INBOX:WITH HARDER economic times these days, being flexible and mobile is the name of the game.
Plenty of businesses are going to be on a tight budget for the next couple of years, so doesn't that imply that we should take a look at the cheap, ultraportable notebooks on the market?
Indeed it does.
The hardware that kicked off the current buzz for small, cheap computers was launched by Asus with its Eee PC 701 in October 2007. Whether you call them ultraportable laptops or sub-notebooks, the genre was helped by the summer launch of Intel's Atom N270 processor, which powers many of these devices.
They have much in common: usually, a memory card slot, some USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, webcam and WiFi. They also often offer a choice of Windows or Linux, with the latter meaning the price can come down and with its simpler operating system meeting 95 per cent of your needs while on the road.
The Acer Aspire One or AA1 is affordable, looks good, and comes with a bright 8.9-inch screen. You can pick Linux or Windows XP and a hard drive or SSD (solid state disk).
The trouble is that, although the Linux version has basics like e-mail and the web, you need to load Skype and do some other fiddling around to turn it into a more usable machine - and it does not have Bluetooth. (See acer.co.uk)
Elonex makes the cheap Elonex One/One-T, which is based on an obscure Chinese processor that is not compatible with most PCs. That won't matter if all you want to do is e-mail, browse the web or view documents, but forget trying to install extra software.
The same problem applies to the Maplin Minibook. The Elonex also has a typically lower specification.
The Elonex Webbook is a better affair, with a 10.2-inch screen and a processor that is compatible with Intel's CPUs. It has Windows XP and an 80GB hard drive, but only 512MB of memory. (See Elonexone.co.uk)
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is the giant PC-maker's take on sub- notebooks. It is a solid machine, if not as cheap as its competitors generally, despite running the free Linux OS.
The HP Compaq 2133 Mini- Note, though well designed, is also not so cheap. But then HP put Windows Vista on it, so what do you expect?
The Asus Eee PC is the original and still the best.
The Asus Eee PC 701 is cheap and pretty small, though if you like bigger screens and keyboards, check out the 901 for a nine-inch display.
If the Celeron processor does not suit you, go for the faster Atom-based 10-inch Eees, which have better batteries and higher operating speeds. Asus offers a choice of Linux or XP, and the Eees are still the easiest on which to upgrade memory.
