Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop - A great choice for business travelers

Weighing in at just over 2 pounds, the Aspire One mobile Internet device is the ideal traveling companion that lets you take the Internet on the road without the heavy load. Good things come in small packages, just like the Acer Aspire One mobile Internet device providing ultra-portable performance to enjoy full Internet browsing, communicate with friends and family and enjoy a variety of entertainment in a small portable design that keeps you connected on-the-go. The Intel Atom Processor combines performance, power and efficiency to explore the Internet and stay connected while on the go. Enjoy reliable on-line access with 802.11b/g Wireless to explore the Internet and view photos or video clips and listen to music in a comfortable browsing environment on the Acer CrystalBrite display. Windows XP Home Edition lets you surf the Internet, edit documents and photos, read email, and enjoy the webcam to chat online with or take still photos smoothly and reliably right out-of-the-box at a great price. Store all of your digital albums, music libraries and documents on the high-speed 160GB hard drive. Sufficient storage that's easy to upgrade, just pop in an external SD card. Whether you are a first time user or just want a second computing device to easily check e-mail and surf the Internet, the Aspire One was designed for simplicity with a intuitive desktop design, widescreen display and easy-typing keyboard. 8.9 diagonal WSVGA (1024 x 600) Acer CrystalBrite Display Integrated Acer Crystal Eye Webcam with Microphone Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Built-in Stereo Speakers Acer InviLink 802.11b/g Wireless 10/100 Ethernet LAN Multi-in-1 Card Reader SD, MMC, RS-MMC, MS, MS Pro, xD 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone/Speaker/Line-Out, Microphone-in, VGA, RJ-45 (LAN) Approximate Unit Dimensions - 9.8 (W) x 6.7 (D) x 1.14 (H) Approximate Unit Weight - 2.5 Pounds


Product Features

* 1.6GHz Atom N270
* 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
* 1.3 Megapixel camera, SDHC and multi-format media readers
* 802.11b/g, Ethernet, three USB 2.0, VGA, and 3.5mm audio out
* One free mini PCI slot for WWAN, 160GB hard drive (2.2 pounds)

Processor, Memory, and Motherboard

* Hardware Platform: PC
* Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Core Solo
* System Bus Speed: 533
* Number of Processors: 1
* RAM: 1000 MB
* RAM Type: DDR2 SDRAM

Hard Drive

* Size: 160 GB
* Manufacturer: Portable
* Type: Serial ATA

Ports and Connectivity

* Modem: None

Cases and Expandability

* Size (LWH): 6.7 inches, 9.8 inches, 1.14 inches
* Weight: 5.3 pounds

Power

* Rated Charge (normal use): 5.5 hours

Warranty and Support

* Amazon.com Returns Policies: You may return any new computer purchased from Amazon.com that is "dead on arrival," arrives in damaged condition, or is still in unopened boxes, for a full refund within 30 days of purchase. Amazon.com reserves the right to test "dead on arrival" returns and impose a customer fee equal to 15 percent of the product sales price if the customer misrepresents the condition of the product. Any returned computer that is damaged through customer misuse, is missing parts, or is in unsellable condition due to customer tampering will result in the customer being charged a higher restocking fee based on the condition of the product. Amazon.com will not accept returns of any desktop or notebook computer more than 30 days after you receive the shipment. New, used, and refurbished products purchased from Marketplace vendors are subject to the returns policy of the individual vendor.

Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) Sapphire Blue



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Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Mini-Notebook - Dell's first mini-notebook is a solid system at a solid price.

At first glance, the Inspiron Mini 9, Dell's entry into the mini-notebook category, looks like what you might get if you left a notebook from Dell's full-size Studio line of laptops in the dryer too long. But the sub-$500 Mini 9 carries a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive, making it a good starter machine for basic computing at a reasonable price.

Our test configuration, priced at $474, included Windows XP Home and an 8GB solid-state drive; a 4GB version of the Mini 9 ships with Linux Ubuntu 8.04. The 8GB drive doesn't leave you much open space once the operating system and the preinstalled software (which includes Microsoft Works) are accommodated. For $40 more, you can upgrade to a 16GB drive, but then you've crossed the magic $500 threshold. One feature that is missing here--but is present in the Acer Aspire One--is an additional SD slot to allow users to insert a second SD Card, format it, and use it as another hard disk.

Working without two SD Card slots, we found that our WorldBench 6 test suite required more space than the Inspiron Mini 9's drive could spare. Since we couldn't run our benchmark tests on the Mini 9, we can't directly compare its performance with that of competing mini-notebooks like the MSI Wind NB U100. We do know that the Mini 9 loads Windows in about 30 seconds and fires up Microsoft Works in 8 seconds. Also, it can copy more than an album's worth of music (77MB) in about 7 seconds. In short, it falls in line with what we've seen from other mini-notebooks packing an Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and Windows. We'll update this review when we obtain more-precise performance results.

The Mini 9 performed well in our battery life tests. Its four-cell battery ran for about 3 hours, 34 minutes--far better the three-cell battery of the MSI Wind, which lasted just 2 hours, 24 minutes.

As its name suggests, the Inspiron Mini 9 is tiny. It measures 1.07 by 9.13 by 6.77 inches--barely enough room to accommodate the 8.9-inch screen--and weighs about 2.28 pounds.

The glossy 1024-by-600-resolution display looks reasonably sharp and reproduces color extremely well. Unfortunately, if you don't view it from precisely the right angle, the screen looks a little dim. You can adjust the angle, but you may still find yourself contorting into ergonomic stress positions in order to get an optimal view.

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Laptop review, Asus Eee PC 900 Mini-Notebook

This $549 mini-notebook is one of the first Windows laptops to offer a multitouch pad.

Late last year, Asus broke open the mini-notebook category with the slight, light, and affordable Eee PC 4G. Who wouldn't want a machine that weighs 2 pounds and measures about 8.9 by 6.5 by 1.4 inches (width by depth by height)? At $399, the Linux-based portable became a viable laptop for cost-conscious business travelers and students alike. Since that time, we've seen a refreshed model that offers Windows XP (the Eee PC 4G XP), and now we have the Eee PC 900.

So what's the big difference between the models that have come before and this flavor of the month? The Eee PC 900 provides a larger screen without adding much to the overall size of the device--and it sports a multitouch touchpad, too. What kind of bizarro world do we live in where the only machines you can find such a feature are premium Apple computers or value-priced Windows systems?

While the latest Eee remains saddled with the same microscopic keyboard that's nigh impossible for an adult male to type upon, the small touchpad offers some big improvements.The multitouch pad is simple and small, but certainly effective. You move two fingers downward to scroll a window. You spread two fingers apart to zoom in, or scrunch them together to zoom out. Sound familiar? Yeah, it's what you've seen crop up on a number of Apple products, and you get that very same functionality with this budget PC.

Inside, you'll find most of the same Eee guts that folks have come to know and love, including a 900-MHz Intel CPU and a 4GB internal hard drive (it also ships with an 8GB SD Card). That meager amount of hard-drive space was insufficient real estate for our lab to drop in our WorldBench 6 tests to see how the Eee PC 900 performs under pressure. In my informal tests, I was able to gauge a couple of basic things, such as boot time and program startup. In those cases the Eee PC 900 was a hair faster than the 4G model running XP--but that's largely due to the fact that this new model has 1GB of DDR2 RAM, in contrast to the 512MB in last year's version.

Though I dig the new touchpad and the larger, crisp 8.9-inch 1024-by-600-pixel display, the Eee PC 900 isn't a "must-buy" laptop--at least not yet, considering its $549 asking price. If this new model cost $50 to $100 less, maybe, but the market is continuing to fill up with competing mini-machines, and several are hovering around $600. Don't get me wrong, the Eee PC 900 is still a good deal, but suddenly the HP 2133 (with models selling between $500 and $750) isn't looking too bad, either.

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The Mini-Laptops of Summer, simple

You're not the only one losing weight for beach season. The latest and least expensive breed of slimmed-down mobile PC--the mini-laptop--is ready for summer travel.

A new breed of extremely small and light (2 pounds or so) laptop has emerged just in time for summer travel. Called mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and also known as mini-laptops, mini-notebooks, or mini-notes, these lightweight laptops are practically naked, stripped of all extraneous features. And starting at around $400, they're far cheaper than other mobile PCs.

There are other lightweight options, of course. One is the ultramobile PC (UMPC), which is roughly the same size as a mini-note, but has more features, a more ambitions design, and a much higher price. Another is the ultraportable laptop--once the smallest and lightest of all notebook types, with representatives such as the MacBook Air.

Mini-laptops aren't designed to compete with either UMPCs or ultraportables. When push comes to shove, a MID can handle Web browsing and document creation--but little else. These machines pack low-end processors and run Linux or Windows XP (or in some deplorable instances, resource-hogging Vista). But if your needs on the road are modest, a mini-laptop may be a good fit in your luggage.

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