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I'm trying to figure out which is the best computer for my needs. I'm caught between three options. I want something very portable that's smaller than my Del Latitude 3120, and even than my Acer Aspire One D270! I would use all of these with an external keyboard. The MeLes can run off a power bank and needs speakers, while the Toughbook has its own battery and speakers. The MeLes have more usb ports, where as the Toughpad would require a usb hub (owned). Some of these come with more ram or storage. I tried to choose similar specifications when possible. All cost about $300, once you add in the power bank for the last two, though they may be on sale, due to Black Friday.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 MK3 with 7th generation Intel Core i5-7Y57 vPro processor with two cores and four Intel Hyper-Threads, 8GB of soldered DDR3L RAM, and a 128GB M.2 2280 SSD.

amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK7W87…

MeLE Mini PC Quieter 4C, 12th Gen Alder Lake-N100 - processor. Featuring 4 cores and 4 threads, with speeds of up to 3.4GHz, 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM (4266MHz) and 128GB of storage (128GB eMMC, M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x4 3940MB/s).
(Note: the m.2. is just a slot, not an installed drive, so it's empty, and I won't be taking things apart to install it)

amazon.com/MeLE-Mini-Quieter-4…

MeLE PC PCG02 Pro, with Quad-Core Alder Lake 12th N100, 8GB 4266MHz LPDDR4 ram, 128GB emmc storage and a Micro SD port that supports expanding up to 2TB.
(Note: I think this is for a micro sd card, which I can insert and use on my own)

amazon.com/MeLE-PCG02-Pro-Comp…

If I chose one of the last two, and wanted to use it with a power bank and not the regular cord, it would have to be this one, as no others are accessible to the blind.

accessibility.energrid.us.com/…

These are the programmes I use.

screen reader: NVDA

Internet Browser: Supermium (modern fork of Chrome, works with XP through 11)

Text Editor: Notepad2 (11), Notepad (XP/7), with spell checker: Jarte (all)

Media Player MPCHC (all)

MP3 Recorder: Virtual Recorder v1.4.0.2 (all)

E-Mail Thunderbird (Legacy 102 (7/11) Icedove or Outlook Express (XP), considering Windows Live Mail (all)

Youtube: Accessible Youtube Downloader (11)

Friendica: site (all) TweeseCake, TWBlue (11)

Timer: Cook Timer (all)

Computer Cleaner: CCleaner 5.49 (XP) KCleaner (all)

Uninstaller: Revo Uninstaller (much older version, newer is not accessible) (all)

OCR/pdf converter: Openbook, Kurzweil 1000 (all)

Virtual machines: VMWare Player 6.0.4, VmWare Workstation 17 (11)

#accessibility #blind #computers #powerbanks #tablets #technology #virtualmachines #Windows7 #Windows11 #WindowsXP

#technology #accessibility #blind #windows7 #windows11 #computers #virtualmachines #WindowsXP #Tablets #powerbanks

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in reply to Georgiana Brummell

D.Hamlin.Music
D.Hamlin.Music
• •
You'll want 16GB Ram minimum regardless, not sure otherwise, though I would also go with AMD over Intel if possible.
in reply to D.Hamlin.Music

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@D.Hamlin.Music Thank you for responding. I really couldn't imagine needing so much ram, to be honest. I run everything on 8gb with no problem. I've also used 4gb with 7 as a host for virtual machines, but with 11 as a host, 8gb is my minimum. I wouldn't mind the extra, but it's not important enough to pay more for it.
@D.Hamlin.Music
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
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Two ideas, if I may. I'm almost sure you've already thought of both, but wanted to throw them into the pot just in case. First, as to size, what about the small gaming machines? Steamdeck/Aya Neo/GPD series? They're certainly small, and generally quite powerful. They also have batteries which will either save you getting a power bank at all or make the bank an accessory, not a must-have. Secondly, if you want to keep the price down, what about refurbished gaming units? I have seen that Valve is selling refurbished steamdecks, which may be of some use.
in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@Tech Singer I know next to nothing about gaming machines, other than that they have controllers. I know a lot about umpcs, and that is what I originally wanted, since the keyboard, speaker, and batteries are built-in. The GPD Pocket 3 would be great. But it, and most other modern ones are either well above my budget of $300, or they have lower specifications than my Dell, with a Pentium N6000. I don't mind that, but if it's slower, it should have an older version of Windows to compensate. I do own a real umpc (Fujitsu UH900). I adore the form factor, and even the layout is decent, since I replaced the keyboard with a U.S. model. But it's slow, even for me! I also want something that can handle virtualization if XP or 7 isn't installed natively. I can even do this with my Acer Travelmate 8172, with 4gb of ram and a Intel Core i5-560UM, but that's a big laptop (11.6 inches) not a umpc or tablet.
@Tech Singer
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
• •
I agree with you on the UMPCs, but sadly, they're just not being made to a reasonable level anymore. I know the refurb steamdeck is being sold for a bit under $300, though I'm not sure how much. It does have controllers but, if you're using an external keyboard anyway, you can disable them. I killed them in device manager myself. Two problems with it, though, are that it comes with Linux so you have to install Windows yourself and that it has only one USB port. That is not a typo, it has one USB port which is a USB C port and which is used for charging. The installation of Windows isn't a huge deal but the USB port drove me to tearing my hair out in large handfuls. It does, however, work with VMWare and Virtual Box, so you can install virtual machines if you like. It works with a Win 7 VM, I've used it and had no issue. The processor is, of course, fairly reasonable, it is meant for light to medium gaming, after all.
in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@Tech Singer The Toughbook also has only one usb port, so they have that in common. I would definitely need to use a hub in both cases. I wouldn't usually use an external keyboard if one is built into the machine, unless I were sweating a lot (I have hyperhydrosis). I've been known to short out many keyboards that way, so maybe, that wouldn't be a bad idea, after all. I'll check the specifications of these. As for Linux, I would love a machine with Debian Mate installed, but I don't know of any. However, if I have to install Windows, this would mean extra money, but it might or might not be a lot, depending on which version I chose and where I purchased the key.
@Tech Singer
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
• •
I haven't seen your particular toughbook, but I have seen a few and all the units I've seen had at least one charging port in addition to the USB ports. The Steamdeck has one USB C port for everything, charging, peripherals, docking... It has one port! A USB hub with charging pass through does work well, though, in my experience. Sorry about the external keyboard, you mentioned in your first message that you would be using all of them with an external keyboard, which is why I brought that up. I am typing this on an external, I have yet to see a built-in keyboard I liked, prefer not to have my machine in harm's way, and don't want to keep the screen up if it's a laptop. It's a good deal easier to recover from spilling something, just for example, on the $15 Logitech K360. The Steamdeck supports Valve's own Steam OS, I have never tried installing Debian on it directly. Given the availability of Win 10 OEM keys, I don't think you'll have to spend too much to install Windows on the unit. I assume, because you mentioned Windows 7 earlier, that you're not desperate to upgrade to 11.
in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@Tech Singer Yes. The Toughpad is a tablet, so it would require a keyboard, since I don't use touchscreens. An actual Toughbook wouldn't, since those are laptops. This is the one I'm considering.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 MK3

amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK7W87…

In any case, no harm done. We all get confused every now and then. smile

@Tech Singer
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
• •
Teaches me to either use braille or read better, I misread toughpad as toughbook with some sort of weird pronunciation. Honestly, this looks like a very nice unit. You can use any BT keyboard with it, too, so you're not restricted to some sort of proprietary keyboard/cover/whatever. The only thing I'd be a bit hesitant about is running a virtual machine with that processor and RAM. I'd be happier with 16 GB and a more powerful I5 or an AMD unit. I can't judge, though, I have never used that particular I5, and have never used XP at all on a VM. It's Amazon renewed, you have a chance to return if it's hopeless. Keep in mind that the LTE modem is not available on the Steamdeck. Though the steamdeck is a bit cheaper, I suspect you'll end up with more or less the same cost if you're going to buy a key for Windows 10. You get Windows with the tablet. Keep in mind, also, that the tablet is going to be a good deal thinner than anything else, and that the tablet has a separate charging port. The Steamdeck doesn't.
in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@Tech Singer I've run virtual machines with 4gb of ram on the host, but that was with 7. With 11 as the host, I want at least 8gb, which works very well. Right now, I'm using a Del Latitude 3120 with an N6000 processor, a 128gb solid state drive, and 8gb of ram. I have Tweesecake, about five browser windows, and two Notepad windows open in 11, plus an XP machine with three more open windows, all running concurrently without a problem.
@Tech Singer
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
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Most interesting, I'm impressed. Is it VMware or Virtual Box that you're using? Also, if I may ask, how much RAM have you assigned to the XP machine? I ask since the day is coming when we can run XP on a VM hosted by a phone, and that will make life a good deal simpler for those of us who want to read comfortably and portably.
in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@Tech Singer XP on a phone! Now that I would love to see! But it must be accessible. From what I know, it is possible to run Windows on phones, but there's no sound. Anyway, my XP machine is currently using 2gb of ram.
@Tech Singer
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
• •
It will come, eventually, probably faster on Android than on iOS. Yes, it has to be a full machine, audio, keyboard, everything. As I said, it may well happen, though I'm not sure how soon.
This entry was edited (1 hour ago)
in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell
Georgiana Brummell
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@Tech Singer I would absolutely love that! Just thinking of it is making me smile! It would solve all of my computer problems!
@Tech Singer
in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer
Tech Singer
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Another thing, if I may raise it. Is there a reason you're running 11? I ask because you do seem to be familiar with the fact that 7 and XP are still usable if you have good security practices. I'm always a bit hesitant about 11, and even 10, on any sort of resource limited system because Microsoft takes the view that they own the machine and can run whatever they want on it, including updates which slow things down, break things, and so on. I'm running 10 on this machine, but it never sees the internet, there's a 7 VM which is connected to the internet through its own network card.
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