I need to get myself a new laptop computer. Well to be honest I actually need to get myself any laptop. Surprisingly, as an IT person, it’s been four years since I’ve owned one! In the time since I last had one I’ve been backpacking and in the three plus years I’ve been living in London I have always had a work provided one. While the work one has always been good it’s never been ideal as it’s never felt a safe place to store photos music and other such personal things.
So finally the time has come to bite the bullet and get one. The question I have been trying to answer for a while is what type? I’ve narrowed it down to two classes of machine. The first being a full spec 13 to 14 inch laptop such as the Dell XPS m1330. The second category is a new category as invented by the Asus called a NetBook. They are a smaller, lighter sub notebook in the 7 to 10 inch screen size with lower power processors, smaller solid state storage and come with a memory card slot and a webcam as standard but no CD-ROM. The first real NetBook which invented the category was the Asus eeePC Surf. Its a small white low power NetBook with a 7 inch screen and originally 2Gb solid state storage, and it took the world by storm. The reason why was that it was small, light and cheap. People didn’t seem to care that it didn’t run Windows (did I mention the vast majority of NetBooks run Linux), or even run iTunes. It allowed them to login to facebook, hotmail, gmail as well as upload photos, chat with their friends on MSN Messenger/AIM/Yahoo or what ever instant messenger they wanted as well as video chat or talk on Skype. There are now dozens of NetBooks out there. Asus has a huge amount of eeePCs including the eepc 701 (replacement to the original), eeePC 901 (9 inch screen, 20Gb SSD - the one I’m considering) and the eeePC 1001. There’s also the Acer Aspire One, the HP mininote 2133, Dell is bringing one out sometime this month amoung others (amazon link to category).
So I’ve got as far as deciding that if I go the real laptop I’ll get the Dell XPS m1330 or if I go the NetBook route I’ll get an Asus eeePC 901. I think I’ve got a couple of weeks before I have to make up my mind as the Dell XPS is due for a refresh and the eeePC 901 isn’t due in the UK until later this month. So what are the pros/cons for each type of machine. Well I’ll lay them out:
Full size laptop:
- Large 13.3 inch screen
- Lots of storage - 250Gb HDD
- Inbuilt 3G card
- Full size keyboard
- DVD Drive
Netbook:
- Small and light form factor. Take it anywhere
- No hard disk (12Gb Solid State Disk)
- No moving parts
The both have the following:
- Webcam
- Memory card reader - SD etc
- 802.11 wifi
- Bluetooth
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