Forget tablets, netbooks are here to stay

The same can be said about Android Tablets, having purchased an inexpensive 7″ one recently, they make for good media consumption devices, ebooks, and browsing the internet, reading email, they are not content creation devices, like answering email, writing notes, spreadsheets documents etc.

I use a Samsung N120, bought a year and a half ago for around £300. I only bought it as a backup to my hitherto top of the range laptops but have to say that it is probably the best technology investment I’ve ever made and now goes everywhere with me. As a result I’ve stopped investing in high-end laptops and switched to a desktop (lovely iMac) when I’m at my desk and the netbook whenever I’m anywhere else. It runs pretty much everything I ask it to and has the huge advantage of being incredibly light with a battery life that lasts a whole working day if I’m careful. I manage my email all my frequently accessed data through the cloud so it’s all backed up and available to me wherever I am, and the netbook is cheap enough that I don’t stress about breaking or loosing it. Life just seems so much simpler since I made the change!

It strikes me that a tablet is a completely new kind of device and not actually directly comparable with a notebook/netbook. It’s more of a digital lifestyle companion than a work device and I’m sure will become ubiquitous without in any way replacing the need for computers with keyboards. The main advantages I can see of a tablet over a netbook are screen resolution, fun factor in terms of interface, and form factor for elegant use in meetings/presentations. These are all significant enough to make me want to buy an iPad if I had the spare cash, but not to make it an essential like my netbook.

Netbooks here to stay? I wonder why when someone mentions netbooks we think on windows systems that are small, cheap and (I’m told) slow, I’ve never used one.
I recently looked at an iPad for business use, I’d been using an eight year old Apple iBook G4. Yes still working very well, just a tad too slow for what I needed. I wanted ultra portability computing power. The iPad has its limitations! So netbook? Hmm Apple don’t make one? Mind you takeaway the cost issue (stay with me on this) and yes Apple do in all tense and purpose make a netbook style machine, known as MacBook Air. It’s a computer, ultraportable (11″ model), it’s not cheap (you can pay for it over 24 months if you be through Apple internet store), it’s not slow (the SSD drive makes it WOW fast, instant on from sleep!), it’s light, it’s robust, it’s…… Yes I bought one.
So back to the statement ‘netbooks are here to stay’ well mine is! And if it performs as my iBook G4 (remember 8 years and still going), they will be here for some years to come.
As for value for money.
Windows netbook cost divided by years of use equals ?
Macbook Air (11″) £867 divided by 8 years equals £108.38/year not bad for a netbook.

I have an iPad, and a netbook. my wife has a macbook air.

I had the netbook first. Useful things for taking on holiday with you where you are worried about it getting broken, and I found it useful for carrying to work. Got an iPad, haven’t used the netbook since. For what I use it for, showing products / taking orders at trade shows, internet away from the house, manual when taking things apart, light gaming and communication, viewing / showing photographs, it is hands down winner. There are things it isn’t as good as, like everything it is a compromise and you need to work out what is the best device for you, a lot of people seem to have a problem with people using other things than them, presumably a fear that they may have the wrong thing.
The netbook is certainly a more personal device, the iPad is best for showing things to people.
If i had to travel all the time for work, I would get the macbook air, it is the clear winner as a light device, but I am happy with my laptop at the moment

The iPad has one ginormous failing, one that is a deal-breaker for me and many other people – it will nor run Adobe Flash stuff. here’s why, from an Adobe flash developer.

“Current Flash sites could never be made work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware”

So, I’ll stick with my nice Tosh netbook, thanks.

I bought a basic Linux only flash based wifi netbook, with a miserable 800 by 420 screen. It is small, portable, and has a proper keyboard. The problems were: The low resolution gave a poor internet experience, with much awkward scrolling, plus the touchpad was rubbish. It required a USB rollerball mouse to be useful. And all that gubbins required a flat surface to put it on. Not so dinky and portable now eh?
Enter the tablet. I played with an ipad in PC World, and it was very slick, and big. The Samsung Galaxy Pad was also very slick (1024 by 600), but pocketable. I went for a WiFi only Galaxy Tab, at £299, and use with MiFi. This is the perfect combination for mobility. To do serious work I need a 1280 by 1024 desktop PC.

Dear Rarrar

Running PP is not a prblem its just that my laptop (together with powerpack) gets heavy together with all the other stiff I have to carry. i was looking for a cost effective answer that wont break the bank but is also kinder to my shoulders thats why I was looking at Netbooks

Cheers

Angie

The best use I have seen for a Tablet (it was an iPad but could have worked with any tablet) was as a Wine list in a restaurant. For general use give me a laptop any day – you just cannot type reliably on an iPAD and I do not want to have to carry both a tablet and a laptop with me. The number of people that I see with a separate keyboard for the tablet is growing – and guess what you get when you add a keyboard to a tablet? A laptop! Clever marketing has created a so-called need for something that is not actually needed!