The Minimalist’s Mobile Office
This isn’t quite the minimalist’s mobile office, I could do without a few things but the goal was to travel light. Working full time, and being a student as well as keeping up with things on the go can require a lot of crap. Carrying a 15 inch laptop and a few text books around everyday gets old so I invested in the netbook phenomena.
The Netbook
Netbook, G1 and Mouse
I wanted to get something that offered a little but more build quality than some of the Acer/MSI machines that I saw at the local electronics store so I did some research and came up with the HP mini 2140. Like most netbooks it sports the 1.6ghz Atom processor and chipset. I ordered mine with 1gb of memory, the 160 HD, the HD Screen (1366×768) and 6-cell battery. This preconfigured model runs around $480 but your shipping and sales tax will probably add another $50 or so.
The screen is very bright and clear, and unlike some netbook screens where the resolution is 1024×600 or 1024×576, the high-res screen doesn’t cut back on any typical viewing problems. It is a glassy screen but it is also capable of being VERY bright so my outdoor useage hasn’t been incredibly hampered. While I like high-res screens some people might find the text to be too small. It does cut down to 800×600 without too much distortion if you find that 1366×768 is too much for you while still offering more horizontal resolution than it’s HP counterpart, the Mini 1000.
The build quality on the 2140 is fantastic. It’s a fairly sturdy machine with an aluminum finish, which unlike most netbooks is pretty scratch and finger print resistant. The black outline around the screen combined with the aluminum is very Mac-esque. Where this machine starts to look un Mac-like is the hinge. Don’t get me wrong the hinges are very story and work well – but they break up the lines on the machine enough to give it full marks for visual design. A nit-picky observation for sure that should not really detract anyone from buying this machine.
The HP Mini 2140 Keyboard.
HP brags about this keyboard being 92% regular size – sort of. While most of the keys are fairly easy to type on, but the directional keys and some other keys really get lost in the shuffle. The most annoying thing about the keyboard in my observations are the ‘pg up’ and ‘pg dn’ keys. Normally these keys get their own key but in effort to save space HP moved them to the directional pad and requires you to use the ‘fn’ key to access them. This really only gets annoying when you are scrolling through documents or web pages and you forgot your mouse.
After having the machine for about a week I noted some clicks with the hard drive and my battery life dropped from 6-7 hours down to a max of 5 hours. I contacted HP support and after a few days of emails back and forth they over nighted me a new hard drive. I was pretty impressed that they sent me one at 7pm and 10:30 the next day I had a new hard drive. However, Windows was not pre-installed and so I had to track down an external DVD drive to completely reinstall XP and all my software. I’m not sure just yet if this seems to be the cause of my mysterious battery life loss just yet. It doesn’t seem to be a issue with other 2140’s just yet, but I will note that I took out a Fujitsu hard drive and replaced it with a Hitachi. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. My preference for hard drives has been Seagate for the past 3 years because I have five of them running almost all the time without failure for an average of 2 years. It’s good to point out that changing the hard drive and RAM on this machine is a breeze for even the most novice of computer users. Simply take the battery out, remove the three screws holding the keyboard in place and remove the keyboard. Voila – there’s the RAM and hard drive.
The Trackpad
It’s a netbook – the trackpads usually suck. The HP 2140 is no exception. Most people complain that the left and right buttons are on the side but it doesn’t bother me. In fact it is handy for the left button, but the right button is still awkward. The real problem isn’t the button placement but just the fact that it is two darn small. The HP trackpad also offers a scroll pad but it is very finicky to get working.
As a gift, I received a Microsoft Mobile ‘5000′ mouse, this bluetooth mouse is a must have for anyone with a bluetooth-equipped netbook. It’s small and fairly ergonomic but improves productivity so much it’s worth the space in your bag.
Netbook and Microsoft Mouse 5000
The Messenger Bag
Because I don’t have the 8lb desktop replacement laptop anymore I decided to downgrade the bag as well. I realized that I don’t need to carry my books to work any more so I didn’t need the extra space and bulk to carry books. However, I did need more than a sleeve to carry around a notepad, graphic calculator and various other things like cables and pens. I found a deal on a Wenger ‘Impulse’ bag that fit the bill. Although it fits up to a 15.4in laptop it comes with some partitions that allow you keep the netbook in place. It also comes with a small bag which I put the charger in to pad the netbook in even more. The only thing I didn’t like was th straps to keep the book in seemed a little rough and might scratch some finishes. The temporary solution to this was to use a t-shirt sleeve to place over the strap to prevent scratching.
The Smartphone
I personally have a T-Mobile G1. I’ve had it about 3 months and I have no real complaints about it. I previously had a Blackberry and I can recommend those as well – just not the Storm. You can read my impressions of both in Android VS. Blackberry. I’d be interested in the Bold if it weren’t tied to the AT&T network which I have never been impressed with. From what I see from the Palm Pre it appears to be a good phone as well, and I’ve had better luck with Sprint than AT&T. My biggest gripe about the G1 and T-Mobile is not being able to tether my phone and netbook for internet access. While the G1 browser is alot better than some of the other smartphones there are just sometimes a laptop makes for better use. The 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ update did provide a hugh boost in performance from my usage. The menus were a little slow in operation and the battery life was terrible but I have seen marked improvements in both areas.
The end result is that I shaved about 10-15lbs off my daily gear. Between changing the equipment I used and cutting out things I didn’t need I’m sure my back thanks me. I did need a new laptop so don’t have an unused laptop sitting at home. But if you’re in the market to get mobile, I did all this for far less than $1,000 (mobile phone bill not included) which is less than some people spend on a new laptop alone. It has helped my productivity on the go increase by giving me more battery life and less weight and bulk to carry around. I don’t have quite the processing power or space I used to, but I don’t miss it.
