I've been doing some research recently looking for some smaller notebooks that will give me a little better function than a standard Netbook does. But I was looking for, was something that had a slightly larger screen to give me a larger working area on the screen and something closer to a full size keyboard to accommodate my big hands. Here are two systems that are lightweight and fit my other two criteria.
First, let's look at the Toshiba Satellite T115D notebook based on the Athlon Neo X2 1.6GHz processor. This machine sports a 11.6 inch screen, has 2 GB of DDR2 RAM expandable to four gigabytes, the 320 GB hard drive, a Radion HD 3200 Graphics with a display resolution of 1366 x 768. It supports wireless 802.11b/g only. It has a 6 cell battery which should give you between 4-6 hours battery support. It comes with Windows 7HP and has a 1 Year Limited Standard Warranty. Priced at around $489.00
Acer has a unit that is a little more pricey 
but it sports an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz processor, with 4GB’s of RAM, and a 320GB HDD. It uses Intel’s GMA 4500MHD Video Graphics, supports 802.11b/g/n (draft) WiFi, has Bluetooth 2.1 EDR and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. It has a built-in Webcam and the big thing I see is its battery life rated at up to 8 hours. This is one of the Acer TimeLine products that is small, light (3.1lbs) and has lots of memory and storage.It has a one year warranty as well and is priced at around $639.
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 2:28PM 
Reader Comments (1)
How about the Dell Vostro 1220? I just got one following Dealnews and Techbargains coupons for Dell Small Business. It's one of a very few 11.6" laptops that have an optical drive, and I think it's the only one for under $1,000. Like everything else Dell, you can add and remove many options, heavily affecting price, but at the time, you could get a decently equipped one for $650.