So everyone is asking ... just what is the big deal with netbooks these days? I used to be in that camp too before I got my new Toshiba mini netbook. I always just used to think "So what, it's a little PC." and "Why would I want one of these? I already have a laptop." Well I will tell you, I've been thrown for a loop with my new little netbook -- and that doesn't happen very often because I am a gadget freak and have new hardware passing through my hands all the time.
The other day, I was off to visit my sister and I was in a hurry. There was absolutely no time to shut down my laptop, dig out the laptop messenger bag, load it all up, unplug the AC adapter and wrap that up and load it too, etc., etc. So, on the fly I just grabbed my netbook and my travel mouse and threw them both into my purse. That's right, just threw them in there with my keys and wallet. It took 3 seconds with no preparation. This lead to amazement #1 - the netbook is REALLY light & extremely portable; it's not a fuss to take with you, like a laptop is. Because of it's long battery life (mine touts 10+ hours at maximum power saving mode), you do not have to pack up your heavy AC adapter up either.
I arrived at my sisters house and opened up my netbook while I was watching TV. I was crusing the web and using my cloud drive (Zumo Drive) to access my files. It was nice; there was nothing bogging my netbook down, the internet browsing was fast, and I even had my files. The netbook was light & cool on my lap unlike my hot laptop with it's discreet graphics card and 80GB hard drive heating things up. Amazement #2 - netbooks might not have all of the processing power of my desktop & laptop at home, but that certainly doesn't stop you from getting things done. I might not have been able to do heavy duty Flash or graphic design editing like I do on my desktop at home, but I didn't need that. I checked my bank account, looked at Twitter, edited a Word document and created a PDF, and uploaded some photos to Facebook; which were all things I thought I might have to wait to return home and use my desktop system to do.
Another place my netbook has wowed me is while traveling. It's light enough to go in my carry-on and has long battery life, so suddently that 8 hours you have to spend waiting at the airport and traveling on trains, planes, and automobiles seems manageable thanks to all the AVI movies and music it can play. Additionally, with my AT&T wireless adapter, I can also get 3G internet most places, so my productivity time just took another leap. GPS anyone? Yep, it does that too; I can pull up a real-time map in my cab while I'm driving to my hotel in another city. Sure, my laptop can do all of this too - but it's battery would die after 2 hours, I would have a hard time finding any AC to plug into, and it would make me uncomfortable with a lot of heat on my lap. All of that plus it would be quite a bit heavier (laptop + brick AC adapter = about 9 lbs vs just my netbook, 3 lbs). Amazement #3, my netbook is a portable entertainment and productivity powerhouse!
Another thing about my netbook that impressed me was the customization you can do. Want a pink or lime green netbook? You'll have no problem finding those. There are also a wide range of netbook skins and netbook sleeves to choose from, so your netbook (amazement #4) can be as individual as you are.
So, for all those folks who are saying netbooks are just small laptops, I heartily disagree with them. They are a completely new form factor that places portability and usability at the top of the list instead of performance. For traveling, casual internet surfing, low bandwidth activities, and entertainment - most of the time - performance isn't your top concern. I won't be getting rid of my high end desktop any time soon for activities like graphic design, video editing, and 3D gaming; but I am going to start getting a lot more productivity on-the-go with my new little netbook. :-)
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Brown Belt
Comments
I got a pink netbook. :-) I am not an engineer but I was able to download moblin image from moblin.org and install it to my pink netbook. I loaded it with Hello Kitty screen background. They are a perfect match. :-) My moblin netbook amazed me by identifying access points automatically for me and get connected to the right one when I move around. For example, my office and meeting rooms are in different floor of the building. Normally I need to switch access point manually to keep my wireless connection going. With moblin, I don't need to do it.
The second thing amazed me about my moblin netbook was that a business associate and I went to have a meeting at a potential customer site. Different from most meetings installed with projector, this particular one had a digit TV installed in the meeting room. My business associate had a nice notebook with windows XP on it, he had trouble connecting to the digital TV while my moblin netbook worked perfectly fine with the digital TV. :-)
You've got it! I am no engineer either but I was also able to install Moblin on an Asus Eee 1000 series netbook in about 15 minutes.
The pink netbook with the Hello Kitty background sounds perfect! I have a sable brown one, so I've got to find something like a Scooby Doo background to match. :)
Hello ,
May i know how many hours of battery backup that your netbook has given on your first usage ? how did you feel about netbook in that aspect when compare to other pocketPC ;)
Cheers,
Raj
Hi Raj, I don't know the real battery consumption seeing as I have never run the battery down all the way yet. The advertised battery life (at the highest power saving levels) is 10.5 hours on the Asus Eee 1005HA netbook. I'm sure this number goes down when using wireless, but I have not tested the "real life" battery time this netbook gives.
mine gives me about 3 hours on high power with the wireless on. procesor is an atom 270. i have one of the original dell mini 9s. i've ran it till it shut itself off :p
mine gives me up 4 hours:)
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paris sportif
Mine give me about 3 1/2 hours I think it is great. I believe that the battery goes down in life as you use it with wireless.
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