But I can't shed the desire for a decent small computer, by which I mean something with a proper keyboard and OS sufficiently flexible to bend to every bit of customisation I might want to foist on it. The Logitech bluetooth keyboard I sometimes carry with my iPad is great, but iOS fails for me on the latter front. There are some tablet devices appearing running the latest Android version - 'Jelly Bean'' - which are seriously contending with Apple in the context of what I want from mobile computing. Microsoft Surface devices running Windows 8 look very interesting too, but have barely made it to market yet. So I still have a real personal need for a small laptop running MS Windows. The two I've had in the past that I've really loved are the ancient Compaq M300 I sold years ago and the Samsung NC10 netbook, which is currently on eBay: It's been a great device, but, ultimately, the screen resolution hampers me every time I open Excel.
There are any number of really attractive ultra-portables appearing on the market, which come close to the kind of thing I'm talking about, but they're expensive - relatively - and mostly larger than I think optimal. My eyesight's pretty good and I'm very happy with an 11" screen running at 1366x768 or higher. Which is why I've just bought one of these to replace the NC10 - a Samsung 305U. For a smidge over £260, I get a decent resolution 11.6" screen with a slim bezel, 4GB of RAM, full-fat Windows 7 and a dual-core processor, albeit not a particularly fast one. It's so compact, it fits in the same sleeve case as the NC10, despite its much larger screen.