Netbook Or Laptop?
What is a netbook? And what's the difference between a netbook and a laptop? You may be standing in a store asking yourself these questions soon. Here are the answers...
Should I Buy a Netbook Or Laptop?
A netbook is a mobile computer designed to take advantage of the Internet and wireless communications. WiFi is built in, of course, but it’s more than just a nice-to-have option. A netbook is deliberately built with a minimum of computing resources, and relies on the Internet to make up for what it lacks in storage and computing power.
The RAM memory is small. The CPU is slow. The hard drive is tiny, barely big enough for an operating system and a few applications. A netbook is built cheaply. Netbook prices are in the $200-$300 range. Check out the Asus EEE PC, the Acer Apsire One or Dell Mini series for some examples.
So what good is a netbook, if it's such a wimpy computer? Plenty, actually.
Netbooks are good for cloud computing, a buzzword that means accessing computing resources out on the Internet. A netbook doesn’t need hard disk space for lots of data and bloated applications. It can store your data on a server out there on the Internet. Through a Web browser, it runs applications online that would take up gigabytes of disk space and RAM on the netbook itself. So if a netbook has enough resources to run a Web browser, it can do a lot. See my related articles Free Online Word Processors and Online Photo Editing for some cool examples.
It's No Biggie...
Peace of mind is one reason to use a netbook. If you lose a netbook or it's stolen, most of your personal data is not on it. It's out there on the Internet where you can reclaim it from any other computer.
Mobility is another advantage of a netbook. Netbooks are much smaller and lighter than laptops. But netbooks are bigger and better for Web browsing, email, and typing than smartphones. Have you ever tried to do any serious web browsing on a 2-inch screen? Oh, and you can use a netbook as a phone, with Skype or some other Voice over IP (VoIP) service and a portable headset.
Cost is another attraction of netbooks versus laptops. Many netbooks run some version of the Linux operating system, shaving at least $100 off a netbook's cost versus using Windows. The applications that come with a netbook are often free, open-source substitutes for commercial packages. OpenOffice and other free office software packages can serve very well in place of Microsoft Office.
The very small size of a netbook's keyboard and monitor are probably its biggest concerns. You should test drive a netbook thoroughly to make sure your fingers will work with its keyboard and you won't go blind reading its screen.
A netbook is a good choice as a second, mobile computer that will be used primarily for email, Web browsing, and reading. It's great for entertainment or light work while commuting. It's not good for HD movies or heavy number-crunching work such as graphic design and editing, CAD, simulations, 3D games, etc. A netbook is also a good first computer for a young person, or a starving college student.
Laptops are small enough and cheap enough for many people. But for the ultimate in inexpensive computing, try a netbook. Do you have a netbook? Post your questions and comments below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on August 11, 2009 06:24 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Netbook Or Laptop? (Posted: August 11, 2009 06:24 PM)
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Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Netbook Or Laptop?"
(See all 22 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Moonlight Gambler
12 Aug 2009
I have an Eee PC 1000H running Windows XP which I use for traveling, (far lighter than a laptop), as a backup work computer (spreadsheets, word processing), and fun.
No problems playing Shoutcast radio, video and TV programs, (recorded on my MacBook Pro). You can't do it all at once, but music whilst I work, or surf the internet is no problem.
If you have the bandwidth, Skype works fine.
Posted by:
Steve Curling
12 Aug 2009
Hi Bob, First, thanks for all the great advice you offer. I own an Acer 1 aspire which came with 1 gig of ram and 160 gig hard disk. True the netbooks don't come with an optic drive but this is easily overcome with an external cd/dvd drive. Though it comes with I think a rather large hard drive considering it's size, it probably doesn't need it with everything become webbed based. I have even used my netbook with Magic Jack and saved $$$ on phone calls. I also upgraded the Ram from the standard 1gig to 1.5 gig. The 1 gig that comes with the unit is divided into 1 512 mg chip and 512 mg incorporated into the mother board. The process of the upgrade is not for the novice because the keyboard has to be removed and the motherboard is facing down so it has to be raised to remove the 512mg to replace it with 1gig. There is a great utube video which shows the procedure. All in all I am very happy with the Acer.
Thanks,
Steve Curling Steve1600@aol.com
Posted by:
romsfuulynn
12 Aug 2009
Yes - got a reconditioned Aspire One for $220 - and I love it - for travel and mobility around the house.
I might spring the extra bucks for the six cell battery though.
Posted by:
Dan
13 Aug 2009
I have an EEE PC 1000 with 40 gigs of ssd storage. It came with a version of Xandros Linux but I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix Linux on it. I'm thinking about getting getting an EEE PC 1000HE for the extra 120 gigabytes of storage and extra hour of battery life. I wish I could get a version with linux preinstalled on it because I don't want microsoft to make money from my purchase because windows is pre-installed on it from the factory. I like my EEE PC 1000 but I can't put movies on it because they are so large in size, and my music collection doesn't fit on it either. Other than that it runs anything that don't use ridiculously high resolutions, a video card or a huge hard drive, at least if you are running Ubuntu Netbook Remix Linux. Ubuntu Easy Peasy does a similar job but I've run into a few bugs with it. I can't vouch for any other operating systems though because I haven't used them.
Posted by:
Maryon Jeane
13 Aug 2009
Thanks to Bob's initial analysis of netbooks, coming magically at a time when my PDA was giving up the ghost and I just couldn't find a new one which did everything I needed, I purchased a Dell Mini Inspiron 9.
I bought it through Vodafone so it came with mobile Internet (and although not cheap, I didn't have the upfront cost of a new PDA and pay a monthly cost (comparable to a mobile phone subscription) for the mobile Internet and the netbook together.
After slimming down the OS and installing a few tools etc. I subscribed to LogMeIn. Now I have access to my desktop PC wherever I am - and that's one hell of a lot of computing power.
The best thing is that now all my information, which used to be split between my desktop and my PDA, is now in one place and never has to be duplicated. Amazing - thanks, Bob!
Posted by:
Ronald Melancon
13 Aug 2009
Bob, what do you think of Novatel's (NVTL) new MiFi?
Posted by:
Newzjunque
17 Aug 2009
Great article. You summed it up very well, along w/the ppl this product could be helpful if not essebtial to. Judging from some comments this is a great forum. Many thanks to all contributors-I have some great info now.
Posted by:
NanaKP
05 Nov 2009
I have heard that Santa will be bringing me an Acer Netbook for Christmas. It has Windows 7 Starter. Should I be concerned? I understand that this only allows three programs to run at one time and that includes the virus program. I love it because it is purple, but I could give that up if there is a better OS.
Posted by:
amanda
25 Dec 2009
I BOUGHT A NETBOOK, DO I PURCHASE THE INERNET SERVER FROM ANYPLACE OR SHOULD IT HAVE COME WITH THE BOOK
Posted by:
jd
15 Mar 2010
I have an acer aspire d250, 1.6ghz dual core atom, 2gb ram, 160gb hdd... I got this for 199 + $58 bucks to up it to 2gb ram from crucial.
I am a developer and have a full powered mac at home running dual screens, so it can't replicate that environment... but for the cost of the netbook... I can use it when I need it at a coffee shop for a few hours or if I go on the road, it is perfect for that. And for the price I got a windows license I needed anyway. I dual boot with ubuntu netbook remix/windows
Yeah I know everybody just steals it these days but, some of us actually like to get stuff legally...