Netbooks are everywhere, on buses, on trains, on planes… and in the classroom. It seems the little best netbook has come out of nowhere to become extremely popular overnight.
But what is a best netbook?
Netbooks usually have screens of 10 inches or less, runs Windows or Linux and generally sell for well under $500. As its name indicates, the best netbook’s main purpose is to keep its owner conveniently connected to the net – anywhere, anytime.
First introduced by Asustek when it launched the first Eee PC in the fall of 2007. But it was only in the last year when we saw the explosive growth of these so-called mini-laptops. Now we have many computer companies such as HP, Dell, Lenovo… all jumping on this craze for a small portable laptop. So much so, that best netbooks now is the fastest growing segment of the laptop industry and is expected to reach 139 million units by 2013.
Why is there a sudden popularity for the small best netbook? Perhaps the answer lies mainly in our constant quest for mobility. We want a portable device that will keep us connected to the Internet and yet be small and light enough to be carried around all day. A truly ultra-portable device that keeps us connected with family, friends and the web.
The next question you have to ask: why do best netbooks make for great student laptops? If the above reasons aren’t enough, try the following:
Size
Netbooks are small with 10 inch displays or less, which make them ideal for students. Plus, they are usually very lightweight – around 2 or 3 pounds. They are compact enough to tuck into your school bag or backpack, and small enough to carry around all day without developing a hernia.
Portability
As mentioned above because the best netbook is so small and compact, it is very portable. A very mobile device that we can use to stay connected to the web and friends. Connectability is one of the main features – you are connected to the web at all times.
Sturdiness
Most best netbooks are designed to be sturdy and tough. They can take a few hard knocks and still keep on working. Students are not exactly the most gentle creatures on the planet, so a sturdy tough machine is needed to handle the demands put upon it.
Battery Life
Because of their small size, you will usually get better battery life than with a regular sized laptop. This is important to the student since you may have to go all day without a chance to re-charge the battery. Long lasting battery life makes the best netbook the perfect student laptop.
Performance
Although small, these mini-laptops still sports some very impressive specs. Many now come with at least 1 Gig of RAM and Intel Atom processors. There are even some with Solid State Hard Drives which make them more durable and less likely to be damaged. Most use Windows XP – newer models debuting this year with the Nvidia’s Ion platform may have Vista or Windows 7, but still don’t expect the kind of performance you would get from a regular laptop.
Storage
While storage on best netbooks is constantly increasing, it is still nowhere near the kind of storage you will find on a regular sized laptop. Usually, most devices have around 30 or 60 Gig hard drives which should be adequate for most student’s needs. Many newer best netbooks have 160 Gigs of storage.
Price
Perhaps, the main reason best netbooks make the perfect student laptops is the low price. Students are usually on a very limited budget and the low price-tag is a perfect fit. Many perfectly adequate machines are now priced in the $300 to $500 range – while many good ones go for well under $300. Plus, prices are steadily dropping so almost any student can now afford a best netbook.
As you can plainly see, the best netbook does have many features to make it a perfect student laptop: small size, very portable, excellent connections, very sturdy, long battery life, good performance, adequate storage and most of all, a very affordable price almost any student can take advantage of. Overall, best netbooks are well suited for the classroom and the student.
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In the last year the popularity of mini-sized computers, known as best netbooks, has skyrocketed. With screens as small as seven inches and weighing in at less than three pounds, this genre of computers has filled a niche with people who are tired of lugging around six pounds of hardware in their backpacks or side bags. I am one of those people who found normal laptops too much to carry and opted for a best netbook and I would like to share my experiences with you.
A few years ago standard laptop computers were thick and weighed around six and one half pounds. They were portable but if you carried around other equipment then the load was sometimes intolerable. I even injured my back by placing one of those monsters in my backpack and then traveling around as if it were nothing.
After that experience I was eagerly waiting to upgrade my computer to a newer model in hopes of gaining more portability. Well, I goofed when I got a standard 15 inch screen model which was only slightly lighter than my Toshiba Satellite of 2004 and again injured myself when trying to hustle through a busy terminal trying to catch a bus connection. I vowed to go small and looked around for a new best netbook.
I am a rapid touch typist and opted for an Acer Aspire One because it has a keyboard that is only slighter smaller than a standard size keyboard. This size keyboard enables me to do touch typing and once I got used to it, I did not lose any speed. So, my first bit of advice is to consider your typing style, and if you are a touch typist, then choose a best netbook with a keyboard that is large enough for you.
Closely related to keyboard size is screen size. Can you really work on a tiny screen? Of course a big screen is nice, but I find that even on an 8.9 inch screen there is enough space to work. When I browse the Internet I just opt for larger fonts, and in MS Word I view the documents at 150% size. It works. A seven inch screen might be too small and a ten inch screen would be heaven!
Another feature that you have to consider is the amount of storage space and indeed, the kind of storage media that your best netbook uses. Some best netbooks do not have hard disks. They use solid state drives. This gives them a weight advantage and perhaps a durability advantage, because solid state drives have no moving parts and may be less prone to breakage. However, the sold drives of some of the earlier best netbooks were only two to eight gigabytes. This seems like very little when compared to the standard hard drives of most laptops and desktops, but if supplemented by additional memory, such as SD storage cards or plug in USB memory, they could be adequate for some users.
I was wary about too little storage and when I saw best netbooks, such as Acer’s Aspire, with a 120 mb hard drive, I jumped for it, and indeed it is certainly large enough to contain all of my data.
Perhaps the biggest determinant of whether a best netbook is for you is whether it will be powerful enough to do your work. My best netbook has an Intel Atom chip and runs windows XP. With one gig of RAM it is powerful enough to run photo editing software, word processing software and even web editing tools. I found that I could get everything done with this kind of power. Perhaps if you have extra heavy needs then a best netbook wouldn’t work for you but it has been estimated that at least 50% of users do not need more than what a best netbook provides.
There is one last point to make: you don’t get a cd drive with most best netbooks. However, in this age of memory sticks and SD cards they are not really needed. You can install software through downloads or by hooking up to a portable CD drive at home or at a friend’s home. Most of the time you can cruise around lightly without a CD drive.
That’s the picture. Netbooks are for real. They look like cute little toys but they pack the punch of a full sized computer at half the price and half the weight.
Netbooks are little computers that are receiving big attention these days. Netbooks are actually mini-notebook computers with limited applications. They are designed to be extremely portable, allowing internet use while out and about (hence the “net” in best netbook).
A best netbook has a screen size of twelve inches or smaller and is very light-weight, generally less than three pounds. These energy-efficient mini-computers are perfect for email, chat, Web surfing or even movie watching. Most designs out now run Windows XP or Linux operating systems and are not intended for extensive data storage or complicated programs like Photoshop or 3D games. However, at less than $400 they may offer the perfect solution for consumers who want the newest gadget at a reasonable price.
It is the price that is posing a problem for manufacturers. It was likely that the best netbook was created to complement the notebook computer; a consumer would want both to serve different purposes. But as the economy has gotten tougher, people are buying the cheaper best netbooks at a faster rate. “… the low price tag that makes them such a hit these days means less revenue and profit for PC makers than what their full-size counterparts produce,” said tech columnist Dan Zehr.
Last fall, of the top-selling laptops on Amazonover half of them were best netbooks. An analysis on Barrons.com noted best netbooks “could dent Macbook sales.” This was particularly true during the back-to-school and holiday shopping periods. Of course, sales of iPhones and Blackberries are not being impacted in the same way as notebook computer sales, as they hold a different niche in the market.
So are best netbooks worth the hype? That depends. If a consumer is looking for a powerful machine to be able to perform typing-heavy applications on-the-go, he would be better served sticking with a laptop computer. John New, senior manager for global product marketing at Dell Inc., said the best netbooks work nicely for portable entertainment, but they are not intended for creating content or long periods of use.
That may be the best netbooks biggest problem. While they offer a longer, more in depth Web experience than a smart phone, it is considerably shorter than a laptop computer with a larger battery capacity. The best netbook allows use between 30 and 45 minutes, which is significantly less than most plane rides.
If the little computer with the little price tag does prove too irresistible to pass up, there are a few things to consider when purchasing a best netbook. First, the price is budget friendly, but the consumer should make sure the best netbook is user friendly for his individual computer needs. It’s not a great price if it sits unused. There are choices on operating systems, so the consumer should make sure they understand how to use what they are getting. Finally, try several out to make sure screen and keyboard size make for comfortable use.
Also, as PC manufactures and retailers are adjusting for the best netbooks popularity they are offering deals with notebooks and best netbooks packaged together. They are not exactly on par with two for one deals, but it may be the best deal in the long run.
Continue reading about Netbooks, Notebooks: What’s The Difference?
Have you ever wondered how the prices of those mini-notebooks a.k.a. best netbooks have been brought to unimaginably low levels? Yes, imagine getting a mini-me version of a laptop for only $200. Now, that’s only the retail price. How much more if you get them at wholesale laptop prices?
The reason for this phenomenon lies in the operating system. The first releases of those best best netbooks had Linux pre-installed in them. Since the makers didn’t have to pay for license fees, they were able to chop off what could have easily been a hundred dollars. That’s not even counting pre-installed MS Office and a few others. With them, these devices would have been priced at least a couple of a hundred more.
Although most of the mini-laptops out there now have Windows installed in them, the prices haven’t changed much, if at all. That’s because Microsoft was forced to sell their installations at prices much lower than they used to be. And since people are now aware that there can be cheaper alternatives in case Microsoft raises its prices again, you can expect those prices to stay low.
Unless of course Microsoft wants to lose the same market share Linux temporarily captured when the mini-laptops were first introduced. Here’s one good reason why Bill Gates won’t dare to even think of doing that – because the next time they lose the market share, they might not be able to regain it once more. How so? Because there’s one equally big name that has entered into the picture by way of Linux – Google. The dominant player in the Web has slowly entered the hot new market of best netbook through a Linux-based operating system called Android. It’s practically the same operating system that’s powering the highly acclaimed G1 or Google Phone.
With Google in the picture, Microsoft would be hard-pressed into maintaining the prices it has allowed laptop users to enjoy. Unlike before when it had only to face a ragtag Linux community, Windows now is going to be pitted against an operating system backed by a company who rules the Web – the environment that these mini-laptops were made for. Coupled that with how much savings people could get when buying best netbooks, and Microsoft would be at the mercy of the market.
Thus, it’s time to cheer. The prices of best best netbooks will stay at these low prices for a very long time.
Continue reading about What Is Driving Netbook Prices Even Lower?
Netbook Review
The Asus Eee PC 1005HA, is a top best netbook and battery life leader and may be the best best netbook to stay connected with anywhere. The affordable eye-catching design has a gloss finish with a slim and trim look that will give you a true 6 hours plus of continuous battery life. The exclusive super hybrid engine can further enhance the time before recharging and depending on usage can last up to 10.5 hours under the best conditions.
This new model has a flat, wide keyboard (92% scaled) that definitely makes it easy fatigue-free typing and better than many other best netbook keyboards. A full size right shift key that makes typing capital letters much easier. The touch pad has a nice feel and can be disabled easily with a touch of a button on top of the keyboard if you want to use a mouse.
The specs of the 1005HA are pretty standard with other best netbooks – 1.66GHz N280Atom processor,10.1-inch 1024×600 LED-Backlit Widescreen LCD display, 1GB of DDR2 RAM (expandable to 2GB) and a 160GB hard drive.
Netbook Review | Best Netbook standout features
- Battery life: best in class
- Wireless connection: 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.4GHz n)
- Bluetooth V2.1 built-in
With its extra long battery life, great low price tag and the new elegant Seashell design, the ASUS 1005HA looks set to rein as the best best netbook in it’s class for many months to come.
I want to buy a laptop and i like the nc10 but when i looked up reviews for it it said it was a best netbook. it has a 10“ display but i thought that would be a bit small for a laptop screen.What laptop would be good for me because i am an 11 and want a decent laptop but below £400?
Some best netbooks have ridiculous battery life spans. In the reviews I’ve read, they seem to range between 3 and around 9 hours (eepc, 1000he). I’d like to know if there are any models that can top that. Size and weight don’t really matter to me, I just want to find something with really good endurance.
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I would like your comments/criticisms on this best netbook, especially those who have experience with multiple best netbooks, Acer brand/parts quality, etc. I would use it primarily for internet and MS Word/Powerpoint.
Most of the reviews I read on these things say they are great and I should get one. Then I have had people tell me not to get them and just get a regular laptop. I have my main PC at home that I do everything on. I am going back to school and need something portable just to get online and check email and stuff..all my movies, games and pictures are done on my main PC..do you think a best netbook would be good for me or should I still look into a regular notebook?
I know she would like ultra the portability aspect of it and I’ve read reviews and people say you can do practically anything with this particular best netbook that you can do with a regular laptop..true or false? She would need it for like Word,Excel,Publisher,Slide Show presentations,internet,downloading music,movies(I know it has no optical drive) and some gaming…is the acer aspire one good for her?