College is coming up in around a month and a half, and I don't think my Eee PC will cut it for me anymore.. I've had it since early 2008, and I'll probably give it to my brother or use it as a network music box. It's too slow to stream any kind of video, low quality youtube videos aren't too smooth.. Used to be great for me, when Facebook fit perfectly in the 800px wide screen, and youtube had no fancy add-ons (and no lag), but now that high end smartphones have a higher screen resolution and CPU clock, it's time for a change. I've been looking at C2D based ULV laptops, they aren't too expensive now that the i3/5/7s based laptops are replacing them. I really haven't read much about laptops since the Eee PC, but some models that catch my eye are the Dell Vostro V13 (cheapish from the Dell outlet) and the Acer 3810 Timeline. I don't want to spend much more than $800, specs should be good enough to play Civ V at minimum settings + streaming Hulu. Low temps + battery life are important to me. The Eee PC idles at 50C@630mhz.. ~60C@830mhz (highest stable, sadly). Any suggestions? I don't have much preference in brands, but Asus has stood out in terms of quality for me, at least in the Eee PC 7xx+9xx lines. My mom's 1201HA died after a few months of abuse, my dad has an Acer with the same spec as the 1201HA and his is going strong, and is probably better built. I prefer matte screens, but if that can be solved with a sticker or something then glossy is fine. Internal optical drive + installed OS doesn't matter. Thanks in advance, Bit always comes through.
I got the Acer Aspire Timeline 3810TZ a few months ago and I love it. Quality (for an Acer) is excellent and there's no signs of it falling apart like my last one did and I'm using it for several hours a day at work and on the train. Battery life is epic - I can charge it at the weekend and not worry again till mid week after 7-8 hours of mixed use. BBC iplayer (like Hulu) in normal quality is fine and the Intel graphics are supported in Flash 10.1 GPU acceleration too. 13.3in screen is perfect for me - 15in lappies are a bit too big to carry around all the time imho but this thing is small enough to fit in my rucksack and is less than 1.4KG too. TBH I haven't played any games on it though.
Samsung X series laptops are awsome, i cannot recommend anything Acer as the build is generally very poor and we repair so many of them... ASUS is generally a good brand but Lenovo are another good brand to look at
Thanks Combatus, which cpu does your 3810 have? I want an ULV C2D, but I'm not sure how good the battery life would be compared to a Core Solo.
