Laptops have been outselling desktop computers for several years now, and it’s not hard to see why. Unless you want to play the latest cutting-edge games, new laptops will be able to run anything you care to throw at them, and without all the wires.
But a new range of sub-notebooks has emerged in the last year, with everyone from Asus to Dell cranking out tiny laptops with dinky screen sizes, and serious weight issues (or rather lack weight issues). We predict that within a few years, these machines will become even more popular than regular laptops too. So read on to see what features we reckon will propel these pint-size portables to IT stardom below.
Price
Until the launch of the original EeePC last year, budget laptops were hovering around the £350 mark. By simply using lower specification parts (which could fit in a smaller shell), Asus managed to undercut the market massively, and you can now pick up an entry-level Eee 701 for just £175. Perfect if you need to browse the web and write documents, and at that price, there’s barely any need to worry about insurance in case it gets stolen on a bus.
Sheer portability
The small size of netbooks like the Asus Eee PC is fairly obvious, and it hardly needs saying that it makes for a laptop that you can simply pop in your bag at a minute’s notice and take wherever you need to go
What’s not so easy to spot is that the keyboards are surprisingly large - close to 95 per cent on a larger netbook, such as the Advent 4211. It means you can ditch your current laptop for a smaller one with almost no loss in speed when you’re touch typing.
Flash memory
If you’ve ever dropped a laptop you’ll know just how fragile mechanical hard drives can be. Many netbooks have now scrapped storage systems with moving parts, and switched to flash-based memory instead. Not only makes them more stable, but quicker to load too.
While you might be put off by the small size of many of these -the Asus Eee 900 tops out at 20GB - all of them come with card slots, letting you boost storage by up to a further 16GB.
Free software
One of the reasons Asus can charge so little for the EeePC is that it comes with Linux, a free open source operating system. It’s as powerful as Windows, recognizes almost any USB device you care to plug into it, and is the perfect excuse to make the switchover to free OS software like Open Office. Not to worry though - if you’re too attached to Windows XP you can still get it pre-installed for a low, low price.
Green computing
Unlike a 17-inch laptop that rivals a desktop for weight and size, netbooks require far less energy to power, and their popularity has led to Intel introducing its Atom processor for small notebooks - powerful, and even more power efficient.
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