Review: Advent 4211-B netbook – small, useful, affordable
There is a lot of publicity surrounding the new smaller-sized notebooks, sometimes called the Netbooks. Does it work in real life and should you consider buying one? Is my Advent 4211-B netbook truly usable?
The IT industry is very good at thinking of a totally impractical solution to a non-existent problem and then claiming it as a major breakthrough. My Advent 4211-B is a Netbook and an excellent computer. But it is not a new, major breakthrough. The concept of Netbooks has been around for a long time.
I have a Sharp PC-3000 which is 4.3 X 8.7 inches and on which I probably wrote half a million words. It weighs 480g. Yes, the keyboard is a bit small but it never caused me a problem. The software is proprietary — I think originally written in Woking in England — and the Sharp is slower than a wet Sunday in Wales. But is it ever portable. The original machine is on the desk as I write this. I will never throw it away. It is damn near perfection in portable computing.
Before that there was the NEC 8210A of blessed memory — also sold rebadged by Tandy and Olivetti — on which I could, and did hammer out words on flights to Europe.
After it came the Hewlett-Packard Omnibook — the original version — which, at a push, would run on AA batteries and most computer journalists used one. I got my last one from Tony Waltham on the Bangkok Post. It eventually died under the workload.
The nutty Clive Sinclair had one with a rubber keyboard which was ultralight but which had a very odd operating system and was not easy to use. But it was light, it was usable.
The point is the idea of very light, smallish notebooks has been with us since the 1970s. It is not a new idea although the assorted marketing departments would have us think so.
Already this new area is already badly fragmented. A simple starting rule is to say that if it does not weigh under 1.5kg it is not in the race.
I started with the Sony Vaio VGN-TZ17GN which weighs a 1.2kg and, with a 11.1 inch widescreen display, is smaller than an A4 notepad. This has been by main machine for a long while and, although it is slightly stuck together with tape and ShoeGoo it still operates, still works, still is a total delight.
If I wanted a true replacement — another Sony Vaio — it would cost me, say, $1,100 for openers (offered new on eBay in the United States) and a bit more if I wanted in fully specced with BlueTooth and all those good things.
So I went in another direction and got an Advent 4211-B which was less than $500.
(As I understand it this is a rebadged MSI Wind because pretty much everything is interchangeable. Important is that the Advent is better-looking and somewhat less expensive. Black, with tiny silver specks, was ever my color. I think white notebooks somewhat vulgar.)
It measures 10.24 by 6.7 inches and is well under our weight limit.
It has some odd attachments which I have, in truth, not tested such as an onboard video camera so that I can talk to my loved ones when connected to the Internet. This is not a big scene with me. Which may have something to do with a character flaw rather than the computer.
The keyboard is large — not as large as my desktop but very close — and it is easy to use. It is a vital feature on a machine like this which is why the opening picture is of my keyboard. The Advent comes with Windows XP loaded and runs on the Intel Atom processor N770 which is not overly quick.
This matters not if what you are doing mainly is processing words. Which is what I do. Even accessing the Internet it is mainly about words.
Typically I fly between Sydney, Thailand and Europe several times a year. Almost like a shuttle service. I need some battery life — I travel in cattle class for it is my money buying the ticket — and it has to be able to stand up to fairly adverse conditions. The Advent does it splendidly and I am very happy to use it in economy to rattle out words.
I have never had trouble with the keyboard. I happily trundle this notebook around the world and never think of using an Internet cafe.
But I cheat. Not an immense amount, but a bit.
When I get to, say, Bangkok I check into the hotel where in storage I have a small case which contains, among other things, a plug in keyboard and a plug in mouse. The keyboard is full size and cost me, from memory, $12 in the Pan Thip Plaza in Bangkok and I think I was overcharged. I have similar suitcases in most places I travel and they all contain a plug in full size keyboard.
I have just been rattling around Europe by train on an Eurail Pass — highly recommended — and I actually used the plug in keyboard on the train. Worked like a dream.
I get about five hours from a battery and always carry two.
The Advent came with a free copy of Microsoft Works — which I dislike intensely — containing a lot of built-in ads. I yanked that lost and use Notepad for writing and Open Office for final editing.
Summing up: netbooks work if you chose the right one.
The Advent 4211 is probably the cheapest 10 inch netbook out there and its looks are, to my blearly eye, superior to the MSI Wind. For a perpetually perambulating writer this machine is pretty close to ideal. I actually prefer it to my Vaio. Which is, I know, heresy. But is true.
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