I recently started a web design business.  I'm looking at getting a
laptop.  The primary purpose of this laptop would be to take to
clients for presentations and meetings.  I do not really want to work
on it (who likes to work on a laptop?).  However, a nice laptop runs
about $1,700 with everything I want (if I'm going to get one, I want a
nice one).  I'm looking for low-cost alternatives to laptops that will
let me present a website to a client (and preferably make changes on
the fly during the meeting).  It should be able to connect up to the
internet and surf, but just using a hard drive might be an option.

I'm looking for multiple alternatives, not just one.  If time goes by
and there's no answer, ask for clarification before posting a single
answer.  Preferably something from personal experience would be best,
but if you can search for something like this and find something, more
power to you.  The answer should not be a cheaper or older laptop.  I want
something besides a laptop.  Possibly a limited functionality laptop,
but the product should be new (within a year or so).  Use your
imagination.  Keep in mind that it has to make me and my business look
good.  I've said enough :-)  Answer will be rated.  Thanks!

xemion-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by till-ga on 28 Aug 2002 00:08 PDT

Iīm a webdesigner and I visit customers for meetings and presentation
frequently, so I can understand what you want to do.

If Iīve understood your question you want to use a computerīs features
(, presenting,editing, viewing pages and going online) without a
computer. Could you say WHY you do not want a laptop ?
Or what do you mean by "a limited functionality laptop"

till-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 28 Aug 2002 02:12 PDT

Hi xemion...

I'm kinda with Till on this one...
why do you not want a laptop?

Why do you not want to work on a 
laptop? I love my new laptop, that I 
especially purchased for client visits.
They all love it too. Large enough to
show a group of people stuff without
them crowding around and having to
squint. Yet light enough to hold it
on one palm. It's a pleasure to work
on, all day even.

So, maybe Till's and my quandary is...
Why in the world, if you're selling
yourself and selling something visual
are you wanting to diminish it? I say
diminish because I cannot believe there
is anything that will have enough power
and visual attraction that will not be
a laptop of some type.

I'm sorry but my imagination says a
nice BIG, FAST laptop. That's what 
will make your business look good
and successful. But that's just me. 

[ http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_prodList.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0031068356.1030525770@@@@&BV_EngineID=fadcfcellidlbfekcghcfmfdglj.0&comm=ST&plin=Portables
]

-AI

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Request for Question Clarification by lot-ga on 28 Aug 2002 02:27 PDT

Hello,
personally I find presenting directly from the laptop a bit 'amateur'
as the angle of view from a TFT screen is not that great and in a
meeting of about 4-15 it just doesn't go down well with everyone
huddled around you trying to read the display. So what ever the low
cost alternative is, you need a video out to a plasma display or a
front projection. (depending on the scale of your meetings)
If you are going to rely on the low cost alternative's screen, the
bigger the better, (no 8 inch screens).
As to the solution to the low cost alternative, would something like a
one piece computer (with built in monitor) not exactly portable, but
still transportable be what you are looking for? at half the price of
a laptop, (but requires mains power)
regards lot-ga

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Clarification of Question by xemion-ga on 28 Aug 2002 09:54 PDT

I don't want to spend two thousand on a device simply to take it to
meetings. Lot, my meetings would more than likely be smaller and a
laptop would do, otherwise I could use the video out and use a
projector. taxmama, thanks for the comment.  That's the option I'm
using currently, but sometimes there aren't computers in the
conference room or the client doesn't even have internet access.

you could use a one of these
http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/qube3/
hooked up to a flatscreen monitor. Stylish and practical also easy to
carry around, I have a similar machine (not the qube) set up in my
bedroom as a mulitmedia machine for dvd, mp3 ect.

Hi Xemion, 

Yes, I can understand why you don't want to carry around a bulky,
expensive laptop that you're reluctant to put in with the luggage when
you're travelling and are saddled with all the time.

Here are some thoughts. Check out some of the PDAs with wireless (or
even wired) connections. They will cost around $500 or so, but will
fit into your pocket and let you do the kinds of things you want,
including Power Point presentations, etc.

Another, easier option is, if your clients have web access at the
office?
Set up your entire presentation on a section of your website. Password
protect it - and give them the password. When you get to their office,
you can use their computers, monitors, etc. to show them your
presentation. Leave them with their custom, private URL, so they can
look at, play with and study the presentation you prepared just for
them. They won't be able to resist playing with it - it's that vanity
thing.

Perhaps something like this might work for you:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/computing/5a98.shtml

Good suggestion, cogpsych.  Thanks.

Perhaps something like

http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/desknotes.htm

It's a laptop without a battery. I tried one out recently, looked
great, it's quite a lot cheaper as a laptop, too, and just as mobile.

interesting, harijs.  Thanks!

xemion-ga

I have used a Compaq Ipaq with expansion jacket and VGA video card.
I'm not sure of the brand, as I borrowed it from a colleague, but a
quick trawl shows up several solutions, eg:
http://www.lifeview.com.tw/english/flyjacket_e.asp

If you get a bluetooth-enabled device (eg the iPAQ H3870
http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/pocketpc/) and a suitable
phone, you can also get good quality internet access over GPRS.

In terms of impressing clients, turning up for a presentation with no
briefcase, then bringing out a PDA from your inside pocket and running
a full presentation from powerpoint, showing a video clip of your
latest ad and demonstrating your web site using live web access from
it knocks dead a laptop any day.

musican, great comment!  excellent idea. I'm definitely going to look
more into it.  if you are a researcher, feel free to post your comment
as the answer to my question.  thanks a lot!

xemion-ga

also, I currently use a palm enabled kyocera smartphone.  surfing the
internet on it is very different from using IE on a desktop.  will
surfing on the ipaq using the vga output look the same as surfing on a
deskop?  thanks!

xemion-ga

Xemion,

Using a VGA output from a PDA is slightly different from a PC.

On a PC you would expect that the video output is the same as what you
view on the screen.

A Pocket PC screen is only 1/4 VGA - that is to say a resolution of
240 x 320. Also it is portrait (thin and tall) in aspect, unlie a
conventional PC display.

This would not be good enough for a presentation. To address this,
when you add a VGA card to the PDA, Pocket Powerpoint directly
addresses the card to give an output of 800x600, similar to a PC, in
order to make a good quality presentaton.

However, if you want to actually project the screen of the PDA so you
can do a demo things are slightly different. Most VGA cards can do
this (but not all - check the specs of anything you are looking at) -
but this will be at native Pocket PC resolution, not the higher
resolution. Pocket IE cannot create a larger screen area in the same
way as Powerpoint using a VGA card (and if it could, how would you
interact with it? Pocket PC uses a stylus on the touchscreen, which
would be kind of hard to do with expanded resolution).

So to demo internet access, you would be limited to the 240 x 320
resolution. (The same goes for Windows Media Player.) This does offer
some challenges; IE on the PDA will display standard web pages, but
there will be a lot of scroll bars, making it rather tricky to use and
not so pretty.

However, if you format the web page specifically for PDA users, you
can get a really nice experience.

A good exmaple of this is the portal Vizzavi. Their standard Web page
is www.vizzavi.co.uk. Their PDA site is www.vizzavi.co.uk/pda. If you
reduce the size of your web browser to 240 x 320 you can see how it
would look on a PDA.

In terms of performance, Pocket IE offers similar specs to IE4.0 on a
PC - in my experience web pages display well, and there is full
support for Javascript. What there is no support for is Java or Flash
- so again, if you want to demo pages that use these technologies a
PDA wuld not be suitable.

A good GPRS conection via a mobile phone will deliver a similar
browser speed to a 48K dial-up connection, in my experience. Howqever,
because of the lower processor on the PDA, some complex web pages can
take a little longer to appear than on a PC - another reason to taylor
the site for PDAs. The smaller page sizes load much better!

(For example it takes about 25 secs for my PDA to fully display the
BBC homepage (www.bbc.co.uk) - a complex page with lots of images.
This is because of the processor in the device, rather than the
connection, as using GPRS with my laptop reduces the time the page
loads to around 8 seconds.)


Similarly, Pocket Powerpoint lacks some of the features of full
powerpoint - notably the ability to interact with your slides using
links. You generally are limited to going page up and page down
through the presentation - the type of presentation where the slides
contain hotspots that you click aren't possible (again - how would you
click them?)


So, in summary:
- A high quality output from the PDA is possible for apps that can
directly address the VGA card, such as Powerpoint
- This is not the same as projecting the screen of the device, for
example when using IE.
- IE on the device works well for HTML content, but is limited to
PocketPC resolution with no Java / Flash


This means you need to prepare your materials a little more carefully,
in order to get the best out of the device. However, I think that the
'wow!' factor of using the PDA can more than compensate for the
slightly limited functionality (this thing fits in your jacket pocket,
after all!).



Hope this helps.

ok.  Thanks so much for you help!  greatly appreciated!

You could always use a Tablet basicly its a laptop but only has a
display the computer part is behind the display small convenint and
just as able as a laptop but costs less.  HP, Compaq, and Dell are
starting to sell them with MS's new version of XP Freestyle