Okay, not a particularly clever title, but you've got to admit, the hottest trend in personal computing, the netbook (from "internet notebook") looks as though it was hit by the incredible shrinking ray gun. I started looking into netbooks about 6 months ago when it became readily apparent that they were the only machines I would be able to save up for in any reasonable amount of time. At the time a few success stories were starting to emerge, the ASUS EePC and the Acer Aspire One. Also jumping into the frey were the HP Mini 1000 and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. I settled on the Aspire One, being the least expensive of any with similar or identical hardware specifications. Two versions of the Aspire One were available, one with an 8GB SSD (Solid State Drive - essentially flash memory) running Linux or a 120GB hard disk drive running Windows XP.
I was enticed a bit by the model running Linux, but couldn't resist the 120GB hard drive and Windows XP option for $30 more. I love the idea of a quieter, more energy efficient solid state drive, but I wanted more than 8GB. SSD's are the future, but for me they are not the present. Also, now that I've played around with some desktop Linux distributions I'm fairly certain that I'm not quite ready to give up the simplicity of Windows networking, either. Besides the stats already mentioned, my Aspire One came with a 8.9in screen, 1GB RAM, 3 USB ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, an 802.11g WLAN card, a webcam, a headphone/microphone jack, built-in speakers and a VGA-out port. I paid $350, but the prices keep dropping and some of the Linux versions have been spotted for as low as $200 on rare occasions. The standard 1.6Ghz Intel Atom is more than sufficient for Windows XP, though it would be nice if the boot time was a little quicker.
After using my netbook for about 6 months, I can honestly say that I get more bang for the buck out of this machine than any other I've purchased. I use it nearly every day, and the portability is incredible. I liked it so much that I bought one for my wife for Christmas so she'd leave mine alone! The only two gripes that I have: I bought a wireless laser mouse because I couldn't stand the touchpad. That's more due to the fact that I don't like touchpads in general, though. Also, the battery life left much to be desired. The standard 3 cell that came with the box was supposed to get 3 hours of life, but I think 2:10 was probably more accurate. I did find a nice 9 cell aftermarket battery on ebay for $66 that stretched my time between charges to about 6-8 hours. I don't know exactly because I almost never push it to that point. The only downside is that the new battery is quite a bit larger and adds to the weight of the computer. If portability is what's important to you, you might want to stick with the stock battery. Some users will balk at the absence of an optical drive, but I've found that I've never had a need for one once I get network connected.
Because of the screen size, the best application for netbooks are for things like reading e-mail, social networking, and browsing. Light word processing is also feasible. I would not give up my primary workhorse PC for a netbook, however. I still need a beefy desktop for video editing & burning, 3D gaming, photo editing, virtual desktops, streaming video, and productivity applications that benefit from a larger monitor. I use mine for the exact purpose that many others do, as a portable supplemental machine to compliment an existing home network.
Ultimately, like any PC purchase, your needs will determine your purchase. The prices of traditional laptops should continue to decrease due to pressure from the netbook's successes and technical advances like the Intel Atom. If you've been thinking about buying a notebook for the purpose of portability, you'd be wise to give these mini-competitors a glance.
Got an idea for a topic? E-mail me at toptoad@techonadime.net.
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