Should your next computer be a netbook?

by Lee Barnes

Netbooks have been around for about a year. Mostly they’re just smaller notebook (laptop) computers with slow processors and fairly basic specs.You can buy them for as little as $300.
The price alone should get your attention, but here’s a caveat: Standard-sized laptops have been dropping in price as of late, so for not a lot more than a netbook, you can get a “real” computer.
But I think there’s something to be said for choosing a netbook. I’ve had mine for about eight months now, and I wouldn’t trade it for a bigger machine. It’s great for taking notes on and surfing the internet. It would be just about perfect as the “hotel room computer” for someone who travels a lot.

Here are the pros and cons:
Durability. With its smaller screen, there’s less glass to break. I really believe it makes for a tougher, more durable computer. When I bought mine for $300 at a local office supply store, the saleswoman tried to sell me an extended warranty, saying that if I broke the screen, “it would cost $400 to $500 to have it repaired.”
“Either that, or I could just buy another computer for $300,” I said.
That small keyboard. The newest netbook designs have figured out how to include keyboards that are remarkably close to full-size. Mine is an older design with a small, cramped keyboard. I’ve gotten used to it. I can type almost as quickly on it as I can type on a full-sized computer, and I’m a pretty fast typist.
It will hasten to add here that I have unusually slender fingers for a guy, and my male friends with big hands simply can’t use my netbook keyboard with any speed.
And if you’re just a hunt-and-peck typist, does it really matter what size keyboard it is?
The tiny screen. Netbook screens are getting bigger. But the smaller ones, like the one on mine, aren’t a drawback, because they are so bright and sharp. You wouldn’t want to use a netbook as your primary photo-editing computer, but you could in a pinch.
The small hard drive. You call 160 gigs of hard drive small? I have more than 500 CDs loaded on my netbook’s hard drive, along with every digital picture I’ve ever taken. A few years back, I took the time to scan every film photograph I had, and they’re all loaded on my netbook, too.
After all that, I still have 100 gigs of space left on the hard drive. What more do you need?
One caveat, though: A few netbooks come equipped with a solid-state hard drive, which has no moving parts. That makes the netbook very durable. However, these solid-state hard drives are tiny – generally only about 8 gigabytes. You can use an 8-gig hard drive for writing documents and surfing the web, but not much else.
The lack of an optical drive. Here’s how I get around not having an optical drive to load CDs or play DVDs. If I’m installing a program, I can generally download it off the internet. That’s how I got the excellent – and free – Open Office suite. With other programs, I can use a desktop computer to transfer the program from a CD to a flash drive, and then load the program on my netbook with the flash drive.
I also have the option of buying an external DVD/CD player, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a netbook, doesn’t it?
The slow processor. Almost all netbooks at this point are using the Atom processor, which is a bit on the slow side. You wouldn’t even think about trying to do a complex job, such as editing a video, with the Atom. But for most everything else, it gets the job done.
The lack of memory. Well, I don’t like that one. Most netbooks come with 1 gig of RAM, which is barely enough to run Windows XP. I’d pay to add some extra RAM, but on my Acer netbook, it’s virtually impossible to install.
Battery life. The battery life on my netbook stinks. It’s only good for about two hours of use. But my previous full-sized laptops had batteries with short times, too.
You can pay extra money for a longer-lasting battery, but there again, you’re getting into full-sized laptop money territory.
The operating system. Most current netbooks come with Windows XP, which works just fine, despite being a dated operating system.
A few netbooks come with some form of Linux, which is probably more complicated than you want to mess with.
At some point soon, I would guess that Microsoft will discontinue Windows XP and force netbook manufacturers to use the new Windows 7 instead. That is sure to dramatically drive up the retail cost of netbooks.
The stupid power cord. My netbook’s power cord is just as big as the ones that come with full-sized laptops. But you notice it more with a netbook, because it’s almost as bulky as the computer itself.
The way cool carrying case. I bought mine for $15, and its small size makes it look like something Malibu Barbie would come equipped with.

Write to Lee Barnes at googam@yahoo.com.

Archives: October 09