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Verizon's Mini has a 10-inch screen, weighs 2.4 pounds. |
IHAVE A PROBLEM.
I need faster downloads,
I'm a connectaholic who can't take my kids to Kings Dominion without being able to work.
Someone please help me.
I was locked inside Sing Sing prison Wednesday night to hear Tim Robbins of "The Shawshank Redemption" speak to inmates who were getting their college diplomas. They wouldn't let anyone bring in electronic devices. All I could think about was using the spoon they gave me for dinner to tunnel out and check my
Making matters worse, I have a back problem, and endlessly lugging around a 6-pound laptop to support my habit supports my chiropractor's expensive sports-car habit.
I'd much prefer to carry
So I quivered with delight as I unboxed the new embedded 3G Verizon Wireless Hewlett-Packard Mini 1151 NR netbook.
The 10-inch screen is looking plenty big enough to me right now, and its keyboard, while not quite roomy, isn't bad at all.
The Verizon Wireless HP netbook is the beginning of a trend in which cell phone companies looking for new revenue streams in a saturated mobile-phone market are subsidizing sales in return for service agreements, just as they do with phones.
On May 17, Verizon Wireless began selling HP netbooks discounted to $199 after a $50 rebate with a two-year data contract starting at $40 a month with Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband Network access built in. Two days later, AT&T announced it would begin offering Acer and Lenovo netbooks.
Radio Shack is selling a "built-in mobility" Acer Aspire One 3G Netbook for $79, with a two-year AT&T DataConnect contract. It normally sells for $300, but the monthly data plan is about $60. Ouch. It's 2.2 pounds and has an 9-inch screen. Its keyboard is a little more cramped than the HP Mini's, but it has a 160-GB hard drive--twice the Mini's 80 GB.
This week I left my laptop at home and brought the 2.4-pound HP Mini with me on a five-day trip hopping from Stafford Airport (OK, not much lugging involved there) to New York to Maine to Pennsylvania to Richmond, hotel to friend's house to hotel. Out on the bay at Rockport, I was enjoying the sun, water and idyllic view of the sailboats--well, sort of--as I surfed the Internet, e-mailed my boss and worked on this column.
Why I feel the need to do mobile work instead of enjoying the scenery is a question for mental health professionals, not techies.
But let me say in my own defense that I've been enjoying a first-rate 3G-speed Internet browsing and media experience with the Mini and am writing this on it without many errant strokes. Writing on a desktop or hefty laptop would be a little easier, but there's not enough difference in typing to make it worth putting myself in traction lugging around my backbreaking Dell or almost-as-burdensome MacBook Pro.
And the Mini's cute. It's a real head-turner and a conversation-starter.
However, I would never use the Mini on my desk at work or on my couch at home. It's all about combining ease of portability with a laptop-like experience. It's not a cushy-leather-seat-with-cup-holders, vroom-vroom experience.
No, the couch is where my Hummer-type laptops come into play.
If you don't want embedded mobile broadband and are content to use a netbook at hotspots and on home routers, you're better off paying an extra $100 or so for the device and skipping the service-plan commitment. But I like the easy flexibility of connecting almost anywhere and working at the pool, the beach, a ball game--all those sick places to work instead of having fun.
The Mini's specs: processor speed 1.6 GHz; 1 GB RAM; 80 GB hard disk drive; operating system: Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 3; built-in webcam: 640 x 480, 30 fps; audio: stereo speakers, integrated microphone, combo headphone/microphone jack; $39.99 monthly access for 250 MB monthly allowance and 10 cents per megabyte overage; $59.99 monthly access with a 5 GB monthly allowance and 5 cents per megabyte overage.
Your back and your boss will thank you for getting a Verizon Wireless HP Mini. Your family may hate you. But that's the human price you pay if you're a connectaholic.
Michael Zitz: 540/846-5163
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com
