Mini Laptop Deals

The Mini Notebook deals

In the mad rush from CChristmas and holiday season into the spring, we fall victim to quick buys. These are those things that sound absolutely wonderful, and we impulse buy on our projected ability to handle the cost, in balance for the product we are getting. This would be one of those mistaken buys, a Mini Notebook Deal offered by small Internet Companies and large cellphone giants.

My deal was paying $100 dollars to Sprint, after a credit check, and them promising a $100 rebate check in 2 weeks. (It took 6 weeks) Then I had an option of either a 500 Meg limit data plan or 5 gigs, the price difference of $60. The 500 meg plan was 30 some odd dollars, and the 5 gig was 60 a month. I took the 60 a month, as I know in this day and age, 500 megs of data would be opening and watching 10 YouTube videos, and about 4 hours of Runescape. (An online role playing game, I play with my sons.)

So I buy the thing and take the 60 dollar plan for 2 years. Being computer savoy didn't save me. I underestimated the data usage of one thing, my browser.

The window we use to view the Internet eats up a lot of RAM, my machine, as most of the Mini machines offered by phone companies in this GREAT deal, has only 1 gig of RAM. To upgrade this RAM, I need to PAY and send it in to be upgraded. I can't just simply open a bottom panel, and put in a larger Memory stick. Or I can void my BASIC manufacturers warranty, and open it up myself and upgrade the RAM, which would include ripping the entire unit apart. You CAN use a Flash Drive or a Mini Card to speed up your browsing speed, but it is a hassel. You can't run much more than one browser at a time, and only with limited tabs. This is even after I cleaned out all the SALES programs that come with every system, and removed the invasive preinstalled security software.
(THUMBS DOWN)

Second, and important to remember, the machine has no CD/DVD ROM. No Cd player or similar device is attached to these Mini Machines. You must go buy an external.or find everything you want online, or move the data using a Flash Drive. The upside, is someone computer savoy can work around this obstacle quite easily, and with medium effort.
(THUMBS DOWN)

Compressed windows, make browsing and researching in multiple windows, and even playing simple videos and online web browser type games a nightmare. Nothing short of frustrating, the clicking options on the mouse makes life a hell, it will jump around the screen, and you'll click and windows get grabbed and shut, or tabs are grabbed and moved. Sheer hell. Even for a veteran user. I invested in this unit to write my online articles, and gave up after an hour of being unable to read efficiently on it, and keep multiple tabs of information open for cross referencing.
(THUMBS DOWN)

The Machine comes with the most basic Windows software for an operating system - Windows Starter, this is even more primitive than the old version known as Windows Home. It is also stacked full of every Internet product and other thing they could shove on it for some extra pocket money. It took me hours to clean out trash programs for products anyone that is sane would never have interest in. And the preinstalled machine killer itself, Norton Internet Security, which is a great program for computer engineers, but not for normal humans like us.
(THUMBS DOWN)

Background Displays and the changing of your themes. Does NOT exist. You CAN NOT change your image backgrounds, and the image viewers in your windows can and WILL default to some weird subtext so you can't preview images properly either. You can install third party software to ADD this function to your system, but it will have long term effects on the code, once it is uninstalled.
(THUMBS DOWN)

Battery life is unbelievable! The best record yet! My 3 Cell gets more than 5 hours!
(THUMBS UP)

Mobility, and the ability to run social networking sites, and doing small busy work and Internet maintenance is over the top incredible. The ease of being able to move around or be on the go and accessing the Internet in a casual way, the unit is awesome. However, this is the adverse effect of simply using a laptop of any brand. Freedom of movement.
(THUMBS UP)

Internet connection. My Sprint service is great. I can roam throughout the city, with my machine online and connected and not loose connection while traveling. There is the rare occasion, but for the most part, the Sprint network is strong, and I nearly always have 3 or more bars of strength.
(THUMBS UP)

Home connections. With the multi card option in these units, connecting at home or at friends and family's homes is a snap, and this connection time is not deducted from your usage with Sprint. (Or the other companies you may have AT&T or T-Mobile)
(THUMBS UP)

My overall view on this machine is this, if you want mobility, and your using it for entertainment, then this will do the trick. If you have an option to upgrade the RAM do it, 2 gig would be good, but 3 would be ideal. It is a nice change of pace, not having to carry big bulky machines around to have access to the world wide web. I feel like I have a very large texting device, and a screen that allows the versatility of a Mini Machine.