Early this morning I woke to find an email from a reader who had just read my post from last July asking what everyone’s problem was with netbook computers. Unfortunately, due to a mis-configured plugin, I couldn’t reply to him via email because it wrongly recorded my WordPress’ email address rather than his. Since I try to answer every message people send me, especially when it’s through my contact form, I hope he doesn’t mind if I answer it in a post.
First, here’s a bit of the original email:
I have a 14.1″ core 2 duo notebook for work, which is a workhorse and has reasonably good battery backup. The glitch is, it weighs a ton! So I’m evaluating whether instead of investing in a small laptop, I could just get a top of the line netbook.
My work typically entails, presentations (not graphic intensive), excel workbooks (without pivot tables, et al but which may contain numerous linked sheets) and word documents. Outlook is a permanently active application for me.
Do you think a netbook (specifically HP mini 5101) be able to handle the load smoothly?
To answer your question in a single word, Kabir: Yes.
My AspireOne runs on two year old technology and could handle WinXP and Office 2003 without any hiccup, and had only mild issues with Microsoft’s Office 2007 software in Windows 7. The HP Mini 5101 that you’re looking at is a bit more powerful than my notebook and will allow up to 2 GB of RAM. Memory is super important in a system, so the more you can have, the better off you’ll be.
That said, HP has recently released an upgraded version (the Mini 5102) that comes with a much faster processor, a better selection of screen resolutions, a Broadcom video decoder, and excellent battery life. Notebook Review has already posted their opinion of the machine, and it gets some pretty decent marks.
With the new generation of Atom-based systems coming out and the inexplicable multitude of options available from HP, Acer, Asus, MSI, Gateway, Toshiba, Sharp, and Dell, you will no doubt be able to find a super light netbook that will handle all of your needs for under $550 USD. The only thing I would recommend is that you do a fresh install of the operating system and software you need upon receiving the machine. Because netbooks are not as powerful as their Core2Duo counterparts, any little pre-installed application can have a terrible consequences on the performance of your computer.
Hi jason
m repeatedly listin complaints of “MS Office 2007 and Windows 7″ compatibality?
do u have any idea that is it realy so?
and wt cud b possible reasons for that
I haven’t heard of any problems between Office 2007 and Windows 7. If anything, they work together better than in XP. One thing I did notice, however, was that systems that had only 1 Gigabyte of RAM would really struggle when running multiple applications simultaneously. I occasionally ran into trouble when working with very complex Excel files while Outlook and Word were open.
Of course, that was also on a netbook … which is not known for it’s incredibly powerful CPU