Here is a nice quote on a 17"er from a student at notebookreview.com
I just recieved the laptop this morning and I realized the severity of my mistake.
I'm thinking now that I should have bought the 15 inch screen instead cause my 17 inch is too big. I'm a college student, how am I supposed to carry this thing around?! And it will be embarassing to bring this to class and lectures. I probably will have the largest laptop in the room. I might as well carry around a mini-desktop.
Anyway, as for my personal experience...
I have worked with 17", 15.4", 14.1", 13.3" , 12.1 " and 10.6" laptops
FOr me, the sweet spot (between portability, convenience and screen size ) was 12"
For most peeps it is 14"
BTW the reason why I found 12.1" as the sweet spot is exactly what you quoted:
so i would like to edit news on this lappy lying on the couch, or on the terrace i want a "buddy lappy"...
personally, I totally detest 17"ers..they are nowhere close to a
buddy lappy actually neither are 15.4"ers
Anyway, 14"ers are the best fit for your budget as anything smaller would get out of that budget...
But I'd sti;; say that you should get the smallest laptop you can get in your budget as from what you say, you want a laptop which is as portable as possible...
Do not worry about a small screen size, the high resolution on the small screens ensures that you do not lose out on any information....
And even for those rare ocasions when you really need a larger screen (like 5 friends watching a move together) you can always hook it up to an external monitor....
Remember, you can always upgrade to a monitor of your choice, but you cannot scale down the size and weight of your laptop