700 Hours Battery Life, Less than 2 lbs,Take it Anywhere -- It's a NEO 2

I gave myself an awesome birthday present a few years ago, the Alphasmart NEO. The NEO has been so helpful to me in my writing life, that I wanted to share how this writing tool has been one of the best gifts I've ever received (even if it was a gift from myself). ;-) [NOTE: production of the NEO has ceased due to competing technology. The products may be found on ebay for purchase. NO existing technology can stand up to the sturdiness or the battery life.]

Recently, this low-cost, go-anywhere writing tool was upgraded by NEO Direct to the NEO 2. For $169.00, the NEO 2 weighs less than 2 lbs, and, at times with the help of a lap desk, I have written on airplanes, in a camping tent, on front porches, in a stationary car, at doctor/dentist office, atop picnic tables, while curled up on the couch or chaise lounge, propped up in bed, etc.

Instead of maybe 1 to 3 hours of battery life like most laptops, NEO has 700 hours (seven hundred hours) of battery life from 3 normal AA size batteries.

The screen is small and is not back lit; therefore, you will need a light source to view the screen. (I've even used a headlamp at night while camping.) I write with the largest display text, 36 point, with only 3 lines visible on the screen. The NEO 2 can store up to 100,000 words, more than enough for an entire book.

The NEO 2 Key Features include durability. So far, my NEO has been dropped more than once, sat on, and stepped on, and is still going strong.

Touted as the Ultimate Personal Writing Tool, the NEO 2's built-in word processor, AlphaWord Plus, provides a thesaurus, spellchecker, and word/page/paragraph count. Also, it emulates a keyboard -- when you plug it into a USB port and press Send, NEO types your text directly into your word processing software.

My personal favorite features of the NEO include:

• No internet access (no temptation to surf)
• Lightweight
• Fits in a small carry bag or medium to large purse
• Durable
• LONG battery life
• EASY to use
• Amount of text storage
• Low cost

What with having worked on the computer a great deal for my previous job, right now, I am in need a break from sitting at a desk in front of a monitor because it feels so much like "work," so writing on NEO works for me.

Yesterday, I wrote 3,300+ words in 4 hours, all comfy on the chaise lounge, with Jasmine the Siamese cat keeping me company. Thanks to NEO.