What is a Netbook?

[Guinan]

I was shocked when my boss opened up this teeny tiny 'laptop' today and announced he was going to switch out the desktops at work and buy this netbook thing. Sure, it was cute...like a miniature version of my big laptop, but it proved to be risky because he carried it off on a stack of files and while trying to open the door, it fell down and suffered a rather nasty crack across the top of the case (what a klutz )

I came home and looked up netbooks and this dude's blog pretty much explains it. I just don't understand the benefits of spending 400 bucks on this frail thing when you can get a bigger, faster laptop with more capabilities for the same price as this glorified cellphone.


Netbooks <--check out the blog here.

If you want to be trendy or have something "cute", go for it. Otherwise, I would recommend sticking to the regular notebooks/laptops (my boss changed his mind, by the way).

[Jalili]

I was thinking about getting one of these when I was first looking for my laptop.

The problem with them is if you want to have a DVD/CD ROM drive you better have a plug in. But if you travel a lot (and light) and you just want to connect off a WiFi step up anywhere its available I would say these are right up your alley.

It's otherwise a BIG Blackberry.

[Im The Truth]

The Netbook is the way of the future. There are made for cloud computing. But if you are not a person who travel I'd suggest a desktop but that's my opinion.

[Raha]

I sold one of these last month (I work at Radio Shack). The Netbook that we sold came with a built in wireless aircard from AT&T (of course you had to have been approved for the 60 dollar a month, 2 year contract service) for 99 bucks. I got to play with it a bit as I set up the 3G network service. It actually wasn't too bad. For businessmen and women and/or people that like to travel, it is pretty good.

The keyboard takes a little getting used to, especially if you have big hands (like me, lol), but it was manageable.

As for the lack of a CD/DVD ROM drive, if you are installing software onto the device, you can usually just purchase the product key if you already have the trial version of the software installed. If you are looking to burn CD/DVDs on the go, you can buy an external burner.

It's practical for those on the go, but if you are looking for something less portable with a bigger screen, then just go with a standard laptop.

P.E.A.C.E.

P.S. Newegg.com is a techie/nerd/etc. heaven when it comes to good deals on electronics.

[Guinan]

I am thinking of getting my mother one, seeing how she doesn't download and all that other stuff. She would be perfect for this. I, on the other hand, would break it before I plugged it in.

Newegg is a great site. I stay off of there because I will end up buying something that I really don't need.

[Im The Truth]

While I haven't tried to calculate cost or anything wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a old laptop over a netbook? That's basically what they are but smaller.

[umbrarchist]

I was shocked when my boss opened up this teeny tiny 'laptop' today and announced he was going to switch out the desktops at work and buy this netbook thing. Sure, it was cute...like a miniature version of my big laptop, but it proved to be risky because he carried it off on a stack of files and while trying to open the door, it fell down and suffered a rather nasty crack across the top of the case (what a klutz)

It's otherwise a BIG Blackberry.

I just don't understand the benefits of spending 400 bucks on this frail thing when you can get a bigger, faster laptop with more capabilities for the same price as this glorified cellphone.

Otherwise, I would recommend sticking to the regular notebooks/laptops

While I haven't tried to calculate cost or anything wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a old laptop over a netbook? That's basically what they are but smaller.

I used to work for IBM and built my first computer when I started with them in 1978. It cost me $400. There was only EIGHT KILOBYTES of memory.

IBM introduced the 3033 mainframe that year. It cost $3,000,000. A maximum of only 32 Megabytes could be put on it. So most netbooks come with THIRTY-TWO TIMES as much memory as a machine that cost $3,000,000 in 1978.

The netbooks I've tested were only 10% slower than a desktop I built in 2005. Just the motherboard and processor cost me $400. That didn't count the case, power supply, and hard drive. A old used laptop would have a hard drive with a lot of wear on it. If a hard drive has more than 5,000 hours on it then I would not trust it. Loosing a lot of data on a hard drive can cost more than the computer. The hard drive on an old laptop would be smaller than 160 gig. The laptop would be bigger and heavier. It is the light weight and small size of the netbooks that is their advantage. The price is secondary.

The problem is that they are too fragile. That is part of the low price. It would be worth it to pay $50 or $75 more to have a more rugged machine.

I would NOT buy one unless it had the Nvidia ION platform though.

Expert View: More $300 Laptops, Fewer Netbooks
Expert View: More $300 Laptops and Less Netbooks, Please - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

http://www.netbookation.com/netbkbnch.htm

umbra

[Jalili]

I agree with all the "It's good if you travel a lot"

I am starting to travel a LOT more than when these things first popped on the scene. It is hard to carry my 15 inch laptop around and as of late I have been thinking of getting a netbook.

Still the small size (though I am beyond careful) feels like it is something that will break under your fingers. I only would want one for when I am on the road I can use the internet in my hotel or some WiFi hotspot, but I am a music head and I need to be able to switch up iPod music every other day and the amount of space a good music library would take up would possibly overload the limit space on one of these things.

So, though they still look neat and have their high points I'm still not sold yet.

[Im The Truth]

Blackberry or netbook? Blackberry
iPhone or netbook? iPhone

[Blackmind]

they are having teachers exchange their school issued laptops for these. I declined. my son will destroy it. He's all into the technology stuff. every morning i wake up he's on the laptop just hitting buttons.

[umbrarchist]

Originally Posted by Blackmind

they are having teachers exchange their school issued laptops for these. I declined. my son will destroy it. He's all into the technology stuff. every morning i wake up he's on the laptop just hitting buttons.

That is the problem. Most of them a flimsy. I haven't seen any information about which ones are more rugged. Dell claims that their Welche's machine is. It would be worth paying $50 or $75 more for a tougher machine.

Some kids might not be too rough on a fragile machine but otheres would break it in a month.

um

[umbrarchist]

Originally Posted by Im The Truth

Blackberry or netbook? Blackberry
iPhone or netbook? iPhone

It depends on what you need or want to do. Typical netbooks are 1.6 GHz Atom processors. This is 5 to 7 times the clock speed of the Blackberry and and almost triple the speed of the newest 600 MHz iphone.

The trouble is the computer industry has been promoting bloated inefficient software that wastes that processing power even though it is triple what powerful mainframes had in the 1980s. It is just a question of the netbook is too big. I would rather have a dumbphone and a netbook.

Horsepower and Performance

The BlackBerry 8830 has an ARM 9 processor running at 225 MHz, while the BlackBerry 8800 features the Intel XScale 312 MHz processor. Despite the slower processor speed, the device performs most tasks with good speed. The BlackBerry turns on reasonably fast, web pages load fast, music and video play well and opening attachments is a breeze. The BlackBerry 8830 comes with 32 megs of RAM and 64MB of flash memory. Before loading data and applications, the 8830 has 20 megs of free storage, which is a bit less than the 8800.

The most clear difference is that fact that the iPod Touch's processor was quietly boosted to 532MHz (up from 412MHz) with the 2nd generation model introduced in September. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3G, Original iPhone and 1st Generation iPod Touch continue to run at the original 412MHz. Though not the intended purpose, this video from Handheld Games Corp shows that the app load time of the 2nd Generation iPod Touch is notably faster than the 1st Generation model.

The processor is now a 600MHz CPU that is up from 412MHz and the RAM is up 256MB from 128MB. Like all laptops and computers, we all know how they love extra RAM, so having twice as much RAM is certainly going to make things run a bit quicker.

umbra

[ajani]

I had a Sony Vaio Picturebook way back when. Bought it originally just because it was extra portable. Pretty much the same size if not smaller than the Netbook. It lasted me for over 6yrs until I spilled water on the table and killed the mother board. I took it everywhere and just plugged it into a larger monitor when I used it @ home. Everything was external and that was cool with me. To me it didn't seem limited @ all but I'm no computer pro.

[umbrarchist]

Toshiba mini NB205 Video Review - Editors' Choice

YouTube - Toshiba mini NB205 Video Review - Editors' Choice
um

[umbrarchist]

Will IONs be in the Ionosphere?

How long will they maintain that altitude?

Ion-packing Netbooks: Samsung N510 finally arrives next month

Price is reported to be $599, which is roughly a hundred-dollar upgrade from the highest-end Netbooks we've encountered.

Ion-packing Netbooks: Samsung N510 finally arrives next month | Crave - CNET

Samsung 256GB MLC SSD Expensive, but worth it

http://www.maximumpc.com/artic...amsung_256gb_mlc_ssd

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