My wife recently left her job. I am now lucky enough to be supporting her full time - which is nice. Of course, when she left the job, she left behind all her tech as well. Obviously, her mobile phone needs replacing - I am still negotiating this purchase with her. I'm trying to get her to accept a 2nd hand iphone 3GS. (I want the iphone 4), but it isn't going well at this point in time. I'll keep you posted.
And of course, her laptop. Now, one of her complaints about her work laptop was its weight and size. Having to drag it around the city, from meeting to meeting resulted in a miserable evening for me, listening to her moan and whinge about the pain in her back and shoulders. On the worst days, this would mean a wasted half hour massaging the affected areas.
So, when she requested a replacement. And knowing that she still travels a lot, I suggested a Netbook. An Acer Aspire One. A very attractive piece of kit in white. Let's run through the specifications:
Acer Aspire One 531 Perfect for mobile computing
10.1" Widescreen (1024x600)
Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz CPU
160GB Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Starter
1GB DDR2 Memory
Built in Wi-Fi
Integrated Acer Crystal Eye VGA Webcam
3 x USB 2.0, RJ45 10/100, Mic Input, Headphone Output
Built in Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Built in SD Card Reader
VGA Output
Battery gives 7 hours mains free operation
12 Month Warranty
So, what's good about it?
The Battery Lasts For a long Time: This is excellent. The battery life goes for days, making this a truly mobile device. So, in a practical sense, you can slip it in your handbag (or the wife can) and not worry about bringing the power adaptor. A big plus point.
The Physical Size: It's small and portable and so you can bring it anywhere. The wife puts it in her handbag and takes it out with her everyday. And she says she's very happy with its light weight. So I don't have any more massages.
Prise: When I bought it around 5 months ago it was around £300. Which I thought was pretty reasonable. I believe you can now get a similar spec for around £250. So, it was relatively cheap.
And what's bad about it?
It is underpowered: To be honest, it's a bit of a stretch running Windows 7 on the netbook. It's not just that it isn't fast. It feels underpowered. You can't use a netbook in the same way as you use a laptop or PC. The main thing you'll notice is that you'll have to be a lot more disciplined. You're not going to get away with opening multiple applications and several browser tabs. It's a lot more linear. You are going to have to perform tasks one at a time.
Now while, the missus doesn't really find this much of a problem, there is one thing that annoys her. It just doesn't seem to have enough resources to run Skype effectively. The camera in the netbook is pretty average anyway, but even when you have closed all the other applications, it sometimes does not have enough resources to run Skype. And then you find yourself tinkering with the task manager to shut down system processes to get it to run. This is very frustrating. Because, invariably I can't be bothered. I'm watching Coach Trip or something equally riveting. I then have to boot up my laptop and twiddle with it to get her onto Skype so she can talk to her parents and sister, who lives in Australia. A right nuisance.
The screen: Surfing the internet. It's just a little too small. On facebook for example, you need to scroll up and down to find the next and previous image tabs. A little irritating. It's the vertical size of the screen that is most annoying. Titles and headings seem to be just below the visible screen and so you're constantly using the trackpad or keypad to read them. This actually makes surfing the internet harder than on a smart phone. The iphone for example has more vertical space and so you scroll up and down less often.
Keyboard: Finally, the keyboard. For me, it's just a little too small. The wife has smaller fingers than I. And she said that it took a couple of weeks to get used to it, but now she has no problem with it. Maybe, I could get used to it after a couple of weeks too. But my fingers are like paddles and I kept finding that I hit 2 keys instead of one.
The lack of a DVD drive: Of course, it hasn't got a DVD drive - it's a netbook!' I explained. But the wife says she misses it because she likes to watch a DVD when she's on the train. Or at least have the option to. For me this isn't a serious drawback. You can always get the film in a compressed format and stick it on a flash disk. But, she isn't as interested in technology as I am. You just can't please some people.
And so to my conclusion: Well, for what it is, you can't really have too many complaints. It's small and light and the battery lasts a long time. The wife seems happy with it overall and that's who I bought it for, after all. And if it was perfect, she wouldn't have anything to complain about, so we probably wouldn't talk at all....
Personally I wouldn't purchase a netbook again. I would probably buy a small laptop. Something with a minimum 12" screen and proper CPU. I think the netbook is too slow and doesn't multi task well. The screen and keyboard are just a bit too small. For surfing the net on the go, I think the iphone is perfectly adequate. Although I wouldn't do serious surfing on the iphone, maybe just to look up things on IMDB for example, I probably wouldn't want to do any real surfing on the netbook either.
So what is the answer? Employ a large man to carry around a full size laptop for you. Failing that, surely, it's got to be a serious sized laptop with a minimum 15 inch screen and a smartphone. Covers all bases.
Author Resource:
This article does not cover everything, but hopefully I have given you an insight in to what is involved. There are plenty of ebooks and such stuff on the internet. I always go to a company called Computer Repair London . They do not just repair computer systems, they also provide IT support as well and they are always helpfull if you get stuck on anything.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")