Do You Want a Netbook?

by David Risley on Aug 25, 2009 | 52 comments

The netbook has been getting really popular lately with the “good enough” crowd. Rich recently joined them, and now so have I. Rich grabbed a Dell Inspiron Mini 10V. I just purchased an Asus Eee PC 1000HA from Newegg.

I just wanted to take a gauge of the PCMech readership. So, I wet my finger, stick it into the wind, and just ask. Do you want a netbook? And why?

Here is why I personally see the netbook being attractive:

Tiny. They are ultra portable.
Long battery life. The netbook I just bought is advertised to have a 10 hour battery life, although users are saying it is more like 7 hours. Either way, that’s incredible.
Just Enough. Face it, most PC users spend most of their time online. Our needs are few: basic office tasks, email, and surfing the web. As much as I love my $2,000 Macbook Pro, it is overkill for those few basic tasks.

So, why did I buy a tiny netbook running Windows XP when I am a happy Mac user? Well, for the above reasons. I will continue using my Macbook Pro. However, there are times when all I need is the basics and battery life is important.

The other day, I was at a Panera Bread in Tampa to meet up with some people and talk business for a few hours. When I opened my Macbook Pro screen, I found I had less than 10% of my battery remaining. I was then forced to relocate inside the restaurant in order to found an outlet. 10% batter will run my Macbook Pro for no more than 20 minutes – tops. At the same time, all I would need the computer for was to jot down a few notes into my web-based whiteboard.

In October, I will be flying out to Vegas for BlogWorld, non-stop on Southwest Airlines. The flight from Tampa to Vegas is a 5-hour flight. Now, last time I made that trip, my Macbook Pro made it about 80% of the way on battery. Mind you, that was with wifi disabled, bluetooth disabled, and the screen brightness turned down to the point where I could barely see it. This netbook could make it all the way to Vegas and half-way back again with no recharge.

I prefer OS X to Windows XP by far, but for the tasks I am going to use this machine for, the OS really doesn’t matter that much.

So, that’s me. What about you?

Do you already own a netbook? If so, why did you buy it?

And if you don’t own one, would it be something you might buy at some point?

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DravenX
I don’t have a netbook but I might consider one. With the different TDYs I could go on to anywhere around the globe, having a netbook would be handy. I did buy a Dell XPS M1530 for this reason so my wife might not be to thrilled of the idea but who knows. I like having an optical drive though.
http://cocutzamisca-casasigradina.blogspot.com cocutzamisca
I agree with DravenX about optical drive,but there are optical drives that can be run on USB ports as far as I know,so a netbook is handy and if battery lifeis longer much better…but you must consider the price too…
emir
It would be interesting if you guys did a comparison of the Dell v’s the Asus. I’d especially like to know about fan noise and heat generated from the base of these netbooks. Are either of these quiet and cool when sitting on your lap?

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Dave doesn’t have his Eee PC yet, but concerning your question this is how the mini 10v fares out:
It’s whisper quiet. The only way you can tell it’s running is via the power light and the monitor.
She only gets somewhat hot on the bottom when the battery is very low and it’s plugged in charging WHILE USING IT (if charging in the off state there’s no heat at all). It is never hot on battery alone. Easy sit-down computer. When on battery she gets luke warm at best – and that’s only on the right side, not the bottom. No danger of heat discomfort as far as that’s concerned.
Jhon
Well, i have not used or tried the Dell, but I did get the Acer One net book when it came out. it had the 6 cell. The info I had read on it stated that the 6 cell was best pover the 3 cell. I found bery few pros tho. the most was it was samll and easy to carry. The cons: were the battery will not hold a full charge for a full week with no usage. With the set for best battery usage, the nost I could get in usage was 2-2 1/2 hrs. With only about 1 3/4 hrs dependability. Also when using the ac, the botton of the Acer gets so hot you cant hold on to it. In other words dont have it in your lap while on the ac. Sounds like to me, of all that have come out recently, dell is tops right now

http://howto-ubuntu.com eli
I actually am looking for a netbook. I read Rich’s article on his purchase from Dell Outlet, and that’s probably where I’ll get mine. I’m liking the Vostro A90, with Ubuntu. Personally, I don’t mind the lack of an optical drive, since I can load Ubuntu from a USB drive. I love the battery life, the size, and the price. The way I see it, anything that I need more power to do, is something I’ll do at home on my desktop.
http://www.nathanhunstad.com Doctor Gonzo
I don’t have a netbook right now but I will probably get one when my current laptop croaks. When I travel, all I use my laptop for is internet connectivity, so getting something smaller with more battery life suits me just fine.
Brian
I have a pretty decent dual core Vista Business laptop provided to me by my employer. I use it as a desktop replacement. At work during the day I typically have Outlook, Firefox, Access, and maybe Excel open pretty much all the time. I have my doubts about doing this on a netbook, and I would want a bigger screen for day to day use.
For home, though, I want one. I have two little ones, and the home built beast of a tower (thanks, PCMech forums) is in the study away from the family room where they typically play. I would love to have a netbook sitting on a charger on the bar ready to go when I am sitting there trying not to watch the Wonderpets rescue the platypus for the 34th time. I think a netbook would be more “couch ready” than a regular full size laptop.

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
You can even get one with Spongebob on it. Productive and disgustingly cute at the same time.

josh
i really want a netbook cause 99% of the time i spend on the computer is on the net cause im a web developer i just dont like windows and cant afford a mac well just dont see the point in spending that much for a computer so I’ll put linux xubuntu on it also could you do a review on some
Bill Melchior
I recently got an MSI U100 Wind (10.1″ display) mostly for travel: downloading pictures, email, keeping up with news. (May also investigate SKYPE for communicating when I travel; the MSI has built-in camera and mic.) I got the three-cell battery, which only gives me 40-60 minutes or so, to keep the weight down. Total weight is supposed to 2.3 pounds, tho I haven’t checked.
I’ve also used it at home to view stuff on our TV, or to do simple browsing while watching TV. It’s a lot easier to move to the TV than my wife’s larger laptop, which is usually used in another room, and easier to store since it’s smaller.
I loaded my word processor from a CD, using a drive on my desktop and accessing it over my home wireless system.
mightycowhero
I wanted one when they first came out! lol. But the prices for some are murder, especially in my country (Bahamas). I really like the portability and convenience of a notebook, literally internet on the go. I’m curious about the ability to play games on a notebook. My desktop is a piece of feces. They only thing it CAN do is access the internet. (Note: never buy a “bargain” computer, especially if it doesn’t have a manufacturer’s logo!!) I went to get it upgraded and the memory was STILL too low. I’m ready to dump this stupid thing and get me a laptop because notebooks are the way to go these days.
Alexander
no, i don’t think i’m getting a netbook. that is in part to the fact that i’m saving most of my profit to put towards building a new desk top.
but a few times when i was in best buy getting dvd’s or something i always stop over and look at the computers. now the netbooks are great if all your doing is going on the internet, but i do A LOT more then the average user. and so the low computing power, and space arn’t up my ally (i understand they are built just for the internet and nothing else so i’m not being critical of there design)
if i want a portable computer/internet i have a hp pavilion dv4 1155 (^_^)
http://gaylordshead.blogspot.com/ Gaylord Cohen
My wife bought me a netbook for Christmas last year, a Dell Mini 9, which originally had Ubuntu on it. I have since switched OS’s, and am now running Puppy Linux. It’s much more lightweight, and faster than Ubuntu, and I used a external USB DVD drive to install it on my system.
Since my netbook is an early model, the solid state hard drive is much smaller (only 4 GB), and the battery life leaves much to be desired (about 3 to 3.5 hours). I use my Mini as a second computer, to go online while my wife uses the main PC (a Dell Inspiron desktop with Windows Vista), particlularly on weekends. I use a wireless 802.11g router to share the internet connection, which the netbook wirelessly picks up easily.
http://www.triumphtalk.com Carl S
I bought my wife an Acer One and she loves it. It is small and very easy to travel with. The battery that comes with it lasts about three hours. I bought an extra battery and she gets six to seven hours. I chose the Acer because it came with XP. She is not really computer savvy and did not want to face the learning curve of a new OS. And the price was right: $237.00. We added an external DVD and a wireless mouse.
http://www.finestlaptops.com Gerry
Buying a netbook is definitely in the plan, I am curious how the keyboard size and layout is working out. I can’t imagine spending more than an hour hunting and pecking on the smaller keyboards. What’s the consensus on keyboard size?

Jim
Some of the new netbooks have almost full size keyboards. I have no more trouble touch typing on my Asus eeePC than I do on my Dell Vostro laptop. Admittedly, I don’t touch type real well on either one, because both have slightly different sized keys than the regular desktop keyboards I’m used to. The Asus eeePC model I have does have the much maligned small right shift key in an odd location, but their newer models have rectified that issue.

Mike
Picked up an Asus 1000HE in March, not as a replacement but as an adjunct to my work and home computers. Battery life has been great. A netbook certainly isn’t a replacement for a regular laptop or desktop, but the small size and weight is really handy for travelling around. The lack of a DVD drive hasn’t been much of an issue as it is pretty simple to just share a drive over a network for installations, etc. Total cost was $375 at Amazon plus $20 for replacement memory to bring it to 2gb. Strongly recommend upgrading the memory to 2gb.
James
I bought the ASUS 1000HA about a week ago from Amazon. We have a 7 year old, very slow laptop that it is going to replace. It will only be used for trips out of town. We are heading to Alaska this week for a 11 day trip. Street Atlas Usa is programmed with all our stops, hotels, etc and the GPS dongle will help us find them all. We have wifi for internet along the way or at our hotel. I have 5 guide books on Alaska downloaded to it via ebooks for reference. All our friends and family information is at our fingertips. I have two movies downloaded on it for entertainment, as well as about 20 different games. Since it comes with bluetooth, we use a portable blue tooth mouse and it can also communicate with our blackberrys, which we could tether to it for internet access if we wanted to. Our desktop computer at home is about 3 years old and this netbook is a lot faster then it is. My wife just used it at a 3 hour wait in the Austin airport with no problems. We are very happy with our netbook.
joe6966
I have an 8 month old HP Pavillion dv9000 that works just fine on Vista 64 bit. I have already ordered the new Windows 7 upgrade. I could have gotten a smaller screen, but I wanted the largest screen possible to watch movies.
So, no; I won’t be buying a notebook anytime soon.
Amir Fazadh
I have a Lenovo S-10 that I triple-boot WinXP, OSX, and Ubuntu on. It has 2GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a huge battery (9-cell, good for 8-10 hours even on an aircard!), and it has a refined, business-like look. I love it for travel, I’ll load up a few movies on the HD, pop in my headphones, and watch a movie in-flight. People always quiz me about it, like they’ve never seen a netbook…this is my second one, gave my Acer Aspire One to my wife after I hacked it and added an iPod 40GB HDD to it- the only one that would fit- it had SSD with a crippled form of Linux on it originally, I wiped it and ran Ubuntu for a few months, wife is a techno-tard so I wiped it and loaded XP for her. These things are great during hurricanes- turn down the backlight on the screen and you’ll get an extra hour (not hard to see in a boarded-up, tomb-like house), ran my cable modem on a UPS and it stayed up a few hours. When it died, I swapped it over to my USB 3G modem and had radar and news reports, using it the first 15 minutes of each hour for updates, then shutting it down for 45 min. Got through Ike with it, and I live 10 minutes from where it made landfall (eye passed over my house, eerie!). Great for what they are, but don’t expect desktop performance or gaming on them yet.
Wes
Last year in Physics class my teacher brought in a netbook to run some simple phet apps. Yes, I can confirm that there is no optical drive, but before going out why not just copy the image of the CDs you need and then run them on something like MagicISO? That way disks are avoided, the software works, and you don’t need an optical drive on the go.
I’m actually very interested in a netbook for it’s size, weight, and battery life. I like to do a lot on my computers. And do I mean A LOT. Typically though, I don’t run anything too strenuous. The battery life would be something to die for because my other laptop lasts only an hour and a half and when I really need it and there’s no outlet it becomes a really big pain in the behind. It’s also a standard sized laptop so it’s tough to lug around all the time and it doesn’t save space.
Jason Reece
I didn’t give netbooks a second glance until some started offering higher resolution displays- 10″ and 11.6″ with 1366×768 and 12.1″ with WXGA (1280×800). The Dell Inspiron Mini 12 with the 12.1″ WXGA display appealed to me from the day it was introduced. It had a “real” size/resolution laptop display, looked nicer than most competitors and was as light (and as thin or even thinner) than most 10″ netbooks! \
I waited until the Dell Outlet started carrying the Mini 12 and (with a coupon) I got a “Previously Ordered New”
unit for $341 after tax/shipping. Ordered new, it would have been closer to $550, so it was a decent deal. I used it for about 10 days to give it a fair shot, but ultimately decided that it just wasn’t sufficient for my needs. It had the 1.6GHz Atom Z530, XP, 1GB RAM (integrated, can’t be upgraded), and a 60GB 4200rpm PATA hard drive. The Z-series Atom/Intel US15W chipset and the pokey hard drive allowed Dell to use a fanless (passive) cooling system, so it was whisper quiet and still never felt more than lukewarm. But those same hardware specs also meant that it performed slightly weaker than most other netbooks.
It was tolerable if I kept open programs/windows to a minimum…but having a .pdf open simulataneously with several tabs in Firefox and it would quickly grind to a halt. I also couldn’t adjust to the keyboard and made the same typos over and over….it was more than I could deal with!
I decided to see what I could get for it on eBay before sending it back to Dell Outlet and paying a 15% restocking fee (and shipping). I ended up selling it for $390, which was almost exactly break-even factoring in shipping costs! I gave it a shot, but the performance just wasn’t sufficient for regular use. =(
Now the Acer Timeline AS3810T (11.6″) is available with a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 starting at $799! That will very likely be my next purchase and I have greater expectations this time around!
LadyBird
You know what I love…..is the new netbook fad….my business partner bought one and I really thought she was crazy for doing so because it was so small and I really thought it look ridiculous. But after we had a meeting at a local cafe she brought her Netbook and I brought my New Laptop within a few hours I had to plug my laptop in and her Netbook was still going strong. From that day it was necessary to get one, especially as busy as we are and by the way she put that small thing in her purse….WOW!
This Netbook thing must be cool because my 8 and 9 year old wants one! According to their friends their parents bought them one for school……OMG!
http://monkey-house.ca Greg
I would only ever get one if travel became a regular part of my life.
Someone mentioned heat issues, and I have to admit I feel the heat from my Presario notebook more often that I’d care for. Having it literally on your lap for any more than a half hour is a no-go. But in those situations in which I AM using it on my lap, the applications I’m using still require more screen space than is available on a netbook.
Doing web and graphic development, I’ve become accustomed to having 2 screens (notebook plus one extra)… chopping off one screen for night-time in-bed work is tough enough. If I had only one screen AND it was tiny, I wouldn’t be able to work at all. I’d just get out of bed and go to my desk.
So, no netbook for me unless my life begins to include a lot of travel or offsite meetings.
Lowell
I have had an Asus Eee PC, a very early model for just over a year. I believe it is a 701 Surf with a 7″ screen, 512 MB of memory and a 2GB SSD, runing on a Celeron 800MHz CPU. I would not have bought one as I had purchased a DEll Inspirion 1525 laptop arond the same time. However, the Asus Eee PC was FREE from my bank as a gift for setting up /changeing accounts (Royal Bank, Canada).
It came pre-installed with Linux (sorry don’t know which version) and a very user freindly desktop interface that included e-mail, web browser, games, basic word prosseor, file management, wireless lan, 3 USB ports, etc. Despite the 512 of memory, it boots up almost instantly when useing the Linux/Asus interface.
Me being me I replaced the Linux software with a stripped down, N-Lite version of Win XP with SP-3. It runs a bit slower, uses more SSD space, but a more familaiar and adequate interface. I also installed a 16 GB SD memory card as a secondary “hard drive” for picture storage etc , plus “Portable Apps”, a package with Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, etc. This Apps tend to run slower from the SD card but are quite adequate.
Initial set-up was quite easy, wireless works graet as part of my home network. The battery life is quite poor, probably less than an hour of web browsing, e-mail etc. I think it has a 3 Cell battery. The small 7 inch screen is a drawback. However all of these issues have been addressed with the latest 10 inch screen models and hours of battery life, sweet.
One final comment which was totally unexpected, this Asus is built like a tank, very robust, solid caseing and screen hinges etc. I have not looked at the newer Asus models and compared these points. For the size its great, just grab and go. Longer battery life would be nice.
http://odysseykayaking.com Pat
I use my ASUS netbook with XP, and a charting program by Nobeltec with a GPS input.
I carry it on the boat, take it flying on the Trike, and have started taking it kayaking to make notes and mark good camping spots. Don’t use it for surfing(internet, haha) or email, but have just put Skype onboard with a small headset which gives it an added dimension when near a wireless portal. On the boat I’ve put in a charger for the long trips, and am looking for a solar charger that is portable if one exists. Also have a full size wireless keyboard/mouse which has been handy a few times. I love the size of it, and will be looking for a faster CPU and longer battery life Netbook in the future.
mikeor
I already have 2 netbooks I bought for under 250 each on an auction site about a year ago, one is Ubuntu and the other XP. I bought them to keep up with email while in Vegas and now I find I have one in my living room by the TV in case I see something on TV and want to check it out online. I find that everyone I know who she’s me using my netbook is very interested and says thay ar eplanning to get one. I work in IT and having a netbook to carry into meetings is a lot easier than carrying around a 15.4 notebook. My latest project was to setup my XP netbook to dual boot to Linux and double the memory on the XP netbook.
http://none Bill H
I also bought the XP-based Eee PC, and I love it. I am a network tech, contracting to a number of places like OnForce, etc. This little baby machine fits in my toolbag, starts quickly, is built for networking so does all of the tricks that I need. I no longer have to carry a separate, bulky computer bag as well as another for tools. The battery life is extraordinary, and I haven’t found the drawbacks in almost five months of owning it.