Choosing A Mini Notebook Computer Without Tears

Mini laptop or net book computers are generating all the buzz about laptops these days!

Why all the interest?
Mini computers are smaller and lighter than your standard notebook computer and have a better battery life... but you could say that about a pencil and a piece of paper. In many ways a mini notebook (or if you prefer, a mini laptop) is a throw back to the bad old days when the terms notebook computer and laptop computer weren't interchangeable.

How Are They Different Now?
In order to power the MIDs, Intel developed the Atom processor. Atom processors are currently only available embedded in an Intel motherboard.

What Are The Advantages Of A Mini Laptop?
Expect the mini laptop to weigh approximately 2.5 pounds, including the battery. A good battery life should be at least 4 hours or more. Compare this to a 15.4-inch laptop, which will generally measure about 10 by 14 inches and weigh about 6 pounds. The weight savings alone may persuade you to think more about choosing a mini laptop.
Mini laptop computers are listed as less expensive than other portable computers. These mini laptop computers installed with Intel Atom processors are generally powerful enough to run Windows XP and Microsoft Office without fail.

What Are The Disadvantages Of A Mini Laptop?
The standard drives that you most likely will find on common on mini laptops are relatively small, only 16GB or less. Windows XP, Windows Media Player 11 and Microsoft Office Professional 2002 are well over 4GB, so this would be the area where you will most likely want to upgrade.

The displays generally have lower resolution than laptop computers. But this should not be a deterrent, unless you will be working with digital graphics. The graphic cards generally are not as good as notebook computers, but if you are just surfing the web or downloading music, you will probably not notice much difference.

The least expensive mini laptop computers run a version of Linux, not windows, as their operating system. I added an external CD/DVD burner and upgraded the hard drive from 8 to 16GB to the mini computer that I recently purchased. The final cost of my mini laptop was $524. Without adding the CD/DVD burner, this system was $439.
Let’s Compare A 15 inch Laptop To A MiniLaptop
The least expensive 15 inch laptop from Dell includes a 120GB hard drive, built-in CD/DVD burner, and runs Windows Vista. Both minis and 15 inch computers have wireless g network cards.

If you add mobile broadband hardware to each of these computers the mini notebook is a bit pricier than a standard the laptop.
Asus has been the driving force behind the development of the netbook market. MSI has also been a market leader. Just about anything less than $330 runs Linux or has a processor slower than the Intel Atom or both.

Are You A Candidate For These New Minis?
A mini laptop is marginally suitable as a primary computer for someone who doesn't use his or her laptop computer at work or school. If you mostly use a notebook to download music and load it onto your mp-3 player, e-mail your friends, and surf the net you might get by. They are not the best choice for games or for doing any number crunching or complicated word-processing.
What Is The Comparative Pricing?
A mini laptop, a netbook, a mini notebook, or mini computers are in the same price range as i-phones. In one review it was reported that to surf the net, it was a clear advantage to have the bigger display and keyboard of the netbook, and the downside was that you couldn't make phone calls.