Mini notebook computers are a little different from the standard laptop. In fact, from almost the moment they hit the market in earnest three or four years ago, reviewers and users alike found themselves in a somewhat ambivalent relationship with these devices.
Perhaps this was evoked best by the PC World reviewer who made a comparative list of why mini notebook computers were and were not worth considering by the average computer user in 2008. This reviewer liked the minis’ easy portability, features easily comparable to full-size desktop computers and laptop notebooks, and preponderant inexpensiveness. However, he disliked their limited usefulness (stop-and-go playback of video or interactive media sites, impossibility of watching DVD videos due to the lack of optical drives, and too-small keyboards for large-fingered users. He further did not care for the tiny, eye-tiring screens, extremely short battery charge lives (3.5 hours maximum), and stronger compatibility to Linux operating systems that not everyone has the technical skill to tweak and hack.
As if to say that was then and this is now, however, mini notebooks have made improvements enough that they now garner good to excellent reviews from far more users and professionals alike. IntelliReviews, for example, makes note of mostly five-star ratings Amazon users have given the ASUS EPC1005HA mini notebook for comfort, size, weight, outstanding battery life (8.5 hours), and ease of use as well as its full-size-comparable features, though here, too, the caution is made that this kind of laptop is not recommended as a primary computer. However, if you want a mini for a secondary computer the price is more than reasonable at $324.
Acer’s AOD250-1584 mini—10.1 inches around, just like the ASUS—has a slightly longer battery life and a Windows 7 starter both of which have received solid positive reviews at Amazon and other consumer sites. Many of those reviewers also expressed themselves enthusiastically about this mini’s speed and lightweight portability, not to mention its comparatively larger and brighter screen, improving tremendously on the early problems with mini laptop screens. At $299.97, this Acer seems to have become a favorite on the mini market.
Toshiba’s Mini NB205 also receives strong reviews, calling it a solid performer with likewise long battery life, though there are those who frown on problems with certain routers and others who thought it slightly underpowered for what it is. Most reviewers, however, said the NB205 seemed to be the choice after much comparison shopping, though most of those also recommended a memory upgrade even though the mini’s standard 1GB RAM is considered to be adequate memory for this machine. On the other hand, it may be one of the more expensive of these minis at $399.99.
One of the absolute smallest or thinnest of the minis is Sony’s Vaio X505, considered razor-thin in the words of one reviewer. The best part is that it has a 10.5 inch screen and weighs less than two pounds. The problem is, the X505 has a 1.5 hour battery life and limited enough memory that you cannot run many major applications on it. The major selling point of the X505 seems to have been its novelty and the kind of technological smarts that went into its making, according to most reviews of the machine.
Hewlett-Packard’s recently minted Pavilion Mini 210-1010NR is getting very positive reviews for features almost irrelevant to its size. This machine is getting praised for running Windows 7 as a starter and Intel’s Atom as a processor, and for including 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, wireless Ethernet and Wi-Fi, a 10.1 inch screen, and 256MB of graphics memory. Not to mention that it comes with generous 60-day trial versions of Microsoft Office and Symantec’s Norton Internet Security. It also comes with an appealing price tag: $290.54 if you buy one at Wal-Mart. The few complaints about the Mini 210-1010NR so far seem to revolve around a modest (though not impossibly short) battery life and an oversensitive mouse pad (one reviewer complained that the viewing screen image enlarges involuntarily when running a fingertip over the pad).
If you are interested in a mini notebook computer rental before or instead of buying one, your options include RentAComputer.com, which offers Windows XP and Windows Vista rentals featuring Intel Core 2 processing and notebooks made by Hewlett Packard, Dell, Apple, IBM Lenovo, and Sony.
The advantages include that you can try out a particular mini notebook for a short period and a small amount of money before you invest all the way into a permanent model. Because of airline travel restrictions, if you need a laptop while traveling on business for important, must-file-immediately work, you can rent ahead in your destination city and use it for the duration of your trip before turning it back in the same city and thus avoid the airport security problems and restrictions.
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