I am almost afraid to admit it, but I haven’t had a new laptop since 2002. I used that one like a desktop, so I never bothered to replace it. Lately, however, I have been increasingly more frustrated with not having a good mobile solution. My Bold does fairly well, especially now that it has Wifi, but it’s more of a social device, rather than anything I can get work done on.
Enter: the Compaq Mini 702EA. I did some research before going to try out a few different models in person, and I walked into the store planning to buy a Samsung NC10. Since I do a lot of high-speed typing, it’s a necessity to have a decent-sized keyboard. Perl is miserable with fiddly symbol keys. After visiting three different stores, it was clear that I had very few viable options, simply because nearly every keyboard is built for pecking. If you calculate the length of my fingernails, the equation just doesn’t balance – either my dainty fingers are too big for the keyboards, or they need to start making bigger keyboards. I’m sure I’m not alone in this desire.
Not only am I able to type almost normally on the 92%-sized keyboard on the Mini, but the internal specs are fairly standard. The hard drive size is disappointing, but still preferable to an 8- or 16-GB solid-state drive. 60 GB isn’t bad for a device that I will mostly be using for remote access and web browsing. Plenty of room to install the programs I’ll need to get my work done, with a little leftover for a movie or two.
What surprised me the most, however, is how speedy the little guy is. Lightweight, both in spec and physical weight, doesn’t necessarily mean light in speed. For such a ‘slow’ processor, running programs locally isn’t nearly as sluggish as I expected. Perhaps this will change once I’ve installed all my favorite programs, but so far I like what I see.
Possibly the most petty advantage to this netbook is it’s style factor. Netbooks aren’t exactly known for being sleek, but this one certainly fits that description, if only in comparison with other netbooks. Style is not a feature to be underestimated. I like what’s under the hood as much as the next girl, but the outer package can’t be ignored.
It is currently running on XP, which is a pesky downside, but not exactly a deal-breaker. I would have liked to have linux out of the box and saved my Windows tax, but it’s not a huge deal since it was a decent price weighing in at £250 from Staples. I can’t imagine a fresh ubuntu install taking too long. That is next on the list. But first thing’s first: dissertation submission! My new little friend, the Mini, will help me out with that.
