Monday, February 23, 2009

Mini Laptop

A couple of months ago, I bought this neat little computer. Now before you get into brand bashing, I will say that it is a Dell Mini 9. I know, not everyone is a Dell fan. I have had good luck with the three I own. Hp, ACER and others make similar small computers, but there are differances.

This little guy is for me, the neatest computer I have ever owned. It is only a 9 inch screen and ends up being about the size and weight of a medium sized hard back novel. Other features I like is that it has no hard drive. I did opt for 16 Gb of solid state memory. This is adequate for my needs as a computer to use when I travel. Includes WIFI. I have a 320 Gb external harddrive and an external CD/DVD/player/burner for larger files and the times when I want to load or unload files. Works great as a DVD player. It boots up quickly and operates fast. Will operate 4 hours on the battery. Without a hard drive I hope that it will be more durable.



Hp's and ACER's mini computers are similar(OK, Hp's is a 10 inch) but they also have 120 Gb hard drives. I would think that they would use more power as well as being more fragile. I followed a couple of cyclists last year that did cross country treks from Neah Bay to Florida. One started out with a 12 inch laptop only to have it break half way across country. He bought a mini and was happy with its size and light weight. The other cyclist had a mini laptop the whole time. I could invision using it when I bike tour, as well as car camping and sailing. Now I need to research solar panels to keep it charged when I am on the road. Many backpacking styles are available.

I still have my heavy duty desk top with all my big applications loaded for home and office use. But I often carry the Mini around the house with me. With wireless internet, I am never out of touch!

After years of lugging my huge Dell 15 inch laptop all over the world, I wished I would have had this little guy!



NOT UNDER EDIT

2 comments:

  1. What does that thing have for external ports?

    Can you dock it? Plug it into a real monitor?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It has three USB's. A 15 pin flat connector which I assume is for a monitor. It also has an SD card slot. I think I paid $349 on sale($50 off). The only upgrade would have been the built in camera above the screen. I thought the keyboard would be small for my hands, but I can type OK on it. It is a reduced keyboard with a "Function" key for some operations, like "home", "pg up, dn" and "end". I use a wireless mouse with it.

    ReplyDelete

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