What a difference an inch makes

Over the last few weeks I have been blogging and podcasting about my Acer Aspire One A110L (sold in the UK as the A110-ab) with which I am more than satisfied and which has revolutionised my work because I no longer take a 15″ laptop with me, just to setup a router or access point.

Before I purchased the Acer model, I was originally thinking about buying an Asus Eee PC.  Both are, or at least were, available with Linux and so it was really a matter of which one was easier to configure for UMTS and other software that I wanted to use.  Taking a 8,9″ computer weighing about 900g with me to an appointment makes a big difference.  Plus the Linux version boots a lot quicker than the older Windows laptop.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Asus roadshow in Frankfurt and was shown the new models that will be appearing in the coming months, and it appears that these smaller laptops will be getting bigger – with 10″ or even 12″ displays.  Asus obviously believes that this is the way forward, as they have now announced that they will be phasing out the 8,9″ versions of the Eee PC this year.

Whilst I can understand the need for a 12″ version to offer an alternative to the more expensive high-end 12″ laptops, I think it is a mistake to give up the format that made this type of computer so successful.