Netbook or laptop ?

joiner1970

joiner1970

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Jun 13, 2007
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Regarding my other post about the Flip video camera I now think I need something portable to download the films to while on holiday. Netbooks first come to mind as they are small and also my wife can use it when we get home for online banking email etc. Then a few people say get a laptop for just a little extra. I like the size of netbooks but I hear they are really slow, I dont need to do anything too powerful on it as we have desktops for that. Heres a Dell one I spotted http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.209-7511.aspx and I have seen a few HP ones that look good. If anyone uses netbooks please give me some advice and are they much cheaper if I pick one up stateside ?

Chris
 
I have a toshiba notebook exellent little tool ideal for the use you have in mind. great to travel with goes in you hand luggage so easy. nice for surfing the net.
 
If you're just going to be using it for email, browsing and other non-intensive operations then a netbook would be fine.  They tend to use processors like the Intel Atom which is great for power conservation but lacks in performance.  Some netbooks also lack an optical drive (CD/DVD) which makes loading new software only possible over a network connection or using a USB flash drive.

I got my wife a netbook a year or so ago and she didn't like the small keyboard and returned it for a notebook.  I personally prefer a notebook and would agree that the additional cost is modest.

I'd recommend going to your local electronics store and checking out a netbook on display before buying one.  Prices here in the U.S., I would estimate around $250-350 for a netbook.  You can find notebooks starting around $450.
 
With regards to the title of your question, a notebook and a laptop are actually the same thing. But I see you really mean netbook instead of notebook. The terms notebook and laptop have lived side by side now for a number of years and are synonyms, it's the recent development of those small 10'' laptops they now call a netbook.

Personally I wouldn't choose a netbook. I've oriented myself this summer about getting a new laptop and also took the netbooks into consideration. But I found the screen way too small to be comfortable and the processing power not that impressive. The price also wasn't that great. It's cheaper than most laptops but considering what it can do it's a lot less power for your buck. So in the end you pay more for less and it's only benefit is the small size so you can carry it around a bit easier.

You say you don't need it for power applications because you have desktops for that, but wait till you have a laptop and you'll soon find you will do more and more with it just because it is so convenient to take it with you. Especially inside the house. If it was only for the couple of weeks of your vacation the netbook would probably suffice because it's easy to put in a bag somewhere, but once you're back home you'll find a 15'' or 17'' laptop is a lot more comfortable to use. Typing on a netbook for instance is pretty awkward on the small keyboard.
 
Whoops just edited the title it was supposed to be NETBOOK or Laptop not NOTEBOOK [embarassed]

Alex I do actually own a laptop but its old and past it now I think its a Pentium 3 that I bought years ago have not used it for years as it overheats too quickly I payed ?1000 for that years ago but everythings cheaper now. I will have to take a look at a few in a shop first then buy online, I just need it to be thin so it doesnt take up too much luggage space.

Cheers
 
Netbooks are GREAT  for long battery life, web surfing, email, and basic apps.  It is a quickly evolving segment of the PC market.  The size allows many women to carry a netbook in their purses!  Battery life is up to 10 hours on some of the newer models.  My daughter, who is in college, unplugs it in the morning, travels to classes, jobs, friends, returns home at night still with battery power.  Surfs the web great, plays online movies and video great.  Have you heard of hulu.com, netflix.com,....  Plays these high video intensive  apps well.

Make sure you get all the RAM you can when you buy it.  At least a GIG of RAM.  Many of the models are now being sold with Windows 7 Starter.  The Starter version is very marginal, plan on spending  the $80 or so to upgrade to "full" Windows version.  Some come with Windows XP which works just fine.  Some of the manufacturers configure the keyboard strange (small Shift keys for example), so be sure to touch and feel the machine if you can.

I think if one is going to be travelling with a PC, surfing the web, email, writing letters and basic office tasks, they can be great machines.  Working or watching a movie on a netbook on an airplane is much more civilized that using a big notebook, and you will most likely be able to work / play with it during the whole trip!

I like the Asus Eee PCs or Acer's netbooks.  They have fewer programs and product specific apps that many people want removed.... less garbage comes with the machine.  Also they have long life batteries and seem to last.

Now then, If you like Apple computers, IPad etc, that is another whole story...

-Gary
 
If a notebook looks like more than you need, look into the iPad as an alternative. They are pretty cool, I'm enjoying the one my wife got.
 
I have a couple of Macbook Pros, but decided I wanted to experiment with something smaller that I could always have with me.  I really wanted to like the iPad, but after I looked at it a bunch of times (my wife has one at work which she can bring home anytime), but every time I pick one up I just can't see how I'm going to use it.  It's too heavy to hold in one hand for very long, and I can type faster on even a cramped netbook keyboard than I can on the touch screen which is probably equally as cramped and, well, not a keyboard.  Not to mention when typing any significant amount, you need to set it down, just like you would a laptop.

What I really want is OS X on a netbook.  I'd buy that in a second if I could.  But since Apple hasn't deigned to make one yet, I just bought a netbook.  The form factor is incredible, it's cheap enough ($280 Canadian) to be almost disposable, and apparently they can be made to run OS X.  I should add that I do not know whether Apple's ridiculous EULA is enforceable in Canada - especially given the recent iPhone jailbreaking decision.  I do know that after accounting for one's time, after installing OS X on a non-Apple computer most people could have afforded to buy the Apple-branded computer.  However, there is no Apple-branded equivalent in this case.

Anyways, now that I have a netbook and a laptop, I can say this: I'm happy to have both available to me.  If I can get my netbook working the way I want, I'll probably buy another one and keep it in my shop - they're that handy and cheap.
 
NuggyBuggy said:
Anyways, now that I have a netbook and a laptop, I can say this: I'm happy to have both available to me. 
Click to expand...

That's how I look at it, if you already have a laptop a netbook is a nice addition. It's the same idea as having more than one Festool sander, but starting out with the Deltex is a bit limited. If I had to decide which one to get first, it would be the laptop.
 
Netbook vs. laptop.  Hmmm.  If portability is a big thing, and if processing requirements are not too demanding, the netbook is fine, especially for e-mail and browsing.  If, on the other hand, you require higher resolution to see drawings, photos, large spreadsheets, etc., or if you need processing horsepower, the laptop is the better choice.  As others have pointed out, netbooks do not have optical drives, so plan on spending another $50-60 for a USB optical drive.  Figure adding another DIMM to expand the memory (be sure to make an exact match of DIMM [type 2 or 3] and speed or you'll likely have memory-related issues), but don't bother going over 4 gig of RAM.  You'll never get the bang for the buck on this. 

The minimum operating system I would recommend is Windows 7 Home.  The Starter edition is nothing but cripple-ware, and not worth your time.  XP is still around, and generally functions well, but be aware that it's support life from Microsoft terminates at the end of December (the last time I heard).  Microsoft is trying hard to kill off XP.  It has a bunch of security issues that have largely been resolved in Windows 7. 

If you maintain personally identifiable information (PII), like Quicken/QuickBooks banking records or social security numbers on the computer, either netbook or laptop, you'd be VERY wise to use whole-disk encryption such as TrueCrypt (free!!!), but the caveat here is that there is NO BACK DOOR, so you'd BETTER make a full, unencrypted backup before performing the encryption, and choose a passphrase that you will have no problem remembering.  The absence of a back door means that if you forget the passphrase, you're deeply and fully screwed if you forget the passphrase.  The good news is that if your computer ever gets ripped off (who would ever do such a thing?), nobody will ever be able to compromise your critical business information.  The encryption does not slow down the machine in any way, once it's been started, and the actual encryption is transparent to the legitimate user with the proper passphrase.  To anyone else, the hard drive is utterly useless. 
 
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