Cheap, portable laptop for powerpoint presentations

[Guest]

Hello y'all,

Was wondering if you kind people could give me some help? I'm looking for the smallest, lightest, cheapest laptop/netbook able to connect to a projector and run a Powerpoint 2007 presentation with videos.
Here's the FAQ answers to give you guys more of an idea:

1. What is your budget?
As little as possible but I could go up to around £350 (≈ $570)
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
As small and portable as possible
3. What screen resolution do you want?
It's not too important what size the resolution is on the main screen but the size sent to the projector should be at least 1280x720 (though 1680x1050 would be nice)
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable. Definately portable.
5. How much battery life do you need?
It'll probably be plugged in when using it so this isn't that important
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
It would be nice to be able to play a bit of Minecraft (don't mind turning fogging on) but other than that it's not really for games.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Powerpoint presentations with .avi (codec Microsoft Video 1) and possibly .mp4 videos (H.264) as they have good compression in high-def. The ability to show these over an externally attached projector.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
100 gig should be enough (but the more the merrier)
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Erm, not sure. I suppose you guys know best on this one.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Until it falls apart. It'll probably remain frozen in time though (software-wise) with just MS Office and Firefox installed onto it.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Just a USB port (or 2).
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I've heard HP laptops have a tendency to fall apart but other than that I'm not really bothered. (Apologies to HP owners if this isn't true).
13. What country do you live in?
UK
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
For hooking up to a projector it must have a VGA out and also a headphone jack. I think that's it though.

I hope that's enough info for you guys. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[daship]

A netbook book with 2G + ram and a fast SSD would be perfect. Dont fall for some of the cheaper models that put a slow non 2.5" SSD.

 

[WR2]

Hello SiHy;

Hewlett Packard HP G62-b13SA Laptop £318.78 inc. vat
Pentium P6100 2GHz CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.6 1366x768 LCD, Intel HD Graphics
Pentium P6100 CPU is in the Core i3/5/7/ family and will have enough power to move through Win7 and MS Office apps nicely.
HD Graphics is good for HD video including the Mp4 videos you mentioned.

We can find you a smaller laptop but they price usually goes up as you get into the smaller notebooks.

 

[WR2]

I did not find any smaller 13.3"-14" notebooks for under £400 with enough power to run MS Office apps and HD video.

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the advice.

What if I was to change the criteria slightly and say screw the size/weight/portability element and just went for the cheapest possible laptop/notebook/netbook that would do Powerpoint and HD video to a projector?
Would the P6100 CPU and GMA HD be the lowest spec needed for this sort of use?

I did find this:
http/www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-c660d-150-3gb-memory-320gb-hard-drive-red-08702375-pdt.html
Any opinions?

 

[WR2]

P6100 CPU and HD graphics is not the lowest performance spec that would work for what you want. But it would work very well for what you intend.
Netbooks on the other hand, with lower power CPUs and graphics - you can expect Powerpoint to run just 'ok' but you can pretty much forget about trying to multi-task a Powerpoint presentation and any other app like a HD video.

Toshiba Satellite C660D-150 @ £329; has a less powerful CPU than the HP. Everything else is roughly equal in performance.
AMD Athlon II X2 P360 (2.3 GHz) CPU / HD 4250 graphics

Passmark CPU benchmarks:
http/www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

AMD Athlon II P360 Dual-Core @2.3 GHz = 1299
Intel Pentium P6100 @ 2.00GHz = 1514

Netbook CPUs
Intel Atom N550 @ 1.50GHz = 565 (dual core)
AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 = 387
Intel Atom N455 @ 1.66GHz = 311

 

[Guest]

Cool, thanks WR2. That benchmarks list is really useful. Don't know why but I thought the Radeon 4250 video card might take a bit more strain off the CPU than the Intel HD. Or something.
Anyway, might look more into that HP or might keep a hold of my money for the time being and look for something second hand.
Thanks again for the help.

SiHy

 

[ko888]

...
I've heard HP laptops have a tendency to fall apart but other than that I'm not really bothered. (Apologies to HP owners if this isn't true).
...

Why are you apologizing? HP earned their reputation for having the most unreliable laptops in the business. There's enough data to back it up.