I've been in the freelance writing field for over seven years, so I've certainly seen an evolution in the role of technology in the standard writer's toolkit.
I've always been partial to portable computers as opposed to desktop PCs for work - I just hate being chained in one spot when I'm waiting for inspiration to hit, and moving around can certainly help with staving off writer's block. On top of that, sometimes you just need to get away from the noise that comes from being around other people, and you need a perfectly quiet little corner to hide out in.
My last laptop was not gigantic, but it was a wee bit too heavy to just haul around from room to room, so I have to say that I was almost excited when it broke and I had the chance to pick up a netbook. There are plenty of choices when it comes to the various netbooks, so here are a few major considerations when it comes to looking at a netbook model to do writing work on.
Screen size: If you don't have a big monitor on hand to hook up your netbook to (many of them can output to an external monitor) then you're going to want to keep this first and foremost in your mind. Netbook screen sizes typically range from 7 inches to 10 inches, although later models are starting to move as high as 12 inches. In my opinion, that makes them more along the lines of a mini laptop, with the price to match.
The netbook I picked up has a 10.2 inch screen, which works for me. I've had no problem with using it for long writing sessions, although I personally don't think I could go with the smaller ones. There are just too many typos that will slip through at that point.
Hard Drive Space and Type: When you're mostly dealing with word documents and a bit of graphics, you really don't need all that much when it comes to hard drive space. The type is something that you'll want to pay more attention to. The typical netbook harddrive is 5400 rpm, which might be a little or a lot lower than what you would encounter on your desktop. If you're looking for a speed demon, you're going to want to pick a netbook that comes with a SSD drive. This is a solid state drive that is one of the fastest types of hard drives out there, if not the single most fastest. There are a few considerations you'll want to keep in mind with a SSD drive if you are getting a XP or Vista system - refer to the netbook tweaking guide if you need help with that.
Keyboard Size: Writers live and die by how nice their keyboards are to type on - I'm on my HP Mini 1000 about 10 - 12 hours a day between work and my own projects, and it's one of the nicest keyboards I've ever had to work on. You're going to want to look for a model that has a 92% keyboard - that is, 92% of the size of your typical keyboard, not that big of a difference - but it means the world when compared to the much smaller sizes that some netbooks are sporting.
Battery Life: If you like to wander around the town to seek out inspiration, battery life becomes a very important consideration. The power consumption of netbooks are typically much lower than your standard notebook, so you're already getting a bit of benefit from that. If you get the chance to customize or be very picky about the type of netbook you are getting, go for a 6 cell battery. This will get you 5 - 7 hours of battery life, as opposed to a much shorter time span with the more standard 3 cell battery. I have a 6 cell and I love it.
Tech Specs: Usually I would mention tech specs at this point in a netbook selection article, but to be honest if you're just running Internet and a word processor, every netbook on the market is going to have the specs to get you going. More memory is always a good thing, however this is really not that big of a consideration.
Price: Finally, we have price. Although you can spend upwards of $600 on a netbook, there is really no reason to. You can get a good writing netbook starting at around $200, although I will admit that I put down $418 for my customized HP Mini. That was more because of the fact that I do a bit of web designing as well as writing, and I wanted to go for a slightly more powerful machine. My netbook recommendation for writers, however is one of the Asus EEE PCs - I like their 10 inch ones with the 6 cell battery, listed below, although they are one of the biggest netbook manufacturers out there.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น