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Showing posts with label notebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label notebook. Show all posts
Monday, April 25, 2011
I told you folks in a recent post what a netbook is and what you should expect from a netbook. But, it seems that most people are not really interested in what netbooks are but more in the difference between netbooks and laptops. I do recommend you read the previous article too, but in this little post I’ll try to explain shortly the basic differences between the two laptop types.
But now, let’s see who wins this hypothetical battle of a netbooks versus laptop.
Weight and dimensions
Netbooks are known for their compact form and low footprint. Most of them have screens between 7 to 10 inches, but bigger 11.6 inches models have emerged lately. They are also very light, somewhere between 2 lbs for the small versions (and even lower) to 3.2 for the big ones.
Laptops on the other side are bigger and bulkier. Most of them have screen sizes from 14″ to 17″ and even 19″. There are also 13.3″ versions, but those come with other downfalls. And, since they are bigger, they are heavier also. My last 15.4″ laptop for example weighted around 5.5 lbs. Add 1 lbs for the charger and a couple of lbs for the other things in the bag… and you get the point.
Display size
Like i told you before, since laptops are smaller, they do come with smaller screens and resolutions. That is of course translated in a smaller workspace. Nowadays mainstream 10″ netbooks come with 1024 x 600 px res, and the next to come 11.6″ ones will have 1366 x 768 px .
8.9
The 15.4 laptops on the other side come with 1280 x 800 px (have a bigger dpi rapport, so everything is bigger on them and easier to read) or even 1650 x 1050 px. Bigger laptops can even come with Full HD resolutions.
Battery life
Netbooks are meant to be portable, thus a decent battery life is a must. Most offer at least around 5 hours of real autonomy, while the best can go up to 8-9 hours from a 6 Cell battery.
Few laptops can offer the same things. Of course, there are some, like the new ultra-portable Vaios on the new Macbooks, but they cost many times more than a netbook.
Price tags
Standard netbooks run for $200 to $450 , according to size and features. A good 10″ like the Asus 1005HAfor example, with decent hardware and 10.5 hours battery life will only cost you around $360, while being light, durable and good looking.
Laptops on the other side can go for a lot more. It’s true some producers try to offer 15.4″ laptops for around $350 these days, but, you will get crappy hardware and crappy build quality, all in a heavy and bulky device. And that’s just not worth it.
Performance level
Here’s where the line is really drawn. Netbooks’ performances are limited by the hardware inside: they used low voltage CPUs that can only offer so much. They are good for everyday activities and even watching HD ready movies (720p, not 1080p), but not for games and other resources hungry applications. Performances level will increase in the future, with devices housing the Nvidia Ion platform (better graphic performances) and the new Intel CPU line, Pine Trail . But laptops will always be more powerful. Some a lot more powerful actually.
Conclusion
As a wrap up, netbooks are compact and portable devices good enough for regular applications, while laptops can offer better performances, but for a bigger price and sacrificing autonomy and portability. For me, my netbook is the mobile travel companion, while i have a primary desktop computer back home that can give me all the power i need.
So, if you’re in need of a powerful device with a bigger working space area, you will have to get a laptop. If you still want it to be light and have a good battery life, you will have to pay a lot for it, way above $1000.
But, if you don’t need that much power and you’re looking for a device that could easily be carried around and used for every-day actions (surfing the web, watching videos, listening to music, writing texts, blogging etc ), than you have to go for a netbook. You’ll get one for around $350 easily.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
I was quite amazed just the other day when i was telling my friends I’m looking to buy a new netbook and I’m still undecided if i should get one now or wait for the winter sales period and maybe get a good deal then. Amazed because most of them had no idea what a netbook is, even though they work in IT related domains.
Thus, I decided to write a short post and try to give a definition for the term “netbook” and also explain what i believe a netbook really should be. Because there’s no “of the book” definition for this word, as it’s fresh and emerged only 2 years ago.
Netbooks are all around us, but most of us don't know what a netbook really is
But, in most cases the term notebook is used to name portable sub-netbooks. Intel was one of the first to use it in order to define Atom powered laptops.
That’s one way to define it and some don’t agree with this approach (including me) as they consider that computers should also meet other criteria in order to be tagged as netbooks. Wikipedia for example calls them a “relatively new category of small, light, minimalist and cheap laptops.” That’s a little better, but still not enough.
I for one consider that a netbook should mark the following points:
- compact and light device: a netbook should be easy to carry around, should not weight more than 3 – 3.5 lbs and shouldn’t be either bulky or have a too big profile.
- great autonomy: netbooks should be portable companions that could allow you a decent battery life. And decent for me is at least 5 hours, with Wi-fi on.
- a netbook must have good connectivity options: with the integrated Wi-fi module being crucial, either 802.11 b/g compatible, or even better one prepped for 802.11 draft n . Bluetooth and 3G are also welcomed, although not necessary a must.
- should be cheap . There have been portable devices that met the criteria above before, but they had hefty price tags. That’s why netbooks should have decent prices, somewhere between 200 and 500 bucks.
- easy to use devices. There’s no reasons having all the above qualities if the end device is hard to use, has a tiny crowded keyboard, a bad touch-pad or a small low-resolution display.
Of course, when you buy a portable device light, cheap and usable, you won’t expect much in terms of performances. And it’s true that netbooks aren’t as powerful as most of the bigger laptops, but, they arestill good enough for Web-surfing, watching videos online and offline (the modern one can easily play HD ready content – 720p), listening to music, using everyday applications like a text reader (Microsoft Word for example), etc. They’re not meant for gaming (although older games can run decently on them) and resources hungry applications (like rendering software, virtual machines, etc etc).
In terms of operating systems, most netbooks these days come with Windows XP. There are some with Linux distributions (like Kubuntu), and there are OSes special made for such devices currently under development, from Google or Intel . They’re to hit the market in the near future, along with the new Windows 7 Started edition, a basic version of Microsoft’s OS optimized for netbooks .
There are other things you should know about netbooks too:
- screen size: right now the mainstream netbooks have 10″ displays with 1024 x 600 px resolution. Last year 9 inchers were the top notch and in a couple of months lots of netbooks with ~12″ screens and bigger resolution will hit the market and will probably turn customers attention in their direction.
- in terms of hardware, most netbooks have Intel Atom CPUs (low voltage processors, with one or two cores). New platforms for netbooks will surely emerge in the future, like the fresh Nvidia Ion that offers better graphic performances . Especially since Intel prepares the Pine Trail line of processors to replace the Atoms from fall 2009. Besides that, most netbooks come with 1 GB of RAM and 160 GB hard-drives. But you can easily add an extra 1 GB of RAM or buy a bigger storage drive or even and SSD.
- keyboard and touch-pads are important also. The first netbooks were so small that these were incredibly hard to use unless you had tiny fingers. Things changed now and most netbooks offer keyboards nearly as big as the standard ones and even keyboards with independent keys. You will still need some time to addapt and get used to these keyboards, but after a couple fo hours, everything should be just fine.
- a netbook has no internal disc drive (there are external ones that can be connected via USB).
- netbooks usually come with a couple of USB slots, Lan Ethernet slot, card reader, VGA output and even webcam.
A 15: notebook (left) next to a 10
There would be many other things to say, but it’s time to wrap up. In the end, netbooks are portable, compact and cheap devices, but powerful enough to run regular every-day applications . They provide most of the features you would need from a portable device, but are not made to become your primary computer. They’re more something like a secondary travel companion .
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