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I’ve been using a laptop for 3 or 4 years now. A pretty standard one, with a 15.4 inch screen, 1280 x 800 px resolution, decent hardware, not extraordinary battery, etc. It was an Asus and I was quite pleased with it… except the weight. The bloody laptop, along with the charger, mouse and other tiny things made my bag weigh around 10 pounds. I hated that, I hated to the point I transformed my laptop in to a desktop replacement: as in I didn’t move it from my desk several months.

So I finally bought desktop PC, with a large screen and all necessary accessories. But I also need a laptop that would meet the following requirements:

Strong enough for all applications that I need, like Photoshop and Dreamweaver running maybe a bit 'old games from time to time, as FIFA or Need for Speed
Compact and lightweight, I could easily carry around
Not too small, so I really could use a longerperiod of time (I hate small screens with low resolutions and tiny keyboards)
With a good battery life, somewhere around 5 to 6 hours
Good connectivity, preferably with 3G
Not that expensive, I don’t afford to pay 2000 bucks for a laptop

With all these in mind, I started surfing the web for options. I quickly find there are many many types of notebook s on the market right now, from the small and compact devices called netbooks to the big, bulky and expensive gaming laptops. Still, I rapidly narrowed my searches to 13.3 or 14 inch big mini notebook laptops. Because these seem to be the only ones that could fit all the demands above.

But the search was not yet over: I had to find a particular model that could get into my budget and have as many features as possible. I saw some HP devices, some interesting Dells and even the Lenovo Thinkpads. But in the ended I turned my attention to two 13.3 inch devices, considered by experts and buyers also some of the best mini notebook computers at this hour: the Asus UL30A and the Acer Aspire 3810T.

Both these devices run for around 700-800 bucks, offer dual core processor, lots of RAM and enough storage. Both come with Wi-fi and Bluetooth. Both offer battery life above 6-7 hours. They also look more or less the same, but although the Acer is cheaper on similar specs, the Asus is more appealing in terms of looks, at least for me. Also, the name Asus inspires me more trust than Acer. And last but not least, the Asus comes with an integrated 3G module that would really come in handy when traveling.

So I believe this Asus UL30A will be my next portable PC. Or maybe I should choose something even smaller and easier to carry? Hmmm… perhaps I’m still a little bit undecided on model, but I’m pretty sure I want a portable mini notebook for my next techy travel companion.

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Tags: Laptop, Notebook