Netbooks: Small, Fast and Cheap

Mini laptops make great travel companions, but they won't replace your PC.

By Jeff Bertolucci, Contributing Writer

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, February 2009

Netbooks can be a boon for travelers and students on a tight budget, as long as you are not put off by a few design compromises. Weighing from 2 to 4 pounds and measuring less than 10 inches long, they're lightweight and compact -- and, at $500 or less, they won't bust your budget. Plus, they're Wi-Fi ready, so Internet access is a breeze.

ONE FOR THE ROAD
Acer Aspire One: Acer makes two versions of the Aspire One. The model we tested operates on Windows XP Home, and has 1 gigabyte of memory and a 120GB hard drive. (It has a street price of $349; you will pay an extra $50 for a 160GB drive. A stripped-down model, $299, runs on Linux.) The 8.9-inch screen is crisp. The keyboard is small but comfortable enough for touch-typing, although it begins to feel cramped after an hour or so. That makes the Aspire better for knocking out quick e-mails in an airport terminal or killing time with a bit of Web surfing than for writing a term paper.

Like all netbooks, the Aspire One lacks a DVD drive, but you can connect an external DVD unit to the USB port. Gripes? A few: The mouse buttons are to the left and right of the touch pad, not below it. That may not sound like a big deal, but it's an ergonomic oddity and takes some getting used to. And the three-cell battery lasted only 2 to 2.5 hours; a longer-life, six-cell battery costs an extra $50. Overall, though, the Aspire One is one great little laptop.

9-INCH WONDER
Dell Inspiron Mini 9: The Mini 9 lives up to its name. It weighs a mere 2.3 pounds but has enough real estate to house a sharp, 8.9-inch screen. (That's close enough to 9 for me, sticklers.) The machine is highly customizable, but the storage options won't satisfy a pack rat; you can choose a 4GB, 8GB or 16GB solid-state drive but not a standard hard drive. Granted, standard hard drives are noisier, slower (most of the time) and more power-hungry, but you can't beat the storage capacity. You can boost the Mini's storage by adding a 4GB, 8GB or 16GB flash memory card ($25 to $50) or an external hard drive ($80 for 160GB).

The Mini 9, which shoppers can assemble at Dell's online store, ranges from $349 to about $500, depending on your choice of memory (512 kilobytes or 1GB), operating system (either Windows XP Home or the $50 cheaper Linux Ubuntu) and other options. The Mini's four-cell battery lasts about 3.5 hours between charges. The keyboard has good-size alphanumeric keys, but the Tab key and the right-hand Shift key are tiny and hard to locate. As with other netbooks, you wouldn't want to write the Great American Novel on this thing.

BIG LITTLE SCREEN
Lenovo Idepad S10: Although some aspects of this netbook are only so-so, the unit boasts some great features and is certainly worth the price. The IdeaPad has a 10.2-inch color display (larger than the average netbook screen) and an integrated mini camera that's handy for video chatting. Plus, at 2.6 pounds, the unit is super light. The $399 model comes with 512KB of memory and an 80GB hard drive. That's good enough for Web surfing and e-mailing, but it's a bit wimpy for running multiple programs or storing a lot of digital photos and videos.

For $50, you can upgrade to 1GB of memory and a 160GB drive. The keys on the Idea-Pad's keyboard are somewhat scrunched together, and I kept tapping the Backspace key to correct typos (users with smaller digits probably won't have a problem). The three-cell battery ran for about 2 hours; that's not bad, but 4 to 5 hours of battery life would be better. Lenovo plans to offer an optional six-cell battery with twice the capacity.

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