This article will help you decide on the right Netbook for you, or indeed whether a Netbook is right for you!
What do I want to use if for?
The first question to ask yourself before purchasing a Netbook is “What do I want to use it for?”. The answer to this will greatly influence your choice of Netbooks.
Netbooks have been designed to offer great portability, but this is at the loss of other functions such as processing power, memory and storage space. I discuss below the suitability of the average Netbook for a number of common computing tasks that you might involve yourself with.
Netbooks traditionally come with either Microsoft Windows XP or a flavor of Linux. This author owns a ASUS Eeepc 904 HD with Windows XP, and so the following discussion is based predominantly on his experiences with a Microsoft based Netbook.
Whilst the Linux Netbooks are often cheaper, if you are not familiar with the Linux operating system, you may be better rewarded by spending slightly more on an operating system that you are comfortable with!
Music editing / production
Music editing and production typically requires specialist and often expensive software to get the best results. These pieces of software typically consume a large amount of RAM and can use a lot of processing power as they perform complicated computing tasks to produce high fidelity sounds and effects.
Arranging of medium to large scores also consumes a lot of RAM as sound assets are often stored in memory as they are being manipulated.
Samples and virtual instruments can often take a large amount of disk space, and certainly the higher fidelity sounds and samples that you wish to operate on, the more disk space you will consume.
The quality of sound hardware in Netbooks is rarely up to the high standards offered by most of today’s higher end laptops and certainly below that of dedicated sound cards found in modern desktop PCs. It is netbookexperts opinion that your average Netbook is not at all suitable for any remotely serious audio editing and production purposes.
The author has attempted running fruity loops studio on his ASUS Eeepc 904 HD, with less than satisfactory results! Mind you, you are unlikely to want to listen to the garbage he comes out with even on a high powered desktop!
Graphic design
Graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop typically requires a large amount of RAM to deliver adequate performance, coupled with this, graphic design soon requires a large amount of storage space as file formats such as Adobe Photoshop’s .psd format quickly grow to rather large sizes.
Graphic design is also benefited by a large screen, to allow the designer to better visualize and organize his / her creations. Most Netbooks have a rather small screen (7 Inches – 12 Inches).
Due to the average Netbook lacking in storage space and RAM in comparison to your average desktop, it is this authors opinion that most Netbooks would not make a good mobile computing platform for a graphic designer.
The author does himself use Adobe Photoshop on his Netbook, and this has often been the cause of much frustration as a lot of scrolling around the canvas and a lot of waiting occur!
Games
Today’s games require a lot of processing power, usually an optical media drive (CD / DVD), high fidelity sound, lots of RAM and frequently a large amount of hard disk space!
Your average Netbook is really not suited to offer an adequate gaming experience! the author does however run Trackmania Nations on his ASUS Eeepc 904 HD, and has a great time when the graphics options are turned down a little! Today’s games are really best played on a higher end desktop PC or a higher end laptop designed for gaming!
Office documents
Whilst Microsoft’s office and open office require a moderate amount of RAM and hard disk space, your average Netbook is more than capable of dealing with their demands and makes a great mobile office platform for the traveling salesman or remote worker!
If you are going to be authoring a large number of documents, then you should consider the storage space available when purchasing a Netbook.
A lot of Netbooks come with a VGA port, allowing you to plug in a projector to present your PowerPoint presentations or a CRT / Flat screen for a slightly less cramped working environment.
Music playing
Whilst your average Netbook does not contain the highest end sound hardware, they are usually perfectly adequate for running Itunes or the likes of Spotify to keep you from boredom whilst working.
The headphone jack available on most Netbooks can be plugged into headphones or a HiFi to a better sound than the often low standard built in speakers! The author has plugged his Netbook into his HiFi and whilst the sound quality is not great, it is perfectly acceptable for most occasions!
Web browsing
The average Netbook is the perfect tool for browsing the web on the move! The author plugs his into his O2 PDA and uses the 3G connection from the phone to browse the internet!
Screen size can become an issue on larger sites, but tools in Firefox and IE allowing you to zoom in and out, or change the sizing of a website can be a great help! Performance can be degraded by having lots of tabs open, due to lack of RAM, but for most purposes, the average Netbook performs admirably!
Coding
Developing applications can often involve the use of a large number of different tools and complex development environments, these usually consume a fair amount of Hard disk and RAM. It is the opinion of this author that your average Netbook is not the most suitable computer for a serious development platform.
The author however comfortably runs Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Mysql databases and a number of other tools on his Netbook – a very handy mobile development platform!
Watching films
Watching films or video usually requires the use of an optical drive such as a CD or DVD player. These very rarely come with the average Netbook, limiting the ability to watch a good film on them!
You can generally pick up cheap USB external CD / DVD player for under £70, but with the small screen area of most Netbooks, they do not make the best home entertainment platform.
Watching online video, YouTube etc, is absolutely fine, as the smaller video size and lower fidelity of the content is perfectly suited for watching on a Netbook, your average Netbook does indeed make the perfect platform for wasting a large amount of your morning browsing entertaining videos on YouTube!
Disclaimer
This website and all the information and sugggestions contained herein are provided “AS-IS”, without warranty of any kind. While the author aims for accuracy, and has tested the content in various systems, the author assumes no responsibility for your use of these suggestions. The author will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential or indirect damages due to loss of data or any other reason.
