Know You are Buying a Netbook

Do You Need a Netbook?

Netbooks are the hottest things to hit the mobile computing scene in years. They’re cheap, stylish, and weigh no more than 3 pounds—characteristics any traveler can love. But are they ready to replace your current laptop on a long business trip or on an extended vacation? With many brands flooding the market, here’s what you need to know before plunging into your netbook purchase.

First, a netbook is a fully functional laptop with a display in the 8-to-10-inch range, so they are all easy to tote around. Almost all models have several USB ports, a webcam, a media card reader, built-in Wi-Fi, and integrated speakers. But what separates them from typical laptops is the processing platform they run on. The vast majority of netbooks run on the Intel Atom platform (with others using VIA technologies) and include up to 1GB of system memory, depending on the operating system you choose.

Typically, netbooks don’t come with optical drives. Overall, they are great for small to medium workloads, and with some patience you can even tackle heavier loads like editing photos and videos. But there are still other factors to consider.

The general consensus is that a 10-inch widescreen is the sweet spot for netbooks. Since they all have the same resolution (1,024-by-600), crank up the brightness and check the viewing angles to decide whether you can comfortably do work and watch movies on it. Every netbook so far has an undersize keyboard, but some have bigger ones than others. Check the keyboard “pitch” (measured from letters Q to P) to see which come closest to 19 cm. The biggest we’ve seen is a 92 percent keyboard, or 17.5 cm. So if you do a lot of typing, you may want to stick with your regular laptop.

Most netbooks are pretty slim on other features, but there are a few standouts. Several netbooks come with an ExpressCard slot, which can expand port and wireless capabilities. At this rate, capacities of solid-state drives (SSDs) aren’t quite there yet, so look for spinning hard drives. The minimum should be an 80GB, 5,400-rpm model, but there are others that go as high as 160GB. In addition to the battery that comes standard with your netbook, consider buying an extra six-cell unit—especially handy for long flights.(by Cisco Cheng)

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