Outside of working at PCWorld, my mobile needs are fairly low-tech. I spend most of my weekdays working at the office or at home, or on a bus between the two, meaning that I'm usually within Wi-Fi coverage and I don't really need a smartphone for my daily life. Recently, however, I've been traveling more for work, so I needed gear that was portable, offered mobile broadband service, and could last for a whole day on one charge.
Combo #1: Netbook and Smartphone
First I decided to try working with a netbook and a smartphone. My colleagues Jason Cross and Ginny Mies outfitted me with an HP Mini 1103 and an Evo Shift 4G, and I went off to Los Angeles to work remotely for a week.
I immediately noticed that although the idea of an incredibly lightweight, portable PC was appealing, working on one didn't really deliver. I was able to use the netbook for everything I had to do in a standard workday: connecting to the VPN, filing and producing stories in PCWorld's content management system, uploading video and photos, and so on. It wasn't easy, though.Using the netbook felt kind of like working with a Swiss army knife: Just because a Windows 7 netbook can do everything doesn't mean it's actually good at doing anything. Since it's a Windows PC, you don't have to worry about not being able to use the applications or Web services you need to get your work done--but you'll have a hard time getting accustomed to using them on a netbook.
For example, I rely on Web apps for most of my tasks, which works fine on my dual-monitor office setup. But it's a lot harder to edit a document when I can see only a paragraph or two at a time. Even simple stuff, like reading a Web page or a spreadsheet, was downright frustrating on the HP Mini 1103's 10.1-inch, 1024-by-600-pixel display. And when I got frustrated, I got less work done.
The Android smartphone was handy for keeping tabs on my work Gmail and Google Calendar, and Google Maps was invaluable in helping me navigate L.A.'s public transit system. Whenever I had to leave the comfort of readily available apps and navigate the Web, however, I'd hold off until I could find a place with Wi-Fi to use the netbook. I'm so spoiled by my normal dual-monitor office setup that when I had to rotate the phone and zoom in and out just to read small text or to tap the correct link in the phone's Web browser, I decided I'd just do without. Although I had hoped that the Evo Shift 4G would be sufficient for all my mobile Internet needs, I eventually broke down and activated the smartphone's $30-per-month Wi-Fi hotspot feature, using the phone only if I was in transit. More
