Travelling laptop

[Charlie]

Anyone have any advice for some-one embarking on a long round-the-world trip? Space, weight and battery performance are going to be at a premium, and I'll need a machine capable of dealing with email, skype and internet etc. It will also need to edit (windows movie-maker?) and upload video of U-Tube type quality. Is this the sort of thing that "netbooks" can handle?

The final part of the package will be a small video camera, capable of reasonable quality recording and also still photos.

Of course, need I mention that cost is vital? Don't want much do I?

Any suggestions welcome.

[NeilX90]

Charlie,

Obviously, the smaller the better will fit your needs but you'll have to accept a trade-off with video editing performance. I suggest the Axses E15, specify it with Windows XP rather than Vista, and you've got a great travelling companion for £320.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=nb&c=home&r=E15

As for the video camera.... I don't know anything about the camcorder market, but there are some small solid-state hand-helds around that would do YouTube quality material.

However, if it were me, I'd be thinking outside the box a little. How about a mobile phone upgrade (I've seen some amazing results on YT, even at gigs/concerts with mobiles) or using the video function on a stills camera ? The video on our ageing Sony Cybershot is pretty **** good and either of the above can be had for next to nothing second-hand.

[londontown]

do you have a budget in mind for your spec ? if its around the £300 mark then i would go with "neilx90" recommendation

[Charlie]

thanks for the repsonses. Not really any budget in mind as yet - just a fact finding mission. Does anyone know how the budget end notebooks perform in terms of basic type functions? I've seen some for under the £200 mark.

[NeilX90]

The sub-£200 market is the original Atom-based, Linux O/S machine. A quick search of Amazon and here's the Acer Aspire One for £160.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-One-Netbook-Seashell/dp/tech-data/B001BZ923O/ref=de_a_smtd

It will handle office-type apps. and 'net functionality quite adequately, but none of these machines will be of any use whatsoever for video editing. If all you want to do is copy video from your camera to the PC and then upload it... no problems (although beware the very small storage capacity of these netbooks). If you want to start properly editing the footage then, realistically, you want a small Windows machine with a decent amount of memory and proper storage.

Bear in mind the definition of 'netbook' is starting to drift - prices are also starting to drift into 'proper' laptop territory and style is starting to command a premium over performance and functionality. Avoid shiny toys - buy a proper machine.