Posts tagged cheap laptop

The term netbook is a slight misnomer: a netbook isn’t a glorified device for browsing the web, but a lightweight laptop that has a lower specification in terms of its processor, operating system, hard disk and memory.

This has twin benefits. The first is that most netbooks usually cost under $400 including VAT, making them an attractive purchase as a second computer.

The second is that they weigh much less than a conventional laptop: typically between 1kg and 1.5kg compared to between 2kg and 3kg for most modern, fully featured laptops.

The term netbook is popular for good reason, however. These mini laptops are excellent at browsing the web, with a compact screen offering just enough width to house websites – namely 1,024 pixels. The compromise is that the screen is usually 600 pixels tall, as opposed to 768 or higher for a traditional laptop.

This size of screen is perfect for emails as well. If you’re hoping to view and edit spreadsheets, on the other hand, you’ll be disappointed: 1,024 x 600 pixels means you’ll be scrolling around the screen to an irritating extent.

This isn’t the only factor that rules out netbooks from being your main computer. You’re most likely to find Intel’s Atom processor inside a netbook (VIA’s Nano processor has made a recent appearance and has a similar, low amount of power) and it isn’t designed for speed.

Instead, with a relatively low clock speed of around 1.6GHz and typically just 1GB of memory for company, they will feel slower than a modern laptop. PC Pro’s benchmarks have shown a laptop with a dual-core Intel processor will typically be twice or even three times as fast as an Atom-powered netbook.

This limited specification is one of the reasons you’ll also find Windows XP powering most netbooks, as opposed to Windows Vista (you may also find Linux laptops).

There are two final characteristics of netbooks you should note before buying. One is the limited amount of ports: expect to find a D-SUB output for connecting to an external display, a headphone jack and either two or three USB ports. Usually no RJ-45 ethernet port. That’s all you will get!

More crucially still, netbooks very rarely include an optical drive (such as a DVD writer). As such, if you want to install software you’ll either have to download it, use a USB thumbdrive or install it over a network.