Cisco Blog

I like my Macbook Air quite a bit, although only having one USB port and no ethernet is a bit of a pain sometimes. I make due by carrying an Airport Express to give me an adhoc wifi network while I'm in the data center.

Having nearly 6 hours of battery life with the SSD drive makes up for a lot.

Consider one of the "netbooks" such as the Asus EEE pc, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, or HP 2133. Dell also has a model due out any day now. Some weight in at under 1kg. The smallest have cramped keyboards but the HP 2133 is said to have a decent keyboard.

I'm also thinking one of the netbooks. I've been eyeing the ASUS 900 series, one with the Intel Atom processor. There are a million and one models, normal research applies.

I use an HP Compaq nc6230. It's small, lightweight, it has a serial port.

It works great for all my needs.

question, does anybody have experience with the wireless bluetooth-serial dongles that are out there?
All the laptops these days don't have any serial ports anymore and I think this is a nice option.

What about the eeePC? Talk about tiny, runs a version of linux that can do your standard SSH or Telnet too... I am personally buying on of these for my work in the field because it is so small and light, plus they are only like 300 brand new...

I'm using a Dell X1 since three years. It's about two pounds and is fast enough (1 Ghz ULV Pentium M, 1.28 GB RAM) for my daily cisco-work. Only the batteries are nearly dead after this time, they only last about 55 minutes. And of course it doesn't have a serial port so I need an USB-adaptor. But it is still a perfect traveller-notebook.

I use my old iBook 12" so I can keep using MacOSX.

Asus EeePC would be my next choice if my iBook crashes.

I've been using an IBM ThinkPad X40 that weighs 2.4lbs. This was the last thin model before Lenovo bought the laptops, so I'm not sure if Lenovo's X41 has improved or gotten worse.

On the other hand, I've been contemplating on getting an OQO Model 02 which only weighs one pound.

HTH

Jeremy here what you need, with vista 2G RAM or with Linux 1G RAM both versions with 120G storage.

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/hp2133/

Gonna buy one soon with HP discount for employees muhahah

IOGear makes the GBS301 for Bluetooth serial connectivity. No idea about security or how well it works. $100 is a bit steep for my wallet.

I got an HP TC1100 tablet off of Ebay for about $250. It's a little older but it will run Vista and the tablet functionality is really really nice.

I'm keeping an eye on the new MIDs coming out too. I think some of those could fit into a perfect closet configuring tool. Many are OQO size with keyboards but the prices are supposed to be in the $500 range. Give or take $500! :)

I use a HP NC2400. It's small and compact and balances nicely in one hand which is always useful. Although I think my next laptop will be a dell xps m1330

Are there any 12" laptops that you guys know of that actually have serial ports on them? It doesn't have to be a cutting edge one or anything like that, but I would REALLY like to have a 12" one with a serial port without the need to use a port replicator for it.

As an addendum to the above - I know you can use a USB-Serial dongle, but that is what I would like to avoid. I'm using one on my current laptop and I hate it. :)

My friend just got a powerbook G4 for $250 on ebay, one of the 12" ones and he's very happy with it.

Jeremy,

I am the friend Nick (previous commenter) mentioned. I got a 12" powerbook for the exact same reasons you're looking for one. It was $250 and for what I use it for, its amazing. Just make sure to get one that is 1.0Ghz or more, and make sure to load it with RAM.

I love my new powerbook, and would highly recommend it!!

- Chris

Small is good, light weight is good, long battery life is good. But IMHO, a real serial port is BEST! :-)

I'm stronly favoring the OQO palmtops for the next purchase. Small size and plenty of punch. The one I was looking at didn't have a serial port though which would mean I'd need a usb->serial adapter.

I would go for the Asus Eee PC 900.

Asus Eee PC 900 / 20GB SSD / 1GB DDR2 RAM / SD/MMC Reader / Linux or XP

What do you think?

Alright - I just bought one. It's a Dell D400: 12" screen, 3.7 pounds with a built in serial port (I am not fond of the dongles either).

I've seen some of those micro-PCs (like the Asus). While they're very cool, I found the keyboard was too small to quickly type on. I felt like I was typing on a palm pilot. Maybe the newer ones are a little bigger.

USB-to-serial adapters are inexpensive and work with both Linux and Windows for me without problem. Besides the kewl factor, why serial-bluetooth? Your used to a MAC, so get something that runs your OS and software toolset and be productive. Who really cares what OS or soft-tools that you use if you get the job done in a timely manner?

Hello Jeremy,

For some time I used a macbook (13 inch) moving through datacenters. It was quite useful for on-site administration and deployments though 3 1/2 hours wasn't my cup of tea.

Battery-wise I used the eeepc 2g (7inch) which was really good because you could stick it anywhere and just start working but the downside was the small keys and the small screen.

Now Asus came up with a new EEEpc which is 10 inches , healthy 92% standard keyboard size , 7.5 hour battery life , ssd 40gig and with the Intel atom processor. Im waiting to pick one of these up within the next few days or so. The price is ridiculously cheap and it gives us admins the extra edge in every angle. If you want to check it out its the EEE PC 1000 , and there is an eeepc 1000H (H denotes hard drive) where it comes with an 80 gig hdd instead of ssd 40gig.

Regards,
Mario

I tried a wireles bluetooth dongle but had a lot of trouble getting it to connect. Granted the machine I was using at the time didn't have native bluetooth. I ultimately returned the device but maybe now's the time to try again.

Geez Mario - now you tell me :). That EEE PC 100 looks awesome!

Hi, I'm using very old Toshiba laptop. It's not small, but it's very very cheap. I'll post model number when I get back to work (currently on vacation). Cheers!