Although mini notebook computers are a very new type of computer compared to the traditional laptop, that hasn’t stopped them from becoming a very popular alternative. The fact that they aren’t very expensive combined with their portability has made them a top choice. They typically range in price from $250 – $500 dollars depending on what options you want. Part of what has made them so affordable is the processor type that most manufacturers choose to put in them. The Atom processor is a great processor that not only is affordable, but also very good at not using to much power which provides great battery life.
Mini notebooks are known to be a bit slower in the performance department than their larger and more expensive counter parts. That shouldn’t scare you away however. They still do a great job of being a portable computer for many people. Only certain people such as photographer, videographers, and gamers will really notice the slower hardware. People who want to do basic email and web surfing will love the size and overall speed of the laptop. Make sure you pick up an external CD-ROM drive though if you plan to play or use any CD’s as most models don’t come with one to save weight and cut down on cost.
Almost all major manufacturers have at least one mini notebook on the market currently. Companies like Asus are probably the most well known however. Apple currently doesn’t have a mini notebook on the market and I personally know a lot of people who would love to see them release one. Currently the smallest Apple laptop you can get is 13.3 inches in size.
When netbooks first came out companies were limited by the hardware options and because of this most came with a very small hard drive and slow processor. As they become more popular companies started to put more time into fixing a lot of the problems which included a very small screen size and a keyboard that was hard for even the smallest of hands to type on with any efficiency. Currently most processors are in the 1.6Ghz range compared to the 900Mhz in the beginning and it’s not at all uncommon to see a 160GB hard drive which the first models came with only 4GB’s. Other improvements are being made to try and get HD playback as smooth as possible. This was a big complaint in the beginning.
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While mini notebooks greatest positive is their amazingly small size, along with that comes a few compromises and one of those that the screen resolution on a 9 or 10 inch screen isn’t anywhere as large as it would be on your typical 13 or 15 inch laptop. Not to worry though, we’ll tough on what exactly resolution is and since not all models are created equal, we’ll talk about which mini laptops offer the best resolution for the money.
So what is screen resolution? Well resolution is the number of pixels that can fit into a given size, whether it is a 4 inch screen or a 20 inch screen. The quality of the screen affects how many pixels can be put into the same area. For example you could have two 9 inch laptops and one model would have a 1024×600 screen resolution and the other, nicer model, would have a resolution of 1366×768. A good rule to follow when deciding on which resolution you want, is to get the one with the highest resolution. Why you might ask? Well in the future you might want the higher resolution and you can always set the screen to a smaller resolution if needed. It’s also nice to have the option to set a higher resolution when you hook up your mini notebook computer to a 20 or 24 inch monitor.
So what resolutions are popular with mini laptop computers? Well when the Asus Eee PC first came out in a 7 inch model they were offering a screen size of 800×480. To give you an idea of how small that screen resolution is for a netbook, the resolution on the Apple iPhone is 480×320 on a 3.5 inch screen. As the mini notebook started to advance and the 9 inch models became more popular, a screen size of 1024×600 became the standard. This was great because 36% of people use a screen of 1024 or larger. The only downside to this is the typical standard computer that used a resolution of 1024 had a matching dimension of 768. this meant on a mini notebook you still had a rather small vertical resolution for viewing documents or long web pages.
What mini notebooks offer larger resolution screens? The Sony Vaio W is the first one that comes to mind. It’s a 10.2 inch model with a screen resolution of 1366×768. The second model would be the HP Mini 110 which has a 1366×768 size screen as well, but it’s an added upgrade to the standard Mini 110 model. Don’t just assume that getting a larger netbook means better resolution. There are a lot of 12 in models that aren’t even considered netbooks with a 1280×800 resolution.
Hopefully I’ve helped shed some light on what resolution choices you have for your mini notebook. Remember to pay attention to the details when checking the resolution and also remember that screen size does not equal resolution. A lot of 10 inch models will have much better resolution than their 12 inch counter parts. Be aware though that with higher resolution comes higher cost. Overall I feel like anything larger that 1280×800 is going to be great. My first mini laptop had the 1024×600 and it was just a little to small.
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