A little cheap mini notebook or an ipad?

I have been doing business travel lately. I usually go to the business center at the hotel/s. However, what would be better? A cheap little notebook, or an ipad? I want to be able to check and send emails from anywhere while on the road. In a jam, I can send texts from my phone. I want something simple.

See ya,

Abner

P.S. To the folks that sent me a friend request. I think I finally got the feature to work. I think it worked anyway.

 

I got a cheap Acer for under $300 from Walmart (a store I hate). It does not have a CD ROM but it is perfect for travel. The battery is junk so don't expect more then 60 minutes. This works in hotels but does not have a cellular card built in.

 

I bought my wife a higher end model (starts with a T) I bought a better one thinking it would work better...Wrong...those mini computers suck. I feel like I threw $400+ in the trash, six months later it's only been used four or five times,

 

Don't they sell an adapter or something in case the battery runs out?

Abner

 

I am not sure. Never looked into it.

 

Mine is a back up and I used it about once a month. Maybe you can send Abner yours!

 

I have a 10" mini-Dell. It works great. I use it while sitting in my car, sitting in waiting rooms, etc. It easily fits in my messenger bag and only weighs 2-3 pounds.

 

I would go with a normal laptop. Like Steve posted you can get one for around $300. I bought a Compaq at Bestbuy for my wife (after the mini) for about $300 ish....It has everything and runs great. Its just as fast as my $600 Gateway (for what we do).

 

I'm gonna go looking around this weekend.

Thanks,

Abner

 

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Cool!

Thanks, Abner

 

I have a small ASUS with a (reportedly) 7+ hour battery life. I've never tested that. I have verified that the boot-up/shutdown is around 30 seconds thanks to a solid state hard drive (non moving parts). This is very convenient when checking email in airports between flights. It has USB ports so external drives can be attached although I never have. Because it is an actual (mini) computer, I can also read/edit documents. This is a step up from a wifi tablet. The small keyboard is a bit annoying sometimes but I do little more than hunt-n-peck anyway. The light weight, less than 3 pounds, makes it convenient to carry around to coffee shops for those times when the hotel doesn't have free wifi. I suppose it would be ok to watch a movie on but I haven't tried that either. I paid $300 a couple of years ago.

Ultimately I purchased it for reviewing documents on the road and wifi and it has worked well for me.

I sometimes think that a pocket sized tablet or something would be nice, but I can't justify the expense. A co-worker has an iPhone and I admit its golly-gee-whiz with what it can do, but it's another expense I can't really justify right now.

 

Abner I strongly recommend not getting a netbook, once you factor in the price of an optical drive you can literally get a full function laptop for less. Additionally, I've seen single core netbooks on craigslist for $100. If you can find a deal like that you would be golden.

The performance deficit of a netbook is substantial, and B4 is right, a laptop can be picked up for about $300. I would recommend investing a bit more (perhaps $400) in getting the cheapest dual core unit you can find (that doesn't have an atom processor). I believe that the very cheapest dual core will outlast a single core in usefulness by a number of years. Clock speed is unlikely to be an issue, I wouldn't worry much, ditto for memory (you are unlikely to find anything with less than 2gb).

 

Abner,

Netbooks have their place due to form factor but an iPad is a good tool. We used ours for several roadtrips with a GPS app and plugged in via the aux jack on the car stereo. Really nice, it will pause music whenever it needs to provide directions. Does everything that a GPS will do and most everything a computer will do. But the iPad has some limitations, talk to your store rep and make sure you go to an Apple store, not one of the mini-store sales areas.

If you go that route get the higher end wifi w/3g model with max memory. we bought ours before AT&T changed their minds on what exactly unlimited data meant so we do have unlimited data. I think newer plans are limited to various amounts per month.

Personally if all you want is to check and send email take a look at some of the smart phones. We are going to get a Droid 2 because it is on a different carrier than the iPad and can function as a mobile hotspot, so that way we have access to both Verizon and AT&T. We contemplated gettting a mifi and putting it under the seat of the car but the Droid provides more options.

If you go with an iPad make sure you get a stylus.

The netbook will be cheaper and quite functional but isn't as cool, especially for someone driving a Benz.

 

I've had the ASUS eeePC, as well as the Toshiba Netbook, and recently bought the iPAD.

For actual "work", I found the Toshiba netbook to be great. It does everything a regular laptop does, minus the optical drive (which I never use anyway). Long battery life too.

The eeePC was okay. Lousy keyboard, lousy battery life, slow but did everything I wanted. (Word, Excel, Email, Web.) At one point when my desktop died, I was writing my dissertation on it.

The iPAD is a nice toy, but I don't find it too useful for any real work. It also annoys me to no end that it does not do flash.

Supposidly there will be several Android based Tablet PCs coming out this Xmas around teh $200 price. You might want to wait until then.

 

Great! Do you have any links for specs? Thanks for the heads up.

 

Yeah, this android based tablet Pc thing sounds SWEET!!!!!!! I am looking for an easy to use work horse. Keep us updated on that ok. I may wait until X-mas. You guys have my head swimming with all this cool Tech stuff.

Thanks to everyone else for your comments. Keep them coming if you like.

Abner

 

I almost forgot one of my primary reasons for my campaign against netbooks!

Windows seven starter edition *ewwwww!*

Also remember that xp compatibility mode is not included until 7 pro and ultimate!