So what is a sub notebook computer?
From my experience from working with many sub notebooks they all tend to fall into a similar size range, firstly the screen is no larger than 10 inches, and the surrounding bezel (plastic casing), doesn't exceed 11inches. More often than not a sub notebook may lack features such as an internal optical drive (CDROM / DVD etc), and floppy drive this is to help keep the weight and size to a minimum. Ideally a sub notebook has a long battery life, and will often have additional larger batteries to help insure this.
Who is the intended user?
Sub notebooks, or ultra portables as they are also known, are designed to be very mobile and portable, as they are light weight and smallthey often don't need a dedicated briefcase styled carrying bag.They're not as powerful as desktop machines, so aren't best designed for playing games on or intensive CAD applications, but are well suited togeneral office work or browsing the internet via yourmobile phone, onboard GPRS modem (e.g. flybook) or using a PCMCIA 3G/GPRS adapter. These types of laptops are designed for thepeople on the movewho need to work whilst on the move, butI've found them also very useful when I'm at Univeristy as a heavylaptop is a pain to carry around lectures and labs.
What to buy?
When buying a laptop it is important to check a number of things. Firstly for Windows XP to run, you need a minimum of 128mb of RAM, this can be fine for office work and a bit of web browsing, but to allow extra room for running a lot of programs 256mb is preferable. Screen, always check that the screen is 12" or smaller, otherwise you'll end up lumping around a heavy laptop, it's a good idea to check that the bezel around the screen isn't think, as a 10" screen with an extra 2" of plastic round it won't make the laptop very small. Hard disk size is preference really, but aim for no less than 10gb, otherwise you'll notice the space quickly disappear with photos and work. Batteries, always make sure you can buy replacement batteries at a low price, more often than not a seller won't state how long the battery lasts, if they don't, presume it's very short indeed, batteries can be very expensive so always check replacements are available and how much they cost.
What is a good sub notebook?
- The Acer C100 series of tablet sub notebooks are excellent, 10" screen backed up by up to a ghz of centrino power, wifi and bluetooth.
-Toshiba Libretto series, L1,L2,L3,L5 and upwards... The librettos have very nice screens indeed and replacement batteries aren't too expensive.
-IBM Thinkpad 240z,240z... PIII 500mhz and 600mhz respectively, maximum of 256mb of RAM, great machine, and don't cost much! (SVQA 10" screen)
-Panasonic Toughbook CF-M34 - will have some of these in stock soon so will be able to comment about them when I have some.
-Sharp PC-MM1110 - Very very slim laptop, 1ghz Crusoe with 256mb of ram and comes with a 15gb IPOD SIZE hard disk. They are lovely machines to use and have a XGA 10" screen. Batteries are available for these online. (Beware of the ipod sized hard disk though, slightly more difficult to replace / upgrade)
To be continued ... (Updated 2/12/06)
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