Understanding Mobile PCs

You may have decided that you needed something more than a desktop computer to answer your need to be online even when you are traveling or away from home. You may have bought a laptop or notebook computer, and taken advantage of its portability in fulfilling your need to connect to the Internet on the go.

Like many other notebook users, you may have found that laptops have their own disadvantages - even the lightest of laptops seems to weigh a ton at the end of a long workday, especially if you have been lugging it around for most of the day. Added to it are the risks of dropping your laptop and damaging it, or having your lap growing uncomfortably hot due to prolonged use of the laptop. You also need to buy many accessories for the laptop like a docking station and an anti-theft device.

You also have to upgrade the laptop hardware periodically and unlike a desktop PC where you can add on hardware to a great extent, the modification options are very limited in the laptop due to the form factor. Is there another option available that can help you be online at will without the downsides of the laptop?

The answer to this question is the Mobile PC. They are also known as tablet PCs, a term coined by Microsoft. In keeping with the preference of the user for handheld devices, the mobile PC too, can be a handheld device.

Most Mobile PCs have a screen for display that can be as large as 17" diagonally across and with a resolution of 1980X1200. Smaller devices can have a screen 4" on the diagonal. The size of the device decides the weight, with mobile PCs weighing anywhere from 2 pounds to 6 pounds.

Mobile PCs use a stylus for input on a touch screen using an on-screen keyboard. The Mobile PC may have capabilities of handwriting recognition, allowing the user to input text using the stylus on the screen and usually offers selection, and drag and drop facility traditionally provided by the mouse using the stylus.

Mobile PCs can run the Windows Tablet PC, Linux or Mac OSX operating systems. They operate off the battery and typically come with 512MB of RAM. The applications to be used on Mobile PCs have to conform to the form factor of the device. They can be used to read books, listen to music, watch movies or browse on the go. Wireless Internet access is also available. Some Mobile PCs come with a Keyboard that can be rotated and used or may come with detachable keyboards.

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