$600-$700 to spend. Laptop or Super PDA?

[Dave Anderson]

What do you guys think? I'd be using it for:

-School (mostly for offline newsgroup reading, maybe some e-book reading)

-Work (offline newsgroup reading, e-books, web browsing, email, etc.)

-Home (lazy couch web browsing, email)

I'd be running Linux on it if it were a laptop, or I'd get a Zaurus PDA and run Opie (Open Zaurus OS). I'm leaning heavily towards the Zaurus 760 from Japan, which is truly a mini-Linux PC if there ever was one.

hot linked image deleted

GroundZero3

3.7-inch TrueColor VGA (640x480 resolution with 65,000 colors) display

PXA255 400Mhz XScale processor

62MB of RAM, 128MB of Flash ROM

SD/MMC and CompactFlash slots

Screen pivots to convert from landscape laptop to portrait Webpad

The thing is beautiful, and it will allow me to run tons of my Linux apps.

Nice review here for those wanting to read more - http://www.brighthand.com/article/Sharp_SL-C760_Review

On the other hand, $700 will get me a nice, used P3 laptop. I just hate the idea of lugging around a laptop.

Games are of no interest to me, at least with a portable machine, so that's not an issue.

I'd be doing some MP-3 playback, but the Zaurus can do that just fine.

One other area pushing me towards a laptop is video playback. I have a lot of DVDs and SVCDs, which I couldn't play on the zaurus.

Thoughts? Comments?

[ArcticFox]

I'd get the lappy. It's much more functional than the PDA, so unless you can't find yourself a nice thin notebook and you are so against the weight/bulk, it's what I'd get. (Even though I already have a lappy, you know more is better!)

[Droppyale]

I agree with ArticFox.


Laptop is the way to go.

[WingWizard]

unless...do you already have a desktop? or will this be a main machine

[Dave Anderson]

I've been thinking about this more. If I do go with a laptop, I'd probably want a subnotebook, though I question whether I can find one in the $600-$700 range.

I agree the laptop is the best all around choice. But for me, I know it's something I wouldn't always want to lug around. A pda is essentially the size or weight of a paperback book. I like that.

I'm going to have to research more on subnotebooks. The Zaurus is a geek's dream, but it's still very limited.

[Dave Anderson]

I do have a desktop already, which runs Linux.

[Dave Anderson]

The Sony picturebook's seem like the perfect fit for what I'm wanting. It gives me the power of a computer and is very close to the size of a PDA. Keyboard is just big enough for reasonable typing too. I think that is probably what I'm going to get.

[ArcticFox]

The Picturebook line is nice for anything but gaming and editing. The integrated camera is a kick, and the size is what's so great about it. I've used one, never owned one, but their nice suckers.