Netbook vs. Notebook

[wagegoth]

So I decided to save myself the research and just ask the experts.

What are the differences between a netbook and a regular laptop?

[Chanlin]

Put very basically a netbook is a smaller, less expensive laptop that is designed primarily for browsing the internet, accessing e-mail and word processing. Most of the applications netbooks use are web based meaning they are not hosted on the computer itself. - This is a good option if all you need is internet, and word processing.

Laptops (notebooks) are portable desktop PC's and can pretty much do what your home desktop can.

This is as basic as I can make the explanation

[AccountingDrone]

I have an asus aspire [mrDrone jokes it aspires to be a computer when it grows up]

Hm, it is about the size of a large hardback book, but thinner, about an inch thick. The screen is 8 inches diagonal, about half the size of a sheet of typing paper. It has no cd/dvd drive, but takes damn near ever form of memory sticky item known to man and USB/firewire and stuff. The battery will last about 6 hours which is good.

It is slower than a laptop, and the hard drive is much smaller. I store music and videos on an external hard drive designed for small laptops so I dont fill up the internal hard drive.

It is wire or wireless, so it is perfect for doing email and light surfing at a wifi hotspot, and I have used it in the car at a service area on the NYS throughway that has a wifi spot to check mapquest=) and I recently took it with me for my hospital stay so I could watch a 'comfort movie' [you know, something that you tend to want to watch when you are not feeling well - mine are Dr Mabuse and M by Fritz Lang, From Hell with Johnny Depp, and The Princess Bride] and have my own music to listen to.

The asus has a built in microphone and webcam as well.

If you want to play anything more than solitaire or the windows games, get something different. If you want a cute inexpensive box to do light surfing, read emails and a little entertainment, BJ's has the asus aspire for just under $300 ....

[tropicsgoddess]

Netbooks are smaller, around less than 13" screens, less expensive but also have less space in the hard drive. In short Netbooks are only good for the basic stuff. Laptops are 13" or bigger screen, slightly more expensive, more space in the hard drive than the Netbook but really is a more portable version of the desktop.

[Pedersen]

Netbooks are small screen, and extremely lightweight devices. I've got the Asus EEE 901, and it's considered a heavyweight at 2.3 lbs (1.1kg).

Due to the components chosen, the battery life is usually considerably longer than normal. My Asus EEE 901 gets four hours of real work use.

They tend to use Solid State Disks, which are considerably more expensive. As a result, they tend to have less local storage.

Despite those drawbacks, though, I have been able to do actual development work on my EEE 901. I actually am able to download new code, write my own code, etc, and have it work in a pretty decent time frame.

I don't recommend netbooks for gaming, though. Some people have made it work, but it tends to take more effort, and look worse. It's not worth it, really.

However, if you can skip out on the gaming aspects, and if you can deal with the physically smaller screens (my resolution 1024x600, which can be quite cramped sometimes), then a netbook is a great choice.

My short two cents on the topic, anyway.

[Hibble]

Im presuming your looking to buy one think about what it will be used for. Best go to your local pc store and try some on display. take with you some test programs such as a large spreadsheet or access database, video/music files, basically any kind of file you would use. Try opening a few web-pages in tabs and a word document and instant messenger program at the same time etc...

p.s if you plan on a lot of typing i recommend something with a larger keyboard and screen.