awg's blog Rarely Used.

The Imperfect World of Netbooks

Ever since I saw an Asus Eee for the first time, I've thought I'd like to get a little laptop to carry around at school. I don't want or need a desktop replacement - I have a fully-functional desktop computer at home. I don't even want a full-size laptop, as I find them too large for me to carry around everywhere. However, the Eee is so incrediblly small and light that I can actually see myself carrying it around. And it does everything I need - runs Linux, has a web browser, has ssh, etc. So, it would seem perfect.

Not so fast, though. The original Eee had two problems that kept me from buying one:

• The screen. 7" just isn't very big.
• The keyboard. It's tricky to type on. I found myself hitting quite a few wrong keys.

So, the vast range of recently-released 8.9" mini-notebooks should be perfect for me, right? Still a no go. I have yet to see one that I'm prepared to buy at the moment. Allow me to elaborate.

The HP 2133 Mini-Note is the leader by a long shot in my mind. It looks gorgeous, it has a nearly-full-sized keyboard, and it has a great screen. But it's not quite right. The first problem is the CPU. I haven't seen it in action, but everything I've read says that the VIA C7-M just doesn't quite offer enough horsepower. It may be fine for basic web browsing and email, but I like to watch a Youtube video now and then, and I'd certainly like to be able to watch full-screen movies on my little laptop. All the blogs on the internet seem to agree that the HP is lacking here. I'm hoping to see a version with the new VIA Nano processor soon, which would certainly make this a better option for me. The second, smaller, problem for me is the hard drives. I don't want one. Only the base model is offered with solid-state storage, and I would rather have one with a slightly faster processor and more RAM. See, this is a secondary computer for me. I can install Linux in under 1GB, and all I need to keep in /home is whatever bit of code I'm working on at the moment and maybe the occaisional video. I simply don't need or want the extra moving parts and power consumption of a hard drive - especially a tortoise-like 5400RPM one.

Now, I hear you all shouting "MSI Wind" and "Aspire One" and "Eee 900". These all have a bigger keyboard than the Eee 700, and all offer 8.9" screens. Better yet, many of them have the fast Intel Atom CPU and are available with an array of solid-state storage options. Cosmetic issues aside (the HP's metal casing really is gorgeous), there's one big problem with all of these. Can you guess what it is?

Yep, the screens. Each and every one of these would-be competitors has a 1024x600 screen, even the 10" MSI Wind. What the hell are these companies thinking? Cell phones have better screens than that these days. My dual 19" monitors at home give me 3200x1200, I'm simply not going to do well with 1024x600 on a laptop. Only HP offers a small laptop with a 1280x800 screen.

So, here I sit, Googling HP Mini-Note every day, hoping that one day the news will come that they've released a revision with a better CPU. Now and then I go look at other options; sometimes I even get excited about one. But then I look at the specs and see yet another shitty screen. Boo-urns.