After coming back from a longish trip overseas, I’ve come to see the value - and folly - of netbooks. If you recall, netbooks are the low-power, lightweight notebooks that seem to be all the rage this year. Most of them are smaller than a paperback book and thinner than a magazine and they offer computing power in a package that is considerably smaller than most higher-end laptops.
But are netbooks good for travel? I’ve used a number of them over the past year in an effort to hunt down the best and brightest of the lot and I’ve found that yes, if your travels will take you to a place where you won’t be ediiting video or playing games, a netbook is just right. This trip I travelled with the MacBook Air and I was quite please with the result. My bag was considerably lighter, my back hurt less, and I didn’t notice a single slowdown during the trip. Here are a few cool netbooks I’ve played with and I can recommend.
MSI Wind - The MSI Wind is an $500 ultraportable notebook that weighs about two and a half pounds, features Intel’s new Atom chipset (1.6GHz), and runs Windows XP Home Edition. There’s also a Linux version that’s coming out in a couple of weeks, but the configuration I tested included XP and the larger six-cell battery (the three-cell version is available now, the six-cell will be available within a couple weeks). [Product Page]
Sylvania g Meso - This $399 little bugger costs less than a plane ticket and is fairly fully featured. It comes in Linux and XP versions and lasts about about 4 hours on one charge. [Product Page]
MacBook Air - Sorry, a Mac Geek I have to go with the Air. The Air is considerably bigger than the rest of these laptops we’ve looked at but it offers the most performance per square inch. Sadly the price tag - about $1,299 on a good day - might make you think twice. [Product Page]
VYE S41 - This laptop has a 7-inch swivel touchscreen and an 800 MHz Intel A100 processor. The model I tested included a 120GB hard drive with 1GB of RAM and, amazingly, a DVD Super Multi drive. The laptop weighs 3 pounds and is 1-inch thick and 8-inches long. It is about as big as a hardback book. [Product Page]
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Nomad Contributors
by Steve Markowski / November 28, 2008
My Acer Aspire netbook w/xp. 1G RAM and 160G HD handles 90% of the workload of my 6+ pound laptop. It’s as convenient as carrying a moleskine for notes. With all that’s available in the cloud and in business centers everywhere, I find it easy to leave the laptop home.
The small keyboard takes some getting used to, but the small form and light weight does not.
by Justin Davies / November 29, 2008
Hi, great post. Interested to see what your views are on software to use with netbooks. For the Linux flavored I believe netbooks will create a real greater interest in open source software.
Our cloud computing desktop compliments netbooks really well - we bring the best of open source software in a virtual desktop. Free trial available at http://www.gopc.net
by Zaskoda / December 1, 2008
The MSI Wind is showing up for $300 and $250 right now. Kind of crazy! I love the trend. I also really appreciate how the gap between a wireless phone and full laptop is filling up with neat gadgets.