Dell Inspiron Mini 1012
Mother’s Day is May 9 and it is not too early to start thinking of a gift. Our Idea #1 is not a camera, but a mini notebook PC, aka the Netbook. It’s small, light and a perfect travel companion. Hard Drive comes in 160GB and 250GB flavor, great for storing all those pictures she takes on the road. And she can also keep in touch via email and social media sites without having to carry a heavy laptop. There are a lot of brands and models to choose from, with different features and some even come in a choice of colors. [For example, the Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 pictured above comes in Black, White, Blue, Green, Pink, Red and Purple.]
Prices start under $300, less than even an Apple iPod Touch 64GB. But don’t just buy the first one you see in the retail store or on sales in the flyer. It pays to compare features and to ensure that you get what you need. Remember it’s a netbook and you can’t expect to have all the features you’ve come to love on your home PC. In fact, most netbooks run Windows 7 Starter which is bare bones. For example, you can’t even change the background color, go figure! If you don’t care about personalizing your netbook, Windows 7 Starter is a good choice. If you do, then you can upgrade to Windows 7 Home Edition for about $80.
If you run a particular software now and need to be able to also run it on a netbook, it pays to first check that it does. Don’t be surprised if you can’t. A netbook is not meant to be your day to day computer workhorse, but as a travel companion, it can’t be beat.
You can use this link [opens in a new window] to do a price check of the different models available.
Use our search below to find reviews on netbooks.
Brands and models to research include: Acer ONE, Asus 1005, Dell Inspiron Mini, HP Mini, and Samsung N220.