Laptop or netbook – which is better?

You may have noticed that there’s an alternative to the traditional laptop.  They’re small and attractive and they are called netbooks. 
At first glance the netbook looks a great alternative to the laptop – all the features and half the size, but be careful as there are advantages and disadvantages.

Price

The netbook looks cheaper but the cheapest ones are bundled with the Linux operating system which is fine for browsing the web and running a few Linux based applications such as Open Office.  If you want to run any Microsoft apps then you need the XP operating system.  At this point there isn’t much price advantage over a fully featured laptop and you don’t even get a CD drive so you might end up having to buy an external one if you want to read CDs and DVDs.

Screen Size

Netbooks come in 8” and 10” screen sizes – All you need for quickly browsing the web and writing the odd note while you’re travelling.  I think the 10” is better but both are light and easy to carry and because they are smaller the battery life tends to be better.  Just don’t expect to do presentations to your clients on a tiny screen.

Battery life

Some netbook manufacturers are quoting 7 hours compared to about 3 on a laptop. 

Applications

You can run many applications on your netbook over the internet.  Google Docs offers a complete suite of internet based applications including Email, Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Calendar and presentations.  You don’t need much storage space because all your documents are stored online.  If you need to run more complicated applications such as Photoshop then you are going to need the extra processing power of a fully featured laptop; the slower processor and smaller memory of the netbook will not be sufficient.

Usage

If you are on the road and want to keep up with your emails, facebook and twitter then the netbook is your obvious choice as your secondary computer.  If this is to be your main computer then a full laptop is a must, especially if you are to be sitting at a desk all day long.  The laptop is also ideal if your work has to be self-contained and you have to have access to files locally e.g. videos, accounts, payroll etc.

Conclusions

Netbooks are light and low cost. Traditional laptops offer more security, processing power and storage.