Netbook vs Notebook vs Laptop

[WillT]

Ive been looking for a laptop for high school. I'm in honors my freshman year and i take about 5 pages of notes daily per class I forgot to put that in. I talked my teachers into letting me bring a laptop to school and they all have said yes.

I cant decide on whether to get a netbook or a laptop

netbook sounds better all around with longer battery life and plenty of storage.

I need as much battery life as possible and the netbooks claim to have around 5 hours with wifi on

The only things i plan on doing with it is web browsing listening to music with headphones, Net Beans, and Open Office/Microsoft word

Before I buy is there anything i should know?

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131014 <- Netbook

Too many others to list


Budget is $600 so i could get a mid/high range netbook or low range Laptop or Notebook

 

[frozenlead]

Netbooks also generally carry scrunched up small keyboards that are rather uncomfortable to type on, making them unsuitable for note taking.

Just a question - have you ever tried taking notes on a laptop before you jump into this? Personally, I find it a heck of a lot faster and easier to take notes in a notebook - faster to write information, and easy to switch between writing things and drawing things.

 

[WillT]

The samsung has the best keyboard yet and it is 80% which is good for a laptop i think

typing is much simple for me because it is almost 3 times as fast

I was looking around at mods for netbooks and i found touch screens for 8.9" and 10.2" so there is probably a driver for drawing on it

 

[fulle]

WillT.. if you're really in HS you should just use a notebook. Don't be that weird geek who brings in his laptop to school. Make an effort to try talking to more people around you instead.

From a practicality standpoint, its a waste anyway. You say you're only going to take 5 pages of notes daily? That's hardly worth the trouble of bringing your laptop to a Highschool.

The first year I was in college I brought a laptop to class a few times. It was more of a distraction than anything else. Certainly didn't improve productivity... I found that it was more difficult to listen, and notice those around me. It made it more difficult to be spontaneous... (How am I supposed to go play ultimate with the cute girl I just met, if I have to be careful my laptop isn't damaged?)

I just don't see the use.... a netbook might not be completely worthless, if you require precise organization in your notes. But... if you do, your efforts would be better spent re-evaluating how you study.

Just get a regular notebook, kid.

 

[frozenlead]

5 pages isn't bad at all - I took 5 pages of notes just in calculus back in high school, not to mention the other classes.

Really though, think about it. A notebook now - we'll say $800, just to average notebook and netbook. Then, we'll say...$5 a year for a stack of notebooks so high you can't see over them. $20 for 4 years, or $800 - by the end of these four years, your notebook will be outdated, and you'll probably want a new one for college life. Doesn't seem worth it.

 

[dwellman]

Notebooks for taking notes? No. I know it might seem like a good idea, but it is not. Any notes I take with a laptop have to be re-transcribed anyway, so might as well wrtie the stuff down in the first place and organize them into documents to print out later.

However, there is one caveat: Power Point. For the most part, I think maybe 80% of lectures in undergrad and graduate school were given using Power Point. . . so if I had my notebook, I would download the slides before class, review them before class, write questions I had on the notes section of the slides and ask them during class.. and add the information to the slides. I doubt many high schools have 80% lectures using Power Point (or similar).

Otherwise, this is my note taking strategy: 1) take notes by hand (visual learning advantage). Make sure to write and ask questions DURING CLASS (auditory learning advantage). Engaging the instructor acomplishes two things: 1) steers the "conversation" to your streangths and weaknesses (advantage you) and 2) causes the instructor to affford you more consideration, e.g. you get the benifit of the doubt*. After words, I like to either write my notes into "articles" and print them out and flip through them from time to time, or I write questions on index cards with answers on the back (kinesthetic learning advantage).

* case and point: A professor indicated that even though I earned an A- in the class, he thought that I really deserved an A, so he arbitrailiy awarded me an A, just for being engaging. I forget which class that was. . . SENG (software engineering) something or other.

 

[sciggy]

I disagree with the others. I have been taking notes on my laptop this semester and things couldn't have been easier. It does suck that I'm lugging around a 6+ lbs laptop and ac adapter(battery doesn't work). My advice is to get something with a bigger screen than most netbooks have because once you actually see one of those 10.2" screens you realize just how small that really is. The new dell mini 12 comes to mind. I'm looking at it as a replacement for my current laptop because it seems to have a bigger form factor for easier note taking, but also weighs in less than 3 lbs with 4+ hour battery life. All around seems like a great option for ~$600. Just no optical drive, but there are ways around that as well.

All in all, if it is just for note taking I'd say the mini 12 is a good option. Go out and look at them in person before you make any decisions because most netbooks are TINY!! Making them very hard to type at a decent speed.

 

[B16CXHatch]

I would go with a larger laptop and find a seat next to a plug. That's I what I do considering all my laptops so far haven't had good battery life. I found my laptop to be a lifesaver in some classes. Yeah I used it quite often to goof off but I also managed to get every last note down.

When I first started college, I had an American History class early in the morning (I can't remember if it was an 8:00 or 9:30) and I fell asleep in that class a lot. My long time friend who just so happened to be in the same class sat behind me and had to wake me up quite often. Then when I got the laptop, I stayed awake thanks to a few diversions (this teacher also went off on unrelated stuff often which is why I fell asleep a lot). And when my school got campus wide WiFi, I never had a problem since. I also had an Economics teacher who would talk and talk and talk throughout his classes and I fell asleep in there too (bad habit I know) but having a laptop would keep me awake to catch the notes. Plus for that teacher, if you got everything he wrote on the board and his handouts, you were set.

Now I have 2 classes that I can't use my laptop in. The teachers won't let us use them. Fortunately I'm able to stay awake due to the interesting discussions and conversations (Intro to Psychology and Social Problems) but I have trouble with notes and I'm not doing as well as I'd like in those classes. I have 2 problems with hand written notes. 1. I type infinitely faster than I can write and I have a hard time keeping up writing. 2. My hand writing isn't the best in the world and when I have to rush to keep up, it gets sloppy and very hard to read.

I personally find a laptop great for notes but the best way to deal with it is have both the laptop and a spiral notebook. Type out your notes and when diagrams come up, make some sort of reference in the notes and do the diagram by hand and label it. I have a 5 subject notebook that I keep in my bag at all times for crap like that.

 

[dwellman]

Or, I recommend a Tablet PC. A buddy of mine had one-- used it for EVERYTHING. But you know, he was.. . . . special. HA!

Where are you Dave?

 

[Guest]

Well.. poo on you guys who dont believe in using the technology in school. I wouldn't be able to live without mine!! Im a great typist and am able to fly through lectures and still be able to stop and enguage my professor if i dont quite catch something.

then i can go home, scan through them, separate the meat and potatoes and print off flash cards I LOVE IT.

i went with a small 10" baby. Perfect size for my desk and only a couple pounds. Ive never seen it as a distraction at all. (though i do check out news or myspace during breaks hehe)

but all in all its a great school investment ESPECIALLY for the powerpoint lectures. Ive given 3 oral presentations this year with powerpoint presentations and recieved perfect scores on all of them YAAAAAH. oh, and God Bless Spell check!!

-Jonathonbradylpn@aol.com

 

[frozenlead]

Not doubting computing in school itself - I just think that using it in high school is not wise for your money or your grade.

Also, powerpoint doesn't have anything to do with your grade on the presentation. That's just practice and skill.

 

[shiv666]

newer netbook keyboards are fine....like eeepc1000, aspire one, msi wind... notebooks are usually priced higher than there desktop equal....with that in mind id go for the cheapest one cause it has better value...

 

[randi]

hey frnds,
i thnk go for a notebook, its cost-effective and you may really enjoy its use

 

[noxil]

I like Netbook more than All. It's the lowest and cheap.
Now i use Asus EeePC900(details).

 

[davide1982]

Of course, recent trends have considerably diminished the difference between these 2 gadgets, but anyway there are still points to consider before purchasing one or another. Below I've tried to list them all:


http/www.myhowtoos.com/en/how-to-choose/87-how-to-choose-between-netbook-vs-laptop

 

[renelaude]

Well.. poo on you guys who dont believe in using the technology in school. I wouldn't be able to live without mine!! Im a great typist and am able to fly through lectures and still be able to stop and enguage my professor if i dont quite catch something.

then i can go home, scan through them, separate the meat and potatoes and print off flash cards I LOVE IT.

i went with a small 10" baby. Perfect size for my desk and only a couple pounds. Ive never seen it as a distraction at all. (though i do check out news or myspace during breaks hehe)

but all in all its a great school investment ESPECIALLY for the powerpoint lectures. Ive given 3 oral presentations this year with powerpoint presentations and recieved perfect scores on all of them YAAAAAH. oh, and God Bless Spell check!!

-Jonathonbradylpn@aol.com

Anonymous:
Please let us know what did you use: a notebook, a netbook or a laptop? Model?

Thank you

Rene L. Laude

 

[p00p00head]

Honors freshman Highschool!?!? 5 pages of notes PER class?!? Wow, you must be super special!...sorry, I'll stop myself early.

Like Fulle said, I'd stick with the old pen and paper for highschool. Your wpm might be faster typing than writing but that doesn't account for symbols, diagrams, and other things that are much easier drawn out by hand. If you insist on getting a laptop for notes though, I'd look into either tablet PC's or the new all day use laptops like the Acer Timeline series. There's actually a pretty killer deal for one at tigerdirect.com for an entry level Timeline for $550. No tax and $2 shipping, in addition to a %12 discount if you use Bing. That should come out to roughly less than $500 total for a laptop that'll get you 8 hours of run time with more power than a netbook.

 

[discboy321]

My step daughter and son just finished college and both did almost the same as the other. Using a laptop they recorded the class they were in and at the same time going over the last class with a single pip headphone and listening to the professor all at once. Far better than I did ! Wish I had a laptop but noooo just a pencil and notebook.

 

[Guest]

HEY !!!! YOU GUYS why don't you just use one of the most perfect pieces of hardware "intended" to on-the-go note-taking ??? i used it during all my college years. I used a palm pda ( palm M100) and i just wrote each letter on the pda's screen to form words, sentences, etc - i used to be so skilled in handwriting on the Palm pda, that my speed was almost the same as my teachers' natural speech speed. Also, i could draw just any figures they drew on the board, linking the image with the text.
Nowadays i could just use a pocket pc ( windows mobile ), and select the text entry mode to "block mode" (simulating that of a Palm) and.. writing/drawing away! ( and its form factor is just tiny enough to have it carried around in your pocket ( well, it's a pocket pc anyway