I’m sure you love getting new tech gear as much as I do and this giveaway is like getting 10 Christmases worth of presents all at one time! Gear Live is giving away (are you sitting down) to a lucky winner, the following items:
* HP TouchSmart IQ816
* HP HDX18 Premium Notebook PC
* HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC
* HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
* HP MediaSmart Connect
* HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless All-in-One printer
* HP 564 Photo Value Pack
* Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
* Microsoft WIndows Live
* Corel VideoStudio X
* Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and two DVDs
We’re rounding up our list here pretty quickly and here we are at the Acer Aspire One Mini Notebooks. I will be jump right in and be honest, so far in my comparison shopping this is the mini I’m leaning towards buying for myself.
Acer knocks everyone else out of the park with it’s USB ports on both sides, an SD card reader on one side, and a multicard reader on the other side. Most of the minis only have an SD card reader and one or two USBs. This was a big plus for me since I’m always plugging in a flash drive, charging an MP3 player, transferring data, or using my headset. Admittedly I won’t be doing all those things when I’m using the mini, but it’s good to know that I can if I want to!
Here you’ll find that 8.9 inch popular sizing again, and we’ve got another lightweight at just above 2 pounds. I have seen these available with both XP and Vista, so it’s nice to see some options cropping up. Personally, I would choose the XP, because that is what I have on my desktop computer at home and also I would guess that XP runs a bit faster on these smaller machines.
Acer rakes in some more bonus points from me because this machine is functional and stylish with plenty of color choices for you to pick from, including the shiny dark blue shown here. Lots of USB ports, shiny fun colors, multicard reader, 1gb of ram (compared to the 512mb of most minis) and the battery life of almost 6 hours scores big huge bonus points! Considering my current laptop barely makes it two hours on dim backlighting I’d love to have a nice long battery life on my portable.
Who could resist the tiny little MACs from Apple!?! An Apple fan’s dream come true. I don’t know what it is about the Apple products, they just draw you in and hold your attention. I’m not even a MAC user and I find myself drawn to these tiny little wonders. Apple is very good at putting their spin on things and making theirs stand out from the crowd. They’re also another brand that is targeting the high end user, so the price tag is quite a bit bigger than some of the other minis.
You can pick up an Apple 12.1″ PowerBook G4 Notebook for between $450 and $850 depending on what options you choose. This is a lightweight model, roughly 4.5 pounds so very portable. Now this is a bit bigger than some of the other “minis” we’ve looked at, but as an added bonus that means there’s a CD drive, and you can use it to burn as well.
This powerful little iBook comes with a Power PC G4 processor, and Mac operating system. But, from reading reviews online it seems users found it on a bit on the heavy side. So, I’m thinking that this isn’t the best option for someone that wants something small and light for travel purposes. However, I think it would be a perfect match for a student who is looking for something small to get their school work done on. High school and college students alike are limited on space and this could be the perfect solution for them.
The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-1208U Notebook falls into the affordable mini notebook category with a price of about $400. This mini is weighing in at 10.2 inches and 2.76 pounds, making it a little on the bulky side compared to some of the other minis on the market.
Inside you’ll find an Intel Atom processor and a Windows XP operating system. I love that I’m seeing the XP operating system on a lot of the minis. It’s a huge benefit if you’re like and running XP on your home computer. However, I really think there should be an option to select Vista for the same reason. If your home computer is running Vista, then that’s probably what you want for your mini. I know it’s hard to make every shopper happy, but some more flexible options on the operating system would be nice to see out there.
This mini is built on a sturdy frame and comes with 512mb of RAM installed, but you can expand if you want a little more boost. Card reader on the side, USB port on the side, and webcam and mic built right in. Now, I like the built in webcam and mic, perfect for the on the go blogger and podcasters out there! (Hey, that’s me!) And they get bonus points for me for coming in both pink and white instead of boring black!
Sony’s laptops have always been targeted a bit more towards high end customers with a bigger budget. If you’re thinking affordable laptop, chances are Sony is not on the top of your list. I remember rumors over the summer
of Sony coming out with an “affordable” mini this year, but I haven’t actually seen one yet in the popular 8.9 inch size.
They do however have a few PDA sized machines (Like the Mylo and the new Vaio U) that are full of amazing functionality. There is also what I guess you might call a mid-sized Vaio available that’s 11 inches. It’s not quite mini, but it’s not a 17 inch laptop either.
This is the Sony VAIO VGN-UX380N Tablet PC, measuring 4.5 inches. This is great for on the go, business trips, and frequent travelers. As amazing as this powerful little tool is, I have to say it’s not easy to fit into the budget and runs between $860 and $1800. But, if it fits into your budget, Sony makes a high quality product and I’m sure it will last for several years and be worth every extra penny.
Don’t let it’s 4.5 inch size fool you. This is one powerful computer. It can even handle playing games like Halo 3. Have a look at this video I found of someone actually playing H3 on the VAIO VGN-UX380N Tablet PC;
Asus actually has a few mini notebooks available so they’re next on our list. They have the popular 8.9 inch mini notebook size, but in addition to that they also have a 10 inch mini notebook, and 7 inch mini notebook so they get bonus points from me for variety.
Since 8.9 inch seems to be the popular size for minis, I’m going to take a look at the features on that one for my comparison shopping efforts here. It weighs in at just under 2 pounds, not bad weight wise, but there are other even lighter options out there. Depending on what you’re using your mini notebook for, weight is a good point to make note of. If you want to be able to put your mini in your purse or tote bag you definitely want it to be as light as possible.
This Asus mini notebook has an Intel Celeron M processor and runs Windows XP operating system. Here’s another point a lot of folks are looking for in the minis. With a Windows operating system it’s kind of nice to have XP instead of Vista for those of us that are still running XP on our main computer. Not everyone is a Vista user yet, and it’s nice to have everything the same across your home (or office) network of computers. Build in SD card slots make it easy to transfer data or get your pictures off your camera while you’re out and about.
This would be an excellent computer to take on the road because of its small size and weight. I didn’t have to learn anything new because it’s already loaded with XP. I immediately realized that having to wait a long time for pages to load was just unacceptable. This is the fault of the flash ssd drive used in this model. I cannot recommend this model especially when Asus now have the exact computer with the 160 GB hard drive (model 900HA) without the loading problem.
The popularity of the ASUS Eee PC range cannot be denied. Since it was launched five months ago, ASUS has sold over one million units of the Eee PCs worldwide. The sleek white (or black) machine has fueled much envy over its success
Existing owners of the 700 unit probably wont need to upgrade - the 900 is still an appliance-style notebook, best suited for jotting quick notes or short bursts of travelling.
The Asus 8.9 inch notebook runs around $366.00 - $467.17, and it seems you can catch a good sale price pretty often. It seems to have all the basics and falls right around the same price points as similar models in other brands. So, all and all right now it falls in the middle of my list of minis in my comparison.
We’re going to start off our round off minis with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Notebook. It’s one of the more popular models out there for the mini notebooks, and has a fairly affordable price tag. This mini has the 8.9 screen size that seems to be the common thread among the mini lineups.
The Dell Inspiron Mini has a Intel Atom processor and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. Interestingly, the most affordable version of this mini has the Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1 operating system on it, instead of the usual Windows Vista or XP. Of course you can upgrade and select Windows XP as your operating system if you’d like.
The price difference between the base model and the next one up isn’t much, so if I were to choose Dell I’d probably go for the second one, for the extra storage space. Base model is $349 and the next upgrade comes to $399, which gives you the Windows XP (which is a bonus for me since that’s what I have running on my main computer) and an 8GB hard drive instead of the 4GB that the base model has. It could come in handy depending on what your plans are for using the mini.
I’ve been looking around for some reviews of each model since I don’t have them in hand myself, and here’s a bit of what I found about the Dell Mini 9:
Laptopmag.com says: Dell took its time releasing its own netbook, and it is clear they spent the extra days and hours getting (nearly) everything just right. …. the Inspiron Mini 9, starting at $349, has all the specs to make it one of our favorite netbooks. Even better is the ability to configure the system, from the size of the solid state drive and RAM to the webcam resolution. However, we wish Dell had spent a bit more time on the keyboard.
The Inspiron Mini 9 is one of the smallest and lightest 8.9-inch mini-notebooks we’ve seen. Measuring 9.1 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches and weighing just 2.3 pounds, it is lighter than both the 2.4-pound Acer Aspire one and the 3.2-pound HP 2133 Mini-Note. The spill-resistant keyboard on the Inspiron Mini 9 is solidly built and provided good tactile feedback without too much flex.
TestSeek.com reviewers said: Sleek, simple Linux OS, compact, sturdy design, decent battery life, configurable online, but with awkward keyboard.
The new mini laptops are all the rage right now. And why wouldn’t they be? They’re small, lightweight and perfect for the tech blogger on the go. Can you guess what’s at the top of my holiday wish list this year? Oh yeah, I want a mini! So, I’ve been doing a bit of comparison shopping to see who has the best deals on the fun and functional minis.
So, over the next few days I’ll be looking at an overview of some of the most most popular mini models available on the market, and if I can dig up the details I’d like to share a few not as well known models with you as well. In the meantime while you wait I’d really like to hear from all of you out there who have already jumped on the mini bandwagon!
What model did you buy? What was the biggest selling point for you on that particular model over others?
The big question of the day is MAC or PC for your mini?
I want to hear all about your mini, what you love, what could be better, and what you wish it came with. Stay tuned all week for the mini goods to drool over.
michelle Says:
I found an answer to my “laptop screen cleaning” question…use eyeglass cleaner! who knew?
Aimee Says:
Finally…someplace that will give you a straightforward answer as to how I can clean my laptop screen - WITHOUT buying the store’s $35/bottle “screen cleaner”. Love it! Definitely going to file this one under my bookmarks.
Thanks for the chance to win!
Diana Corlett Says:
I am thrilled to have discovered a laptop focussed website. Be assured I will be back with my questions as they come up now that I finally have a laptop all my own! Already I have learned to use eyeglass cleaner to clean the screen…I had googled this in the past and not found this simple but effective and safe answer!
This is a fandantastic prize! Love to win it!
dlcwin[at]gmail[dot]com
and….
Connie Walsh Says:
I love having a place to go to answer laptop specific questions. We have 4 laptops in our house…lots of questions!!!
Blessings,
All four of our lucky winners will be receiving an email from me shortly to get their mailing information and I’ll likely be making a trip to the post office some time next week. Thank you all for participating and I look forward to bringing you more great gadget and tech giveaways in the future!
A lot of buzz going around about going Blu-Ray since Disney decided to release their movies in the crystal clear format. But, what do you want to buy? I haven’t made a final decision myself yet. I’m on the fence about buying a Blu-Ray player or just buying a Playstation 3, which has a Blu-Ray player built into it.
My penny pinching side says two-for-one deal, but my movie watching side says get a stand alone Blu-Ray unit. Price wise they come out pretty even, depending on extras for the PS3 and what model/brand of Blu-Ray you would buy.
On the previous Playstation models I wasn’t very happy with the DVD player and never used it. I have a feeling I might feel the same way about the Blu-Ray models. So, here I sit on the fence about the decision. Give me your Blu-Ray advice, experience, and tell me what you’re doing when it comes to movie buying. I want to hear from you. In the meantime I’m going to dig up a bit of research about the benefits of Blu-Ray, different models/brands, etc… and of course I’ll be back to talk about that soon. Leave a comment and let me know what you’ve got to say when it comes to these shiny new Blu-Ray discs.
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Asus actually has a few mini notebooks available so they’re next on our list. They have the popular 
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