When people take their first look at Sony’s Mini Laptop, they may not be sure whether it’s a really small laptop or a very big smartphone. I can assure you, it’s a laptop. Weighting only 1.2 lbs and having the dimensions of 5.91” x 3.74 x 1.27 – 1.50, the smallest Sony laptopis the UX180P. A quick look though the specs reveal the fact that this laptop runs on a 1.2 GHz Intel Core Solo U1400 processor with the help of 512 MB of RAM.

The graphics card is an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 which has 128 MB of shared video memory. It has 30 GB of free disk space and some pretty other nice features that we are going to write about later in this article. As you already know, Sony puts a great deal of accent on the design of its products more than anything else. All of this mini laptop’s features are cramped inside a very small unit. It has a 4.5 inch display, built in same Sony style as usual. The left and right mouse buttons are located on the lower left side.

Above the display there is a webcam and on the lower right side you have the zoom controls, a power switch, the pointed and the built in microphone. Just like some cell phone models, the display slides up to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. On the left side of the unit you can find an USB port and a slot for the SIM card. On the top of the unit you can find a memory stick duo slot, a switch for the camera that helps focus selection and a capture button for taking pictures. The bottom hosts the I/O connector and the DC in port. When you slide the display you will see another integrated digital camera. It also has a very durable antenna. The overall built in quality of this mini laptop is satisfying for a unit this small.

The LCD is excellent, just like many other displays available on regular Sony VAIO laptop models. The nicest part is that the images shown on the screen are visible and clear even if you are outside on a sunny day. The best resolution for this display (or at least the recommended one) is 1024 x 600 pixels. The screen is touch sensitive (this is why the laptop comes with a stylus pen) and you can control it even with your fingertips. Remember that the display is exposed all of the time due to the unique design of this mini laptop so make sure you have a protective case is which you can carry it permanently so you don’t scratch or damage the LCD in any way.

As you can imagine, this mini laptop can handle about anything that a netbook can handle you can use it for surfing the internet and working on some documents. The hard disk is shock protected just as it should be in the case of such a small laptop which is carried around all the time and therefore exposed to a bigger risk of being dropped or damaged in any other way. There are 3 levels of protection but the bigger the level of protections is, the more the performance of the unit drops. It’s very difficult (almost impossible) to upgrade the components.

The keyboard is normally hidden under the display. It is backed up by blue LED lights which make it easier to type even in a poorly lit room. The lights will stay turned on for 15 seconds after you’ve pressed the last button. Almost all the buttons have been assigned with secondary functions. The keys are flat and apparently the feedback is not that great which means sometimes you won’t be able to know if a button has actually been pressed unless you look at the screen. It’s only a matter of time until you get used to this type of keyboard. The pointing stick is very responsive and pressure sensitive. Combines with the left and right mouse buttons plus the additional center button, you will be able to handle the UX’s actions really fast and in an efficient way. Be careful when using your fingers to control the touch screen. Sharp fingernails plus excessive force can scratch the display and using your fingertips can leave fingerprints so in the end, the stylus pen is the wisest choice.



The battery life of this UX is one of the key success factors because when you design a laptop so small to make it portable, you have to equip it with a long lasting battery so every buyer can use this laptop whenever they need it. The average period of usage for this laptop with its equipped battery is about 3 hours. It’s not a low number but it’s not impressive either and since we have netbook that can stay alive and running for almost 6 hours, we would have expected a better performance from a 1.2 lbs laptop. The UX comes with one integrated speaker which can’t handle too much pressure. It has two cameras, one located in the front and the other in the back. The front camera acts just like the camera of a regular laptop, which can be used for video chatting. The one in back is just like a cell phone’s camera which means you can take pictures or record videos.



In conclusion, the positive aspects outrun the negative ones, making this mini laptop a good choice for people on the go who are in need of connecting to the internet for a short period of time. The battery life is a little disappointing and the camera’s quality is very low. I’m guessing you won’t be using the UX as a replacement for a digital camera so this aspect may not affect you very much. It’s available for purchase from the Sony website, if you have $1800 to pay for it, that is. It does have nice features like the integrated Bluetooth and the beautiful and small display. It has a docking station included to increase the functionality.

Best Buy is a major retail store from the United States of America which is also operating in other countries, such as: Mexico, China, Turkey , Canada and the UK. It is a large chain of stores, with more than 1,150 stores in all of these countries, and it is specialized in consumer electronic products.

In case you don’t have a Best Buy store nearby, and you are living in the United States of America, you can also buy a product directly from the site of the company, which is simply: bestbuy.com. The electronic products that are interesting us are the laptops, and you can find more than 130 different models of notebooks here on this site. They are sorted according to different criteria, and the first three big categories are: laptops, MacBooks, and netbooks. And for today we are going to focus on one of the Best Buy mini laptops, the Samsung – Netbook with Intel ® Atom ™ Processor – White, Model: NP-N 210-JA 02 US.

This is found at the “netbooks” category of course, and it is made exclusively for  Best Buy. In case you don’t already know what a mini laptop is (or a netbook), here are some features that it has: it is very lightweight and small, smaller than a regular laptop so it is the ideal companion PC to browse the web and access your e-mail wherever you are going. It usually has a screen of 10 inch, but the condition is to be smaller than 12 inch, for high portability. To reduce its weight, it doesn’t have an optical drive and of course it has built in wireless networking for connecting easy to the internet.

So now let’s focus more on the Samsung netbook we mentioned before. It has a price of 359 dollars, and it offers quite the usual features found on a netbook. These won’t seem very powerful features to you, but they are just good enough for simple activities such as browsing the internet, writing mails or documents. Its processor is an Intel ® Atom ™ processor N 450, that features a 667 MHz system bus, 512 KB cache and 1.66 GHz processor speed. The RAM memory is 1 GB of DDR 2 memory, that can be expanded optionally for up to 2 GB. As we said earlier, it doesn’t have an optical drive, and display screen is a 10.1″ WSVGA LED display with a 1024 x 600 resolution. The hard drive is quite a really good one for such a small laptop, offering 250 GB of disc space, which can be enough for most of the users.

Its graphics engine is an Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator 3150, that features 128 MB of shared video memory. And of course you will also need some sound on your netbook, and this model has built in speakers with HD audio support. And it even comes with a built in webcam and a 3 in 1 media reader (that supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity and MultiMediaCard formats). Like any other laptop it has both wireless and Ethernet connectivity for easy access to the internet, and 3 USB ports.

Its weight is just 2.8 lbs and it measures just 1.2 inch thin, to it is highly portable. Another advantage offered by the netbooks is their battery life, which is much bigger compared to that of the regular laptops. And this model can last for up to 7 hours on a charge. In case you decide to buy it from Best Buy you will be able to use it right after you receive it, because it comes with an installed operating system: the Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition. It also offers some installed software, such as: Adobe Acrobat Reader, Cyberlink YouCam and more.

So after all it is quite a good netbook, that comes at an accessible price, and that offers just the features you might need for browsing the internet (that’s why they are called NETbooks). So enjoy it, and have a nice day!

The technology never seems to stop evolving. Many years ago the top technology in the IT domain was considered the computer. Some years ago the laptop was considered the best device in this category…but today things had changed again, and there are some devices even more advanced than laptops. And here we have 2 of them, the netbooks and the Tablet PC’s. The netbooks can be considered better because they are much smaller, so they integrate almost the same technologies in even smaller components, and the Tablet PC’s can be considered more advanced than laptops thanks to their touch screen and rotating screen technology.

Today we’ll focus on the small netbooks, and some of the best mini notebooks are made by the same producers that make the bigger laptops. Even though a netbook is not as powerful as a bigger laptop, it can be a great choice for those interested just in the simple computer tasks. And the biggest advantage will be the size…a netbook is much smaller, lighter so much portable than a laptop. For today we won’t discuss about one of the best mini notebooks on the market, but we’ll talk about one made by a producer that we didn’t mentioned before. The company is Averatec, and the model is the N 1231 EA 1 E-1S | SKU: 9812044. This one has a very attractive price of just 279 dollars at Best Buy. And to understand better what it has to offer, here are its complete technical details:

-  Warranty Terms – Parts  1 year limited
-Warranty Terms – Labor 1 year limited
-  Product Height 0.9 ”
-  Product Width 10.7 ”
-  Product Weight 2.2 lbs.
-  Product Depth 6.5 ”
-  Color Category Silver
-  Processor Brand Intel ®
-  Processor Intel ® Atom ™
-  Processor Speed 1.66 GHz
-  Battery Type 2 cell lithium-polymer
-  Display Type Widescreen WXGA LED-LCD (1024 x 600)
-  Screen Size (Measured Diagonally) 10.1 ”
-  System Bus 667 MHz
-  Cache Memory 512 KB on die Level 2
-  System Memory (RAM) 1 GB
-  System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 2 GB
-  Type of Memory (RAM) DDR 2
-  Hard Drive Type SATA II (5400 rpm)
-  Computer Hard Drive Size 160 GB
-  Optical Drive Not included
-  Direct-Disc Labeling No
-  Digital Media Reader or SlotsYes, digital media card reader
-  Graphics Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
-  TV Tuner No
-  MPEG  No
-  Built-in Webcam Yes
-  Modem None
-  Networking Built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet (RJ 45 connector)
-  Wireless Networking Wireless – B+G+N
-  Bluetooth-Enabled No
-  S-Video Outputs None
-  Audio RealTek high-definition support
-  Speakers Internal
-  PCMCIA Slots None
-  USB 2.0 Ports 2
-  IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports None
-  Parallel Ports None
-  Game Ports None
-  Laptop Weight Ultraportable (5.5 lbs. or less)
-  Battery Life Not available
-  Pointing Device Touchpad
-  HDMI Output No
-  Blu-ray Player No
-  Operating System Windows XP Home
-  Included Software Adobe Reader and more
-  ENERGY STAR Qualified No
-  BBY Software Installer No

So as you can see, most of the features are quite ok, and they can be compared to those offered by more expensive netbooks. The only thing that seems weaker is the battery. It is only a 2 cell Lithium Ion battery, and the battery life is not even specified. So this can be a good budget choice for you.