over portability; the difference in portability between a 15" and a 17" is insignificant when you're sitting at a desk.

Personally, I prefer bigger screens (but then I'm running 3 22" LCDs on my development workstation, so I'm a bit of a screen real-estate whore [grin]). I don't mind an extra pound or two in exchange for actually being able to see what I'm trying to work on.


But that's just me. You may find that the poundage really matters, or that the extra screen space isn't all that handy. It's a fairly personal preference.

I bought a Asus 1201n not too long ago; based on portability as the main factor, and performance second.

I've been very happy with how convenient it is to carry. An extra 1 point something kilos (~3 pounds) in my bag is negligable, whereas my old 17" laptop would leave my shoulders hurting after a day carrying it...

On my regular desktop I use an ungodly huge 4608*1152 resolution (3 monitors), so I was pretty suprised to find that I'm comfortable working on the 12" 1366*768 screen.

I do also use the netbook as a desktop when working in other offices, and plugging in a propper mouse/keyboard/screen makes it work ok as a desktop machine.

If you know someone that has a smaller laptop, you could see if you can work on it for a few hours to see how you feel about the screen, though when at home you could be using an external monitor.
You could also try adding 3 to 11 pounds worth of weight to your bags on different days to see how much you can bear to carry ;)

I would roll with screen size... You can always get bigger arms.

I'd go with portability, I got a 17.3 inch recently, terrible battery life, gets hot, large and clunky. Which ultimately makes it a great desktop computer, but a terrible laptop.

portability. i use 12" laptops since years now. can hold it in one hand (and convertible to tablet mode). i take it with me where ever i go. that's the idea of a laptop. if you get a big desktop replacement, get a desktop.

just get a nice screen at home where you can plug your laptop in if you want.

+1 on the portability. I got myself a 10" netbook, and it's the best thing ever. Sure it is tiny, but that's the whole point: It's extremely light, I can take it everywhere I go and use it for work (well, text writing kind of work; for heavy computation the CPU is too weak).

For actual heavy work, I have a good old desktop PC with lots of computing power.

The only inconvenience of such a setup is the initial time it takes you to get comfortable in an environment where you switch between systems for your work. Since I'm a heavy user of version control systems anyway, that's not much of a hassle for me.

I've got the 13-inch macbook pro. It's everything a laptop has to be (extremely long battery life, doesn't overheat the scrotum, light, etc.)
I just miss the home and delete buttons, but for the rest it's awesome. If you've got enough money to spend you might even want to try the 15 inch version.