2009 may very well be the year of the Netbook.  Before we get into this phenomenon perhaps explaining the differences between portable computers is a good idea…

History of the Laptop

First a bit of history for fun:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_laptops

IBM 5100, the first portable computer

The first portable computer was a monster- the IBM 5100, first appeared in 1975 and weighed in at a hefty 55 lbs, with a blazing 1.9 Mhz processor.  Today most cell phones have well over 100 times the processing power!  The unit cost $19,975 w/ 64K RAM ($79,000 in today’s dollars!)

Epson HX-20

In 1981, Epson introduced the HX-20 portable computer, which was little more than a word processor, but it was portable!

The Compaq Portable

The Osborne 1

Flash forward to the ‘luggable computer’ – the first being the  Osborne 1 http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html with a 5” screen displaying 52 characters with text.  It originally sold for $1795 ($4199 in today’s dollars).  The 28-lb Compaq Portable  also debuted about the same time for $3590 ($8398 today).

IBM introduced a portable computer near to the size of what could be considered a laptop in 1986 (the first to use 3.5” floppy disks, actually).

IBM convertable

The first laptops

The First Laptop - Toshiba T1000

were introduced by Toshiba (not that we’d recommend buying a Toshiba these days…).  It featured an Intel 80C88 processor running at 4.77 MHz.  Ironically Toshiba now makes laptops for dogs

Toshiba Petbook

so if you really feel like throwing $400 at your dog… there’s a laptop for that too.

Of course who could forget the massively marketed (as somehow original, I suppose) Apple Portable (1989)

Apple Macintosh Portable

which sold for $6500 (a whopping $11,148 today) and PowerBook 100

Apple PowerBook 100

(1991) which sold for $2300 ($3592 today).  Ironically despite the cost, Apple was one of the most successful in the portable computer market, matched perhaps only by IBM’s famously durable ThinkPad series (I actually have a ThinkPad from 1995 that still runs today).

So, why not have a lightweight portable PC?  Ever since Sony successfully introduced the C1 subnotebook the industry has been trying to balance size with power and usability.  Most small notebooks had an unusable screen and keyboard, and the mouse or touchpad interfaces were frustrating.  Enter Asus with their ultra-successful Eee PC netbooks- arguably the most-sold netbook in existence.
You can learn much more by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptop

Choosing the right portable PC for Today

There’s of course no end to options with portable PCs these days.

We are not only laptop experts but trust and resell Dell laptops, almost always at prices better than you will find on Dell’s website!  We feel that Dell offers the best-in-class warranty options including in-home or wherever-you-may-be warranty service (no sending the unit it, they come to you), and accidental care warranties that we feel beat out everyone else in the market for value.

Desktop Replacement Laptops:  Good for Gaming, Media and the all-purpose computer, these laptops are laptops in name only.  Yes, they may have a battery but the sheer power of these devices rivals that of high-powered desktop computers- so the battery life will be dismal at best.  These units also tend to run very hot and are typically quite heavy (in the 15-20 lb range).  Screen sizes are typically large, around 17” or more.  These are good for mature gamers and college students, or those in limited quarters.  Portability is limited but not impossible.  Consider the Dell Alienware M17x, which starts around $1700, loaded up at $5500!

Alienware M17x

Standard Laptops:

By far the widest range of options of size, cost and performance is the standard laptop- we currently recommend the Dell Inspiron or XPS  for home and the Dell Latitude for business.  Prices range from $400 to $3000 depending on the options you’d like.  Choose a standard laptop if you want a lot of customizations but don’t care as much about weight.

UltraPortable Laptops/Notebook Class:

Many consider an ultraportable or notebook laptop to be no more in size or weight than… well, a notebook!  Easily the most famous in this class is the Apple Air notebook, but for real business travel, we recommend the awesome new Dell Latitude Z series.  Weighing under 5 lbs with screens up to 16”, these impressively designed laptops are built around the all-day traveler.  Prices start around $1800 and have features that will blow you away!

Dell Latitude Z

Demo Video of the Latitude Z

Tablet PC:

No longer just for the medical field, the tablet PC has come into it’s own, and is sure to get a huge boost by Windows 7, which includes standard touch-screen features.

Dell XT2 Tablet PC

While the market was previously dominated by HP, Toshiba and Fujitsu- Dell’s new tablet offerings are nothing short of amazing!  The XT2 tablet is convertible, lightweight, can be used with your finger, a pen or the active pen and is available with a ‘battery slice’ that makes it possible to run the unit all day long (9-10 hours possible) without ever plugging in.  The unit is also available with a 5 YEAR accidental care warranty, making it the industry’s best option for touch-screen or tablet computing.

Netbooks:

We commonly get the question- what is different about a netbook?

Netbooks are small, light laptops that usually have very long battery life for their size (often 3-6 hours).  They almost always have screens between 6 and 11 inches (widescreen) and very low power processor, making it possible to run with such a small battery.

Netbooks are NOT intended to run everyday applications, as their name suggests they are meant to run applications where the majority of work is done outside of it, such as browsing web pages or running remote desktop or Citrix applications.  Great for updating your facebook status, checking email or perhaps writing down some notes for the day, netbooks are a great tool for the mobile professional or student but shouldn’t be considered a replacement for a desktop or capable laptop computer.

Netbooks almost never have optical drives.  Some are available with faster solid-state hard drives, or low-speed drives up to 300 GB in storage.  It’s not unusual to see netbooks with Linux operating systems, which is a good idea since Linux is much more secure and most Windows applications won’t run anyway on a netbook.  This option will save you around $400 in some cases because you won’t have to buy a lot of licensed software or anti-virus protection.

Screen size and resolution make running complicated office documents and even some websites displaying a lot of information slightly unwieldy, so this design is not for those that want to work all the time on a portable.

Netbooks typically stay at the magic $300 pricepoint, but can often be customized with options that range clear up to $1000 or more.  Consider the Dell Inspiron Mini series or even the 11z.

But today I want to touch on an affordable middle-ground netbook built with getting work done in mind.

Notebook Review:  Dell Latitude 2100

Dell Latitude 2100

Dell hasn’t yet been doing much to market this netbook, and I’m not sure why.  Design of this netbook is positively brilliant- a rubberized cover makes it much harder to drop and a breeze to carry.  Even the available extended life battery is designed to lift the unit slightly and provide a good gripping surface for carrying and using… while walking.  Few other netbooks can claim this added bonus, in fact I found that the extra gripping surface was well worth the slight inconvenience in size and highly recommend the option for $25).

There is an available anti-microbial keyboard (adds $20) and our demo unit was configured with Windows 7 Pro (not available online but we can do it), 2 GB of RAM and the new Atom N270 dual-core processor.  We configured our demo with 4 year accidental care warranty with battery replacement for years 2 and 3, a nice option if the unit will be used all day every day.  Integrated camera performed well enough for video conferencing and self-portraits, but little else.

But what blew us away with this netbook was the optional TouchScreen- an option that only adds $40 to the price and is worth it in SPADES!

In fact, I found myself using the touchscreen with my finger with little to no problems with mis-tracking, and the new gestures in Windows 7 work pretty well.  So used to it did I get that there are now fingerprints on my screen and I have to fight the urge not to touch the screen of other laptops.  It’s a very natural way to work and Dell should really market it to more than just this little-known netbook.

Battery life was excellent with the extended battery.  As an abuse test I set the unit to a higher-performance mode and didn’t allow it to suspend when the lid was closed.  I was able to use the unit for about 7 hours until it finally insisted I plug in the AC power (a standard Dell power cord, by the way)

This netbook makes Windows 7 a joy to run.  Suspend to disk (hibernate) was about the speed you’d normally expect it to be, however, the sleep (suspend) recovery was impressive at less than 2 seconds.  That means that when configured to have the lid close to sleep the computer (the usual default), you could extend your battery life to all day.

Performance overall was well above my expectations.  In fact, I would say this netbook runs better with Windows 7 than with XP- the OS seems well optimized for the Atom processor and the touchscreen, making it faster and more productive than any netbook I’ve tested, including the Eee PC ‘seashell’ and even the Dell Inspiron Mini.

Wireless performance was above-par, much better than the Lenovo IdeaPad I had actually purchased and returned for wireless issues.  I found that the unit beat out the Atheros chipset used in Fujitsu and the Broadcom used in HP units, especially when using Cisco TKIP networks.

I did not test Bluetooth with this unit, though the $15 option seems worth it, especially if you have Bluetooth headsets (which I do and I don’t know why I didn’t test it!).

The system as tested runs about $550 with a base price of $369.  A 4 year on-site warranty package with battery replacement services (years 2&3) will bring the total cost as tested to it’s maximum, about $900, a lot for a netbook but not bad when you consider most netbooks only have a 1 year mail-in warranty available at all, so after year one the unit is disposable, whereas this will keep the unit viable for at least 4 years.

So in summary, while this netbook is more expensive than it’s counterparts on the showroom floor- if you want a real performer that will get more done in a smaller package- this unit gets a huge thumbs up from me!