A netbook is not a laptop although it may look a bit like one. A netbook is a small ultra portable computer that has a screen between 7 and 10 inches and weighs in between 900g and 1.2kg, they are slightly larger than a Hardcover book.
Recently I got asked if a netbook was a good idea for a friend who wanted to travel but still have a fully functional machine. I advised of what a netbook is capable of and what it is not capable of. His comments after my explanation were “that explains a lot”. Seems he was trying to use the netbook to run Outlook, Excel, a database tool, a Autocad program and Adobe CS. Now anyone who knows the above applications knows that they are quite resource intensive.
So I explained that a netbook is basically that, a netbook. It’s good for email and opening the normal excel/word document, hopefully not at the same time and internet surfing. In some cases they provide a fairly decent capability with regards to video and audio, but they are not designed for the resource intensive applications that most laptops/notebooks are capable of.
Rule of thumb: the smaller the device, the more performance loss it will experience. With notebooks/laptops/netbooks this applies, to accomodate the smaller size and footprint, a tradeoff of some kind is always required, in most cases the device sacrifices multi-tasking and processing performance for size.
Given the growth in the market and the demand for smaller and smaller devices, this market may one day overtake the traditional laptop/desktop and even perform at a superior pace than the traditional systems, but we don’t see this happening for at least another 2 to 3 years.
So what are netbooks good for. Well, if you’re a frequent traveller and mainly require internet access and email capability, then a netbook is an adequate device that will meet your needs, as lons you don’t mind the small screen and keyboard.
Let us know what you think of netbooks and what is your experience with them,
