bill1960

I'm in the market for a 3G phone to use with a laptop to access internet mainly in Cambodia plus on visits to Thailand and Laos.

(Cambodia, where I am based, is rolling out 3G atm and its currently available in major centres. Right now its way expensive for heavy web surfing but eventually rates should come down to those of Thailand).

The phones recommended by Mobitel (Cambodian 3G service provider) are the

Nokia 6233,6680,E61,E61i,N95,

Motorola V3X,

Sony K600i,K800i,K810i,W850i,W880i

I assume these would work in Thailand on the GPRS/Edge system ?

I'm not into working of a mobile phone screen of keypad (mainly use connected to laptop) so my main concern is connectivity and value for money. Already have a good gps and camera so those features not important.

Also, how do these phones performance compare with an PC card

As for the topline phones with all the bells and whistles, I may look at getting one in a few years time when my GPS,Camera and phone are all due for an upgrade

Anyway, mobile internet is new in Cambodia so I thought I'd ask for phone recommendations on this forum as Thailand has had mobile internet for quite some time now

Has anyone heard of when the 8.9" version will be released

So ,in the case of Pattaya long term tourists, will all the visa run buses now be deployed to run a bunch of tatooed biker dude/football hooligans off to once a week Thai language school in Bangkok.

The education visa could be a short term solution but the challenge might be not to get too pissed on the bus ride up.

Umm, which one, tigerbeer? Methinks you forgot a link.

The snatch here is SSD. There are plenty of 12" (or less) windows notebooks out there that aren't expensive, but scant few that use SSD, since it's so expensive (the EEEpc gets away with it since it includes so little). For example the Compaq 1227 is a 12" notebook, costs around 25k baht, 1.8KG weight.

sorry about that FF, here is the link: Twinhead

Firefoxx, the thing it that small notebooks are more pricey that the normal ones. thats why i mentioned the Twinhead which is sub 20k. And it is small with a 10" screen and 1280x600 px. but yeah is comes with a HDD instead of a SSD.

Thanks, the twinhead looks like a good deal but I prefer a SSD for the bike.

Going by the talk coming out of the recent CES, it seems large capacity SSD's will slowly replace HDD's in ultra portable notebooks, say in the next 2 years, and become more affordable.

So it seems the 8.9" Eee PC wont be released until mid 2008

What other affordable notebooks are available with the following options

8-12'screen

SSD

Windows compatable

less than $1000

I want something that can endure motorcycle touring

Rumors at PC Advisor of 8in., 8.9in., and 10 in. screen models. Official announcement from Asus should be starting in about another hour from now.

I too am waiting for confirmation of the rumoured 8.9" Eee PC

In the meantime, is anyone running the current Eee PC with Windows XP and accessing the internet in Thailand using their GPRS phone connected by bluetooth dongle or cable

If so, hows it running, any problems ?

You won't be able to use an aircard since there is no PCMCIAA port!

USB gprs modems (both regular gprs and Edge are available) will work....

Same for a mobile phone, USB cable or Bluetooth (through a usb bluetooth dongle) will work.

All this might be daunting if running the Linux OS (drivers!), but when running XP it'll be a breeze to get going!

Thanks, that's good to know. I need XP windows anyway for my trading program

Waiting on more news/confirmation of the 8.9" version Eee PC due for release in 2008

Can anyone confirm if the Asus Eee PC has the appropriate connections/hardware to access Internet in Thailand via a GPRS phone or Aircard