Why netbooks?

[Emulex]

mini9 on mah belly in front of tv i can surf fark. no fan. no hard drive. no noise. works great.

if i break it? it was $200; whoopie doo.

i'd rather not fry mah balls with a laptop and it plays youtube fine.

 

[Ksyder]

some things you can't do with your smartphone...
can't empty your digital cameral memory card onto a smartphone when you are on vacation
can't sync your mp3 player to a smart phone
can't add a 500 gb hard drive to your smartphone
can't thing of anything else at the moment...

but you can see where i'm going with this.

 

[Ksyder]

Originally posted by: Emulex
mini9 on mah belly in front of tv i can surf fark. no fan. no hard drive. no noise. works great.

if i break it? it was $200; whoopie doo.

i'd rather not fry mah balls with a laptop and it plays youtube fine.

agree... the atom cpu runs very cool, now the chipset on the other hand, maybe not so much

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: yh125d
I browse a lot on my HTC, but there is definitely a niche market for netbooks, between smartphones and small notebooks

yeah, i could live with having a G1 or something instead of my netbook, but I also find it very convenient to have a small, but full-on laptop that i can take around easily.

Zaps post is good...id love a dual-core model with higher res, but im really quite happy with the 1000H that I have. i downgraded from a T60 which was overkill for what I do when i want to be mobile, and still a tad bulky/heavy for me to take out regularly.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I bought a netbook (Samsund NC10) a few months ago and am now selling it. Between my iPhone and my MacBook Pro I have the bases covered, and the keyboard and touchpad on the Samsung are just unacceptably small for my hands (I am 6'3" and have some fairly large mitts).

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: Ksyder
some things you can't do with your smartphone...
can't empty your digital cameral memory card onto a smartphone when you are on vacation
can't sync your mp3 player to a smart phone
can't add a 500 gb hard drive to your smartphone
can't thing of anything else at the moment...

but you can see where i'm going with this.

That's the thing. For simple things netbooks can handle very well, but most people who do buy them just irrationally expect more out of them and that they should be miniaturized versions of typical laptops.

 

[cparker]

They are cheap.

They are light.

They have great screens and keyboards (mine does -- Samsung nc10).

They have fast hard disks.

They seem to be well made and completely reliable.

No hassle setting them up.

They come with all the goodies: camera, backup provisions, enough ram which can easily be upgraded -- from 1 gig to 2 gigs in my case.

You don't need to spend a penny more for anything. Get free software -- Avira anti virus, open office, foxit reader, pdf creator etc.

The battery lasts forever.

You just grab it and run. Close the lid when you are through and it goes into standby/hibernate.

If you want to use it as a desktop you can do it by plugging in monitor/keyboard/mouse. Yes, it works. A friend of mine who's a famous CS prof does just that, and when he takes trips to give talks, book tours, whatever, he just unplugs the accessories, puts it in his bag and gets on the plane. He loves it! Got rid of all his bulky notebooks/desktops.

Having the screen smaller is better. It's usable but when you're done looking at or doing what you need to do you close the thing and move on. It's just so great to move around the house with it when you need it, wherever you go.

And did I say the wifi is great? Easy to set up, impressive range, etc.

Pretty amazing!

And did I mention the low price??????

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Zap
PORTABILITY
[...] Haven't tried with the MSI Wind, but with the slightly smaller 9" Eee PC 900 series a typical cargo pocket in cargo pants/shorts will fit the netbook. Seriously, we've tried it. [...]

This is one of those things where you have to see-it-to-believe-it...

LoL!

You can take my word on it. You can also ask jonnyGURU as it was his Eee PC.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Zap
PORTABILITY
[...] Haven't tried with the MSI Wind, but with the slightly smaller 9" Eee PC 900 series a typical cargo pocket in cargo pants/shorts will fit the netbook. Seriously, we've tried it. [...]

This is one of those things where you have to see-it-to-believe-it...

LoL!

You can take my word on it. You can also ask jonnyGURU as it was his Eee PC.

Heh! I haven't 'seen' Jonny in ages. I think I'll visit his site when I'm done here...

BTW, that comment was not meant as a challenge to you. It was for non-believers

Here's a (recent) example of what 'we' are talking about:

Last week I had to pick my wife up at the airport. Her flight was delayed 7 hours because of inclement weather. Her 10 PM flight to Phoenix didn't arrive until 4 AM.

When her flight arrived in Phoenix it was storming here, and they wouldn't allow the passengers to deplane until the lightening stopped. At 5 AM they let her get off the plane, only to be met by 'monsoon rains'.

OMG! What a cluster phuck!!!

By the time she got inside the air terminal, my wife looked like she had been in a wet t-shirt contest!

When we hit the parking lot, the rain was coming down in buckets - the street was flowing like a river, et cetera.

And... there I stood, on the sidewalk, with my Netbook in hand...

My wife opened her purse, and we threw my Eee PC in there, saving it from the rain, as we ran to the car!

Anyway, the moral of the story is: If I hadn't 'seen it' there is no way I would have 'believed it'... that this thing would fit inside my wife's purse (especially after a trip), kapeesh?

Bwahahaha! Netbooks rawk!!!

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: VinDSL


By the time she got inside the air terminal, my wife looked like she had been in a wet t-shirt contest!

pics?

 

[imported_oreca]

notebooks are good for people-on-the-go. surfing the net on a phone or even a full-pledged pda is a pain in the ass.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: IlllI

Originally posted by: VinDSL
By the time she got inside the air terminal, my wife looked like she had been in a wet t-shirt contest!

pics?

OMG!!! No way, baby! She would KILL ME!

One of the things I've learned: "Happy wife - Happy life."

You just don't do things like that! They don't forget anything...

She remembers shit I said in High School!!!

 

[meester]

We spent two weeks in Mexico with one. They are light, which is great for travel, they are small, so I could fit it in my wife's handbag, they are cheap, which means I don't worry too much about them getting stolen, they have a good screen for web browsing (which is all you want when you are travelling) - compared with a smartphone, which has a 3.5" screen tops. Useable keyboard (my smartphone has full qwerty keyboard, 480x800 resolution, etc., but it doesn't touch the netbook for web browsing).

I have PC, fullsize (well 13.3") laptop, netbook and smartphone. All serve a purpose.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Originally posted by: Fox5
What role do netbooks really fulfill that modern, high-end phones can't? Netbooks seem to sell for around $400, and for that price you can get yourself a nice phone capable of browsing the Internet. Even if you don't want to pay for a data plan, you can still get a PDA, ipod touch, nokia n800/n810, or any other wifi equipped device.

A netbook is good for little more than browsing the Internet, yet these handheld (and even pocket-sized) devices handle the Internet pretty well, some can even do flash. I don't really see where a netbook fits in. (though they get better battery life than my old pda)

I'm pretty much in agreement with your line of thinking. However (and a big however), netbooks to me serve a specific niche of value and utility right between the smartphone and the full-fledged notebook.

To me, the "full fledged" notebook has to have some pretty powerful specifications on it to be worth while (IE: Decent gaming specs) to be of any real benefit over a netbook. Value notebooks don't have the power to play games comfortably (this is subjective, but I would say in general they don't) and the only decent ones that do are pretty much in the $600+ range with dedicated graphics and horrible heat and battery life. (Weight doesn't help either)

The netbook does everything the cheap notebook was suppose to do for ages. Give you a basic platform for reading e-mails, browsing the web, chatting, checking your social networking stuff (I can't believe I'm saying that ) and the occasional movie or flash based game. Couple this with very impressive battery life, lightweight shell and a relative cheap price tag and you basically are giving what WE (tech people) have been recommending non-tech people for years to look for in a "no nonsense computer".

The smart-phone does all of this... but not in a comfortable manner. Staring at a small screen and fiddling with tiny keys is not exactly something that is productive; but rather convenient should no other options exist. Hence the netbook came along and tried to relieve that without replacing the notebook.

On a side note, I have had way too may machines and gadgets in my life and have decided to just live simply. I only have my smartphone with me when outside the house and no other gadgets. (No more PDA's, latptops, netbooks, mp3 players, media players, etc) At home, I only have my one computer that I throw thousands of dollars at for cutting edge gaming / performance. Everything in the middle is fluff for me personally, but I can totally understand the why they are there. My point with all of this is that the netbook serves its niche well and there's a place for it for people out there. It's certainly popular and if it works and makes people happy; so be it.