Why Netbooks ARE Good Enough
Michael Arrington has an interesting post over at TechCrunch. It's a post that has drawn some controversy, controversy that I wanted to add to. Michael identifies three reasons why Netbooks aren't good enough and to put it plainly... he's wrong. I purchased my netbook (ASUS EEE PC 900) for traveling. I absolutely hate lugging around a full size laptop (and on occasion, two full size laptops). It does everything I want it to and then some.
Michael had three complaints. They were:
- Screen Size
- Keyboard
- Processing Power
So let's take a look at each of these (btw, I'm typing this entire post on my netbook).
Screen Size
I think this is the most interesting as Michael uses a screenshot from a Mac to demonstrate what you see on a Netbook... he's simply cropped the photo.
Here's his post (with the title showing) and he's correct, you don't see a lot.
However, I can easily scroll down with my mouse (Michael mentions that you need to use the trackpad or keyboard to scroll and that means taking your eyes of the screen... I don't know but I can scroll with either and my eyes never leave the screen... in addition, I always travel with a physical mouse.) So here's the article if you scroll to the start of the text, more than enough is displayed at once.
Keyboard
Up next was the keyboard, which Michael describes as 80-85% of the size of a regular keyboard. This is probably true, however the comment that no adult can type on it is bullshit. I'm not a small guy, and I definitely don't have small hands, yet I can type just fine. As proof... here's a online typing test screenshot... again done on my netbook
Processing Power
These netbooks definitely aren't loaded with processing power... but I'm not going to be running multiple virtual machines, 20 firefox tabs and a video game... I use it for email, word processing, surfing the net and occasionally a flash game. While it does slow down on certain flash games... so does my desktop. Netbooks are designed for Web 2.0... they don't need a lot of processing power because other than your browser not much will generally be happening locally.
Conclusion
In the end, netbooks are good enough... and they do exactly what they are designed to do. People may want to attach unintended labels to them and designate that they be used for tasks they weren't designed for... but that isn't the netbooks fault. I highly recommend a netbook to everyone that I talk to.
If I traveled more, I would definitely pick up a Netbook because, yes, they are good enough!
They are not good enough for every purpose, and I think people who diss on them are trying to use them for the wrong purposes.
I have a 901 and a Lenovo X61, and I'm really in love with my X61. With the small battery it weighs the same as the 901 but has short battery life, for a little more weight you get 5+ hours batter in the X61.
Its got a Core 2 Duo 2.1Ghz CPU and a 250MB hard drive. So plenty of power – its my primary development machine as well. Perhaps the cost is a bit more than a netbook but you get a lot more. People at work make fun of the small laptop (not sure why), but generally after using one for 30 minutes or so, most people want one. Just a bit bigger and heavier than a netbook, but way lighter than some of the 15 and 17" behemoths some of the others get.
This is not to knock the netbooks, but more of a pro that small notebooks can be great.
I recently had a chance to look at the Asus 1000 and wishing I held out for those to be stocked before getting my 901 as it has a real keyboard. Oh well, since I do have the X61 the netbook has become more of a video player for the kids.
And lets not forget how cheap they are!
I love my eee, even though it's an older 7", it still runs firefox and does everything I need it to do, and for only a few hundred bucks!
You are correct, they do have some uses, at first, i didn't like them bc i was looking at it as a traditional laptop, and i need more power but after thinking it over, it does make perfect travel bc as other poster said, im getting tired of carrying a larger laptop around and all i need it for is to surf and little bit of word processing when traveling.