I have been thinking about getting a Netbook for some time. I like the fact they are small and easy to carry.
I also have been saying for years "How fast does our computer need to be? I can only type so fast."
On that note "Regular computers are so fast, you really can't tell the difference between 1.6 giga and 2 giga," says Andy Tung, vice president of US sales for MSI, the Taiwanese maker of the Wind netbook. "We can tell the difference between one second and two seconds, but not between 0.0001 and 0.0002 second." For most of today's computing tasks, the biggest performance drags aren't inside the machine. They're outside. Is your Wi-Fi signal strong? Is Twitter down again?
I have a Dell D600 laptop that has a 1.6Ghz processor and it does everything I need. My email is on my main computer at home, so when on the road I access it here. The same with most of the things I do. I use Firefox and use FoxMarks so all of my bookmarks are the same no matter what computer I'm on.
My laptop works very well and I can't justify just going out and buying a Netbook just because I think they are cool.
My decision is, do I want a Netbook or a smart phone? I can see that having access to the web all of the time is an advantage. With a flash drive it boots fast so you don't have to wait for 3 minutes before you can look something up.
The next question for most people is: Windows XP home or can you live with Ubuntu? There is about a $50.00 difference in price. (I'm thinking Ubuntu will work for me.)
I have just found a new Netbook online for $285 with Windows XP Home and 1 GB of RAM. It even has a web cam built in. (Acer Aspire ONE A110-1834 Atom N270 1.6GHz 1GB 16GB SSD 8.9" XP Home w/WebCam, it is from the link on our web site for Geeks.com.)
The biggest question I have is: Do I want to spend the money when my Dell works great for me?
Is a Netbook in your future?
AlaskaJoe
Joe, The 8.9 inch netbooks are at clearance prices because ... wait for this ... the market hated the small screen and even harder to use keyboard. I would not be an unhappy buyer of an 8.9" netbook.
ReplyDeleteI'd go for a 10", Flash storage, and whatever OS with today's Silverthorne-version Atom processor. But don't expect much "oomph" from this processor. A more competent processor comes later in 2009 in Moorestown. I would wait for that if I really had an under-$500 budget.
But under-$800 thin-and-light (think Apple MacBook Air-like 3/4" thick) notebooks with ultra-low-voltage Centrino processors are likely this spring. Even a Celeron Mobile has twice the processing power of today's Atom.
Buyer's Recommendation: try before you buy!