Ultra Small Laptop Computers

Ultra small laptop computers are extremely popular. Even the best small laptop might be a disappointment if you don't know what to expect from an ultra portable laptop. I'm talking net books or mini laptops now, your 7 to 10 inch screened, really portable computers.

If you expect the same level of performance from a net book or mini laptop powered by an Intel Atom processor as you get from a new larger computer with an up-to-date main stream processor, you will be disappointed. If you are replacing a five-year-old laptop that wasn't really top of the line when it was new, you might just notice that the ultra small laptop is smaller (and maybe faster).

That shouldn't surprise anyone. The Atom processors are based on the Pentium 4 architecture that dominated then. Assorted changes have decreased the power usage and kept the speed about the same. The GMA 950 was developed for use with these processors.

The resolution of the screen is WSVGA, and that was a "good" display five years ago. It isn't high definition though. Then, a CD/DVD burner wasn't standard and a floppy drive was. Neither is standard in mini laptops or net books now. The 1 G.B. that is standard on a net book today was more than the minimum, and a 160 G.B. hard drive is huge compared to the standard five years ago.

The Microsoft software that comes on the small mini laptop computer or mini laptop is Windows XP, the operating system from five years ago. As long as you get productivity software (MS Office or Works for example) that is compatible, it should run fine.

So... buy a mini laptop and you get about the equivalent of a good five year old laptop. Some things to keep in mind though,

• it is a new computer,
• if you can believe the advertising, the battery life is much longer,
• it costs about a quarter of what the equivalent cost five years ago
• it is really easy to carry around

I've said it and I've read it from other people-- a net book or mini laptop isn't suitable as a primary computer. What does that really mean?

You can get an external CD/DVD burner for $75 tO $100. Add one to a mini laptop/net book/ultra small laptop and you have just about every thing you need if you aren't a gamer. The GMA in these doesn't play new games.

If you will be using your computer for surfing the internet, shopping, downloading music or videos, word processing and little else, This could be all you really need.

I know a desk top about the same power as a mini laptop can run four i-tunes libraries and run and download the videos (mostly anime) that two teen age girls need to keep them happy. It could be that one of these ultra small laptop computer is all you need.

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