While this question may seem easy enough, many will realize it it’s not that simple to answer. What exactly is a netbook?
One sentence cannot encompass all the different qualities that separate laptops from their netbook counter parts. It will take a bit more than that to explain it. Here we will look closer at why netbooks are netbooks and not laptops, then at the end we will find some snazzy way to describe it easily before we end.
Screen Size
Most netbook screens range around seven to 10 inches. Most of the time if you have a larger screen than that, it is considered a laptop.
But some companies though are building them even larger than the normal netbook screen sizes. Some of the netbooks are reaching eleven or twelve inches now!
But most netbooks have around a ten inch screen supporting a 1024 x 600 screen resolution.
Weight
The purpose of netbooks are the fact that they are light weight and small. Their portability is their main feature.
Nearly all netbooks out there weigh around two to three pounds. But some may go slightly heavier or lighter.
Operating System
Windows XP or Linux are two mainly chosen operating systems for the netbooks. While you can put Windows Vista on a netbook, vista is known to be a resource hog, so most will stay with XP.
But soon Windows 7 will be out, and this will probably take over as the OS for netbooks due to much lower and efficient resource use.
Memory
Most of the time netbooks come with between 512 megabytes to 1 gig, but most available is able to support up two 2 gigs.
Netbooks have two variations on storage. They can either use SSD(solid state disk) or HDD(Hard Disk drive). A previous article will explain the difference.
Netbooks that come with SSDs are ususally a bit smaller than their HDD siblings. They also are a little more expensive. But SSD’s go anywhere between 4 to 32 gigs, and HDDs go betwee 80 to 160 gigs.
Being more shock resistant, SSDs survive being tossed around and beaten a bit more than HDDs.
Connectivity
They have most of the normal ports that many computers have such as USB 2.0 and a memory reader. Of course a headphone and mic jack is there as well.
There are some variations out there which has bluetooth, 3G, and even an express card slot.
Conference calls are usually easier with a netbook thanks to the built in mic and webcam.
Keyboard Size
But because of their compact size their keyboards are much smaller than normal keyboards. The keyboard sizes are usually only around 80% of what a normal size keyboard would be depending on it’s size.
But the netbooks which reach up to 10 inch screens may have a keyboard that is around 90 percent of the normal size. Those with large fingers may have a bit of a time working with these tinier keyboards.
Processing Power
Netbooks also do not have as powerful processors so the battery life can last much longer.
Most latops and computers have two cores, the netbook only has one core to keep it’s power usage down.
But this does not necessarily limit them in performance. They can still keep up and play some of the more graphically intense games and still do good video editing. They keep up to at least 95% of what a normal computer can do.
Price
The basic netbooks start for a price around 300 dollars. But with all the extras it can easily reach around 800.
Most people can locate a good netbook for them at around 500 dollars or so.
There are some netbooks that are as cheap as 99 dollars! But you need to sign up for a mobile broad band contract. This has a 24 month deal that charges 60 dollars a month.
So that’s how a netbook differs from a laptop. The trick now is to make a snazzy short version so you can easily explain it to your friends and family.
“A netbook is a lower priced, very light weight, computer that is very portable and can do all the normal computing chores.”
