What’s a Netbook?

There’s been a lot of media hype about so called “netbooks” this past year.  All a netbook is, is a small notebook computer with a slow processor, a slow and low capacity hard drive, a small screen with a low resolution, and usually a scaled down version of Windows (like Windows Starter edition) or with Linux installed.

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Netbooks are not generally considered “netbooks” unless they’re under $500.  Most of them are right around that price range, but with the severely limiting capabilities.  People get excited about them because they assume that since they’re so scaled back, capability wise, that they’re cheaper than more powerful notebooks.  The truth is, you can get a very nice notebook computer in the $300-$500 price range that will absolutely run circles around any netbook performance wise, storage wise, screen size wise, resolution wise, Windows version wise, etc… etc…

Although, people that have netbooks, seem to love them.  I wonder if they know that they can get a much more power computer at an equivalent (or lower) cost.

There is one legitimate reason I can see for getting one though:  Size.  They’re much smaller than a normal notebook.  So, if a smaller size is more important than all of the other capabilities, a netbook just might be right for you.

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