Netbooks: A Cheap Alternative to Work Travel

Jonathan Blum

Planet small biz, meet the netbook: a quick and relatively cheap portable computer that not only gets your small business more virtual but keeps your people off the road -- and away from burning pricey fossil fuels.

"Netbooks" (networked notebooks, get it?) are part of new product angle from big laptop vendors like Hewlett-Packard, (HPQ Quote), Lenova (LNV Quote) and Dell (DELL Quote). The marketing notion here is to create a line of computers with average computational power suited to run both standard business applications and the new generation of online business process apps delivered via the Web.

"A year ago, I don't think anybody in this thought this netbook market would be where it is today," says Jeremy Brody, Global Business Notebook Product Manager for HP, based Palo Alto, Calif. (Big note: If you have not at least touched online word processing, spreadsheet and other business applications, stop reading right now and go take a look. These online business tools -- Google's (GOOG Quote)Google Apps , Microsoft's (MSFT Quote) Microsoft Office Live, Adobe's (ADBE Quote) Acrobat.com to similar tools from Salesforce.com (CRM Quote) or NetSuite (N Quote) -- are excellent ways to get your people working where they live or from fuel saving remote offices.)

Netbooks -- and their desktop equivalents, dubbed nettops (networked desktops) -- combine an interesting mix of features: Netbooks are relatively light, around four pounds. They're nothing like the under-two-pound ultraportables, but lighter than the eight-pound-plus desktop replacements. They are relatively cheap, starting in the $500ish range, with properly configured units running around $700. Again, not as low-cost as super-discount notebooks, but far cheaper than high-end portables like the MacBook Air from Apple (AAPL Quote) or the Toshiba's (TOSBF Quote) r500.

Netbooks offer relatively modest performance. Photoshop or similar computational monsters will not work well. But you can expect perfectly reasonable results for Web-based apps like Google Docs and offline tools like Microsoft Office. And netbooks offer significant networking power such as wireless access, Bluetooth and faster riffs of USB.

"These machines are perfect for a small business that needs simple, relatively powerful -- potentially second -- machines that can travel easily and can work well on the Web and offline," said Kyle Thornton, manager of the ultra-mobile category for H-P.

Testing 1, 2, 3...

I have been testing a new generation of netbooks over the past few weeks, the HP 2133 Mini Note PC (approx. $500 to $1,000 depending on configuration). And true to the concept, it is an average machine. It is far from the lightest unit I have tested recently.

The 2133 configured for my test -- with a bigger battery, processors and RAM needed to handle notoriously resource-hoggy Windows Vista -- came in close to 4.2 pounds with chargers and cables. That's basically twice the heft of the Sony VAIO TZ. And the screen was, frankly, cramped at just below 8 inches. This is a very small display, basically on par with an early portable computer from the '90s.

Expect to spend some time noodling to get screen configuration and resolution to match your preferences. And the unit gets hot. You will not want to run this thing on your lap for any extended period.

But the relatively modest VIA 1.6G processors, running 2 GB of RAM on the 2133, offered a surprising amount of processing punch. Windows Vista Business with Microsoft Office 2007 ran just fine. And the 2133 performed satisfactorily on most benchmarks I ran. I will spare you the geek-speak here. But you can expect most business tasks to run smoothly, including downloading and installing programs, background virus scans and updates. And most average business software packages will function robustly and stably.

The 2133 is done in a very nice aluminum case that is durable and attractive. In my few weeks of lugging it around New York and Michigan, the unit did not scratch or otherwise degrade. Overall construction is solid. And the near-fullsize keyboard is reasonable, even for the typing challenged.

But honestly, these are all details. If you are like me -- to be polite, "worried" about exactly where the average small business is going to find the money to invest in all the new gear, while gulping down $6-a-gallon diesel bills -- the 2133 is a reasonable option. The unit can be installed quickly. It will give your workers a remote work platform they can use the same day to get their work done from home; and cut down on road time and gas expenditures.

It boils down to this: Either you take a good look at cutting your fuel exposure or you run the real risk of being out of step with the competition.

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