Introduction Notebooks have become more popular and sophisticated over the years. Although standard notebooks are portable, carrying them for a long time is tiresome and uncomfortable. What is the best alternative to notebooks then? The answer is mini notebooks or netbooks, portable Internet devices which are smaller than a notebook but much larger than a smartphone. Mini notebooks are an advantage to students, periodic travelers and professionals. This new segment for notebook PCs has gained a lot of popularity in a very short span of time. The BenQ Joybook Lite U101 is a good example of a classic design for a netbook. Specs….. Pros and Cons My first impression of the Joybook Lite U101 is of a fully functional notebook which is extremely light and ultraportable; however, the BenQ Joybook Lite U101 is unique in that it is the first netbook to include a 16:9 display. The 10.1” inch display screen is an ultra vivid widescreen LED with backlit display. The resolution of 1024 x 576 provides ultimate clarity and makes the Joybook Lite U101 ideal for widescreen movie playback. However, the aspect ratio of 16:9 has the disadvantage of losing the 24 lines of horizontal resolution in comparison to a 10.2” display screen with 16:10 aspect ratio. The BenQ Joybook Lite U101 is ultra light, portable and easy to use as it weighs only 1.05kg. The keypad is designed to deliver a full-sized PC experience as it is 90% the size of a normal QWERTY keyboard. The touchpad is also spacious and gap free. The Intel Atom processor, which is especially designed for netbooks, is responsible for conserving power whilst still providing decent performance in netbooks. The Intel Atom model N270 is found in the Joybook Lite U101, along with Intel GMA950 integrated graphics which supports DirectX 9.0. The Joybook Lite U101 is outfitted with 512MB of RAM with an upgrade option to 1GB. Massive storage capacity is at hand with dual drive support. The model which I reviewed had a 160GB hard drive but other options include 120GB and lower. An SSD with a capacity of 4GB or 16GB are also other options. |