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It sort of feels like most are talking about netbooks nowadays, particularly with Google's current statement that they're going to be coming out with the Chrome operating system centered particularly at netbooks. Netbooks have been gaining in recognition recently, due to their portability and minimal cost compared to traditional notebooks, but there are vital differences between netbooks and notebooks, although they may seem extraordinarily similar. Here are 5 key differences between netbooks and notebooks that you should be conscious of before making your next PC purchase:
1. Size One of the important differences between netbooks and notebooks is their size. Netbooks are typically twelve inches or smaller, while notebooks are sometimes much bigger. There are benefits and downsides to this. On the positive side, netbooks are more cartable than notebooks. They are lighter to carry about, and they are better to pack away. You can simply carry around a netbook with one hand, without getting beat, something that is a touch more tough to manage with a traditional notebook. On the down side, netbooks regularly have smaller keyboards than the regular notebooks. Getting comfy with the smaller keys on a netbook can be hard, particularly for users with bigger hands. Netbooks also have smaller screens that may make them tougher to read than larger sized computers, particularly for folk that are suffering from vision issues. Most netbooks also lack disc drives, so you will not be ready to use them to play back CDs or DVDs.
2. Power The smaller size of netbooks comes at a cost. Netbooks are low powered compared to full featured notebooks, when it comes to things like processor speeds and graphics cards. This makes netbooks less than excellent for processor thorough jobs like image modifying or playing the most recent 3D games, and even straightforward jobs may appear slower on a netbook. Netbooks were essentially designed for browsing the net (therefore the name), so they're more than able of running a net browser, and doing less processor thorough jobs like word processing or putting together shows, but netbooks perform badly compared to notebooks on more involved jobs.
3. Capacity Another area in which netbooks don't quite stack up to compared to larger notebooks is storage capability. Many netbooks use solid state drives, which are more energy efficient and immune to impact (which makes them perfect for movables), but don't have as much capacity as regular hard drives. Many netbooks have less drive space than the characteristic iPod, which makes them less than ideal if you have got a lot of content that you would like to carry around.
There are some netbooks that use precise hard drives, which top out about 160GB of capacity, which is a lot less than most modern notebooks, but is miles better than a solid state drive. The drawback of these hard drives is they are also a lot slower than solid state drives. If you make a decision to go for a netbook, you'll have to get by with less space for storage, or carry around another external disk drive for your storage wants.
4. Price The one area where netbooks excel in is cost. Most netbooks sell for rather less than $600 US greenbacks, and some can be discovered for as little as $300. Again, the capacities of netbooks are rather limited compared to more full featured notebooks, but all that you need is an easy transportable PC to get you online, a netbook can be a bargain.
5. Operating System The final thing to be conscious of when buying a netbook is what form of operating system it uses. Most PC users are acquainted with Microsoft's popular Windows OS or Apple's Mac OS. Many netbooks use an open source operating system called Linux. This keeps the price of netbooks down, but can be confusing to people who won't be acquainted with that operating system. If you're hoping to get a netbook, ensure you know what operating system is installed on the PC.
If it is Linux, it might take you a while to work out how the operating system works. There are netbooks that come installed with the more familiar Windows, but the price of these netbooks is typically higher, so keep that in mind also.
Conclusion If you're trying to find an ultra portable, ultra-affordable laptop that you intend to use to surf the web and take a look at your e-mail with, the netbook could be the right PC for you. If you would like to do more than this, you can doubtless wish to go with a more absolutely featured notebook. Bear in mind the differences printed above are slowly disappearing, as PC technology continues to develop. Finally, you are going to be able to get ultra-small and inexpensive laptops, without needing to sacrifice on power or performance. For the moment, though, there are still some major difference between netbooks and notebooks that you must remember when deciding on which PC to get. |