When it comes to mobile computing everybody subconsciously feels they are making some kind of sacrifice. If you want something that is truly portable and lightweight, you have to give up features. But if you want all the features, you wind up with a notebook that is more luggable than truly portable.
But thanks to the wonders of miniaturization we're finally starting to see a new generation of lightweight notebooks that don't compromise on features. Of course, when it comes to new notebooks the Apple Air machines are the talk of the town. But if you want to see where the real future of laptop computing is going then the new Mini-Note 2133 from Hewlett-Packard is definitely worth a look.
Priced starting at $499, the Mini-Note has an 8.9-in display and weighs a little more than two and half pounds. It can be configured with three or six-cell batteries, supports multiple wireless connections, a 4GB solid-state drive and 512MB of memory. A slightly bigger, more expensive model can be configured with a 120GB hard drive and 2Gb or memory.
HP says it designed the Mini-Note specifically for the education market but the fact is that the specifications of these machines are what most users have been desirous of in a Windows notebook for a very long time.
While HP may be one of the first to come to market with this type of system, the odds are good that other manufacturers will be right behind them. In fact, Dell is saying that it will have its version of this type of machine out by June. And when all that happens, maybe for the first time in memory we can all look at our laptops again without feeling that something is missing.