What is a Netbook?
The size of technology continues to shrink while growing in capacity and performance; however netbooks are the exception. Today’s netbooks offer miniaturized tech at a budget pricetag. So why all the hype, and what can you expect from these lightweight mobile PCs?
First, let’s recap a brief history of netbooks: Derived from notebook, the term netbook refers to a miniature and lightweight notebook PC that relies heavily, thriving really, on the use of wireless Internet – thus, netbook. The first mainstream netbook, Asus Corporation’s Eee PC 701, was designed similarly to that of the earlier non-profit OLPC (One Laptop per Child), often referred to as the $100 laptop (pictured right). The OLPC touted a 7.5-inch screen, low-powered AMD Geode 433MHz processor, 1GB Flash-based hard disk drive, 256MB of RAM, wireless Internet access, and ran on a custom, Linux-based operating system. Its 2 cell battery lasted roughly 3 hours on a single charge and a 4 cell battery could last up to 5 hours. It is from this design that Asus built the Eee PC 701 (pictured below) and thus was born the ultra-mobile Internet notebook dubbed netbook.
NETBOOKS TODAY
With their simplistic approach to modern mobile computing, netbooks captured market share much more quickly than anticipated. Competing manufacturers were quick to jump on the bandwagon that Asus had practically created overnight. Today new netbook models are released as often as what seems weekly, as this niche market continues to gain momentum and blur the lines between netbook and notebook. With growing screen sizes, more processing power and the capability of running more familiar operating systems such as Windows XP, Vista, even the latest build of Windows 7, netbook sales grew 30% last year, were up seven fold in May 2009, and currently make up nearly 20% of today’s mobile computing market. So what are you waiting for?
NETBOOK USES
Sure they’re small, lightweight, inexpensive, portable – cute even, but who uses netbooks and why? After observing several netbook owners, here’s a list of some possible uses:
- Mobile office – Netbooks are capable of performing many of the same day-to-day tasks you perform on your workstation PC at the office: Access Company or web email, view PowerPoint presentations, images & videos, log into your VPN, and of course, browse the web.
- Entertain a child – Stream full episodes of their favorite cartoons and movies from Hulu.com or turn them loose on their favorite flash-based Internet games.
- Stay connected – Wasting time while commuting, waiting in line at the local coffee shop or watching television? Keep a netbook handy to multitask – browse the web, check your email, shop online or chat with friends while sipping your coffee at the local coffee shop or in the comfort of your couch instead of that stiff office chair.
- Mobile storage and uploads – You’re on vacation and you’ve filled the memory of your digital camera and camcorder, simply dump the photos and video onto your netbook and capture more memories. Also, find a local hotspot at your hotel or nearby restaurant and blast your photos and video to your friends via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or otherwise.
- Reduce risk – Perhaps you already have a performance notebook, but would you want to take your company notebook or portable gaming rig to the beach with you? How about flashing it around to the guys on the subway, bus or train?
- Home theater PC – Believe it or not, some of the latest netbooks to market come equipped with HDMI ports. Pull down movies, music and games from your network and stream some high definition 1080p videos to your home theater – all in a silent, mobile netbook.
- Budget college PC – Everyone needs a place to start and netbooks make owning your own PC easier than ever – without sacrificing the mobility demands of today’s college students. With 12-inch netbook models now appearing it may be easier on the eyes for those late-night study groups.
- Gaming companion –Search item databases, competitor profiles, cheats, hints, and boss strategies using a netbook. Free up your desktop’s system resources to squeeze every possible ounce of performance out of your desktop gaming rig.
NETBOOK CONSIDERATIONS
Portability comes at a cost and this article wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t bring up some considerations when shopping for a netbook.
- Disc Drive – Netbooks will not offer an internal CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc drive. Instead, external drives may be purchased separately and connect via e-SATA, IEEE 1394 Firewire, or USB 2.0.
- Screen size – Some applications are not meant to be displayed on such a small screen; spreadsheets for example, are difficult to view and maneuver within, even on the 10” netbook screens. Photo editing software such as Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are also not able to display fully on such a small screen.
- Performance – Typically, today’s laptops operate on 1.3 to 1.66GHz processors and 1GB of RAM. While this is enough for general purpose office use – email, word processing, browsing the web or other light tasks – it is not recommended that you attempt running 3D games, rendering software, or run too many simultaneous operations. Doing so will likely degrade your performance to unbearable freezing, stutters, or crashes. As a general rule, refer to the minimum and recommended system requirements for each piece of software before installing. Should you start to experience pauses, stutters or freezing, simply close an application or two and your problem should be resolved.
- Keyboard – Reducing the size of the screen also requires the shrinking of the keyboard. Some of the 7-inch netbooks utilize a keyboard that is roughly 82% the size of a desktop keyboard and have resized or relocated entirely some commonly used keys. As screen sizes increse, so do the keybaords – most 10-inch netbooks are approximately 92-97%% the size of a desktop keyboard. 11-inch models and larger are capable of having full-size keyboards, although no matter how you look at it, you’ll always be missing a full 10-key pad and find yourself fiddling with the “fn” key to switch between letters, special characters or functions.
- Trackpad – Various manufacturers have toyed with the trackpad, elongating it and placing buttons to the left and right of the pad or shrinking the size to the point that you must make short, swift movements for your pointer to reach one end of the desktop to the other. This can be adjusted in the Windows control panel, as well as the disabling of the vertical page scroll when using the right-most area of the trackpad, but as with all things, a little time is required to adjust.
