How to Shop for a Mini Laptop

There is a little relief from toting around your big laptop or notebook, it's called the Mini-laptop. These are the hottest new item on the market for portability and easy access to the web. These laptops have been given various names which include Mini-laptops, netbooks or laptots. They give the consumer a wide range of prices to choose from which allows you to spend your money wisely in these tough economic times. These mini-laptops come with screens 7 to 10 inches and have cut down the weight for portability to half of the known laptop weigh that you are use to. They offer longer battery life of up to eight hours.

Things You'll Need

• Time
• Internet access
• Computer

Instructions

1. Decide on what are you going to be using it for? When computers first came out I always told people to plan their purchase around how their going to be using there equipment. Well, for the mini-laptop it is very important to know what you are going to be using it for. The mini-laptops are for portability and easy access to the web. They are not built for graphic designing and heavy game playing. They were designed for quick use of key features to word processing, spreadsheets, presentation and business type functions for productivity.

2. Don't shop for a full featured computer. If you are looking for a new computer system the mini-laptop is for portability. The mini-laptop has longer battery life because the main components are not what you are use to in the desktop or laptop computers. The components are less powerful which allows less draw from the battery to create longer battery life. So if you are doing gaming, video editing or other multimedia type work stick to a regular laptop or desktop computer.

3. Consider the size. Contrary to what people believe, size does matter when it comes to screens. The mini laptops come with a variety of screen sizes starting with 7 inch and the largest at 10 inch. The seven inch screen does limit your viewing of certain programs so looking at a larger screen might be more convenient.

4. Check the battery life. The mini laptops advertise longer battery life but that is only on models with a 6 cell battery. Standard mini's come with 3 or 4 cell batteries which only give you three or four hours of battery life. Some models allow you to upgrade to 6 cell for additional funds.

5. Compare keyboard sizes. Mini is what you are getting on some netbooks when it comes to keyboards. If you have beefy hands the larger keyboard might be best for you.

6. Check the operating system. The mini laptops also have a choice of operating systems. Make sure the operating system will not make it frustrating to run. Some mini systems comes with a version of Vista and reports are they are slow because how Vista over uses the resources on the mini. However other operating systems are available, like XP and Linux. These systems use the resources on the mini laptops so they run more efficient.

7. Check resources for your mini laptop. Finally check to see if the memory and hard drive can be increased if needed. Find out what you have for expanding your mini's capabilities and what other attachments are available. If you are going to spend more than $400 to $500 on a mini laptop, you might consider buying a full size laptop. Full size laptops are getting lighter and more portable with all the power you want.

Tips & Warnings

• Take your time shopping.

• Don't believe everything you hear, check it out.

• Sales Person

Resources

• Acer Aspire One netbook review
• HP's New Mini-Laptop Versus a Tiny Asus Eee
• Top 10 Netbooks