Interested in a 13 inch laptop

[RRHODY]

I had, in the past, the Lenovo X41, X200, and X200s. Interested in getting another of that size as a travel companion. The newer units are beyond my pocket book; I'd like something in the $200-$250 bracket. Is there an older unit that I should avoid? A quick look shows the X301 is past my max $$$; what might be a good unit to consider?

[rkawakami]

My feeling is that you should be able to get an X301 for less than $250, ready to go out of the box. At least that's been my experience on eBay. Even if you have to buy a marginally stripped down system (i.e., just missing a hard drive) for $130-$150, a drive (~$35; not SSD, mind you) and factory recovery disk set if you don't already have one ($50), still gets you under $250. If it's also missing a battery, then things get tighter staying under your limit.

The three X301s I've bought have cost less than the first three X300s. Some of this may be due to the fact that I bought the X301s almost a year after the X300s. All came without hard drives and with at least 2GB of memory; last two X301s had 4GB and some missing the battery. I've found the X30x systems fairly nice if you can get past the limited viewing angles of the screen. It's bright (LED-lit) with okay colors but only if you are looking at it head-on. Lightweight system with an optical drive built-in (no Ultrabase needed).

No experience with other recent 13" systems other than these two.

[600X]

The X301 is one of the last, what I would call, great machines and actually the last 13" model apart from the X1 which is out of your budget anyway. Like my previous poster stated, the X301 should be easily available for 250$. Just beware the crappy screen. Apart from that, it excells in many areas and the overal concept as well as execution comes pretty close to the legendary 600 series. I can definitely recommend it.

[RRHODY]

Thanks, I'll take a look.