Ah, the netbook. Back in 1999 or so I remember one of my co-workers spent over $3,000 for a mini Sony Vaio PCG-C1, the kind with the tiny keyboard and woefully underpowered processor. Fast forward a decade and we’ve come full circle with the netbook. These still woefully underpowered laptops still have tiny keyboards but they cost a pittance and, for a certain subset of users, they’re some of the most compelling pieces of hardware to come out ofTaiwan and Japan in years.
Origin Story
The netbook was supposed to save the PC industry. Cast your memory back to 2007. We were just on the edge of the global financial precipice. Desktop sales were flat and laptop sales were soaring. All seemed fine. But there was a problem: the laptop market was considerably different than the desktop market. Desktop PCs sat comfortably in a den and were upgraded over time. Junior wanted to play The Sims so he installed a new graphics card. Sis wanted a scanner – she added an all-in-one. Dad was going through a mid-life crisis so he bought a new case. PCs generated sales in peripherals and, once the PC was maxed out, it was relegated to the basement and a new one purchased. PCs cost a pittance to make and could be sold at a slight profit.
Laptops, on the other hand, were stagnant. You bought a laptop and held onto it. For many it became a main computer, but one you never upgraded. You could add some memory and plug in a printer, but you weren’t purchasing overpriced graphics cards or hard drives.
In the years preceding the netbook, laptop manufacturers played with a few possible upgrade paths. First, they stuffed desktop hardware into laptops to create the Desktop Replacement. These massive laptops weren’t portable, had horrible battery life, and were prohibitively expensive. They knew that this was the wrong route towards riches.
Then they played with mini-PCs for the living room. These PCs fit in teeny-tiny cases and were supposed to sit next to your TV. Windows Media Center promised a 10-foot TV computing experience for all. I doubt many of us have actively used Windows Media Center – let alone Apple’s Front Row experience on the Mac Mini – in the intervening years.
These two branches of hardware manufacturing looked like dead ends. However, by learning how to stuff more technology into a tiny package, laptop manufacturers were able to use fairly low-power desktop chips inside tiny cases.
In about 2007 the OLPC suddenly appeared. The OLPC, if you’ll recall, was the proto-netbook. It was a woefully underpowered laptop for developing countries with a hand crank to charge it. It was great for kids who have never seen a computer but not so great for power-hungry Americans. I once saw a man who could be charitably called a massive geek – in a good way – whip out an OLPC at a conference. He started it up and its speaker began to quack like a scalded duck. It was, in general terms, useless as a real laptop.
Then Asus, a heretofore unknown PC company, hit upon an idea. Why not take cheap processors, stuff them into some of the small motherboards they had been working on, add a laptop screen and keyboard, and make a mini-laptop? They could stuff in Intel’s cheap new Atom processors and make something that is essentially a peripheral laptop. In a strategy that can be attributed to Pimp My Ride, laptop makers knew that consumers loved laptops so they decided to add a laptop to their laptops. The larger, more expensive laptop would sit quietly in the den while the netbook would scoot around the Internet, while you were on the couch watching TV or in the kitchen making pizza bagels.
Thus the eee PC was born. It was amazing. Laptops were now less expensive than some graphics cards. A $400 laptop was something the average consumer could stand behind. Sadly, manufacturers didn’t stand behind the consumer.
The Terrible Truth
The netbook will die soon. They were a cynical play by an industry in panic. They knew they couldn’t get people to buy expensive hardware so they sold inexpensive hardware at a massive discount, hoping against hope that they would sell enough units to make a profit. And profit they did. But, almost three years later, people are discovering the awful truth: netbooks are horrible. Devices like the Macbook Air, for example, are on par with hardware that came out at the turn of the century and the tiny notebooks we tested were fine for most purposes but try to get any real work done and you run into a wall. While they are striking, they’re unacceptably slow for most applications.
But, in a way, it doesn’t matter. You’re not supposed to run desktop apps on your netbook. In fact, you can bypass most of the major issues simply by focusing on web-based apps like Gmail and Zoho Office.
Also, try telling a cash-strapped consumer not to buy a netbook. It’s futile. Nintey-nine percent of computing time at home is spent on the web. Unless you’re a gamer, you probably fire up the laptop for porn or recipes and little else. So, on the aggregate, netbooks are just fine. But woe betide the netbook user who suddenly wants to do some video editing. Interestingly, many netbooks are going back to the store for exactly this reason: consumers feel conned by their relative uselessness.
What’s Next
The next logical step in the netbook world is the ultralight. These ultrathin laptops – think a better MacBook Air rather than eee PC – appeared briefly in about 2006 but disappeared when folks realized they still wanted optical drives. I remember bringing a Gateway ultralight to an IT shop once in about 2006 and the team thought it was an “old” notebook because it didn’t even have an optical drive.
Now, however, optical drives are all but useless. Streaming and downloading are the way to go. Therefore, expect to see ultralight laptops with screens 12 inches or bigger. The netbook will turn into what can only be described as an iPod Touch and manufacturers will fall over themselves trying to replace their mid-tier laptop line – the kind that you’d carry with you on a business trip – with ultralights that can actually do a little work. The prices will rise and crap notebooks like the Cloudbook will blow away.
Think ChromeOS will appear on netbooks? Think again. It may appear on devices similar to the CrunchPad but the netbook as we know it will soon be running Windows 7 and liking it.
Where Does That Leave Us?
It leaves us on the edge between notebooks and ultralights and so we dug up the best of the current crop of what we’d still call notebooks yet can actually run a few apps. The current MacBook Air is much more powerful than its predecessors and new processors from AMD and Intel will supplant the runty Atom with something like the Athlon Neo, a more balanced chip with a bit more speed.
However, the days of $200 laptops are numbered. There’s no profit in it. This race to the bottom has to stop and, although you will see laptops like the Lenovo Ideapad S10, below, netbooks will slowly migrate to faster – and more expensive – hardware. If this year’s COMPUTEX was any indication, this is the year of the ultralight.
This is not to say that $200 laptops will go away. Manufacturers have already opened that Pandora’s Box and can’t close it. But they will be marginalized by manufacturers and distributors.
That said, here are a few hotties that we played with over the past few weeks. N.B. Apple didn’t get back to us about the 13-inch MacBook or new Air in, but I’m sure Apple makes fine hardware, right?
To test we ran an AVI movie on repeat for a full battery cycle and then ran PrimateLabs Geekbench.
But I’m Shopping for a Netbook
What should you look for? Lots of memory – 2GB at least, and a 2GHz or better processor. A Core 2 Duo is probably your best bet at this point. Unless you’re absolutely sure you won’t even be watching video on your netbook, anything less is a waste of money. I’ve seen some netbooks that can barely surf YouTube let alone run Final Cut Pro.
Don’t be fooled by price. The cheapest netbook is the worst one. A laptop manufacturer can’t sell something for $350 and still add in any bells and whistles. Windows itself takes up a large percentage of a laptop’s cost.
Avoid Linux, at least the pre-installed versions. Sorry, Linux nerds, but it’s true. Buy an XP model and install Ubuntu or whatever later, but don’t get the Linux netbook because it’s cheaper. Maybe Chrome OS will change all that, but Linux-based netbooks are usually running some wonky, kiosk-oriented installation, making them nigh-on unusable.
Go major manufacturer. If there’s anything China is good at it’s creating OEM devices and badging them for sale in the US. All of those Sylvania, Everex, and CloudUnicornNotebooks you see online are exactly the same netbooks with a different sticker on the front. It may look like a bargain but it’s garbage.
Reviews
Click to read
Lenovo Ideapad S10-2
Price $349.00
Screen Size 10.2″
Processor Intel N270 1.6 ghz
Memory 1 GB
Benchmark 861
Battery Life 4:05
USB 3
Display out 1 VGA
Keyboard Tiny, but usable
Mouse A bit too small, side scroll
Bottom Line Priced to move. B
This small netbook uses its patterned gloss top to add a little pizzazz to an otherwise standard appearance. Despite its light weight (2.65 lbs according to Lenovo) it feels very solid, not flimsy or delicate.
Like all notebooks, its keyboard is rather small. However, it’s surprisingly usable. The key layout is very standard feeling, and with a little practice, or small hands, it would be just fine for any daily use. The touchpad is also cramped, though it also is intuitive after the first few minutes. It makes up for its small size by being sensitive. Not only that, it has some multi-touch features as well as standard side scrolling. The 1.3 Megapixel camera also works as a facial recognition system for logging in. An interesting feature sure to wow the ladies.
Hardware wise this machine is pretty standard, based on a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, it packs 1 gig of RAM for pretty standard netbook performance. Its battery life at 4:05 minutes while watching a movie also seems standard. Its 10.2” screen is very readable, and the colors are acceptable. The included Windows XP works great for its OS, and it will already be familiar to almost any purchaser.
MSI XSlim X340
Price $899.99
Screen Size 13″
Processor Intel U3500 1.4 ghz
Memory 2 GB
Benchmark 1248
Battery Life 2:18
USB 2
Display out 1 HDMI + 1 VGA
Keyboard Flimsy, standard size
Mouse unremarkable, no scroll
Bottom Line Nice styling, underpowered. B
Although this is an ultra-thin very light laptop, and it’s definitely sleek, I couldn’t help my immediate impression of cheapness. With plastic chrome accents on its ports that seem to have been put there in an attempt to distract from its ultra-bland, uniform gloss black finish, to complete its blandness all of its status lights are plain white. It almost looks like a laptop I could buy in a shady market somewhere in China. In the interest of fairness I tried to look past that. Aesthetics, after all, have little impact on the utility of a laptop, and it is weight and thickness are definitely impressive, especially at its price just under 900$. It may be the only sub-grand ultra-thin out right now.
Unfortunately I was immediately disenchanted again when I attempted to open it. A magnet holds the lid shut, and to open it, you have to grip the lid by the narrowest of lips, then suddenly, its vaunted lightness is working against you because the bottom wasn’t heavy enough to separate the magnet. I had to use my fingernails to open it the first time. After the first time though, the problem seemed to get less and less extreme every time I opened it. Now it seems to open just fine. So again, I forgive it, after all everything has a break-in period.
Once opened, I like the screen, its colors are 13.4” screen looks good. Its colors are bright and vibrant, brought out by the glossy screen. The keyboard looks good with large un-crowded keys. Unfortunately they also have a problem. The whole keyboard flexes alarmingly. While unsettling, and in general adding to my impression of cheapness, it doesn’t actually interfere with typing. The keys are large, and have a satisfying amount of resistance, which makes up for the flex after the first few minutes of typing. The touchpad is acceptable, its smooth plastic finish is very usable and familiar, and the uni-piece button has a satisfying press and subtle click. The pad itself seems to be missing any scroll features though, no side scroll or 2-finger, it brings back fond memories of Windows 98 when I had to click and drag the scrollbar down.
On the hardware side, this laptop runs on a single core Intel Ultra Low Voltage processor, which along with a much better than netbook integrated Intel GPU means it benchmarked significantly higher than a netbook. Along with this comes higher power consumption, and when your keeping it as light as this (2.7 lb) that means short batter life. In our test it lasted 2:18. Honestly, despite its shortcomings, using this laptop was fine. It’s definitely quicker than a netbook, even running Vista. Its large screen and keyboard make it feasible as your main computer, while still maintaining great portability. The price is even pretty good, and if you are want a netbook supersize, they even make a model that runs on an Intel Atom.
Dell Adamo
Price $1,998
Screen Size 13.4-inches
Processor Intel U9400 1.4 ghz
Memory 4 GB
Benchmark 2010
Battery Life 3:07
USB 2 + 1 eSata/USB
Display out 1 Displayport
Keyboard Backlit, Large, good
Mouse Nice pad, bad buttons, side scroll
Bottom Line Amazingly slick, expensive. B+
This sleek ultra-thin laptop looks great. Its black-brushed aluminum body is accented by a strip of high gloss plastic. When you open it, the first thing you notice is the large backlit keys with huge futuristic font glowing at you. When you type on them they are satisfying, and probably my favorite feature of this whole machine. The touchpad also is really nice, one of the best textures I’ve come across. It’s an ultra fine-brushed metal that feels incredibly smooth. The mouse buttons I am much less sold on. They click loudly, and require a deceivingly firm push, deceiving because of a slight play in the buttons. The high-gloss, 13.4” screen looks great, very vibrant, but that’s inside. Its so shiny, I suspect if you tried to use this in the sun, it had better be to do your make-up. That’s not the only problem with this laptop. It’s all about the appearance. The hardware inside it is less than exciting, especially for the base model’s starting price of just under $2000. Its processor is an Intel Core 2 duo running at 1.4 GHz. Although it has 4 gigs of RAM, it acts sluggish constantly. Its battery life is its most impressive performance point, and in our test it lasted 3:07 hours. This laptop was clearly designed to look good, and it definitely does, but for the kind of money you have to pay for it I would have expected better performance.
Lenovo Thinkpad T400s
Price $1,599
Screen Size 14.1″
Processor Intel P9400 2.4 ghz
Memory 2 GB
Benchmark 2753
Battery Life 2:22
USB 2 + 1 eSata/USB
Display out 1 Displayport + 1 VGA
Keyboard Very standard, good, Top lit
Mouse Nice texture, satisfying, 2 finger scroll
Bottom Line Excellent build quality, speed. A
This laptop looks just like Thinkpads for years. It does because that look is utilitarian, logical, and well thought out. Its keyboard feels perfectly standard, requiring no getting used to, my one small complaint is that the control key is not the bottom corner, it is one in from the corner, and as a result I have hit the function key accidentally often. The touchpad has an interesting texture that I like, a fine grid of tiny bumps. It makes using the touchpad very tactile. The touchpad also allows you to 2-finger scroll. There is of course also the ThinkPad’s signature “trackpoint” nub.
An interesting feature is the built in keyboard light, which makes so much more sense to me than backlit keys. With the LED keyboard light you get some ambient light that you could read by or whatever you need. The 14” monitor looks fine, it can get quite bright, to the point it hurts my eyes inside, but that combined with a matte finish screen makes this laptop feasible to outside use on a sunny day. Those combine to make this a laptop that is useful virtually anywhere I would normally be. Combine that with its light weight (3.9 lb) and you have one of the most useful laptops available. Hardware wise it’s also very capable, based around a 2.4 GHz Intel Core2 Duo, it has 2 or 3 gigs DDR3 of memory. Of course running all that while keeping the weight down means that the battery life is less that phenomenal, and during our tests died after 2:22 hours. This laptop is the one for you if you need a powerful easily portable laptop you can use almost anywhere.
with Berkeley Beyers
I have a dell mini and absolutely love it. It was under $500 and it came shipped with Ubuntu linux but I managed to install OSX onto it and create a Dell Hackintosh. Best part is that it’s virtually indestructible and fits into the side pocket of my cargo shorts !! What more could you ask for.
Alot actually. Full size keyboard, bigger screen, ALUMINUM Chassis, more processing power (at least dualcore), etc. etc.
What do you primarly use it for?
“power-huntry” I think you meant to say “power country”
power country? nice try Yang. He meant to type a ‘co’ but instead typed the ‘h’ instead because it was the letter in the middle? I hope you were being sarcastic lol
i hope you were being sarcastic too. he is trying to say power-hunGry. The “G” and the “T” are right next to each other.
Interesting that the MacBook Air is not included in your review. Before I got to the bottom of your post I could tell you weren’t feeling the MBA. I use it as my everyday machine and it works for my needs.
i have a Rev A MBA and I used it quite a bit – i’m selling mine, now, however. The problem was that it was far too underpowered in an emergency and, as we all know, blogging is 95% surfing porn and 5% making videos of new phones. I took the Air to Europe with me to cover the Hero launch it was abysmal. This happened to me a few times and I decided I just couldn’t trust it any more.
Perhaps watching porn and creating videos is not the Air’s niche. I would suspect not! But, it does work just fine for developing iPhone applications and general design work.
I would bet that it is equivalent to the white MacBook it replaced, and it feels that way, rather than whatever PowerBook I was using at around 2000. Do miss the 2400 though!
Ethics is hard! I know! I’ll help!
“The founder of TechCrunch is currently developing a product aimed at the netbook market, and in the interest of full disclosure, this review should be read with that knowledge.”
Or something like that.
Damn. I forgot the subhed: CrunchGear’s Ultimate Guide to Netbooks: BUY A CRUNCHPAD OR FIVE WHEN THEY COME OUT SOON! THEY’RE BETTER THAN EVERYTHING I WILL REVIEW IN THIS POST!
I love my netbook, I use it for presentations and it fits in my messenger bag comfortably. At home I have a power computer but that is used for all my main work but the netbook is there to show it all off.
I think John missed the boat on this one. Netbooks are popular not only because they are cheap and portable, but because they provide what 80%+ of the computing world use their computer for…email and Internet. Less than 20% (and maybe less than 10%) of computer users are tech savvy and able to perform these kinds of tasks with smartphones.
Further, Windows has proved to be a complete bomb when it comes to security for the average computer user…and the last thing a user wants to do on the road is pull out a netbook that’s been idle for a couple of weeks to a couple of months and have to wait for security and Windows updates.
Enter the solution: Linux based netbook that CAN sit unused for months, boots in seconds, allows user to quickly access email/social networking / web and more…even if through a “wonky, kiosk-oriented installation”.
Tech writers and professionals really have to think about who is using and buying tech…power users will always try everything and make anything work because they have the desire and knowledge.
The average tech consumer gets highly frustrated with high repair bills and unusable computers secondary to security problems. They simply want to use computers like a toaster…they have narrow needs and zero desire to become like those of us who breathe technology.
So why would they want to use Linux, exactly? XP may not be the greatest OS in the world, but people who are used to one system and unwilling to learn anything else aren’t your target market for Linux, even if it’s much better about updates.
You are missing the point as well. Consumer DON’T CARE what OS they use…they don’t even know what an OS or a browser is…they just want to complete basic tasks…give them an icon, they click it and go…thus the problems maintaining a safe Windows environment.
Is Dell still offering Ubuntu? No.
Is the company I work for paying to have XP put BACK ON machines on which we installed Linux to avoid licensing? Yes we are.
One reason: Consumers don’t want Linux. It literally cannot be given away. We found out the expensive way.
The problem maintaining a safe Windows environment is allowed support for 3rd party software, not the user, else, OSX would be the least secure platform ever created.
Hallelujah, Rick. I’m as annoyed and frustrated by this post as you are. I’ve been deep in this industry for 14 years and I remember the “network computer” well. Sun and others touted it as the next generation of computing, enabled by the Internet. The ideas were sound, but as with many innovations, it was just too early. The infrastructure wasn’t there. And to be honest, the economics weren’t either. Here are my thoughts on the network, hardware, OS, and applications and what factors are now in place for success.
HARDWARE
Notebooks have honed the miniaturization skills of the ODMs and the components shared with netbooks will benefit from economies of scale. Also, subsidies from wireless operators offering “everywhere access” plans tied to netbooks will eliminate hardware cost. Rumors are that a $1 netbook will hit the market this Fall.
There are a few technologies that could *define* netbooks in the next 1-2 years. Portability and use for short sessions wherever you may be are paramount. If these are not met, then netbooks will not improve upon notebooks, and they will die.
- Instant on
- Everywhere wireless (WLAN and WAN built in)
- Super-long battery life (6-10 hrs)
- Lightweight – under 3 lbs
Screen and keyboard sizes will be the largest that still allow these constraints to be met.
NETWORK & WEB APPS
* Bandwidth is now plentiful, cheap, and wireless
* Standards have matured for web application development
* Browser capabilities now enable rich applications to be built with AJAX and more recently HTML 5 with access to OS and hardware features
* Open source has taken massive costs out of cloud infrastructure
… and the list goes on
This time, because of the technology trends above and the mass adoption of broadband Web use for email, browsing incl. video, social networking, and even VoIP, etc. the netbook will be a commercial success.
OS & NATIVE APPS
One more point on the OS. To echo what Rick said, consumers don’t care (or more accurately, don’t want to care) what OS the have. They want web access and a few key applications that could run on top of Linux or whatever:
* Microsoft Office
* Microsoft Outlook
* Apple iTunes
Bought a Toshiba Netbook sometime back and found that it is not bad at all. Yes of course I can’t use it for games and office apps but for Mailing, VoIP calls, blogging it is a perfect machine. It came with XP Home and is also upgradeable to 2 GB. It has 160 GB HDD which is enough to store thousands of photos that I can download with a built-in SD card reader. It has a built-in camera and mic, so skype calls from any wi-fi hotspot is easy. Also, they have a battery that runs for more than 5 hours. All for $400. How can you say that they are useless and will die soon?
Pankaj,
even netbooks they are good these guys (tech crunch et all) will surely do a negative publicity and make them down.
promoting expensive apple products like macbook air is just part of their job.
Last time I checked the term netbook meant lower cost. $899 is not a netbook by definition, so it looks like you only reviewed one netbook in the entire review.
I noted that I was reviewing ultralights, the things that would replace netbooks, but in general terms a netbook is a sub 12-inch. That it’s cheap is immaterial.
I don’t think the cheapness is “immaterial” – it really is the main defining factor – it’s one of the reasons even Sony wouldn’t use the term Netbook to describe the Vaio P series (but are willing to use it for the newly announced Vaio W, which does have typical netbook pricing).
Netbooks indeed are mainly about the price, and then the size. Size itself is absolutely not the defining factor, which is why the Vaio T or TT series was and is not considered a Netbook.
As a more general point though this article seems to be all over the place, and not really clearly thought out. It’s an “ultimate guide to netbooks” that then is mostly about ultralights, and then it even includes something like the T400s (the X301 would be more appropriate).
not to mention that it missed the asus eee pc, the one that started it all!!
Your “Ultimate Guide to Netbooks” is a review of ultralights? How delightfully misleading of you. I was excited because I’m in the market for a netbook in addition to my desktop and laptop and thought this would be a great review to cut through the crowded field.
Instead you conclude that netbooks are an evolutionary dead end because they don’t replace “‘regular” laptops. Guess what, that’s not why people are buying netbooks! I want a netbook to I can write code or read an ebook on a plane for 8 hours on a charge. Maybe I’d consider running Eclipse, but mostly all I need is emacs and a web browser.
Fine if you want to conclude that Joe Sixpack is going to be disappointed that his $400 netbook doesn’t play the latest games, I’m not him and neither are the vast majority of readers of TC. If you wanted to write this article of PC Mag or something, fine, but this article is more or less useless to most of us.
Even using your own criteria (sub 12” screen) you still only reviewed one netbook.
I don’t know if you’ve ever bothered to look at the word, but “netbook” is actually a combination of two words: “net” and “book”. They’re compact in size, used primarily for non-demanding internet activities and tend to have low-end specs (which are reflected in the price).
As Justin said, people aren’t replacing their laptops with these, they’re getting them as complementary products for less-intensive use. You assert rather than explain that netbooks are a deadend. You also say that companies will continue to sell $200 netbooks, which I’m presuming is because people are buying them.
(Also, as an aside, ultralights will never displace netbook as a classification if they use that name. It sounds like a type of cigarette. Which it, in fact, is.)
Walk me through why netbooks are bad:
For the last 6 years I have had a job that required a lot of travel. I got sick of hauling a heavy laptop around and switched first to a Sony Z series. It was over $2,500 and weighed under four pounds.
I loved the small form factor, but the battery life was barely 2 hours, the VGA-out resolution was limited to 1280×1024 as I recall, and the unit overheated big time. I then switched to a ThinkPad X series. Bigger screen, decent weight, better resolution, and again in the $2,000 range.
Both machines had 80GB HDDs as the maximum capacity you could buy. 80 gigs? Both had optical drives I never used.
And now consider this:
I switched to the Samsung SC10 for under $500 mostly out of curiosity. It has a 160GB Hard drive, I upgraded the RAM to 4GBs for $30 and it has a battery life I have never seen anywhere else – I get 6 hours easily. Feather light, it also sports an integrated webcam and the brightest and sharpest screen I have seen yet- blowing Sony out of the water. The WiFi antenna is also the strongest I have used to date.
Now consider the fact that I run XP and Office 2007. If you can tell me what the difference is, then I need to understand it. I do Powerpoints, I download and watch DVD and HD quality video, I open Firefox with a lot of tabs and I sync up my blackberry, iPhone and other devices. Everything works as well as those other laptops and I get the added benefit of the extended battery life and the fact that I can buy 5 of these for the price of one of the other ones. In fact, I just got the NC20 for a larger screen and it’s doing just as well.
As a background, I used to run CNET.com and CNET’s testing labs from 1995-2000. I have reviewed and tested every type of machine under the sun. I have built my own PCs and specialized in 3D graphics cards. I am not a lover of low-end crappy hardware, but if this netbook matches a product that cost over $2K and the only difference is the fact that I cannot edit video or play a DVD, then I can take the $1,500 I save and do that on a desktop or some other setup.
Take a look at what Samsung is doing. This is no Linux cheapie.
Sorry – that was NC10
never said they were bad. said the THE CURRENT CROP are underpowered and they will bite you in a pinch. also note you just bought the NC20 with a bigger screen but almost the same thickness. ultralights will replace the mid-sized laptops and netbooks – the sub-12 models – will sputter
Not sure – only because some travelers like to keep the hardware they haul to a minimum. The NC10 is lighter than and much smaller than the NC20 and it is small enough to tuck away in a backpack or carry by hand. The minute you go up in size, you are basically hauling around a laptop.
A 10 inch machine is definitely a niche product, but there are a lot of people looking for the smallest laptop possible that still runs their everyday apps, and getting the same if not better experience from a $500 machine as I got from the $2K crowd was a major surprise.
Exactly. And this is the most overlooked point in all “Netbooks Will Fail!” argument. A netbook makes a HORRIBLE desktop replacement, if you only have one computer it will never be a netbook. But for a second computer it’s the perfect size; and the computer age is coming to the point where the average person may have more than one computer.
Believe me I’ve been down the path myself. I have a killer desktop for difficult processor intensive work, and I’ve always had a secondary portable computer for when I’m on the move. First was a 13″ that served me well and died, then I got a 17″ and learned that a mobile computer that wasn’t mobile is useless. I replaced it with a 13″ again but it was still too big and spent most of it’s time on my desk.
Now I have a 9″ netbook that is so small I have no qualms about taking it anywhere, it’s like grabbing a paperback book to read on the bus. Plus it was so cheap that if it gets broken I won’t be as upset as if I had lost a $1200 laptop/ultralight. My one gripe is the keyboard since I’m usually blogging from the coffee shop, but I think the 10″ size is the sweet-spot for portability, battery life, and usability.
bless you.
Sorry, what was the point of this column? It’s just a confused mess followed by some random laptop reviews….weird.
My goal was to write a confused mess with some reviews at the end.
congratulations then….
you are very arrogant. and please refrain from mentioning ‘porn’ so many times in the article. we are not prudes but this is in bad taste
Going against everything I know, I made the leap and purchased the new Gateway Netbook based on the AMD processor and NVIDIA video processor. I personally couldn’t be happier with the performance. 4HR battery run time, great resolution, and it’s pretty quick for browsing. I think it’s about expectations… I wouldn’t even try video editing on it, that’s what the desktop is for. But I surf 10 websites at once, play music, video conference, update spreadsheets, and watch the occasional movie; all from my couch or coffee shop and I don’t have to lug a 14-15in laptop around. Works for me!
Good article.
One thought – I think it’d be useful to have the weight and physical dimensions in the spec section for these netbooks – when shopping for thin&light it’s the first thing I look for.
I love buying electronics, but I still haven’t heard a compelling use case for getting a form factor between my laptop and my iPhone 3GS. With the size, app selection and connectivity to web services (ie ability to buy albums, kindle books, etc.), I can see a lot more situations where the netbook would be limiting. I have no desire to do extensive typing on either. The itouch has many of the same virtues.
I think smartphones will relegate netbooks to kids, students and people with lower incomes who need a cheap shared computer (where the iTouch’s pocketability is actually a disadvantage).
I think this argument has a lot of merit. Indeed, if one were looking for a classic “2008 vintage” netbook experience, the Android handsets and iPhone 3GS are going to provide the 80% solution or whatever. We can YouTube, surf the net, email, twitter, and do other limited tasks. If that is 80% fo what folks are doing and need an inexpensive and small form factor, then just having the phone to carry around is easier than “fits in my cargo short pocket” or “nicely in my messenger bag”–The phone can be ubiquitous because it already is.
the Android handsets and iPhone 3GS are going to provide the 80% solution or whatever. We can YouTube, surf the net, email, twitter, and do other limited tasks.
if you are comparing surfing on a 2.5 inch screen with a 10 inch screen and say that it suffices 80%, u are a tool.
I would wager many people will have both a smartphone and a netbook. There are many instances where the smartphone fails purely on size:
* Web browsing
* Video
* Maps/Navigation
* Email composition
* Documents/email attachments
In these cases, making a quick switch from your smartphone to your netbook will be an amazing relief.
this is the most pathetic excuse for an article I’ve read all year in crunch owned media.
Yeah, I’m about sick of the International Standard Netbook, too.
I’ve had a mini 9, asus 900a and a HP Mini, but I ended up selling them on and getting a Vaio P for jacket pocket 3G action with a decent keyboard. It’s a pretty crappy laptop, but it’s a great writing tool.
Anyone looking for a netbook don’t go past an MSI Wind U100, or a more recent update. It really is the best for about AU$600. I need not say more, go look it up!
“All of those Sylvania, Everex, and CloudUnicornNotebooks you see online are exactly the same netbooks with a different sticker on the front. It may look like a bargain but it’s garbage.”
Correct me if I’m wrong but many of the laptops and netbooks offered by the majors are manufactured for them by other companies.
So how is one to know if that Dell is made by the same company that makes the Everex?
and this is why John Biggs has no clue at all about the mobile computing market. There are only a handfull of ODMs who are building net and notebooks.
Quanta, FIC, Compal, Inventec etc. ! It was always like this and it will always be like this.
All these OEMs are using them for years and everyone who has to do with the hardware industry knows this…. well except of MC Biggs here
Just picked up an Asus from bestbuy for under $300. Hulu runs flawlessly in full screen mode. I can edit photos with GIMP, even large resolution photos.
Sure it takes discipline not to load a netbook up with memory eating crap. But I have plenty of discipline and little $$$.
Writing an article about netbooks saying that netbooks suck and reviewing notebooks. Well done! What’s next? an article about desktops and review notebooks?
Still don’t get all these small laptop-like creatures with screens so small it makes them nearly useless.
I don’t think that I have read such a load of old rubbish regarding netbooks in a long time – congratulations.
Thank you. I look forward to your detailed look at the netbook market on your blog, NeilThompsonCommentsRandomlyonPostsBecauseHeIsTryingToJustifyHisNetbookPurchase.blogspot.com
Ouch!
The point is that Netbooks serve the purpose for which they were designed as many of the comments attest.
Posted from my Advent 4211 Netbook.
i’m saying you guys know what you’re buying – many don’t. I’ve spoken with manufacturers who have a problem with returns on netbooks because they don’t act like regular laptops.
you are very arrogant. again.
JohnBiggsFirstWritesCrapsArticlesAndThenRepliesRudelyToCriticismToJustifyHisLoserJob
stop justifying ur article.
“i’m saying you guys know what you’re buying – many don’t. I’ve spoken with manufacturers who have a problem with returns on netbooks because they don’t act like regular laptops.”
To which manufacturer have you been talking to?
I am sure you haven’t talked to a single person that knows anything about their netbook RMAs.
John I just love your responses. Keep going…
By the any idea what OS is used by the final RTM of the crunchpad? This is just eating me!
I agree with others who question the ‘netbooks are dead’ notion. I’ve never really seen anything negative about netbooks outside the crunch network, so I’m not sure it’s as much of an industry trend as you state. While the 10 inch netbook is a niche product to be sure, for certain people’s needs it’s perfect. They’ll never be adequate primary machines, but they have their uses.
As a web developer, any time I don’t need to run photoshop for work a netbook with an atom processor is every bit as capable as any other machine I use. That it allows me to sit comfortably on my porch for 6+ hours without plugging in to power is a feature most ulttralight notebooks can’t touch.
“As a web developer, any time I don’t need to run photoshop for work a netbook with an atom processor is every bit as capable as any other machine I use. That it allows me to sit comfortably on my porch for 6+ hours without plugging in to power is a feature most ulttralight notebooks can’t touch.”
I totally agree. A netbook is a second machine purchase and a small 10 inch netbook is perfect for maximum portability. You grab it and go and leave the power cord at home. I’m not going to replace my desktop, but I have done presentations on a big screen with it, and use it to watch Hulu and connect to my work email via exchange. Never had an issue.
For our IT team in Chennai, India, we have purchased over 20 laptops in the past two years ( @ one a month at the cost of less than 500USD) and now we are continuing to buy a netbook every month.
We use the laptops for web development and server support and their number one advantage: mobility; number one disadvantage: size (Not sure you know, typically in India the travel is by public transport – bus or train)
Once the netbooks started coming in, the team members feel so much better. The only disadvantage is the processing power, which is ok as long as you add enough memory. btw, these netbooks give six hours of battery life. We dont need anything more than this in Chennai, where we have a standard two to four hour power cut every day.
My prediction was that in a year or two, the same netbooks will become more powerful (obviously what I wish would happen).
John, lets have some fun out of this. Put a date around when you think netbooks will be obsolete and if that happens on that day, I will buy you a laptop of your choice on that day. If netbooks are still around, you will buy me a netbook of my choice. Deal? :-)
I think you are way off.
I am a programmer – I almost always use linux or os x but got a msi wind the other day.
It was the best $350 I’ve ever spent. The majority of people have been carting around way too much computer for their needs. I can write code and do almost everything I want – even using it with picasa for my photos.
Netbooks will get faster and line line will blur but only because of moore’s law not because they are bad at video editing. Who edits video on a lap top? Will I install photoshop – nope but there are 1000’s of other things I can do on it.
I clicked on the article thinking I’d see something about current netbook offerings and instead I find this. Nice bait and switch.
“Sorry, Linux nerds, but it’s true. Buy an XP model and install Ubuntu or whatever later, but don’t get the Linux netbook because it’s cheaper.”
If I’m going to replace the os anyway why wouldn’t I buy the cheaper Linux netbook? (Not that I’m saying that the versions bundled on netbooks are all that great, mind you. Usable in most cases but not fantastic.)
I have a desktop PC, a blackberry, and a Dell Mini 9. The mini does exactly what I wanted it to do. It’s a small, extremely portable computer with a usable keyboard (yes, I find the keyboard usable) that can I can use to access the internet and occasionally edit a text file. And the price was right, too. No, it’s not powerful enough to video editing or the like, the hard drive is tiny, and it doesn’t have an optical drive. These were selling points for me. My blackberry wasn’t functional enough for what I wanted and regular laptops were too big and had features and capabilities I’d never use. A netbook was just what I was looking for. Netbooks aren’t for everyone, no, and I’d never recommend it as a main computer, but they have a market and I don’t see them dying off anytime soon.
Archos has released a Linux Netbook for about the same price as a Windows XP netbook, you get 500GB hard drive and 2GB ram. Those limits on hard drive capacity and RAM are imposed by Microsoft. Consumers should buy the Archos Ubuntu netbook and install Windows XP on it later as a dual-boot if they want, not the other way around.
Manufacturers, Intel and Microsoft want to sell you “ultralights”, those thin CULV things. Fact is the only reason they are pushing those is to bring up the price again over the $500, cause they quickly realized that the cheaper $300 Netbooks were not good business.
In a few months we will all be buying $150 ARM processor based netbooks, screen size does not have to be limited to 10″ with ARM netbooks. The 10″ screen is a limitation imposed by Intel and Microsoft to still differentiate the more “usable” mid-range laptops.
For $200 you will be able to get a 13.3″ ARM laptop, runing Chrome OS, basically like Android with a full Google Chrome browser, full Flash support. HD video playback, even HDMI output, 15 plus hours battery life on a regular 3-cell battery, built-in HSDPA, and yes, Final Cut type of video and photo editing WILL work, cloud processed. For example upload the HD video file from your HD camcorder to the cloud, and it’s server-based edited and encoded 100x faster than any Intel processor using grid server services.
Video editing again? I don’t even know why I read these reviews.
This article is prime quality garbage !
I agree with the previous comment about “the tricky headline”.
Netbooks are to Notebooks what Nintendo Wii is to Playstation 3 and X Box 360,
they are simpler, cheaper and more exciting, but mainly they are reaching a different Target than Notebooks, they are reaching a broader base of consumers looking for conectivity everywere.
We will see even cheaper and simpler Netbooks in the future everywere………running Chrome OS,
we will see netbooks like we see cellphones today, in the future you will problably can get one for free just purchasing a Wireless conection for a Year contract.
We have 2 Acer Aspire Ones that came with Linux preinstalled. I must agree with the article re: Linux. I myself use Linux all the time (Ubuntu Jaunty on my desktop, for instance), but Acer bundles an old modification of Fedora Core 8, and call it Linpus.
Try and update the damn thing. It’s practically impossible without going into command line mode (nothing wrong with CLI mode, but these should be user friendly!) and hacking around.
Ultimately, I use Ubuntu Netbook Remix on them, and they work very well indeed.
Jesus, haven’t we had enough of these goddam “Netbooks Suck Balls” articles? This is getting tiring. If netbooks are as successful as you say then there is clearly a market and there will continue to be for some time by the sounds of it. I really don’t understand the negativity. I can use my netbook to look at porn, type up a document, and download music with no problems at all. If you are doing more with your computer than those three things you need to get a life.
John, I still think you miss the point of netbooks (as most other do) :
* They perform email and web pretty well
* They weigh 2-2.5 pounds
* They have 5 hours+ battery life
The bonus : they cost next to nothing.
Anything more powerful will loose one or more of the advantages above.
The best example is the NC20 : it is much more expensive and is 50% heavier. I wouldn’t have bought it when I bought the NC10.
What Thomas said! I couldn’t agree more, netbooks fill those specific wants and needs of consumers.
http://blog.laptopmag.com/call-off-the-funeral-long-live-netbooks#more-17950
I got my fiance a netbook to replace her 6-year old laptop that was dying. It’s her primary computer (an Asus eee) since the most demanding program she uses is Picasa. I later bought myself one as my third PC (over powered desktop, mid-range laptop, and netbook … I got an MSI Wind). The netbook actually gets the most usage …
I use it when I’m at lunch and want to do some programming, it gets carried around the apartment for general usage so I’m not stuck at my desk, and then it makes its way into the bedroom at night to play Hulu or movies over my home network.
So, netbook usage in our household is very high, and I don’t see the sheer size of an ultra-light changing that. It’s not the WEIGHT that’s the issue, but the DIMENSIONS. My fiance can toss her netbook in her purse to take to business meetings, I have a shoulder bag that’s significantly smaller than a backpack needed to carry at 12″+ screen. It’s significantly more portable based on dimensions and weight, whereas an ultra-light only wins over a regular laptop on weight.
And I’ve never seen such positive reactions to a computer by non-geeks as I do when I pull out my netbook in public. Though, I describe is as a “glorified cellphone” when I describe its power usage. Though, most people don’t need more than that … MOST people don’t do video editing.
I would adjust estimates to say that 99% of computer usage for 99% of the population is web surfing and netbooks do fine. For the remaining bits, almost all of that is transferring & holding pictures & music. So, I would say, the 0.001% of people NEED more than a netbook … 99.999% of the population can use a netbook as their primary computer and be completely and utterly fine.
The thing is, most of them don’t read this website, ever, and wouldn’t like it if they did.
“Windows itself takes up a large percentage of a laptop’s cost. ”
This is most likely untrue.
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/20/microsoft-charges-less-than-15-for-each-xp-netbook
As someone who is considering a netbook purchase, it would be useful to me if your guide discussed how netbooks handled Excel, since for me, like probably 90% of professionals out there, Excel is as demanding as “getting actual work done” gets. It would also be useful to me if your Ultimate Guide to Netbooks contained reviews of actual netbooks, and more useful still if it omitted reviews of computers that are not netbooks.
I wonder whether the CrunchPad mentioned in the article will be powerful enough for video editing?
No the crunchpad isn’t good for video editing. As for excel – larger spreadsheets may be out but summing a few figures won’t be an issue.
If someone is trying to edit video on a netbook, they clearly don’t know what they’re doing. They’re designed to let you surf the net, and that’s it. It’s in the bloody name. Net. Book.
Delete your blog.
Full on dual core lappies are so darn cheap nowadays, the distinction will disappear altogether in 12-15 months.
Well, this is a fun debate! I got fed up with my 6-lb HP laptop and am now carrying a Viliv S5, cum BT keyboard and mouse. Voilà ! Solves 95% of my mobile computing needs. Doesn’t “suck balls” at all.
This article wasted my time. It was completely useless, poorly written, ill conceived and came with a misleading headline.
I don’t get it. You spend the top half of the article saying how netbooks are going to go away and then you include the Lenovo S10-2? If you include that you’re including just about every netbook out right now.
What about 12″ notebooks like the Dell Latitude 4200, Lenovo X200/s/t, HP something or other, Acer Timeline 3810T? These notebooks are all around or less than 3.5 lbs, coming close to a netbook size but have larger screens and better processors.
I dont get Techcrunch’s almost irrational dislike of netbooks. Any Atom netbook upgraded to 2GB RAM will perform *nicely* for any regular use that is not processor intensive (ie games, video editing).
These things are about as powerful than the high-end computers were when Windows XP was released.
Aside from that, even if it is your opinion that current netbooks are crap your headline is still terribly misleading.
Holy shit. He did it again!
I mean how can you take someone serious, who writes a story about netbooks and then thinks the OLPC appeared in 2007.
Man, you just have no clue what you are talking about. Another Netbook spin by the Techcrunch network. It’s getting predictable what you guys are doing!
In a crashing U.S economy computer makers should be happy to be have any growing computer sales at all.
Techcrunch has some different interests. Always keep in mind that they are going to launch the Crunchpad soon. A solution and formfactor that is almost a decade old and never ever made a breakthrough. But they are trying everything to position it as the big Netbook competitor. That’s why you can expect more of these spin-articles.
I guess that’s what’s happening when internet guys with a lack of hardware background are trying to promote their own devices. :)
This is the blog equivalent of a “troll”.
There is one point that has merit- that the current batch of netbook offerings will become obsolete. But that is true for any tech product. There’s always something better on the horizon. The Atom processors in today’s netbooks will be replaced by the next generation. Perhaps CULV will become the netbook standard. Either way, for the vast majority of non-technical people out there, the performance offered in netbooks is sufficient for the tradeoff in increased portability.
Netbooks will die soon? Not a chance. They are now and will continue to be the hottest hardware product for many years. They are the greatest computer product to come along yet… and I’ve been around since the punch-card and tape days before there was any such thing as a “personal” computer.
Netbooks sales to double in 09 (136% growth in the US):
http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/071309_mini_note_netbook_shipments_to_double_y_y_to_more_than_30m_units_in_2009.asp
This article completely misses the point of the netbook, and is misinformed by under-representing the market. You clearly do not need a 2GHz processor or 2GB of RAM in a budget netbook, that defeats the purpose. Ultralights with good specs and design elements & materials will stay at the top end of the portable computer price spectrum for years to come, period. This is clearly a very opinionated author, not an unbiased evaluation. Explain to us exactly how this is the “Ultimate Guide to Netbooks?” Don’t you have an editorial staff at CrunchGear?
these aren’t netbooks. these are lightweight computers. 13″ is great for a genuinely small laptop – but it won’t fit in my carry bag so easily.
i think anything that is considered a netbook has a top screen size of 10-11″ and that’s it. tch.
Before you write useles GARBAGE, like this, first consider the following:
- With little knowledge of the PC industry definately ASUS is an unknown brand. With a little research you’d be amazed about what you would find.
-If you are recommending a “2GHz processor” have you taken into account if its an in order or out of order CPU? What is the IPCs that the CPU can handle. And other technical details similar to that? According to you logic an overclock Qualcomm Sanpdragon @2GHz would probably beat an 1.8GHz Celeron. Or maybe an 1.6 GHz Atom will beat a 1.5 GHz VIA Nano. No, WAIT!!! A 2.6 GHz Athlon XP will beat a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo…sight.
- If you write about “utltimate guide to netbooks” stick with the subject and review said products. Even a quick peak at any serious tech site will help you spot the differences between the products “reviewed” and the products your guide was supposedly wanting to talk about.
In other words, educate yourself before you spew useless crap. It’s amazing that people like you are actually given permission to give their opinion on anything.
Its interesting how you spew words like “useless” and “crap”, then cite video editing as the main thing that makes a computer useful or not.
Well, I have an acer aspire one and a sony vaio p530H.
Both my wife and I work fulltime online, and she has the acer hooked up to an external monitor and finds it works perfectly for her job as an editor.
I use the sony when I travel, and have found it to be great running the adobe CS3 suite. I write software for a living primarily in flash and do graphics editing.
I can fit the sony in my inside jacket pocket, and now when I travel find it vastly easier than carrying a laptop in a case, and can now travel with much less carry-on.
I was at a political rally recently, and shot video on my tiny canon powershot 1000, edited it on my sony vaio using windows movie maker, and uploaded it to youtube via the wireless connection. The computer was running Vista and didnt crash or slow me down at all in this (or any other) operation.
The only issue I have with the vaio is the startup time, it seems to take an inordinate amount of time to start up from completely off. And, it doesnt run second life. The Acer, however, runs Second life well enough and I actually participated in a voice based virtual interview via wireless internet and my acer aspire (so it was handling voip and rendering a live 3d virtual world space including spacial audio all at once without breaking a sweat)
Once I can put windows 7 on my vaio, I imagine it will run even smoother, and I find both of these computers to be a fantastic value for money. For the cost of one average laptop, I recommend people buy a decent desktop and large monitors for home use (I use 2 22″ LCD’s) and use the Vaio or the Acer for travel.
So, from personal experience, I have to completely disagree with your article.
Article Fail.
Netbooks aren’t going anywhere.