Debunking Some Netbook Myths December 15, 2009
Is There a Netbook in Your Future?
If I were a betting man, I’d put a lot of money on this one. Yes, there is a netbook in your future. I don’t personally own a netbook, but I have two in my family so I’ve purchased them, used them, and wholeheartedly approve of them. I had to overcome some initial concerns before feeling this way and I’m guessing most of you will have to overcome the same fears as well…
- The screen is too small. Let me tell you, it’s not. It’s small, yes…but unless you’re working heavily on graphics, the size is a plus rather than a minus. I’ve grown tired of the large, widescreen laptops. My current laptop is a 13″ Macbook, much smaller (but more expensive and reliable) than my previous Gateway laptop and much more portable. The netbooks only build on this portability. Don’t be afraid, size is definitely not everything.
- The CD/DVD drive is critical. It’s not. Two of my kids have lived without it for several months now and the only time I use my drive in my Macbook is to add songs to iTunes. And I can do that the same way most of us get our software these days - through online purchases and downloads. The CD/DVD drive is no longer a necessity…it’s a ‘nice-to-have’ and an ‘almost-never-used’ extra.
- The processing power won’t be there. Not true. I bought my kids the Asus Eee PC netbook. It has the Intel Atom processor which operates at 1.60 GHz and the netbook comes with 1 Gb of DDR2 RAM. Now, their not Photosphopping the day away, but for high school and college work and for photo editing, writing, some video editing, etc. it has performed everything they needed with room to spare.
Here’s the kicker - neither one of them needed a new laptop. They both wanted netbooks and I was intrigued with them so I sold their previous standard-sized laptops and purchased these two machines.
The netbook is about the size of a book from the library and is so lightweight you’ll forget it’s sitting on your lap in the airport (good and bad). As for fulfilling your small business needs - if any of your needs include on-the-go computing, the netbook is definitely for you. I can only attest to the quality of the Asus model that we own, but I’ve discussed these with retailers at length and they are flying off the shelf for both personal and business users.
One Best Buy manager personally recommended the Asus model (at a modest $299) so I went with it - and they told me to shy away from the Dell model they were carrying do to a recent return trend so you can take that bit of information however you want to. My recommendation is to go with a netbook if you’ve been thinking about one - don’t be afraid to take the plunge.
