netbook vs laptop
 

Since my travel will be increased next year due to change in mgmt, I would like to buy a more travel related laptop.

What are the pro and cons of a netbook vs a laptop?

Is it upgradeable?
what is the difference?

I have done some prelim research but I need practicality here. If someone has one, can they give me soime advice?

Totally depends on what you are using it for.

Netbooks usually have slower processors and less upgrade options.

Laptops usually have a bit more power, and usually have additional options.

The trade offs are of course price and battery life.

If you are just watching a movie or connecting online or checking e-mails, a notebook may be all you need.

If however you are doing heavy processing, giant worksheets or databases, graphic intensive stuff, etc, you may want a small laptop with much more power then the netbooks. Most netbooks currently come with XP or Linux on them, if you need Vista it may be too little power for it. Many of them have smaller solid state drives, 8 GB, 12 GB, etc, though some have real hard drives in them.

For probably 90% of what I need a small computer for a netbook will certainly take care of it, but if you have different needs, maybe not.

Netbook is cheaper; it isn't smaller and lighter than available laptops, but those get expensive when really small and light (under 2 lbs).

The tradeoff for cheaper price is less capability. If this is enough capability for your usage pattern -- and for many people, maybe most, it is enough for leisure use -- then the netbook is an excellent choice.

The capability is diminished in 2 areas:
1. apps that can run. Email and web browsing works well, after that it goes downhill fast. So check which apps matter to you and how well they do on the netbook.

2. hardware limitations. Smaller screen size and quality, keyboard, fonts, special devices. This is highly subjective. Some people are happy with 3 inch screen, others cant live with an 8 inch one. Ultimately this ties back to the first point (what apps you run).

My view is that netbook is a bigger PDA or phone and not a laptop alternative. Opinions vary (as I'm sure this thread will demonstrate soon).

Agreed. That's a great way of putting it. A netbook is a convenient travel computer because it has a full keyboard (or close to a full keyboard) and is fine for basic everyday browsing, emailing, reading PDFs and DOCs, etc. But I wouldn't use a netbook for graphics-intensive work, or if I had to type a massive essay.

I have both a laptop and a netbook. When I'm MR-ing or otherwise traveling for a short period and don't anticipate needing to do much typing, I'll take the netbook in order to have less to carry and still have access to the Internet/email with a real keyboard (my iPhone just doesn't cut it for emails longer than a couple of sentences). But for longer or work-related trips, I'll take my laptop instead.

Note, though, that my Acer Aspire One runs SlingPlayer software perfectly, so I absolutely CAN connect to my SlingBox flawlessly over the netbook. Big thumbs up to Acer!


Another nice thing about a netbook is that it can be a second laptop that can stay at work, or at home, or in the kitchen. You can keep Outlook Express open and pinging for messages every few minutes so that you won't get behind on email while you're cooking/eating dinner. (That way, you don't have to schlep your main laptop around the house.)

As an example:

I have a desktop at home. On this system, among other things, I have a spreadsheet to catalog the wines in our 256-bottle "cellar" storage unit. I was doing some work on this for a party- sorting by vintage, removing, etc.

I usually use a laptop with remote desktop connected to this system via wireless. I was doing this with the Acer Aspire One just because I was showing it to a visiting FT friend. It became more of a chore than I wanted because I was doing a fair bit of work. Finally switched to the 12" (I think) HP laptop on the RDP to do this. It was much easier to manipulate the spreadsheet.

For simple manipulations, the netbook is fine. But it's more cumbersome with a lot to do.

By the way, the performance on the Acer for Excel (even ones resident on that system) was find and I did not notice any degradation. It's just the screen and keyboard size for more intensive work.

Cheers.

Everything said so far is true. If you need just web browsing and pop3 email, netbooks are fine. Cheap, light, long battery.

If you need to run a full suite of business applications and want a variety of connectivity options, get a regular laptop.

There is a third category of small, powerful laptops with long battery life. Some of these, like the Lenovo X200, can run ridiculously long, up to 16 hours, when equipped with solid-state drives and when running in power conserving modes. A well equipped one starts at over $1500 and can cost much more.

Worth considering are the Dell Latitude E5400 and the Lenovo Thinkpad T400. These are both under 5 lbs., 14" widescreen, lots of power features, and great battery life. Also either can be had for less than $1000 in basic configurations (that includes Core 2 Duo 7xxx series processor). Both can also be configured with solid-state hard drives and have plenty of docking options.

Depending on the state of your eyesight there can be a huge difference between a netbook and a laptop. Screen brightness seems to be the most important variable in this case. Although screen resolution matters as well. I have both types of computers. I pack one or the other depending on the work to be done and the environment I will have to do the work in. Dim rooms and dim screens are not a good combination for high productivity.

I have a bluetooth mouse & keyboard and a 17" monitor that I hook up my netbook to in one of my offices as my primary computer. It's a great solution for me.

I have the HP Mininote 2133 (running a 1.6GHz Via processor, which isn't known for its greatness, with 2GB RAM) and I find it does all I need it to do--email, Internet, Word, Excel, and some specialized, but low-resource-using research applications.

It's my primary travel computer for shorter trips. For trips of one week or more, I do prefer to travel with my 14" laptop, although I have sometimes traveled with both.

Basically, when I travel I use my laptop for browsing, email, and maybe a movie once in a while. I also open a PDF here and there and I might use excel or word every once in a while. Basically, I like a bigger screen for web browsing.

It weighs approx 4-5 lbs and is great but starting to get cumbersome and it does not fit my backpack very well and I cannot pack other stuff.

Laptop is great -- 50GB HD, 2 GB RAM and wifi and runs VISTA and stay by the kitchen for wife to access receipes online and stuff like that.

Desktop upstairs is the workhorse -- Getting a Core 2 Duo 3.15 HZ with an upgrade to 6GB RAM from 4GB and 1.5TB HDD internal.

So, the heavy stuff, multi tasking I do on my desktop.

Do you have recommendations for a netbook?

I like my HP Mininote 2133, though mostly for its nice metal build and the great deal I was able to get. The HP Mini 1000 did away with some of the niceness of the build, but it did add the better Intel processor. If I were to buy a netboook today, based on price/performance and my usage I'd probably buy a Lenovo S10 right now.

OK... so this thread got me thinking about getting a netbook as well.
The only problem is that when on the plane, I like to movies on my laptop.
Most of the movies I have are 1080p (and some 720p) in x264 codec (usually 4 to 12G for a movie).

Does anyone have an experience playing these heavy media files with a netbook?
Would it play at all considering most of the netbooks have Atom 1.6G processor with Intel 950 graphics (no DXVA)?

I'm too lazy to encode the movies in different res, and I'd like to avoid it if at all possible.

I typically own the small Sony series and had my eye on a TZ notebook. With the recalls and rumors of an improved solid state book coming out, I bought an EEEPC as a bridge. I basically conceived of it as a disposal computer that would hold me over for six months.

I have been very pleased with the machine. It is not as fast as the TZs, but it runs a full drive encryption program and can still surf, e-mail, and run MS-Office fine. This is not a desktop replacement for me, but I have written several 50 page documents on the book and enjoyed it. I've also delivered a Powerpoint show from it. It was fine for the Powerpoint show, but I decided that I didn't have the speed to leave Powerpoint and take my audience on demo few other programs or go online.

I have a (relatively small) Thinkpad (x60t) and a HP 2133 netbook. I take the netbook on trips where I mostly expect to be doing email and surfing, but no significant (software development) work. In addition to having less to carry around, the smaller form-factor also means that it generally fits into every hotel room safe. And in locations where I just don't have access to a safe I don't risk having my much more expensive Thinkpad disappear.

For serious work use I'd skip the netbook and go for a 12" ultraportable like the Thinkpad "X" series or Sony "TT" series. They are a heck of a lot more portable than 5-6 pounders. When you're in the office you can run a second monitor (either with a dock or VGA connector.) It depends on your budget though, netbooks are definitely more inexpensive. If you do go the netbook route make sure to try before you buy.

I have an Aspire one, the 120gb, XP version and its a better spec than the laptop I was using, the battery life wasnt huge but I have a spare, do all my lesson planning, word documents ppt and excel on it without a problem, the screen resolution is fine to install photoshop CS3, I love it, its my baby, I was used to the small screen as I used a 9 inch Vaio before that,
I bought a Samsung NC10 for my HB which has a 10 inch screen, 160gb hard drive, it has a monster battery life but the styling is too masculine for me to want one. Loked at the HP 2133 but didnt want vista and the keyboard looked like a childs toy,