Can someone advice on most affordable laptop option?

[homanded]

Thank you one and all in advance; I'm new to this and quite computer illiterate so please have patience.
I'm looking for the most affordable option for a laptop computer to view my photos off of an external hardrive (Wolverine and a 1 Terabyte) which I carry with me on the field.
I mainly need the laptop to keep contact with home, look at some of my pictures and minor surfing of web.
My editing will be done at home on my PC.
I'm very confused as I do not know any of the lingo and visiting computer stores only leaves me more confused! What & where should I be looking? Unfortunately, I am disabled and cannot afford much $$$.
Thanks to one and all.
Homer

[kfuzion]

First, you shouldn't be too concerned with all the technical hardware-type stuff(i.e. RAM, processor etc.). All netbooks and laptops can surf the web and view pictures fine without taking forever. However, battery life might be important for you, and a netbook with a 6-cell battery would have the longest battery life This 10" Acer netbook has 6.5 hour batter life, only $300. http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOD150-1165-10-1-Inch-Sapphire-Blue/dp/B001QFZFS0

this asus netbook is only $240 but has less battery life/smaller screen. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11319319

If you want a larger laptop, there's an Acer laptop with 15" screen for $280. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9396851&type=product&id=1218099043398

[heavylee]

If you only need to view pics stored on your external drive (which are backed up somewhere else, aren't they???) and surf the web, you can easily do that with a cheap netbook. Any of the deals that come through here for a netbook with Windows would be fine. You just need to decide how much to spend.

[bzhayes]

All the advice above is excellent, however one point you should consider yourself is the size and weight laptop you want.

Netbooks are cheap and perfect for your application. They will do what you want, are cheap, and lightweight, however they are very small. You should go to a store and check some out to make sure you wouldn't mind working on such a small device. If not a netbook, what size laptop are you looking for?