Using one right now, and I don't hear a thing.

The MSI Mac clone seems to be a no brainer for under $379. I had read mediocre reviews, but actually saw one in action the other day and was somewhat impressed.

The processor in there is a single core AMD chip not much more powerful than a netbook one, and much less electrically efficient. I'd pass unless price was the primary and near-only consideration.

I've found non-widescreens very thin on the ground even among business laptops recently; they definitely held out longer there than in the consumer market, but last I checked Dell had finally gotten rid of their last ones, and I'm not sure if Lenovo has any left.

Which is a shame for a lot of "work" uses - for coding, and for document preparation, vertical space matters a lot more than horizontal. OTOH, it also makes it a lot harder to keep your screen open in coach.

What about it would not match the OP's stated requirements?

If you want something really light and small, I'd recommend Sony Vaio X. It's about 700g (I think that's about 1.6LB?). My model has a 256 SSD, 2GB memory and an 11" screen. The main disadvantage is that it does not have a microphone socket (it does have a headphone socket, however), so you'll need to get a Bluetooth or USB headphone to use Skype etc properly, because the built-in microphone picks up ambient noise too well.

It does come with Windows 7, I have been running Office suite without any problem, and comes with network card and wireless N (I think it's N, anyway).

You need to buy an optical drive separately though.

Any single-core processor, even a relatively high-clocked one(*) is going to feel slow for quite a few things in normal day to day uses on Windows, and even for some things on Linux. Blame software bloat, routine use of multithreading (including in IE8), and much more complicated web apps.

Of course, if someone were sticking with XP, IE 6/7, and Office 2003, and never used the present generration of very javascript-heavy web sites (ie Facebook), it's probably fine...

(* and a 1.6ghz AMD isn't high clocked, although it's going to be faster than a 1.6ghz Atom, but slower than a 1.6ghz Core Solo and probably slower than a 1.6ghz present-generation Celeron. Put differently, it's about the same speed as the 2.4ghz Pentium 4 I had on my desktop back in 2003.)

I am using that exact laptop, right now.

Vista, IE8, Office 2007 and I do FB with it. Seems to be just fine for me.
To be fair, I am rarely using Office 2007 in Concert with FB or IE8.

+1 for MacBook.......

While travelling for work I lug an unwieldy Macbook Pro 15". Wouldn't recommend it as its heavy and battery life is around 2 hours tops.

I prefer using my Asus 9" netbook on leisure travels. It's light and battery life is 5 hours or more. More suited for my needs.

I guess I would give the same advice to anyone looking for a travelling notebook. What are the most important factors you want out of it. Larger screen? Faster speeds? Light weight? Battery life?

For speed and better screen and bigger keyboards I would advise them to get a Macbook Pro. Otherwise if weight and battery life is more of a concern I would say check out the Netbooks. Recently a very curious mix has appear in the form of the MSI X-Slim series. They have decent 13" screens, come with a core CPU and feature a full sized keyboard. Weight and battery life are much better than a full notebook. And they cost around $500 and not a bomb that most ultra-portable notebooks costs. You might want to check that out too.

kitsura, that is what I was talking about and they start at $379 currently.

At least when I looked on Amazon it said 4 hour battery life. The various Asus netbooks/notebooks are getting 10-12 hours now. That is a huge difference.

Remembering the last time I used a system with similar specs, I can only conclude that you are much more patient than I.

I'd be curious which processor the original poster has in the recently-dead Inspiron 1720. If it's a Celeron/Core Solo (not sure if those were offered) he's less likely to be displeased from a step backwards.

My Dell Vostro 1320 is non-widescreen and I ordered it in December.

http://www.dell.com/business/laptops?~ck=mn seems to have lots of non-wide screens.

I agree you are out of luck buying these at a retail bricks & mortar store ("on the ground" I take it), even a so-called office supply store.

Glad to know that!

FWIW, my wife loves her MacBook Pro, though mainly uses it at home and not much for travel. I thought about getting one for myself, but 5 lbs. is more than I like to carry on the road.

I'm in a similar boat as the OP, in that I have similar needs and have become accustomed to just having one ultraportable (an ancient, 3 lb. Gateway) that I plug into and out of a dock at home and that I thus use as my only computer whether at home or on the road. In researching the options to replace that current laptop, I like the Lenovo Thinkpad x200s, which is at or under 3 lbs. with a six-cell battery that reportedly lasts 7-8 hours (though 4 and 9 cell batteries also are available), is extremely durable (which is important for someone like me, who shoves my laptop into my travel bag and other tight places, and who is a klutz), has a great, full-size keyboard, and with a 12" screen is pretty user-friendly in tight spaces on planes and fits into the occasionally small hotel room safes I encounter overseas. Plus from what I've read, Lenovo US-based customer service is pretty good (though not as good as Apple).

The x200s differs from the Thikpnad x200 in being slightly lighter, having slightly better battery time, lacking a built-in video camera, being slightly less powerful (though I'm pretty sure that does not make a difference for typical Office functions, including what I and probably the OP might use) and being just a tad (perhaps $50) more expensive. It differs from the Thinkpad x300/301 mentioned early in this thread in that it does not have an internal optical drive, is slightly smaller (about 12" versus about 13" screen), is not as powerful and is a fair amount cheaper.

The other disadvantages of the x200s (as with the x200 and x300/301) are that its substantially more expensive than most alternatives mentioned on this thread and lacks an HDMI port.

Lenovo is supposed to come out with a replacement for the x200/x200s in the next few months, which on the one hand means that if you wait you can get an even better but more expensive machine. On the other hand, it means that even though the prices for the current models are higher than many alternatives, there may be some good discounts available.

By the way, another good place for the OP and others to post questions seeking advice is at the forums of notebookreview.com

I'm posting all of this info partly for the OP, but also because I'd find it useful if anyone who knows more about this stuff than I do (which is not saying a lot) cares to correct or add to my info and choices in order to help out with my own buying decision.

I'm not sure what definition of "wide" and "non-wide" you're using, but conventionally, the former refers to a 16:10 or 16:9 screen(*), and the latter to a 4:3 (or for one generation, 5:4 in the case of 1280x1024).

The Vostro 1320 is a 16:10 widescreen.

From: http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/n...20&cs=04&s=bsd
Compare the Latitude D600/D610 (14.1" non-wide, at 1024x768 or 1400x1050) to the D620/D630 (14.1' non-wide, at 1280x800 or 1440x900) while the D520 hung around as a last remaining non-widescreen in the Latitude line for a while (IIRC, your choice of a 15' or a 14.1' in a 15' bezel.)

(* although some sizes, like 1366x768 or 1366x765 or 1024x600 merely approximate 16:9 )