STAY COMM

This weekend I picked up a new Blackberry Tour and HP Mini netbook thanks to a promotion that Verizon Wireless is currently offering: Buy a Blackberry Tour and get a FREE HP Mini Netbook (with a two-year agreement on both wireless service and mobile broadband).  Total cost of hardware: $199.

Essentially, I get nearly unlimited access to the Internet all the time for $90/month.  With my montly $29.99 Blackberry data plan (unlimited data usage) and $59.99 mobile broadband plan (5GB), I can work from anywhere that receives a Verizon Wireless 3G signal; in New York City, that's virtually everywhere.  What follows will be a review of the hardware and service. Bottom line: a very worthwhile investment for the net-savvy professional.

    

First, I'd like to give props to RIM for the Blackberry Tour 9630.  Switching to this thing from the crappy Blackberry World Edition 8830 is like trading up lovers from Will Ferrel (goofy and good for laughs) to David Beckham (so hot I can't keep my hands off!).  No, I mean that ... ever since I got my tour I've been obsessively washing my hands.  I even have a hot pink rubber cover on it - whereas I went through 3 or 4 World Editions with greasy trackballs and scraped up edges from dropping it several times a day and didn't give a shit.  Know why?  It was a crappy device and the Tour is a gem.

Here are my favorite things about the Tour:

• Internet speed and quality - The Internet is much faster on the Tour than on the World Edition, which didn't support 3G.  Pages load faster and look more like what you would see on a modern computer screen than your first Nokia color-screen phone.  It's no iPhone, but it's good enough for most intents and purposes (and when it's not, I have my netbook, which I'll get to later).  The image quality and screen resolution is fantastic - 480x360 pixels with the ability to display more than 65,000 colors, making browsing easy on the eyes.

• Camera - Speaking of the image quality and screen resolution, the camera on this thing is bananas.  My garbage World Edition didn't even have a flippin' camera, so I've been all picture-happy this week.  The power of this little 3.2 Megapixel camera phone makes me realize how unnecessary most of the digital cameras that we carry around are.  Frankly, I prefer the fact that my Blackberry picks up all but the smile-lines that I've developed at my ripe age.  Oh, and this thing also has a pretty good video camera, perfect for capturing and sharing on the fly.

• Keyboard - It's nice and mushy, pleasant to type with - it almost feels a little rubbery.  The World Edition keyboard was hard, making it annoying to type out long emails which are a breeze with the Tour.

• Blackberry App World compatibility - Although Blackberries aren't exactly known for their apps, the power behind the Tour has me fanatically downloading everything from DubMeNow mobile business cards to Pandora and Shazam for music (WHAT UP! all you haters who thought Shazam was only for iPhones).

CONS: None that I can think of!

In a nutshell, I feel like I am FINALLY using a device that reflects my goal of becoming a bona-fide hittress.  For business and social purposes, the Blackberry Tour 9630 totally rocks my world.

Now, onto my brand-spankin-new HP Mini 1151NR.  This thing is awesome!  It's tiny, it's lightweight, and with a little bit of pro-activity it makes a brilliant portable computer.  Now, I haven't used a Windows operating system in years because, well, Microsoft sucks and Macs are way better, but I decided I'd have to grin and bear it since Mac hasn't jumped on the netbook bandwagon (though, when it does, I'm sure it will blow my mind and I'll be transferring my broadband mobile contract right the eff to it).

The VERY first thing I did was install Avira AntiVirus (because, yeah, PCs scare the hell out of me) - a free program that CNET raved about and I took a chance on.  So far, so good.  No viruses, though I will admit that my netbook hasn't been getting nearly as much play as my Tour or my MacBook, making it less vulnerable than if it were my primary device.  Anyhoo, here goes my review of the HP Mini 1151NR.

• Size and weight - This thing is the Lara Flynn Boyle of computers.  It's so tiny and light that from far away it looks like a thin hardcover book, and "it fits in my Prada" so I feel like a geeky Carrie Bradshaw.  Really, I'm able to bring this thing on client meetings and hit the bar with friends afterward without feeling like a weighed-down bag lady - in fact, I usually forget it's even there.  The HP Mini 1151NR is 10.3" x 6.56" x 0.99" and weighs only 2.5 lbs - yeah, it's teeny!

• Keyboard - Though it's not a full-size keyboard, at 92% of a standard size it's one of the largest that any netbook has to offer.  The keyboard reaches the very edges of the computer.  Admittedly, I'm still getting used to it.  I have pretty small hands and I've made some nonsensical typos on this thing, but I'm on it right now and getting better with every word.  I have full faith that within a week I'll be a serious contender for a typing contest (if anyone dares to challenge me!).

• Speed - If it weren't for computers and the Internet, I would probably be homeless because it's the only thing that keeps me organized.  My contacts, calendar, tasks, finances, and social life are all organized in the clouds.  Lately, I even find myself defaulting to Skype as my phone provider.  I'm constantly multi-tasking (Skyping with friends while logged into my CRM, Mint, personal and professional email) and this baby kept up with no problems.  The 1MB of built-in RAM is plenty for these basic operations. Of course it's faster on Wifi than on the 3G mobile broadband network, but that's the beauty of options!  The HP Mini defaults to Wifi and let's you connect to broadband when need-be.

• Sidenote: You can Hackintosh this thing, though I haven't because I'm worried that the broadband mobile won't work with it.  If you know anything about this - email sarah[at]stay-comm[dot]com.

CONS: The built-in webcam is kind of bush-league since I'm used to Apple's built-in iSight on my MacBook, but since that's the HP Mini's biggest flaw, it still gets an A- in my book.

So in a nutshell, Verizon's Blackberry Tour and HP Mini deal is definitely worth it for the work-from-anywhere professional.  If you've got $200 and can justify a $90 monthly data bill, this device/service combo will let you have a mobile work environment that is compact, flexible, and efficient.