It always happens the same. I’m sitting in some public place, any public place, using my laptop, and someone will walk up and make a comment like’Wow, its so small’, or’That is so cute’, or my personal favorite, ’Is that one of them PDA things?’ The awed bystander then starts telling me that he or she has been thinking about buying a laptop, or that his or her laptop is so big and heavy that it usually just stays at home.
Of course, to get this constant attention, my’everyday’ laptop is really small. Currently, I’m using a Toshiba Portege 3480, though I’ve had a 3490(essentially the same), a 3110 and way back in the day, a Portege 650, and all of them get pretty-much the same response, and the end-result is another person who decides that they want a 3lb, ultralight laptop.
So what is wrong with that, you might ask. Well, go take a look on eBay and search Toshiba, Sony or IBM laptops and you will see an aweful lot of ultralights being sold. Many of them are practically brand-new, or described by the sellers as’almost never used.’ Always, ultralights tend to sell used for less than the same manufacturer’s full-size corporate models of similar power.
The reason is simple, ultralights are not for everyone, or even for most people. Search any review site for Portege 3110 or Sony 505 and read the reviews. Sure there are plenty of happy owners reviewing their new purchase, but most of these reviews are written days or weeks after the purchase, when the new hasn’t worn off and the so-called reviewer is just trying to justify in his or her mind that very expensive purchase.
The reality is that ultralights are slower than regular laptops, tend to get hotter, have smaller screens, smaller and less-comfortable keyboards, and most important, lack any built-in drives other than the hard disk. Read a few more reviews and you will see people complaining about the maze and tangle of wires and connectors required to use one of these the way more conventional laptops are used. These are the people who sell their ultralights on eBay in excellent condition, at low prices.
You may ask why I have owned and used so many Toshiba Porteges if ultralights have so many faults, and the single, only reason I can give is that it is tiny and very light. The compromises are real folks, and if you think they won’t be annoying, please pass whatever it is you are smoking. Installing software is a bother without a network(map the network or some installs won’t work) or an external CD drive. Restoring from a crash or installing the OS onto a new hard disk requires some knowledge of mounting a PC Card drive in DOS and then using older, more complicated installation methods. Sharing files via sneakernet(walking across the room with a floppy) means plugging in an external drive. Don’t forget the extra typos you will make with your slower typing speed on that tiny keyboard, and of course the tiny text on that tiny screen(I zoom MS word to 140% on my 3480).
Despite all the negatives, an ultralight laptop is a wonderful tool, and if you are prepared to live with the consequences, they can be terrific bargains. My 3490 was ruined by a repair shop, and Toshiba elected to replace the machine under warranty. Problem was, they had no more 3490s and the 2000 had a touchpad(pointing device is very important, and I hate touchpads). The Portege 4000 they gave me is wonderful, but it is NOT an ultralight, regardless of what Toshiba claims. Seeking a replacement, I bought a Portege 3110CT on eBay and love it. Problem is, so does my wife, and so back to eBay I went, and I am now the proud owner of the 3480, which is essentially identical to the 3490 I miss so much. I of course offered the faster 3480 to my wife, but she held the two machines side by side and chose the 3110, which is .3lbs lighter and a little bit smaller.
That’s the thing with ultralights, performance really isn’t the issue, portability is. My wife choosing the 3110(Pentium II 300MHz) over the 3480(Pentium III 600MHz) was not a bad choice. The slower machine is a tad more sluggish in Windows, however it is barely noticeable, while the lighter weight and smaller, thinner case are obvious when they are side-by-side)they look identical when separated). If you were to play Unreal Tournement on them, the PII machine would grind to a halt, but if it is unreal Tournement you want, you are looking at the wrong type of laptop.
So if they are so limited, what good are they? I work full-time, and attend law school in the evenintg. After some adaptation, I can type almost as fast on the POrtege as I can ona desktop keyboard. It is so light and small, that my PDA feels quite neglected and really only comes out to find phone numbers, the only task for which it is better than the laptop. I use Microsoft Office to write and exchange email, and Internet Explorer to browse the web. I even keep a fairly large collection of MP3s on the hard drive, and plug in the speakers on my desk at work to listen to music. Of course, if I only went to work in the morning, then came home, I would use a larger laptop with an optical drive, like my Portege 4000. The beauty of the ultralight is just that, it is ULTRA-light.
So when you decide that an ultralight is for you, think carefully about the limitations before spending your money. When you DO decide that this is for you, do yourself another favor, and rather than spending$2500 on a brand new computer that you might very well not like, buy an older one first and live with it for a while. Portege 3110s go for about$400 on eBay, and have the exact same compromises as the latest and greatest of the ultralight class. Use this for a month, and then sell to someone else and buy that ultralight of your dreams. Of course, you just may find that the 3110 IS the ultralight of your dreams, discovering that the things ultralights are suited for are more than adequately handled by this suppesedly slow and outdated machine.