Equipment question for reporters

I've got a couple writers interested in the new mini-computers. For example, the HP Mini:

http://www.hpoffers.com/mini.php?TRACKING_ID_K=kw629845

Have any of you reporters out there used one or something like it?

If so, what are the pros, cons, recommendations?

Thanks.

 

Considered it, but they don't come with a CD drive, which I wanted. Just bought a pretty decent full-size Acer (rather than accept a used piece-o-crap from the company) that cost pretty much what I would have paid for a mini. I can't imagine having to stare at that little screen all the time. And this Acer is pretty damned good for $330.

 

I actually recently got an Acer netbook and really like it. Make sure that when considering a netebook you check the keyboard scale. The HPs and Dells are pretty big I think (like about 92 percent of original keyboard size, whereas Acer's are around 88-89 -- which is still usable if you have big fingers -- and Asus' are really small, around 83 percent).

I also got mine for less than $300, which was not insignificant as a deciding factor. But if you shop around, that's not too hard to duplicate.

 

The mini laptops aren't bad, but they aren't particularly fast, either. I have been wanting one for quite a while but just haven't gotten around to it. The Dell ones are small, but a few other companies, at least I think, make them even smaller.

 

If all you are doing is word processing and surfing the web, the little guys are pretty sweet. But forget it if you want to do anything that requires serious horsepower. But for a quick gamer in a cramped press box, you can't beat it. And the price is great (I have the Acer netbook and really like it a lot).

 

The new crop of netbooks coming around the New Year is supposed to improve graphics a lot. Especially in playing HD video. Plus the Windows 7 launch will be really help since netbooks that run Windows run XP.

 

What's the memory of those little books?

 

A 1 GB of RAM and the hard drive space can range from 16 GB for a solid-state drive that doesn't have any moving parts to between 100 GB and 200 GB for a conventional notebook hard drive.

 

Wow, that's not much, but what can you realistically expect for that price?

 

I'm not quite ready to replace this baby.

 

Like roaches in nuclear winter: they just won't die.