Posts Tagged ‘netbooks’

Netbook Laptops

Netbook Laptops

Netbook Laptops are small laptops with all the full features you need an expect in a computer these days – Windows XP, a big enough hard drive to store music ans videos, wireless internet and all the while powerful enough to play your favourite games, do the office work and surf the net.  The added bonus of Netbook Laptops is that they are ultra-portable!  Even better is the fact that they can cost substantially less than a laptop, and look ultra trendy.  They do make laptops look a little bit 1990′s…

Netbooks vs Laptops

Netbook Laptops are great for all the reasons I cited above, but they are not perfect.  The biggest reason laptops are not dead and buried already is down to screen size.  IF you use  acomputer for 12 hours every day (like me) then the 9, 10 or 11 inch screen of a netbook will start to be a nuisance.  That being said, for casual use, I got used to the size of the smaller screen instantly, and it was not a bother.  It’s perfect for quick browsing, writing (but not a 10,00 word dissertation) and watching movies in bed

The other drawback due to size is of course a smaller keyboard.  Most keyboards on netbooks claim to be ’95% original size’, although i fail to see how this is possible!  Again, you quickly adapt but i do have big fingers so for chatting and browsing its fine, but for exteneded writing i would have to choose a laptop.  Finally, netbook laptops are smaller and lighter and one way to achioeve this is with a smaller battery.  They use less energy to be fair, with their smaller screens and processors, so you might not see much difference.  I can’t be so accurate with this as I’ve used a netbook, but not out and about for long periods, testing the battery while playing video, for example.  I think it’s safe to say yiou can take it out, work, watch a video but dont expect to do a days work in the office with it.  But that can be said for laptops too!

samsung-n130 netbook laptop

Netbook or Laptop for you?

The bottom line is, if you need something for professional use, get a laptop every time.  If you need something for casual use, go for the netbook.  they are cheaper, surprising powerful enough to browse, watch movies etc, look great and are ultra portable.

Honestly, the screen and keyboard you quickly re-adjust to.  If you can browse on a 3 inch iPhone screen, you can on a 10 inch! A fresh Acer Aspire One netbook was quicker than a fresh XP Pentium 4 2,8Ghz desktop PC, and that surprised me.  Maybe the P4 would be quicker at encoding and rendering etc, but most of us rarely max out a CPU day-to-day browsing.

Which Netbook / Laptop is best?

Netbook: The Samsung N130 Netbook is a current best seller on 3 laptop broadband and it’s easy to see why.  It has all the specs I’d look for in a portable PC:

• 1.6Ghz Atom CPU (easily good enough for XP if you have 1GB RAM) ,
• 1GB RAM,
• 160GB HD for storing thousands of songs,
• Wireless Internet
• 10 inch display and
• Windows XP.

Unbelievably, you can get all this in a netbook and a 3 Internet Dongle for £20 a month, which is nothing.  With the 3 Dongle you can surf the web whereever you can make a phone call, meaning you dont have to be near your home router or public acess wifi point (which you usually have to pay for!) To see if this offer is still available, click on the flashing button to the right to go straight to the horses mouth; the Official 3 Store.

compaq-cq61-laptop

Laptop: Compay CQ61 comes from the long stading PC powerhouse Compaq and offers extra performance and screen size compared to the netbooks.  If you are a professional user, a laptop such as this would be a great investment, and it’s no wonder this is the most popular laptop with 3 laptop broadband.  Here’s the specs:

• 2,0Ghz CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 160GB HDD
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 15.6″ HD Display
• Altec Speakers

As you can see, the laptop gets in upgrade in almost every area and a t only £30/m you can see why this is so popular.  This is an especially good option for those who need or want a netbook laptop now, and like the ability to pay for it monthly, rather than having to fins the £400 or so up front for a new Compaq CQ61!