I've been travelling by train from Berlin to Budapest for nearly twelve hours. Last Friday I realized that I couldn't bring my laptop on this trip, because it is being used as a temporary server after our network storage failed recently. It also has a number of programs installed on it which my partner needs to access during my absence.
Since we had been considering a new laptop or a netbook to upgrade our aging infrastructure, I decided there was no better time to take the plunge and discover what a netbook is really like for travel and work. After a bit of root canal work by my lovely lady dentist to get me in the mood, I wandered over to Star 61 for a shot of the best ristretto in Berlin and a look at the selection of hardware. As luck would have it, the Lenovo S10-2 netbooks were on sale for 100 euros less than the week before; with an upgrade to 2 GB RAM I still got one for less than 300 euros. It's small and light - about 1.2 kg - but the keyboard is only a little smaller than the machine on which I usually work.
The power management of this netbook is superb. I've spent a lot of time writing reviews, translating, working on my presentation for memoQfest 2010 and installing software along with food breaks, some light reading of Oscar Cammenici's adventures, and fiddling with the webcam, and I still have 45 minutes worth of power according to the battery indicator. I don't believe it, but I'm quite satisfied with the performance in any case. And it's quiet, cool and faster than the four-year-old laptop on which I've been working.
May 4, 2010
With the release of the second beta version of memoQ 4.2 I now have all the critical work applications I need running on the netbook. The performance of both DVX and memoQ as well as the Microsoft Office 2007 suite on the netbook is excellent.
I am also considering a netbook and my biggest fear is if it would be powerfull enough to run dvx. No problems at all you say? have you tried to open and work on a TM or glossary?
ReplyDeleteAntonio, my main TM has about 330,000 segments in it, which makes it open slowly in the current version of memoQ. This little Lenovo opens it faster. DVX runs faster too than on my 4-year old Toshiba Satellite laptop. It's a step up, really, in terms of performance. There are limits: small screen, smaller keyboard and max. 2 GB RAM, but I have a functioning device that weighs just over a kilogram. And I've been using it to skype my fiancé from Budapest this week and save a bundle on mobile phone bills!
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