Weekend Open Forum: What's your ideal laptop size?

[greatman05]

I personally prefer 15-16" laptops. For me, they're the right amount of portability for the job without sacrificing too much performance compared to a larger laptop. Plus, they have a wide variety of configurations and are pretty cheap too. I have a Cyberpower Xplorer X6-7900 (the model with a ATI HD5650 1GB video card and a Core i5-560M processor), and it runs pretty fast. I don't game much on it (can't really afford to), but it runs Street Fighter IV pretty well and definitely screams on older games. Video and audio conversion is very speedy, I love the fact that I can watch FullHD videos on it (I have a 1920x1080 glossy panel) and the colors are definitely beautiful.

As far as netbooks go, I definitely think that they opened up the market more. Sure, they're underpowered and sometimes "cramped", but their relative inexpensiveness has made it easier for low-income folks to experience the power of computer technology. If nothing else, they show that it is quite possible to have a decent computer in a very small, portable package like smartphones have.

 

[captaincranky]

As far as netbooks go, I definitely think that they opened up the market more. Sure, they're underpowered and sometimes "cramped", but their relative inexpensiveness has made it easier for low-income folks to experience the power of computer technology. If nothing else, they show that it is quite possible to have a decent computer in a very small, portable package like smartphones have.

This is almost true, save for the fact I bought a Toshiba 15.6" Celeron Laptop, for 300 bucks, which is very close to the asking price for many netbooks. And yes, even with the Celly, it's faster than the few netbooks I've encountered.