A while back I posted about Best Buy’s black Friday netbook. These little computers were going for $200. Which is a good deal for a netbook. Because I have spend buttloads of money at Best Buy, they let me get one of these things a week before Black Friday (although it required about 4 hours of phone calls and hold time).
As a minor historical tangent, when netbooks first arrived on the scene (think Asuse Eeepc) they were priced at $200, but they were so popular, the industry jacked up the price.
Compaq Mini Netbook Good Points:
Small: The Compaq Mini Netbook goes anywhere. Its small size makes it perfect for any sort of travel or casual use.
Battery Life: I was prepared for crappy battery life but have been pleasantly surprised. It seems to be good for over 4 hours. Honestly I have not run out of battery yet.
Price: At $200 the Compaq Mini Netbook is impossible to beat. Unfortunately now that Best Buy’s special is over, its priced in the same range as the other netbooks. If you are shopping for a netbook keep in mind, the guts are all almost exactly the same.
Compaq Mini Netbook Good Points:
Sluggish: The Compaq Mini Netbook has a 1 ghz processor and 2 gb of ram. Not exactly a screaming machine. It runs my virtual machines and other processor intensive tasks but slower than my desktops. Still the tradeoff of size makes sluggishness worthwhile.
Awkward to open: Some people might complain about the keyboard, I don’t mind it, what bugs me (and its a dumb thing) it how the netbook opens. It has more in common with a flip phone than a laptop. Really this is a size and weight thing. The hinges offer more resistance than the lower portion has mass, thus its a two hand, or wedging type job.
Web cam: Yes is has a webcam, I can skype! Ahhh… compared to my iMac the picture (and frame rate) blows.
Bloat-ware: Its probably took three hours of uninstalling to get the bloat-ware to an acceptable level. Come on HP (they own Compaq), your hurting your product.
Windows 7:
One final note. Windows 7 its like taking XP and OSX and combining them in a bad way, which is still an improvement over XP. No angels will not descend from the heavens nor will symphonies be composed over Windows 7. OS X is still better. But I would rather use Win 7 over XP.
