Mini Notebook Reviews

 

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.