cheap mobile computing I wouldn't regret?

[cellio]

Opinions wanted:

Occasionally I travel and would like to bring along a text editor and internet client. This is for email, web (including LJ), and the like, not high-demand work that requires top-end processing. The text editor is for taking notes (e.g. in lectures) and composing email/LJ entries/essays/sermons.

I suspect I want a laptop rather than a PDA, but the PDA is appealing for its portability. Can I run emacs on one? SSH? What do web sites tend to look like on that itty bitty screen? If I'm in a hotel room somewhere with a PDA rather than a laptop and I try to catch up on LJ, would that suck?

If I go the laptop route, are there reputable sources where I can buy last year's model (or even older) for not too much money and without too much fear of imminent failure? (I think this means I don't want a used machine.) Dell sells a new no-frills laptop for $500; can I spend a couple hundred dollars less without regretting it?

Either way, I think I want the following features:

• Ability to run: browser, emacs, ssh, ftp
• Support for both wireless and wired network connections
• Ability to plug in a mouse (and, if PDA, keyboard)
• Additional USB port (for thumb drive, camera-card reader, etc)
• Works pretty much out of the box; I'm not ready to start with a naked machine and a Linux CD
• Decent battery life (assume I would plug in whenever possible, but that doesn't always work in lectures, on planes, etc)

If whatever I get allows me to bypass corporate network restrictions that prevent me from reading my email etc from my desktop machine, so much the better, but I'm not really sure what would make a difference there.

What factors do I need to consider that I haven't thought of yet?

Comments

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

If I'm in a hotel room
somewhere with a PDA rather than a laptop and I try to catch up on LJ,
would that suck?

Probably. I bought my PDA (a Sony Clie, which they've stopped making entirely) partly for the good screen resolution and trying to do any kind of serious web browsing is pretty painful. It's somewhat usable for skimming LJ and email, light googling, etc etc there just is not enough real estate for actual work.
What all applications you can run on a PDA will obviously depend on the platform. However, when I was PDA shopping a couple of years ago I found that the diversity of offerings had really gone down compared to what was available in the 1990s. I had a hard time finding something I liked-- and I won't even be able to buy another Clie when this one dies because they killed off the product line.
Something you might want to look at is the emerging line of UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs), tablets that are sized somewhere between a PDA and a laptop running a full copy of WinXP. I haven't ever used one myself though, so I have no idea if they are more "all the convenience of a PDA, all the power of a desktop OS" or "all the cramping and compromises of a PDA, all the irritation of dealing with Windows".

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I got a Dell Axim x50v when my Clie died. It's acceptable for email and my LJ friends page, not so much for reading LJ posts-with-comments pages. I can whip up most software that I want for it using C#, which has become my preferred language for RAD. (So, for example, I wrote my own PIM and a crossword-solving environment that reads standard .puz files.) But I use it to catch up on the world when I'm on vacation, at my parents' house, or during long boring meetings at work. :-)

Text entry is painful. In theory, I could use a Bluetooth keyboard but I haven't bothered.

I can hook it up to any VGA monitor or projector, which I've used (once) to give a presentation.

Before my Clie I loved my Zaurus. It ran Linux, so there was emacs, SSH, etc. And it had a decent thumbpad. But alas I broke off some of the pins on the CF slot while preparing to reflash it with a ROM upgrade, and that was that. :-(

The new ultra-mobile VAIO looks really cool, but I don't think it's actually available yet and will probably run close to $3K.

[siderea]

I use my Palm T|X to surf from time to time, and it's pretty painful. In addition to what everyone said about screen size (and I have that rotatable screen thingy!), Palm OS browsers are unimaginably bad. Also, the WiFi isn't very sensitive. So, I'm glad I have it, but also glad I'm not relying on it.

I don't know if they can run emacs; word has it there is a freeware/shareware Palm OS ssh out there, but I haven't tried it yet. I think I heard it was in beta. :/

[geekosaur]

I use my Palm T3 (discontinued; current model is T|X which is compatible). When necessary, I use pssh (which is covered with disclaimers but I wouldn't worry too much about them unless you're an NSA spook or similar) with the screen in landscape and an external IR keyboard; it works well enough for my purposes, but is a PITA to juggle bluetooth phone+keyboard+palm when I'm on a bus :) (It's often more convenient to use my iBook with the BT phone.) For web I use Palm's Web Pro, which they sell as an alternative to the built-in browser.

Another possibility is the Nokia 770.

Brightness

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

One thing to consider with both new and used machines: screen brightness and contrast. Cheap machines (and very thin expensive machines) use fewer backlighting tubes, so they're dimmer. That's not a problem in a dark room, but for some of them, it's bad enough that it -is- a problem in a well-lit room. I'd strongly recommend tha you ensure that there's a decent return policy at whatever place you acquire the laptop . If not for brightness, then for whatever odd issues you don't think of before purchase.

Like others have said, web browsing on a PDA sucks. The biggest problem is that web page designers want to cram as much stuff onto a page as possible. Most don't even test pages below 1024x768 any more. As someone who doesn't want to devote the whole screen to a browser, I find this really annoying. The Opera browser is probably the best solution that I've found for mobile browsing, and while it's available on a lot of things, it's not quite everywhere yet.