Opinion: Why Netbooks Are Doomed

[williamvw]

[citation][nom]omnimodis78[/nom]Your wife is not very smart - and you are pretty low on the technical scale yourself if you couldn't properly explain to her what she was getting. I doubt a very tall person would buy a sub-compact car, drive it around and then complain how it feels and blame the concept of sub-compact cars. It's a netbook, and it's super handy for students amongst others. Netbooks will continue to be made and your wife's idiocy is not an indication of this concept's doom.[/citation]
Personal attacks on my wife, huh? That's classy. I'm glad you know both of us so well. She's an amazingly generous mother, wife, and citizen -- probably the most honest and decent person I've ever known in my life. But go ahead. Keep trashing her to make yourself feel better. This is the Internet, where you can say whatever you want, however you want, with no thought for the common rules of social decency or need to care for the damage you might inflict. Fire away. I'm sure your parents would be proud.

 

[williamvw]

[citation][nom]Anonymous[/nom]Hey William - would have been easier to get rid of the wife ????[/citation]
Good question. I take it your first divorce is still in your future.

 

[Guest]

It needs to be repeated: people should stop comparing and expecting netbooks to match up to full-sized laptops. You want a full-sized keyboard and speedy response times?? Buy a frickin' laptop then. My netbook is everything I expected -- because I had reasonable expectations. Not everyone can afford a $1000+ laptop. If is wasn't for the $300 price tag, I wouldn't be using anything at all 😡 And try playing Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri on a smart phone.

 

[a1234567]

Netbooks have their uses in their niche market. I know people who have them and are over the moon with the portability and it's powerful enough to get whatever they need done.

The main pluses with netbooks are the cheap price and that they are powerful enough to do basic tasks.

The disadvantages like the smaller keyboard and smaller screen are more personal preference. They will bother some people greatly and not be a big deal to others. So if you're in the camp where these disadvantages don't outweight the advantages, then a netbook can be a useful tool.

That said, personally, I prefer a full-sized keyboard since I can't stand the smaller keyboard. There are options out there for people who want the light weight and battery life but want more computing power than an Atom. The Thinkpad X200s, for example, weighs in at a similar weight to most netbooks (

 

[a1234567]

...got cut off (continued)

most netbooks (

 

[a1234567]

Never mind. Can't handle special characters like "less than." Sorry for triple posting. 🙁
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(less than 3 lb) and can get up to about 10 hours battery life but it's definitely more expensive with a base price of 664 right now. Other light weight options include the new Vaio X, but that thing is going to be super expensive.

 

[gravitygirl]

I've also had boyfriends I thought were cute, but returned them when I realized that is all they were. Cute. Netbooks probably seemed like a good idea, on paper, and maybe some are even making moeny on 'em but I really don't have a need any products in the stack between my smartphone and my "real" notebook computer.

 

[moschops]

I bought a great 12" laptop from Dell in 2004 that is similar form factor to the largest "netbooks" and it was a great machine that weighed only 4lbs, had up to 4 hours battery life and a 1280x800 screen. With upgraded memory and hard drive the only difference I can see between it and the best netbooks now is price - it cost me $1000 but as you know h/w costs come down, CPUs get faster so that that is hardly a fair comparison. All this leads me to conclude is that for me 12" is a workable every day laptop size, especially if I can dock it with a nice large flat screen and external mouse/keyboard at work. My current 15" MacBook has a great screen but is a little big to carry around all the time especially on airplanes - even my 12" screen was problematic in coach class seats, several times it very nearly got destroyed by extreme recliners in front of me.

However below 12" I think it starts to get a bit iffy as an every day machine hence there are many to see this as a niche or special use device - as we can see from the comments.

Personally I think there will always be people who want a 10" cheap laptop for things that a mobile phone can't do and a "full sized" laptop isn't available. I'm quite amazed that people haven't suggested small keyboards are great for people with small hands, or kids even (or maybe kids aren't supposed to have laptops until their hands are "full sized"?).

I also think there is an ideal device in the 10 to 11" screen size format - it is essentially the same hardware except for a higher resolution touch screen, and comes with (or without) a removable or foldaway keyboard. In terms of CPU power I don't see a need for much more than is available in the top of the line smartphones which as we know is ideal for note taking, book reading, web surfing, email, navigation, streaming some lower res video, and light gaming of the mobile kind. Most people would call this device a "tablet" because of its form factor and it might actually be closer to 12" diagonal for 10x8.5" print media compatibility however I think it really could become the kind of device that most people carry around with them beyond the phone and instead of a laptop.

Yes rumor has it that Apple is working on such a device so this isn't original thinking at all, but I think that if they do release one they will probably nail it and probably put a nail in the coffin of netbook genre as we know them especially if the price is in the $500-$600 range. But even if that isn't the price then there will be a rush of copycat machines that are cheaper albeit nice as nice. A machine without a permanent keyboard can have a larger screen. A machine that doesn't need such a power CPU because it isn't very multitasking and doesn't gobble a lot of memory or run a HD continuously will get better battery life. To me if they could just take a eBook reader sized device, and let me doc my smartphone with it and just us it as a big external screen then that would be great. I wouldn't even need another keyboard because my phone has a great go anywhere two-thumb keyboard (obviously not an iPhone) that I can type quickly and accurately on.

 

[Guest]

Oh,Another complain against netbooks
All complain like that we can found on the web shows just one thing:
the author do not understand that a netbook is designed to support laptop or desktop computers in specific task, NOT to replace them.

Copenhagenize the planet. And have a lovely day.

 

[Guest]

@el_capitan: well how about web browsing on the move with a screen that cant be covered by a small child's hand?, very useful for watching DVD rips on the train too, and well how about as something nice and comfortable that dosn't burn a hole in your lap when your lounging about on the sofa?

sheesh guys if your main complaint is the smaller keyboard or the smaller screen have you contemplated when your at home plugging it into an external monitor and using those usb ports for an EXTERNAL mouse+keyboard?

btw for those interested this was written on an Asus Eeepc 1000Hgo
im a software developer and for my main work (compiling and the like) i use my desktop, the point of a netbook is to be able to pickup and use conveniently in any situation not to fully replace the desktop/notebook. OMFG i cant play Quake 4 on it ZOMG!!!! hint: thats not what its for