Ultra portable laptops have been around for many years, but in order to get all that power and technology crammed into such as small unit, you would have had to pay well above the £1000 mark.

Enter the Mini-Notebook (aka the Netbook)

While Mini-Notebooks aren’t latest ‘craze’ to hit the market, they are rapidly becoming more and more popular due to their ease of use and low cost. Before going into more depth let’s understand what exactly is meant by the term Mini- Notebook. 

In this blog we mean those developed specifically to use the new lower power processors (such as Intel Atom or the Via C7), have screens 10 inches or less and most importantly stay under the £400 mark.

I’ve rounded up a few of the latest to hit the shelves to see what they can do.  All of these have the bare essentials i.e. Speakers, headphone & mic jack, USB ports, network port & Wireless. While some even include card readers and Bluetooth, but we’ll get to that later.

 

First up we have the predecessor to the original ‘EeePC’. This latest offering from Asus bridges the gap between laptop s and netbooks that much more. Is this, the EeePC 1000 the pinnacle of Mini-Notebooks….or just a stepping stone on the way to the top? 

With the top spec model boasting a 10”screen, 1GB of Ram, an 80GB hard drive and Windows XP you have a very capable machine at a wallet friendly price.

The keyboard is a pleasure to use and the mouse track pad, unlike its rivals, supports multi touch gesture points. So you can stroke 2 fingers vertically or horizontally to scroll, or use a pinch or stretching motion to zoom in and out of photos -ala Ipod touch. Other useful features include Bluetooth, SD card reader and VGA output.

In conclusion the EeePC 1000 is a fabulous machine and coming in around the £350 mark it won’t break the bank. For surfing the internet, creating and editing documents and even watching movies this is a perfect alternative to the full blown laptop.

Pros – Large screen and multi touch pad
Cons – Weight
Engine Room Rating: 4/5

 

Next up I had a look at the offering from MSI, aptly named the Wind. While MSI have largely kept to motherboards and graphics cards in the past, they have come out guns blazing with their ‘Wind’ Mini-Notebook and have a genuinely stylish product that will give their rivals a good scare.

Going for around £330 this definitely won’t break the bank and is loaded with plenty of goodies, such as Bluetooth, 4-in-1 Card reader, VGA output and 1.3mp integrated webcam.  Plus the usual 10” screen, 1GB ram and 80GB hard drive.         

One of the Winds biggest selling points is its looks: it screams sleek and sophisticated, and it is ultra portable at only 1kg.

The screen is a pleasure to behold and keyboard is extremely responsive, with well set out keys. 

Unfortunately for the Wind it is let down by battery life and only manages around 2 hours movie viewing between charges.  But MSI have a larger 6 cell battery in the pipeline that addresses this problem.

So for a Mini-Notebook that looks the part and does what it’s meant to then the MSI Wind is a winner, and cheaper than most rivals.

Pros- Great Screen, responsive keyboard
Cons- Average battery life
Engine Room Rating: 3.5/5

 

While HP has entered the Mini Notebook market later than it‘s rivals it does present a terrific model on its first time out.  Enter the heavyweights at HP with the Mini 1000

Based on the ultra portable business 2133 Mini-Note laptop, HP has kept the best features, i.e. the large comfortable keyboard (92% of a full size laptop keyboard) and thin body.

For the typical price of £400 you get the same Atom processor, 10” screen, 1GB Ram, 60GB hard drive, wireless and Windows XP, USB

The screen has edge to edge glass which is borrowed from the new Apple MacBooks, and while this is aesthetically pleasing it does prove to up the glare factor.

All in all this is a worthy contender to sit up there with the EeePCand Wind, mainly due the fact that HP did right by the average user and kept the 2133’s large keyboard. Look out for the Mini 1000 to fly off the shelves when it becomes available in February.

Pros – better keyboard, thinner
Cons- Limited expansion, shiny screen, proprietary drive slot
Engine Room Rating: 3/5

 

Another one of the ‘big dogs’, Acer have joined the Netbook party with their take on what ultra portable ultra cheap computing should be: I present the Aspire One.

Like the HP Mini 1000 Acer have plumped for the biggest keyboard possible and succeeded, well almost. (They managed 95% of a full laptop keyboard) So you could pretty much touch-type on this as normal without losing much speed.  The compromise is the small touchpad with buttons mounted on either side instead of below, which can take some getting used to.  Elsewhere you will find the usual connectivity: usbx3, VGA output, mic/headphones, integrated webcam and network port.

But instead of one SD card read slot there are two. One is meant for semi-permanent use to add valuable space. Though it might not be needed as the £320 model comes with an 80GB hard drive, 1GB of ram and the Atom CPU.

Probably the biggest noticeable difference between the Aspire One and its competitors is the 8.9” screen.  But Acer have an ace up their sleeve and it comes in the form of an optional 3G/HSDPA adaptor, so simply plug in your 3G enabled sim card and you’re good to go browsing anytime anywhere.

Acer have thus capitalized on an unused, but often needed feature and this will be an important selling point in the Mini-Notebook sales war.

Pros- 3G Card, twin SD slots,
Cons- touchpad, battery life
Engine Room Rating : 4/5

 

Now with more and more of the big dogs sitting up and taking notice of this niche in the market (Dell have a Netbook in the pipeline and Packard Bell aren’t far off)  this technology is only going to get better, faster and cheaper much, much quicker.

Article Written by: Mike Burgondeeeeee.

Why do computers crash? If software can’t wear out why does it need maintenance? Why can’t IT be simple?

These questions can be answered at a top level by asking another: Is computer science really a science? Or part art?

It’s a science surely? After all, you get a computer science degree (BSc) from University with the other thrifty dressers sporting an unhealthy Playstation tan?

Well perhaps it’s not so clear cut and I will get on to why that’s relevant in a minute.

The history piece is that only a few years ago simply having a business computer was enough. They were glorified typewriters, barely connected to each other. The internet was used by governments and laptops were the size of 3 house bricks and weighed twice as much. Things were simple.

10 years later with 3 million small businesses (<50 people) and 42 million internet users in the UK it’s a different story. The capacity of the average PC now surpasses the average need. They create more, store more, and share more. It’s also worth noting that the average PC in a smaller business is often treated like a home one, or the same unit (How many of us hook our iPods into our PC at work?).

Most people won’t dispute that humans are still evolving, and at a base level we can argue that computers go through a similar process in a smaller way. For example, when you turn on your PC there are so many processes going on that things don’t always work as planned (Most often for worse but sometimes better).

Perhaps computers can evolve without human intervention? Every setup is unique and they can now effectively self medicate, repairing themselves through updates over the internet for example.

You’re possibly wondering what I’ve been smoking? Here’s a practical experiment to prove my point:

I built 5 Laptops from the same manufacturer with the same operating system, the same office suite and used them in the same way for 1 hour. I started the PC, opened Word, created a document, printed, went on the internet and browsed to bbc.co.uk.

Each one behaved slightly differently as expected but one was dog slow for no apparent reason, taking an age to open files and get on the web. (Spooky question, and slightly geeky, but does this constitute personality?! If so, at what point will a computer become conscious? Was it just grumpy? PS after a restart, a little chat and some chocolate it was fine)

So what’s the point, how does it affect you and what should you do?

Well first off we need to be patient with IT as it is still is in its infancy. I would also like you to challenge the ‘fear and loathing’ normally associated with it.

Our thoughts

The divide between computing as a science and an art is (and has been for some time) blurring

Computers don’t always do what they say on the tin

Sometimes there is no simple answer to why equipment fails. The real solution is to have a process in place that minimises the fallout when it does

IT cannot always be kept simple. However, it is a steep and short learning curve to understand the logic behind computing and you don’t need to be a tech propeller head to ‘get it’

Get some IT training and/or coaching so you can help yourself

If a computer works, leave it alone! It is sometimes not worth upgrading to the latest and greatest

We can now buy really powerful IT equipment for very little cash so the focus for successful IT solutions in small business is shifting from ‘content’ to ‘context’. In other words, it’s not what you’ve got but how you use it that counts

 

So is computing part art and science? Maybe there’s no distinction? da Vinci didn’t think so.