There really are not enough hours in the day. Or the week. Or the month. And the years are certainly elapsing too quickly. How can it possibly be October again?
If I had a small sum for every great article I have written in my head at various times when I did not have access to a computer to memorialize it, I could probably retire. But I am determined to stem the tide of ideas and words flowing out of my memory bank before they are captured on a hard drive: I have joined the legion of laptop computer owners.
Two laptops, to be exact.
I have been looking for a laptop for a long time, but was determined to find just the right model. And for me, that meant it had to meet two specific criteria: Full functionality, but extremely lightweight.
Thanks to Susan at Toddler Planet, I think I’ve found the solution. I will let you know in a couple of weeks when I take delivery of my new toy, a Dell Mini 9.
Dell's New Mini 9 Computer
I have been reading Susan’s posts for a long time. On September 7, 2007, she wrote All things . . . in which she expressed her happiness and anticipation about purchasing Dell’s newest model. I followed the link she provided to Dell’s website and discovered that they were offering a special deal for a limited time: Purchase a standard laptop and get a Mini-9 for $99.00.
I travel a lot on business and always need a laptop, but I do not use my business laptop to perform personal tasks. Hence my desire to have a separate laptop available so that when, for instance, I am alone in a hotel, I will be able to blog, chat with friends, etc.
Most of my business travel is by car. On those times, the 15.4″ laptop I purchased will be extremely useful. I have already received it and begun using it in a variety of settings.
But when I fly, the Mini-9 will be perfect because it only weighs 2.8 pounds! It is also small and lightweight enough that I can carry it with me virtually all of the time. That means that when I have a few spare moments — and begin writing a post or article in my head — I will be able to open it up and memorialize my thoughts before they are lost forever. I purchased a model with a 16GB hard drive which will be powerful enough to run the software I need. Memory sticks are now incredibly inexpensive. I already have a couple that store 1GB of memory and recently saw one on sale for a very reasonable price that can hold up to 4GB of data.
I am really looking forward to receiving and using the Mini 9. I will let you know if it allows me to increase my productivity in the manner I desire and anticipate.
Do you own a laptop computer? Do you find that it enhances your productivity? Do you carry it with you regularly? If not, why not? What steps other than purchasing/using a laptop have you taken recently to increase your productivity? Or perhaps you are accomplishing all that you desire. Is so, what’s your secret?
Also published at Write Anything.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
that’s so cool. :O i’ve been reading about that device.
i do have a laptop, but it’s a huge, heavy thinkpad. :O i love it, but i carry it around regularly, so it can be quite a pain, especially at the end of a long day.
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Thanks for sharing this wonderful post. The information you have got here is so insightful and informative. I am sure more people would love to read this.
i do have a laptop, but it’s a huge, heavy thin pad. i love it, but i carry it around regularly, so it can be quite a pain, especially at the end of a long day.
Laptops are awesome for improving productivity, but even then there are not enough hours in the day!
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Well, is this a problem many people have (not wanting to use your business laptop for personal tasks)? I mean, it’s just email and personal webpage views, docs, etc. I would imagine anything more would require an actual fully fledged laptop.
I have a business laptop, and I check my personal email, visit websites, etc. on it. What I might consider is something like the macbook air or something super light like one of the IBM thinkpads (i believe it’s the Z series). But this little thing I couldn’t bother with really. My 2 cents.
Cheers
Cool laptop, so small and for $99 bucks?!?! Wow, you’re walking away with a steal.
I too have a laptop and can’t imagine what I would do without it. Owning a laptop definitely enhances my productivity, otherwise, I would spend a lot of my days stuck at the computer desk rather than have the convenience of relocating to another room to do my work.
As far a carrying it with me wherever I go, the Blackberry suits me fine. Not only does it serve my needs for internet purposes but also doubles as a phone and fits in my purse. Love it!
I gotta own one too. It’s amazing to have such gadget. Quite reliable for my kind of work.
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Congratulations on your new purchase. The new Dell looks nice. I use an Apple Macbook Pro 15″ and it is great. There are times when it would be nice to have a smaller machine so I acquired a Sony Vaio UX-230. This is the small handheld PC with a 4″ (or so) sized screen. I take that places when the Apple is too big. The Dell looks like a great travel companion.
my laptop is an extension of my arms!!! we are inseparable & i do find that since it has been in my life, i write so much more than i did with a desktop. another thing that helps (for those short trips to the grocery store when a laptop would be a bit “off”), is keeping a journal in my purse for writing during those unexpected & inspired moments
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I have a dell inspirion 1721, and I gotta say that I have been really pleased with it so far. I was looking at the new dell mini series, but didnt like the small hard drive size. I was actually looking at getting the new laptop by acer, which is pretty small and only $350. But hey, if you were already getting a laptop from dell and could get the mini for $99, that is pretty sweet.
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i do have a laptop, but it’s a huge, heavy thin pad. i love it.
I used a laptop for years as a professor. It was great to be able to write while waiting in an airport or even on the plane.
Plus I could get work done in my hotel room at conferences.
The major problem I found was that it was so heavy and bulky to travel with. It sounds like you’ve found one that overcomes those weaknessses. Congratulations.
Warmly,
Linda P. Morton
I have two laptops, not so new, but find myself using the old desktop for most writing - not sure why - my problem is having files scattered everywhere and never (imagine!) on the machine I’m connected to. Sigh.
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these are saving our time. portable .
i think laptop have a great importance to human at least to employees…
your post is good …..
A laptop weighing just over two pounds would be great for travel. When those came out, I wondered if they’d be hard to use because of their size.
Thanks for stopping by the other day!
Thanks for the kind words! I ordered mine with Ubuntu linux so it still hasn’t shipped
but I am SO looking forward to using it!
Susan
When one is on the Internet, time flies so fast. You can do lots of work somewhere inside, but can still connect with the outside world.
I have hanging around with the laptop, I prefer having a tiny notepad and a pen sitting in my pocket wherever I go. Lightweight, always ready for work, don’t demand charging, don’t turn off when you need them most - just perfect - and they are cheeeeeap:)))
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I have a laptop, but it is quite old and I just occasionally use it for Word Processing. It only has 96MB of RAM (which is almost nothing), so I don’t even want to try to connect it to the Internet.