Neo by AlphaSmart - The No-Nonsense Word Processor

Neo, by Alphasmart, is the perfect answer to a freelance writer's need for a basic, inexpensive, but portable word processor. As much as I love my Mac, it does have some downfalls. It is large, stationary and full of delightful distractions. It is hard enough not to procrastinate on my writing without email, games, and endless Internet content to peruse. So I considered a laptop with a good word processing program. I'd be portable then, too. But I found them to be expensive, hot, and limited on battery power. And besides, all the distractions are still there, in miniature.

Then one day I stumbled across an article in Reader's Digest on the NEO by AlphaSmart. Love at first sight! The NEO was designed for schoolchildren to do their writing assignments on, so it is sturdy but lightweight, about 2 pounds. It consists of a full-size keyboard (an essential element to most typists), and a small screen showing four lines of type, with arrow keys for scrolling up and down the screen, as well as home and end keys. The Neo is loaded with basic word processing elements, such as spell check, word count, cut, copy and paste, select all, a find/replace feature, thesaurus and calculator, and there is a handy chart to the commands printed on the underside of the unit. The escape key takes the operator back to the file being worked on.

I began work right out of the box after adding 3 double-A batteries, for which I will get over 700 hours of operating time. There is a simple on/off button and eight files accessed by F-keys across the top, so I can switch between eight different articles with the touch of a button. My work is saved automatically - when I am done working, I just turn it off and when I am ready to get back to work, it starts up again right where I left off. Then when I am ready to print, fine-tune or publish something, I just connect my Neo to my computer via the USB cord, put the computer's cursor key where I want my content, open my NEO to the right file and press the "send" button.

I take my Neo with me to places like the doctor's office and make the usually interminable wait, productive instead. I love being able to sit outside in the sunshine with the fragrance of roses blooming and the sounds of birds singing, and be working the whole time. I've spilled liquids on the Neo, I've even dropped it on its head and watched the batteries bounce out and roll around. I just wiped it off, or popped the batteries back in, and I was good to go. At just over $200 the NEO is the perfect "laptop" for me.