Portable Mini LaptopsPortable mini laptops might be as good a computer as you need. New mini laptops like Sony Vaio mini laptops have extended the concept. These top end mini laptops have enough memory to run a version of Windows 7 other than the starter edition and wide screen, high definition displays. Many net books are appearing with wide screen (16:9) and high definition (720p) displays. You don't need to go to these more expensive models. On a screen the size of these, its hard to fully appreciate these enhancements. It is still difficult to find mini laptops with internal DVD burners in the U.S., but you canget a plug and play USB DVD burner for $60 or less from a reputable on-line retailer. The CD/DVD burner is about half as big as the mini laptop itself, though. Still, you can get the mini laptop and the DVD/CD burner for under $400 dollars including some under $300, before shipping and taxes. If you will be using your laptop for streaming video, gaming, or extensive video or photo editing, mini laptop computers won't cut it. New mini laptops available now have Intel Graphics Media Accelerators, the GMA 3150. It is not suitable for anything other than the most basic gaming. Even the enhanced graphics of the Nvidia Ion platform won't give you a good gaming experience. If you will be using your computer for surfing the internet, shopping, downloading music or videos, word processing and little else, you can do it with a net book. If you had bought a fairly good laptop about 4 years ago you would have gotten about the equivalent of today's lower end mini laptop computers. That is good enough for most uses.
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