Like everyone else, we here at LAPTOP are enamored with mini-notebooks, but we're concerned about the size of the keyboards. While the HP Mini-Note sports an almost full-size keyboard with much more finger real estate than the Eee PC or the 2Go PC, it still has those awkward side-mouse buttons.
As we sat around the conference room mini-bar with our mini-notebooks, we thought, "what better way to test our notebooks than with a knock-down, drag-out mini-notebook type-off?"
We searched the far corners of our office for the fastest, the slowest and the fiercest typists to take on the challenge of typing Hamlet's most famous soliloquy on a mini-notebook. Our four challengers and their typing scores on a regular-sized Lenovo Thinkpad are below:
Avram "The ESC Artist" Piltch - 80 WPM
Emily "Key Crusher" Kizer - 80 WPM
Jeffrey "Hands of Steel" Wilson - 42 WPM
TJ "Furious Fingers" Fink - 53 WPM
Our fearless typists plot to take each other down in the newest arena of combat-- the tiny keyboard. Watch as their fingers fly to the minature Backspace key, only to insert a "=" instead. Experience the joy, the frustration, the light-sound of clicking.
We'll test different mini-notebooks throughout the week. First the ASUS Eee PC 4G XP, then the HP Mini-Note 2133 and finally the CTL 2Go PC. On the final day, we will announce which notebook has the mightiest keyboard of the minis.
Key Crusher won our first type-off with a score of 57 words per minute on the Eee PC. Furious Fingers and The ESC Artist tied for second with 42 wpm and Hands of Steel finished a strong third with 38 wpm. All our contestants had a lot to say about the good and bad qualities of the Eee PC keyboard.
Check out our typing gladiators in action below.
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