In 2009 there was a big movement in providing a cut down laptop which featured a 8.9” Screen, Intel Atom Processor and even some running from Solid state drives. The goal of these were highly portable computers that you could just chuck in your bag with long battery life and of course cheaper then a full blown laptop. Many people looked at these and fancied buying one thinking they could use them while out and about seen as they were so light and small but do they suit every need? Let us break it down.
Physical size
I have seen screens ranging from 8.9”, 10” and even 11.1” – what does remain the same for most part is the resolution of 1024×600. This is the first issue that most people have but I remember running a desktop computer on 1024×768, not that much different from the above right. Another aspect that might effect the size would be the battery, a normal battery allows the bottom to be flush while a 6 Cell Battery will stick out.
Screen Size
Like I pointed out above, does working on a 1024×600 screen present a problem to you? Some NetBooks come with a Pre-set Linux interface which makes best use of that small space with icons as such:
I use windows 7 and for most part this is fine, there is the odd program that goes off the screen and I cannot get access to press next. Remember you can always plug in an external screen so this is not as major as you think.
Processor
The Intel Atom processor is about half the speed of the equivalent Celeron Processor of the same clock speed, this is by no way a replacement for even an AMD Laptop, it is not meant to be though. I find using it on a day to day basis is perfectly fine for the needs of the netbook but I will not be converting video’s on this machine or broadcasting via wirecast.
Keyboard
There is no way getting away from this, the machine is very small so the keyboard is also very small indeed. I find the keyboard to be the likes of pecking away to get the job done but as I am not writing my latest novel on this, the machine works just fine for my fingers (as in they are not fat). The machine features USB so yes you can plug in a Keyboard if at a desk.
Harddrive
You have a choice of Solid State drives (4GIG, 8GIG etc) or 1.7” drives which come sin normal capacity. I made sure I bought a netbook which had 120GIG Drives – more then enough for my needs. Solid State are faster and lighter but not sure I am happy with the limit of 8GIG.
Webcams
I have yet to see a decent webcam built into one of these things, yes they get the picture out and would be fine for chatting to someone on Skype but do not expect to be broadcasting in 2MP quality for streaming. I found for streaming in fact the webcam could not keep up for FPS, now maybe some of the other netbooks have better webcams but the CPU will give up long before the webcam anyhow.
Battery Life
The quoted battery life and reality is quite different, they quote something like 6 hours but I would say this is closer to 2-3 hours in real life use. You can get 3 Cell Batteries (2-3 Hours life) which are slim and flush to the laptop while the 6 Cell Beasts last 6 hours and stick out (some call this a stand) on the laptop.
What is a Netbook for?
Quite a simple question, were would you need a netbook over a normal laptop for your day to day life? A Netbook weighs not much at all and takes up a very small space and this alone makes a difference to carrying around a full blow laptop. To give an example in a working environment:
The company I used to work for used Linux for Servers and quite often I would need to go out on site (Construction) armed not only with tool and networking gear but a bag containing a 15.4” Laptop, Power supply and various other software etc. All I need the laptop for in reality was to SSH into the server and configure the various parts and quite often the laptop would be running out of power after 1.5 hours of heavy use thus I had to go and find a power point to carry on the work, so the normal laptop in this instance was too cumbersome by far. With a netbook, I could reduce what I was carrying and last longer and get the job done, the keyboard was find to be typing Linux commands into and the CPU Speed did not come into play whatever.
Should I go and buy one?
This depends on what you do with a computer – if you spend most of your time at your desk then personally a netbook will not be for you, in fact it will just sit there was take up space, I guarantee you will not use it at all. If you have Fat Fingers (sorry) then you are going to struggle to type on this thing and if your eyesight is starting to go – this also will present a problem seeing what is on the screen.
A Strange thing happened with Netbooks though – the started to increase the screen size, add bigger drives and also started to increase the price. No Longer were they very cheap but instead people started to say “Why don’t I just buy a normal laptop?” and this is why the sales started to fall along with people getting confused as to why they had no DVD roms fitted – they were never meant to have otherwise it might as well be a Laptop.
Some Netbooks make excellent Hackintosh computers for example such as the Acer Aspire One, I had this running 10.5.8 no problems at all with everything working as it should (I replaced the Wireless card).
Conclusion
While a Netbook might seem the thing to have, go to the store, try one and see if you can use it like a normal computers. Try the keyboard, see how small the screen is, compare thin, small laptops and see if this is a better idea. Netbooks are not for everyone, I think they are great which is why I own one.
