Are you looking for a lightweight laptop or a small portable device to email, surf the internet or write your blog on? If you haven't seen them yet, you will in the very near future. What am I talking about? UMPC's, netbooks and mini notebooks, that's what I am talking about. These small gadgets are used more and more by students, bloggers and people on the road. They are light-weighted and have great functionality.In fact, these small types of notebooks are one of the biggest things that happened in computer country in the last year or so. They became very popular mainly because of the huge success of the Asus EEE PC. Not only Asus produced new types of it's successful EEE but other manufacturers also quickly realized the hgue potential of these types of devices.

What are they?

There are a lot of definitions for these devices that I've been calling UMPC, netbook or mini notebook. Check out wikipedia if you like. It will stun you how many different names people come up with for basically the same type of device. So what are common features of these devices? Well, most of them have a screensize of about 7 inches to 10 inches and they weigh about one kilogram. The processor speed is approximately 1 to 1.6 Ghz and the RAM memory is generally 1 or 2 Gb. Most of the UMPC's also have wifi capability which is considered to be an important feature for these kind of devices.

You may wonder why the UMPC's have become so popular in such a short time. There isn't a short answer to this question but I'll try anyway. First of all, a UMPC is small and light-weighted. Obviously the same goes for a mobile phone or a pda but they lack the functionality of a UMPC. UMPC's have Windows XP or even Vista as their operating system. Most manufacturers also provide the devices with a Linux operating system. These operating systems are fully functional and don't differ from the ones you would use on your desktop computer. Even mobile phones and pda's have operating systems but they generally lack the functionality of the ones on UMPC's. Furthermore, with a size of 7 to 10 inches, most UMPC's are much easier to use.

Users

Let me give a few examples of people who will find a UMPC useful. Think about bloggers for instance. If you have a job or go to school but also like to blog a lot, a UMPC is the perfect device for you. Whenever you can, where ever you can, you blog a little and than put your UMPC back in you bag. Other people who will find UMPC's useful for their daily jobs maybe journalists. Being on the road all day longand at the strangest hours is hard enough so you really don't want too much extra baggage with you. You can use any office program with a UMPC and internet with all of them. For a journalist this could be the best solutionfor his writing problems on the road.

The last example is probably the most obvious group that can benefit from this type of device. I'm talking about students of course. They have to do a lot of writing and research and also like to keep in touch with friends and fellow students. They UMPC is ideal for use in the classroom because of it's small size. For students, an extra benefit is the relative low price of most UMPC's. Yes, some come expensive but most are considerably cheaper than a normal sized notebook.The prize advantage makes the UMPC a gadget that's more than just that, it makes it a valuable productivity tool for everybody who appreciates the great functionality of the UMPC's and it's small size.

Why not visit a local computer store or a webshop and check out the most recent additions to the UMPC family?