Netbook vs Laptop

How to choose between: Netbook vs Laptop

Share of netbooks at PC market has rapidly grown recently. They are more often considered as a future replacement for regular laptops that used to utilize before. However there is an inherent confusion as to what exactly a netbook is and how it compares to a laptop. Undoubtedly both of them have their own advantages and shortages. In order to make your life easier when choosing between 2 gadgets we have listed below points to consider before purchasing:

Size. What you surely feel in the first instance about netbooks is their size. Netbook’s display usually ranges from 7 to 10 inches whereas laptops normally start from 14 inches. This consequently makes netbooks much smaller and lighter comparing to laptops. They are so portable that you may carry them in a purse or small backpack.

Resolution. Most of netbooks currently allow for maximum screen resolution at 1024x600. Anything below doesn’t let you to view whole width of the web page at any one time. So the user has to scroll the page back and forth to read a full line of text. However most recent netbooks are usually produced to allow 1024x600 which is ok for comfortable surfing over majority of web-sites.  

Power. The smaller size of netbooks makes them much more power efficient. So you can use a netbook for 5-6 hours without recharging batteries which is about 3 times longer than your average laptop. This feature together with an increased portability puts netbooks in a category of must-have stuff for long distant travellers.

Performance. Of course a size is not the only difference between these 2 categories of gadgets. The main shortage of netbooks relates to their weaker performance specifications. Lower hard drive speed, processor speed and graphics memory apparently do not add any value to the attractiveness of netbooks. Therefore running any sort of processor-intensive jobs like graphics, footage or video modifying wouldn’t be as smooth as it used to be on laptops. Even excessive playing of videos on sites like Youtube can also slow down your netbook considerably. 

Keyboard. Another major complaint about netbooks is the dimension of the keyboards. If you have large fingers, you’ll find that you spend as much time correcting typos as you do typing. Netbooks generally carry scrunched up small keyboards that are rather uncomfortable to type on, making them unsuitable for note taking.

Optical drives and connectivity. Netbooks usually do not have an optical disc drives - so that means no CDs or DVDs. Nonetheless, connectivity is a central focus for netbooks. All of them come with Wi-Fi built in and an increasing number now also have Bluetooth on board, so they can be connected wirelessly to a 3G mobile phone for internet access on the move.

Price. And the last but apparently not least point to consider is the price. Netbooks cost between $200-$500 depending on how fancy you want it and what you are using it for. The cheapest laptops start at around $400. With a low end netbook, you can get on the Internet, type and edit documents, and play some games that don’t need a lot of graphics to run smoothly. The higher end models offer more storage, more RAM, and more features.