Posted on 03/04/2009 8:57:15 AM PST by kingu
Walk by the netbook display at Best Buy and you're likely to hear cooing and exclamations of how cute the little laptops are. But take one home and you may realize your new baby just can't do the same things that a standard notebook can do.
Netbooks are just about the only thing these days that are generating any excitement in the hardware space. The form factor is appealing to many, for sure. With about a 10-inch screen, these are much smaller than the standard-sized notebook, and certainly much lighter, and quite a bit less expensive, too. Some are as inexpensive as $250, while others can get as expensive as the $1,000 range.
It's hard to walk by a netbook display at a consumer electronics store without hearing someone coo at them and talk about how cute they are, as if they were little baby notebooks.
And, because of their magnetic appeal to consumers, netbooks have been doing their part to make PC manufacturers happy. Look at the earnings report of any PC maker that also makes netbooks and you'll notice that netbook unit sales are just about the only thing growing at any kind of healthy pace. That's saying something during this year when hardware sales look positively bleak, with analysts like Gartner now forecasting a decline of almost 12 percent, the worst in history.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelinsider.com ...
There is one person in my family who hates her netbook, that's my daughter because she can't play her graphics intensive games on it. And admittedly, a lot of Linux games really need to become more friendly to the 10" screen format.
But a day doesn't go by when I'm using my netbook somewhere where someone doesn't stop, ask me what the heck I'm using, and where they too can get one, and when they hear the pricepoint (netbooks typically sell for under $300), they go rush out and buy one.
What about reading e-books on a 10 inch screen? It seems a better deal than a Kindle if content is available.
I would consider one in a different economy (actually, I almost purchased one in October, but the election convinced me to wait four years). I’ll probably get one just after Election Day, 2012, assuming we vote for freedom. Otherwise, I’m not buying a new computer until 2016 if I can hold out that long.
They’ll pry my Mini 1000 from my cold dead hands!
Seriously, netbooks are a no-brainer. I have no idea why so many execs and ‘tech writers’ don’t get it.
I bought a full size Toshiba laptop about 5 years ago. To this day, it still does everything I need and I’m what one would consider a power user in every way except gaming.
My netbook has more power than that laptop and it weighs 1/3 what the full size one does. The netbook is more powerful than my desktop was in 2001 and back then I ran Photoshop and Flash and all kinds of stuff and it worked just fine.
I’d never give up my quad core desktop, but, IMHO, those who think you’re ‘giving up’ something by going for a netbook are misguided.
Leaning to the cheaper end, any you'd suggest?
I don’t think any of them have that ‘e-ink’ technology that makes the ebook readers more attractive.
The readers are way too expensive at the moment, but a friend of mine showed me one and it is NICE...when they hit the $100 price point, I’ll pick one up in a second.
Nope I gotta disagree. The screen is just too damn small even for reading FR. I had one for about four hours before I took it back.
The wi-fi only worked for a couple of minutes out of that time as well but that might have been a problem just with that unit.
I got a brand-new full-sized loss-leader (Compaq) for under $400 and I’m much happier with it.
My son just got one for his ninth birthday. We haven’t checked out everything on it yet, but we’ve been pretty impressed so far. The keyboard is quite a bit smaller than I am used to, but it’s perfect for my son.
Most Asus laptops that use the Xandros Linux OS include FBReader which accepts most non-DRM e-book content, which means you can read content from a lot of providers, but not all of them.
I have set up a SDHC card as a ‘device’ on Mobipocket, and every time I pop the card into the slot on the desktop, it copies over the reading material I want for the day, and using FBReader, I turn the screen and hold the netbook by the spine, and it’s quite comfortable. Biggest downfall is battery life compared to the Kindle - with the wireless turned off, I get about 3 hours on a standard battery while reading on an Asus 900, but the 1000 series can go about 8 hours with e-book reading. I have an extended battery I got from DealExtreme which makes it more comfortable to hold, actually, with the netbook turned and reading it like a page.
Most netbooks are about the size of a thin hardbound book, so the format’s familiar to most people, and I just use the mouse buttons to turn the page, though you could assign whatever key is most comfortable for you, depending on which software you’re using.
If you’re a member of Sam’s Club, they have the faster Dells running for $250 right now, and 8gb of ram on them stores a HUGE library of e-books.
As I get older and my eyes get worse mini-gadgets become less and less appealing. I want bigger screens, not smaller. Just got a 26”er for the home beast, I can actually use it for an hour without my glasses on before my eyes start getting tired.
Does yours have a built in optical drive?
I am with you on the larger screens, plus the keyboards on the small ones are not my thing. I am going to get a full sized laptop soon, and will be a come down to me with a 15 inch screen, I am more than happy with my 19 inch LCD on the tower. However, if I had young eyes, I might be interested in one of the small ones for travel and a few other things I can think of off hand. Also, some people just like small things and if they get the required job done then what’s the harm?:)
try going to Project Gutenberg and also The Classic Reader Library.
All books there are free. Using a nice free piece of software called Ybook Reader, you can download the books use your Netbook as an eBook...just like I do. Or just read them online. Tons of free book titles.
I'm an Asus 900 fan, I mean, got three of them solid enough construction, price point under $300, bright wide screen. The one we got with XP was just too frustrating, so I put on Eeebuntu onto it, but sticking in a 2gb ram board, and making sure that Windows doesn't cache to the HD, it'd probably be worthwhile going back to it.
Umm, really, really recommend Eeebuntu for those looking at the EeePCs, the little tweaks in the OS improve battery life impressively, and it's relatively fast and extremely easy to use.
Also, DO NOT lose the DVD-Rom that comes with your laptop - if something goes wrong, the software on it can recover from the worst situation and restore it.
The Dell ones also appear to be quite good from friends that have them, but if fat finger syndrome is an issue, the HP's have the largest keys on the keyboard, which could be easier for those with large hands, but not extremely happy with the quality.
Pitfalls on the EeePC from nearly a year of ownership: Keyboard is unsealed - keep drinks away from it, else you'll be looking for a new keyboard in short order. SSD, if it crashes, can pretty much only be restored by the DVD-Rom that comes with the machine. User support, while very good from Asus, is best on Eeeuser.com's forums - pretty much anything that's can be done to an EeePC has been done, and support replies can be extremely swift. If you're looking for speed, make sure you get a 1.6mhz or faster processor, but I've found the 900mhz ones to be just fine for me - aftermarket SSD drives are now available that are much faster, worthwhile if you really, really need the speed, but to me, it's a disposable computer.
Nope, I use an external USB drive on the very rare occasions when I need it. Then again, on my old laptop, I had no idea that the drive was broken for almost half a year, so rarely did I use it. Using it to play DVD's can be cumbersome on the go, with that extra piece hanging around, but many DVDs now come with a version of the movie built for portable devices, which you can copy over to the netbook and watch on the go. If you're using Linux, Totem movie player plays just about everything.
I'm guessing the writers are trying to discourage netbook sales a bit, whether on their own or at the request of manufacturers. There isn't much profit in netbooks, so some would like to see fewer sales.
Caveat emptor: Netbooks aren’t for everybody and definitely not for every computing purpose. Here’s a good Wired article on netbooks:
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks
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