Top tips for choosing an ultra-small laptop

Tiny laptops are big business, but by choosing a micro-sized portable you may have to make sacrifices if you’re not careful. Follow our simple top tips to ensure you dodge naff mini notebooks, and we guarantee you’ll be clued up on what to look for when on the prowl for the perfect portable PC in no time.

Step 1: Beware of batteries
All laptops suffer from battery issues, but because ultra-portable laptops are so small, it’s less of a hassle to carry a back-up with you. The Eee PC uses tiny power packs, roughly the size of a stick of rock, but not all laptops are so accommodating.

Beware that Apple’s MacBook Air features a built-in battery that can’t be easily replaced on the road. Once it’s out of juice, you’ll have to find somewhere to plug it in.

Step 2: Missing features
Many micro laptops ditch features to save size and weight. The MacBook Air and Eee PC both lack DVD drives, for instance, and it’s hard to expand them beyond simple USB add-ons.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. Toshiba’s R500 is light, powerful, and packs a built in optical drive too. Sure, it’s bigger and more expensive than the Eee PC, and not quite as slick as the MacBook Air, but in terms of features it’s a titan.

Step 3: OS SOS
Lots of the cheapest laptops available now use an operating system called Linux instead of Microsoft Windows. It has several advantages. For a start, it’s free, so you’ll pay much less for your laptop overall. It also uses less power, so you’ll see improved battery life. In terms of usability, it’s just as simple as Windows, with familiar icons and obvious applications for word processing, email and web browsing already built in.

If you’re planning to run existing Windows software on a Linux laptop however, it won’t work. You’ll need to look out for optional Windows installations, which will increase the price, but should mean everything is instantly recognisable, and will work just fine with any software or hardware you’ve already bought.

Must have accessories
USB hard drive – Mini laptops typically lack the hangar-like hard disks of their larger brethren. You can side-step the problem with a USB hard drive, offloading or archiving large files you don’t need to carry every day, and saving yourself from deleting things purely to save space.

Spare battery – No matter how small or efficient your laptop, it’s sure to run out of juice just when you need it most. Cover yourself in case of an emergency with an extra battery. It’ll give you the power to work for a full day without a re-charge, and shouldnt’ weigh you down too much.

Get chatting and have your questions answered on Laptops over on the PriceRunner Forum.

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