![]() ![]() For when you need the functions of a laptop (built-in-keyboard, USB ports, etc.) but want to keep things light. In the most extreme cases, mini laptops can be small enough to even fit in your pocket! Making them excellent companions for commutes, or as easy-to-access devices on workbenches and similar locations. Taken one step further, mini laptops are often much, much more portable than your average laptop. The term “ mini laptop” can be considered a subset of the term ultrabook. We’re going to take a look at some of the best mini laptops money can buy If that’s you, then you’re in the right place. Some people just want a smaller, more manageable laptop without giving up the performance you can get with the larger counterparts. Not to mention the unruly beast that is the Acer Predator 21x Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Just look at the 15-inch MacBook Air, things are trending upwards. With Apple offering from 13 – 16 inch laptops, gone are the days of the 11 inch or, my personal fave, the beloved 12-inch MacBook. Glen Burchers, consumer marketing director at Freescale Semiconductor Inc., said those features could include all-day battery life, instant-on capability and "persistent connectivity," and specs such as an ARM-based chip core, a Linux OS version like Google Inc.'s Android, and, most importantly to consumers, a price point significantly lower than today's netbooks.Laptops are getting bigger and bigger. "We fully expect $199 devices with 8.9-inch screens, Wi-Fi, full-sized keyboard, eight-hour battery life, 512MB of RAM and 4-8 gigabytes of storage by the end of the year," Burchers said.īy comparison, the cheapest netbooks based on Intel Corp.'s Atom CPU, such as Hewlett-Packard Co.'s just-announced Mini 110, sell for close to $300. Real-world battery life of the Mini and other netbooks tend to be close to four hours, and boot times are dragged down by their reliance on Windows. Intel successfully pushed the industry to accept the term "netbook" last year to describe the then-emerging class of mini-notebook computers that, for the first time, were offered at discount - rather than premium - prices. Intel's Atom CPU and its closely associated graphics chipset dominate more than 90% of the netbook market. And the last shadow hanging over the use of the term netbook was lifted Monday with the announcement by Intel that it had settled the trademark lawsuit brought by handheld computer maker Psion.Īs upstarts to Intel's near-monopoly, Freescale and fellow ARM silicon vendor Qualcomm Inc. ![]() argue that the term netbook simply does not do justice to the merits ARM-based netbooks will possess versus Intel-based netbooks. "There's a need for a product category that fits between a smartphone and a netbook." "While 'netbook' is not a bad term, it has really come to mean a mini-notebook that uses an x86 chip and runs Windows," Burchers said. "We're not sure how adding another new term helps, and, in fact, it may only confuse consumers." "Today we have iPhones, smartphones, mobile Internet devices, netbooks, notebooks and more," Calder said. ![]() Richard Shim, a PC market analyst with IDC Corp., isn't enchanted with the term "smartbook" either. "I think it's going to be a challenge and will require some heavy marketing to get people to accept it." "It's not very intuitive to me, I don't know what it is," Shim said. Shim admits he's grown a bit jaded after seeing all of the variants on the basic subnotebook PC that vendors tried unsuccessfully for years to hype until Asus finally struck gold with the Eee netbook in late 2007. "To be honest, there's been a lot of terms that have been thrown around. Nothing's stuck, so the vendors tweak the terms, tweak the models, and hope they find something that resonates," Shim said. Philip Solis, an analyst at ABI Research Inc., recognizes the word game the ARM vendors are playing, but says it is justified. But "any way you slice it or dice it, the smartbook is a different type of device." "Some people are naturally going to look at it ," he said. The key, said Solis, is for ARM vendors to deliver on promises of lower prices than Atom netbooks, with or without the aid of bundling deals from telecom operators, as well as make smartbooks thinner and lighter in weight than netbooks. The latter may not be that difficult, as netbooks have started to become "super-sized" with 12-inch screens and DVD drives. Interestingly, ARM Holdings PLC, the U.K. ![]()
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