Bought a Netbook. Here’s Why (plus a review)

I’m sitting outside the Brooklyn Public Library, on a glorious pre-summer day, typing away on my new netbook, a Lenovo Ideapad s10e.

It was a bit of an impulse buy since I the “want” only hit me a couple of days prior to me walking out of J&R with a netbook.  But I believe it will prove to be a useful addition to my freelance web design arsenal.  I must admit that the surprisingly low prices on these things, combined with my equally surprising rush of incoming business over the last few weeks helped spur on the purchase : )

Worry Not.  I’m still a Mac.

Yes, I still pledge my allegiance to Steve Jobs and mac nation (world).  My primary machine is the Mac Pro, I still find casual use for my Powerbook G4 (usually while sitting on the couch), and I carry an iPhone and an iPod in my pockets at all times.  I will continue to use Macs for the majority of my computing.

So, Why a Netbook?

Because it’s just so damn light-weight and easy to throw in my backpack.  But why must I have a computer everywhere you say?  Valid point.  Not such a healthy addition to my already ridiculous addition to the internet.  But I do believe it will help me to be more productive – especially during this summer.

Over the past year, blogging has become a major component to my workload.  between this blog, my Serve The Song blog, CasJam Media, and regular guest posts on other blogs (like this one), I write an average of three blog posts a week.

Being able to take my blogging workload on the road will be a big help managing my daily tasks.  I live in Brooklyn, New York City, where life we are totally reliant on the (chronically unreliable) public transit system.  The subways, buses, Long Island Railroad and Metro North Railroad are where I spend a (sadly) huge chunk of my life these days).  Being able to pass that time between destinations by breaking out the netbook and knocking out some blog posts will be huge.

It’s also a great way to get my freelancing ass out of my apartment and into the beautiful weather during the work days this summer.  I found a fantastic new outdoor working location in my neighborhood (where I sit as I type this post), and I expect to spend many of my upcoming afternoons sitting out here blogging, emailing, perhaps some light coding work, researching, and other work-tasks.  Yup, the umbrella table has free public Wi-Fi.  I’m a happy freelancer.

The Review: Lenovo Ideapad s10e

I will now round out this post with a review of my new toy.

For a PC, it’s got a surprisingly clean and comfortable design.  It’s incredibly light and compact (about 2.5 lbs) with a 10.1 inch display.  It folds up quite nicely with a flat “book” feel.  It’s got a nice rounded corner design, similar to many mac products.

The Keyboard

The keyboard was a main component in my purchase decision.  It had to be easy to type and comfortable to the touch.  This one certainly is.  The keys have a nice bounce to them.  Of course, everything on the keyboard is slightly smaller and more compact than a typical desktop keyboard, but not so drastically different that there’s a learning curve.  You can get up and running with a pretty fast typing speed right away.

The one disappointment in the keyboard (so far) is the right shift key.  It’s smaller than the left shift key, and positioned directly to the right of the up arrow key, causing frequent mis-strokes.  I expect it will take a couple weeks of getting used to.

The Trackpad

The trackpad is very nice in comparison to other netbooks out there.  Very responsive and not overly sensitive (you can adjust the sensitivity in settings, but I haven’t had the need).  You can scroll vertically and horizontally using the right and bottom edges of the trackpad area (area is adjustable in settings).

The two click buttons are somewhat thin, but they’re placed nicely below the trackpad (I’m not a fan of mouse buttons placed on the right and left of the pad, as they are in the HP netbooks).

One small (but fixable) nit – By default, the trackpad has a feature where a very light tap anywhere on the trackpad will act as a click.  I found this to be very annoying as it would click things I didn’t actually want to.  You can disable this feature in the settings: Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings > Synaptics Touchpad > Settings > Tapping > Uncheck “Enable Tapping”.

The Display

Unfortunately, this model has a glossy display.  I hate glossy displays.  I never understood why any computer maker would release them.  The glare is quite annoying when working outside.  So why did I get it?  Actually, I didn’t realize this model had the glossy display.  I was playing with the white version in the store, which has the matte display.  I took home the black version, which I didn’t realize had the glossy display.  Unfortunately, only the black version has the extra battery-life.

Working in-doors however is a much different story.  The colors and resolution look great.

Software

It’s running Windows XP, which is what it is.  It’s no mac.  But but also not the piece of garbage that is Vista.  I’m currently looking into various offline blogging apps for Windows, which I will post a review of shortly.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE 5.27.09: I returned the Lenovo ideapad.  Decided to go for the Asus eee PC instead : )  The display is much better for outdoor use, plus the battery life is super strong and the overall quality and build is much more solid.  I’m happy.