Today I’m comparing new laptops released with Windows 7 pre-installed from Acer today, Oct 22nd. The comparison I’m making here is not on the performance alone, but on the balance of cost effectiveness on both portability and performance. Therefore, all the laptops I picked from Acer runs more than 6 hours at reasonable price, but not necessary a fast computer. Although Acer is also releasing new 15.4″ lines, I did not find them reasonably portable (most runs less than 3 hours).

I believe screen size is most crucial factor, so I picked most attractive model(s) for each screen size. So if you already know exactly which size you want, there you have the best recommendation listed below:

Portability + Price or Performance

I picked two 11.6″ screen laptops here because the first one offers attractive price while the second offers the great performance which even beats the bigger models. If you can afford extra $200, I would definately pick AS1810T-8679 for enhanced performance + battery life that’s worth paying $200 for.

Large screen size

Note that optical drive only comes for 14″ screen laptop which might be crucial to you. But I find it much cheaper to just buy external DVD drive for the laptop if that’s the only concern you have. With a weight of 4.4lb and a so-so performance, the only benefit I see in this model is the size of screen which is larger than other options.

Portability + Reasonable screen size

If you find 11.6″ too small (which you should check in local electronics store like Best Buy), but still loves portability, your choice is simply 13.3″ which is priced reasonable.

Before you buy

In my observation, price of expensive laptops goes down faster than cheaper laptops. I wrote the draft of this post yesterday and I just noticed the 14″ laptop is $50 cheaper today. This doesn’t usually happen in the laptops that are already cheap to begin with, so it is wise to wait couple weeks or months before you buy new expensive models.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I joined Keiretsu Forum as an intern, and I must say the experience has been totally different from what I expected.

In terms of the structure of internship program, most organizations I have seen have sets of tasks interns must complete within a given time period. Some companies even lay down specific sets of activities per week with specific objectives behind. It gives interns clear idea of what they are doing and what is going to be expected. If this is what you prefer, you should apply for mid to large scale businesses with a lot of employees working.

What I just explained does not apply to what I have been experiencing at Keiretsu Forum. At the office of only five employees, this is the first time ever for the Keiretsu Forum in Seattle to hire any interns like me. Although there are general tasks we do to assist routine works, the rest is not set in the stone. I have no idea of what kind of assignment I get, what time or day to show up at work, and what to do with the task given. Basically, this internship program is being developed as it goes.

Some people might call it unorganized and non-educational to college interns. Is it? I see this as a wonderful opportunity to actually ‘work like an employee’ of the company. In reality, nothing is pre-planned for you and you have to figure out what needs to be done next. On top of that, I get to be involved with the company at a deeper level because the company is small and there is no ’separate’ work just for interns to work on. Basically, I get to work on the tasks that are otherwise handled  by full-time employees.

Sure, there are some down sides to unorganized structure. Even so, I feel that the ‘real’ benefits I get far outweigh the anxiety. If your objective is to gain real world experiences, I highly recommend you to work with small size companies.