Smallest Laptop Possible?

[tidbit]

Hello,
I am shopping for a very small laptop to use for my communicating needs. I want it to be as small as possible but the speakers are what worry me on these small units. I plan on purchasing external speakers as anyway well, but am just wondering if any of you are using the small notebooks and if you have recommendations? Thanks

[kremesch]

I don't know how small you're planning on going, or what you plan on using this laptop for.

For me, I require a lot of processing power for both TTS, and SR due to injuries. My main usage is word processing, building databases, and CGI as a hobby – all in that order of priority, as well as playing some games.

At the same time, portability and light weight is a must. With all of this taken into consideration, the 10 inch netbooks just won't cut it for what I need. They're too small to get any decent screen real estate out of and I find it’s just not convenient enough for browsing the web or writing/editing a document. The graphics cards are often poor quality, the need to scroll more often puts more strain on my already damaged eyes than it’s worth, and the CPU just doesn't cut it for the simplest of Word processing power if you're going to take any other accessibility software into consideration along with it, particularly screen readers and speech recognition.

To top it off, there isn't much of a price difference between a netbook, and a low-end notebook that will do much more for you. The only drawback is that affordable notebooks (in comparison to netbooks) start at 15 inches, which I find too big for my needs.

For suggestions, I find the 13 inch notebooks to be the perfect balance for me, despite their higher costs, which are often worth it. I have a particular liking for the tablet PCs with built-in keyboards. They come in handy if you require multiple accessibility options, and their size makes them extremely portable and low-profile. But most 13 inch laptops are pricier than their larger counterparts, and if you don't require much power, or don't mind the frequent slowdowns, you may want to consider a netbook. Otherwise, if price and performance are your main considerations, you may have to go slightly larger than you were hoping.