I had an IT friend about 1 year ago that had a cool laptop that was about 1/2 the size of my Compaq laptop. Now, I see that WalMart has Acer brand 1/2 sized laptops for 300 bucks, and a friend at work told me that Dell had them for about the same price. I went onto eBay to check them out. Of course, there are 50 billion different parts for, as well as actual, laptops, and I realized that plugging in ‘mini laptop’ into eBay search is not any help.
So, how can I google or eBay search for one of them? What are they called?
They seem pretty cool indeed. IIRC, they were about 2 lbs. I think my laptop weighs 8-10. This would actually make a laptop as fun as I thought it would be!
I’m typing on a pink Acer AspireOne right now. I really like it…it’s so portable and the smaller screen doesn’t bother me at all. Only downsides are that there’s no CD/DVD drive, and the touchpad takes getting used to since the buttons are on the side instead of the bottom.
But my demands for a laptop are pretty small…I like to surf the net, play solitaire, and use basic Office tools like Word and Excel. This fits my needs perfectly, but if you’re into coding or playing the more graphically enhanced games I’m not sure if something like this would fit the bill. YMMV, etc.
That’s about what I was wanting it for. I don’t think that the screens are any problem. In fact, that makes it just about right for a laptop. If one needs larger, get a desktop! Also, if one needs a cd/dvd, get a desktop! I don’t intend to have a small laptop in order to do some heavy duty ripping, or duping. Laptops aren’t for junk like that, imho. I just want to get onto the internet, hack into NORAD, launch a few…oh, never mind! Only joking! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Joker me! Seriously!
We have a few of the Dell Mini-9’s. The only problem I have with them is the keyboard size. It’s too small for me to touch-type, but the minimal internal storage capability isn’t much of a problem when it’s mostly used for surfing. Besides, I have over a terabyte of USB storage sitting around. But I usually don’t need it.
I have the dell mini9 it is a cute computer. It has good battery life. It lasts long enough to watch two movies flying across the country.
I like it because it is so small and light. The keyboard is small. Storage space is not that big a deal. It has an SD slot on it. SD cards are about $25 for 16GB cards.
They are however definitely slower. They are probably under powered for your only computer. But they are great for travel being small and light with good battery life. Since I bought mine dell came out with at 12 inch version which I probably would have ordered instead of the 9 inch version.
Just got one for my wife. Wanted the pink Acer, but they were sold out so we settled for blue. I fried the motherboard on my wifes main laptop a month ago, and she will be traveling next week so needed something. These are cheap, and are perfect for her to do her school work while on the road.
For some stupid reason, playing eve online my vent doesn’t want to work correctly, the sounds from the game overwhelm the voices chatting in vent. I am thinking I could use it for vent and it is small enough to sit on the corner of the desk or hospital table I use when I am in bed.
I really like mine. The two things to remember are try out the keybrd-it takes some getting used to, and don’t expect a lot of power. A netbook is for typing and surfing, not editing your home movies. They are not powerful computers. That said, they can run popular software just fine.
Has anyone tried using one of these as a ebook reader? I can’t justify buying something that only lets me read ebooks, but if I could get a netbook that would do both, then it’s a possibility.
What I would really want is something that would allow me to turn the text sideways, so I could hold the netbook more like a paperbook, with the spine running up and down.
However, when you turn the screen sideways, the variation in luminosity due to angle change becomes more apparent. I personally find it quite disturbing so you should really try that feature hands-on before you actually by a netbook.
Supposedly Asus was going to release a netbook in tablet form (so that the screen could be flipped). If they do, I was interested in getting once as an ebook reader and might still do that. But I also ordered one of the new Kindle devices.
I have twoLenovo S10’s. I looked at several netbooks and these are the best built and most functional (IMO). Many reviewers agree.
My daughter installed OSX on hers!
Here’s a relatively recent roundup of what’s available. Just FYI.
My wife wants a Dell Mini 9 for weekends away. I think they’re a mite overpriced, but we’ve had good luck with Dells so far. One thing to be aware of is that the Mini 9s don’t seem to have an F11 or F12 key. At all.
I wouldn’t worry about the lack of a CD drive. You can always get something like one of these. Any netbook you get will have USB ports, so you’ll be all set.
