Mini Laptops

Most people are actually referring to netbooks when they use the term "mini laptop."  Netbooks, or mini laptops, are a relatively new form factor for small notebook computers that have exploded in popularity recently.  The whole format has an interesting history and of course these little mini machines have their advantages and disadvantages.  It used to be the case, many years ago, that creating an extremely small laptop was a huge technological challenge.  As such, the companies that created mini laptops back then charged a huge premium for the machines.  They called them ultraportables and they were usually made by Sony, Fujitsu, and Panasonic.  The manaufacturers did some amazing things and crammed a lot of features into these tiny little machines.  They were generally aimed at the business executive because they were so much more expensive than regular laptops.

Fast forward to today and the industry has flipped this formula for ultraportables on its head. It is not fairly cheap and easy to minituarize the technology needed to make an ultraportable computer. Someone in a marketing department somewhere probably figured out that the potential target market for these netbooks would be huge, if the price point were different. Ultraportables used to be looked at as being "cute," but people balked when they heard the price. Now, the low price is one of the biggest features of the new age of netbooks, with most machines costing significantly less than larger laptops. Most netbooks seem to be selling for about 200 to 400 dollars, while the average laptop is still up at an average of around 500 dollars.There are many used laptops for sale to be found if you take the time to look.

What you really have to do when considering the purchase of a mini laptop is to actually go to an electronics store that sells them and test one out for a bit.  Take something with you to type and actually see if you can get real work done on the machine.  This is a personal thing because the keyboard does tend to be a bit smaller, and some people simply cannot adjust to the smaller size keyboard.  So you really need to test it out and pound out a few paragraphs to see if a netbook is right for you.

If you can pass the keyboard test, then there should be very little holding you back from trying out one of these machines.  The fact of the matter is that netbooks have a lot of advantages over regular laptops.  One of the biggest thing that most people will initially dismiss in their mind is that netbooks are lighter.  Most of them weight around 2 pounds, while most laptops weight around 5 pounds.  This is a huge thing that must be experienced to be appreciated.  It is not so much the size of the machine, but it is the weight.  If you are actually mobile and carrying your machine around every day, then the decreased feather weight of a netbook will astound you.  You will wonder how you ever managed to lug around a 5 pound machine in the past.

This lower weight, combined with a smaller footprint, makes for huge portability.  Netbooks are what laptops always wanted to be right from the beginning--sleek, light, and very portable.  For over a decade now laptops have pretty much been big clunky things that pushed the limits on what is considered to be "portable."  The new age of netbooks has us carrying around these smaller, lighter machines that really are ultra portable.

Battery life will vary depending on what netbook you buy, but if you are looking for exceptional battery life it is pretty easy to get it.  Some of the cheaper models have run times of around 7 hours, which is outstanding for any machine that lets you get real work done on it and costs less than 400 dollars.  It used to be the case that you had to spend almost 2 thousand dollars to get an ultraportable with battery life greater than 6 hours.  Now it can be had for 300 bucks.

So when you understand some of the background and some of the history of how technology and notebooks have evolved over the years, you can see that the new netbooks offer a tremendous amount of value.  If you can get away with the smaller keyboard and still feel comfortable on the machine, then netbooks offer a great set of features at a really low price.  Check them out today!