Although it might not be the best option it you’re using a laptop as your main computer, for those of us with desktops, virtualization is the answer.

If we were talking a big and heavy 15 incher or larger, the pendulum would have swung heavily over to the Netbook side of the equation.

It also depends on what you plan on doing in any given situation. I rarely need to do heavy computational lifting while on trips, it’s mostly getting on the Net and maybe light office work – which you can do very well on a Netbook if you arm yourself with a modicum of patience.

Netbooks are a very viable choice for business travelers with ones average workaday needs. In your case, considering your everyday machine is so small, not so much.

While I appreciate the screen and keyboard size of the HA, in some regards I miss the small footprint and relative ruggedness (and street cred) I enjoyed with the 701 – I tend to treat the HA (with its HDD) with a tad more respect – but I’ve never really felt hampered by the abilities of either device.

It has the netbook form factor, but much more horsepower.

If I could afford the P1630, I’d purchase one of those next, rather than a netbook.

I travel a lot, and corporate applications such as Outlook (my OST is 2GB) would kill a netbooks Atom processor.

I agree with Ozone’s comments – well said.

Netbook (or iPhone) is easier to use in more social settings; laptop usually is at the hotel for when I need to do real work. On the plane it is a toss up (if in first class, then probably the laptop, if crammed in the back, the netbook is easier to manage).

Then you will have power and portability.

Thanks for the post! That is exactly what I am going through right now!

I am thinking of the Lenovo U110. I have checked your previous posts and obviously you were so happy with it back then.

What do you think about the U110 Nowadays James! I need your opinion please because I am so close to order one. It got the power of a Laptop except for the slow Hard disk which I might change later on to SDD and got the portable small thin 10″ netbook size.

Thanks

I would stick with the Mac, and forget the netbooks/MIDs.

Just take your Mac, Mifi, Curve mouse, and all three phones.

I’ve tried PDAs with collapsible keyboards, tablets (which were not bad), Windows CE devices (similar in size to netbooks)… at the end of the day, all were too underwhelming and ergonomically irritating to be productive.

Apple got it right – I have a MacBook Air now. They reduced it in the one dimension that makes sense. At the end of the day, you want to be comfortable and confident with your work – a generous keyboard and screen goes a LONG way. Now if you’re just on holiday and want to back up photos and check you’re email now and then, well, even a PDA or souped smart phone can take care of that now. But you need to do serious work, you need something that you use seriously.

I was waiting for the Lenovo S12 until the news broke that the Ion version was going to be months away. My response was to pick up an ACER Timeline 13 inch. Same easy to carry 3.4 pounds as that Lenovo S12…but with a MUCH more useful 13.3 inch high def screen and amazing 8 hours of battery life (see reviews at places like Laptop Magazine and many other sites). It’s an ultraportable on the cheap, not as powerful and expensive and heavy as the Macbook and not as inexpensive and underpowered as a netbook….an easy to carry 3.4 pound compromise that speeds past all the current netbooks yet delivers a real 8 hours on one charge.