A tiny little laptop in the summer

Weighing only about 1kg and range in price around 400 USD, mini laptops like Asus Eee PC, MSI Wind or Aspire One from Acer are becoming the new focus of users who frequently travel, do not require too high in speed, features and budget constraints.

These mini laptops don't really compete with ultraportables - UMPC - or ultraportable ultra-compact laptops because their configuration is lower, just enough for web browsing and text editing on the operating system. Linux or Wins XP.

In terms of screen size, they are equivalent to UMPC (7-10 inches) but not as sharp and smaller than the ultraportable's usual 12-inch screen. Despite its low profile and small screen, these tiny laptops are more appreciated than smartphones thanks to the large, easy-to-see screen and the newer full QWERTY keyboard for operation.

The huge and successful launch of the Asus Eee PC 4G from late last year triggered a real battle, filling the gap created by smartphones (4-5 inches) and ultraportable laptops (12 inches).

HP 2133 - 8.9 inch screen ranges from 500-750 USD

The Eee PC 4G was originally intended for children at a price of $ 399, a 7-inch screen, an 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, the size of a student notebook and weighing only about 900g. Obviously the Eee PC is attractive in terms of price and mobile looks, but the tiny screen and keyboard are cramped for adults while the hard drive is only 4GB.

However, this summer, Asus decided to improve the early version of Eee PC with the next generation with significantly larger screens, but with higher selling prices. Specifically, the latest Eee PC 900 launched in this June has an 8.9-inch screen, priced at $ 549 and preserves its predecessor's clean appearance.

This mini laptop also has a multitouch touchpad that allows you to combine fingers on it to zoom and scroll text pages.

Micro Star International (MSI) also expects that the MSI Wind just launched on June 16 will be a worthy rival of the Eee PC. Wind has a 10-inch screen, Intel's new 1.6GHz Atom CPU, RAM allows up to 2GB and hard drive up to 80GB. Quite sturdy with a sturdy plastic case and unlike its predecessors, the Wind is equipped with a compact cooling mechanism called the Styrofoam. Along with the suggested price of only $ 399 ($ ​​499 for the XP version), it seems that MSI Wind has nothing to complain about except the actual test.

At the same time, Acer attracts public opinion with the Aspire One with a smaller 8.9-inch screen, Atom CPU with 512 MB of RAM or 1GB of glossy plastic that is less rough than the MSI Wind and a more ergonomic keyboard. . The Aspire One comes with two choices of 8GB NAND flash drives ($ 469) or an 80GB hard drive with Win XP operating system priced at $ 600.

Meanwhile, Intel and the Massachuset Institute of Technology are still maintaining the low-cost classmate PC programs OLPC for school environments.

The future of mini laptops

Asus Eee PC 900 - improved mini laptop version with 8.9 inch screen

Although it is unclear how successful Wind is, MSI unveiled plans for an improved version of MSI Winde in 2009. Asus also revealed information about another enhanced version of Eee PC, called Eee. PC 1000 with a large 10-inch screen, 40GB semiconductor hard drive, Intel Atom CPU, RAM up to 2GB and Wi-Fi 802.11n (including WiMax version). This 1.2kg laptop is also equipped with a 6-cell battery with a promise of 7 hours.

On the other hand, the top five electronics firms Arm, nVidia, Qualcomm, TI and Via are still quietly developing their own new CPUs for the mini laptop branch to compete with Intel's Atom.

In the upper division of the mini laptop, 'big man' HP also joined the HP 2133 to target students and dynamic entrepreneurs. With the keyboard quite open and 8.9-inch screen sharp, this laptop is calculated so that adults can use it easily, because it does not make it difficult for people with oversized fingers and does not cause eye strain.

However, HP 2133 has two problems: using Via C7-M chip to run Vista (only fix by installing XP or Linux) and the price is quite high, from 500-750 USD depending on the configuration, making it equal to the price of a fully featured laptop.

Choose mini laptop

MSI Wind pink version

Operating system : One reason for a mini laptop to be competitively priced is because it only has Linux installed and if you install Win XP normally the product price will be up to 100 USD. So when looking for a laptop of this type you will have to consider the programs that can be used on that operating system.

Hard drives / software : These low-cost laptops are obviously not highly configurable PCs and most have very limited hard drives. Therefore, the utility programs that run on it must be appropriate, for example, to edit the office, use the free OpenOffice version that does not require too much memory, but can be used on Linux, Win and Mac.

Keyboard : Because these laptops are so small, the keyboard is often cramped. If you choose the model that is intended for this student, adults may feel tortured when working continuously. Therefore, if possible, try typing as long as possible. On the other hand, among the above mini laptops, HP 2133 has been identified as having the most suitable keyboard for adults.

Screen : Like a keyboard, the screen is also the weakness of these laptops. For example, the 7-inch (800x480 pixel) screen of the original Eee PC is so small that surfing the web on it is really a problem. Therefore, users should look for lines with larger screens and higher resolutions to protect the 'soul window'.

Other features : There are some functions that are currently considered standard on mini laptops. It is a multi-format memory card slot including SDHC, Wi-Fi 802.11b / g format, Ethernet wired network card, 2-3 USB 2.0 ports, integrated webcam, mic, VGA-out external monitor port and mic / headphone slot.