# Netbooks, here to stay or passing fad?



## benanderson (Apr 28, 2009)

What's your opinion on the explosion of netbooks recently? It's only been a year since ASUS released the first true netbook and now every company from Zoostorm to Sony and their mother's are releasing them.

I've got the Acer Aspire One and I love it, great to use in university for lectures and reports.

So what do you think? Will these cheap, low powered, tiny laptops be here to stay or are they a fad that will be dropped and uncared for in a few years like the iPod and Emo's.


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## X (Apr 28, 2009)

students will probably buy them before a full size laptop, mainly because they are cheaper and do most of the things that they need.
 if they get more power and a little more battery life, they may even replace full size laptops.


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## Irreverent (Apr 28, 2009)

Passing fad, but here to stay.  

Or put another way, the concept is here to stay, but the current crop of hardware will be replaced.  From an eveolutionary perspective, laptops will continue to get lighter (not smaller) and cheaper, and netbooks will continue to get more powerful, until the lines are completely blurred between the platforms.

With the caveat that the next generation netbooks may not run a traditional OS of any type.  A purpose built, ASIC-based "cloud-client" (maybe a wyse-citrix terminal?) might continue to exist and be expanded on.  Fixed configuration, extremely light footprint, massive battery reserve (because there's no disk or traditional cpu) might be the next big thing if cloud-computing takes off.


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## net-cat (Apr 28, 2009)

Neither. I think it was a logical extension of the traditional laptop. The average user's processing needs have not actually increased much since about the time we hit 1 GHz. And we're really, really good at making 1 GHz chips now.

(And if Microsoft keeps their promise about making Win7 lighter on resources, I imagine you'll see Win7 and Office on later model Pentium 3 systems.)


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## ilobmirt (Apr 28, 2009)

I think they are going to be here to stay.

I'm currently eyeing them because they are deliciously cheap and alot more powerful than my current 11 year old 266mhz, 128mb ram, 5 gig "craptop". 
Plus, I'm not an avid gamer. I'll mainly need the laptop to connect with the web and write stuff. Netbooks are well suited to this purpose.

I'm also looking forward to when these things get ARM processors. The battery life of these devices would go through the roof. I could take this laptop with me for a day and 1/2 without needing to plug it in :3 Woot!


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## Pi (Apr 28, 2009)

benanderson said:


> It's only been a year since ASUS released the first true netbook



False to an incredible degree.


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## Aden (Apr 28, 2009)

It's just become another tier of personal computer now. Not everyone needs the power of >1GHz processors, so it's only logical to offer something for those users (with a price to match).


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## capthavoc123 (Apr 28, 2009)

How can they NOT be here to stay? They're inexpensive when compared to full-size laptops, they're extremely convenient, and for what they are they're very speedy and efficient.

I've been lusting after an Eee for a while now.


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## Raithah (Apr 28, 2009)

With the ever advancing pace of technology, in a few years it won't be the clock speed that differentiates a netbook from a notebook; it'll be the form factor. Think of it this way: in ten years, at which modern science has assured me that we'll all be using 20 Ghz, 16 core CPUs and 10TB SSD drives, your average netbook will probably still be around. Granted, it'll probably have a touch screen, accelerometer, GPS and Jobs knows what else; but it will be smaller than the full-sized version of itself as well as being slightly cheaper. 

The way I see it, the reason we didn't see netbooks until recently (and also, incidentally, why they're here to stay) is because the tech simply hadn't advanced to a point where it was small and cheap enough. Now that it's here, assuming the trend of improvement-> miniaturization-> cost-reduction remains stable, it's here for good.

Edit: Unless Skynet becomes active in 2012 and kills us all. Obviously.


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## WarMocK (Apr 28, 2009)

I wish I could get my hands on this baby.

It's cheap, it's got the right form factor for a netbook, it's hardware specs are good enough for browsing and writing texts, it's got a VERY promising UI concept - and it could need a little touchup on the chassis design. xD


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## ramsay_baggins (Apr 28, 2009)

I have a Samsung NC10, as does my dad, and we both love them.

I had two full sized laptops before this and I can honestly say this one is better than both.


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## ADF (Apr 28, 2009)

I'm typing this on one of the original 7", 4GB SSD models.

I was put off by normal laptops because they were so big and heavy to carry around. I hardly feel this netbook sat in my bag, I don't feel it's fragile because of its own weight.

This is basically my first laptop, I like it but plan on moving to one of the latest 10" atom models at some point. I'm glad netbook's have appeared because I probably wouldn't have anything like a laptop without them.


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## HoneyPup (Apr 28, 2009)

I have an Eee PC. I love it. It is small enough to carry everywhere when I don't want to carry my larger laptop.
I think they're here to stay and will only get better.


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## Ruko (Apr 29, 2009)

They are here to stay. As they get more affordable and SSD increase in size so will the number of people buying them. 

This is a very good point: 


Irreverent said:


> Or put another way, the concept is here to stay, but the current crop of hardware will be replaced. From an eveolutionary perspective, laptops will continue to get lighter (not smaller) and cheaper, and netbooks will continue to get more powerful, until the lines are completely blurred between the platforms.


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## Shino (Apr 29, 2009)

I _really_ hope they're a fad, but realistically, I know that they're going to be around for a while. 

The problem with netbooks is that they're either going to be deathly slow, or poorly manufactured. One of the two have to suffer to keep them cheap.
To steal a post from someone else: you have fast, cheap and reliable. You can only pick two.


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## Arkolyte (Apr 30, 2009)

Yeah, the idea is here to stay.  I fricken hate those things so much.  The idea is kinda cool, but yeah, the production ones so crappy and slow they seem to be made of cheap tissues.  They didn't even use Kleenex!


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## KrazFabbit (May 1, 2009)

They're most definitely here to stay. The line between notebook and netbook is already blurring with things like AMDs Neo processor, and Intels Ultra Low Voltage Core 2 Duos, as well as Dual Core Atom processors. Even some current subnotebooks like the HP Dv2, Asus n10j, and Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. Asus and Acer are also coming out with a new line of ultraportable mainstream notebooks, most of which (even the 15" ones) will be around 5lbs or less, and the Asus ones will have dedicated graphics to boot.


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## HoneyPup (May 1, 2009)

Shino said:


> The problem with netbooks is that they're either going to be deathly slow, or poorly manufactured. One of the two have to suffer to keep them cheap.
> To steal a post from someone else: you have fast, cheap and reliable. You can only pick two.


Mine is fast, cheap and reliable. I'm posting on it now, and for basic things, it works just fine. It's somewhat slower than my other computer, but its not deathly slow.


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## ADF (May 1, 2009)

ramsay_baggins said:


> I have a Samsung NC10, as does my dad, and we both love them.
> 
> I had two full sized laptops before this and I can honestly say this one is better than both.



I've actually got one of those in the mail to replace my existing netbook, I heard the design quality sets it apart from the competition. Anything else interesting to note about the NC10 that may not be mentioned in reviews? The only bad thing I heard is the sound output.


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## Ruko (May 2, 2009)

> Mine is fast, cheap and reliable. I'm posting on it now, and for basic things, it works just fine. It's somewhat slower than my other computer, but its not deathly slow.



Yep, exactly. Most netbooks are more powerful than computer 4 years ago. Computers four years ago were not slow at browsing the web, why would that change? The only thing you need a newer "fast" computer for nowadays is video editing and gaming.


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## Wuffie (May 10, 2009)

I think they are here to stay simply because it is like the iPod Nano of laptop computing. It is more than logical something needs to fill the space between full-blown laptop and PDA, and frankly it was only a matter of time before netbooks came into their own. They are already entering that time with the aforementioned Neo and low-voltage core 2 processors... And realistically, with something that small, they are of course not going to be as powered as their 15"+ brethren. Everyone keeps comparing them to laptops, and I think that is a misconception. They are the line between laptops and smartphones/PDA's which, for the longest time, was kept very clearly defined as "A laptop is mostly portable and pretty darn powerful, and a smartphone/PDA is extremely portable and relatively weak." If you think about it, where does a netbook fall on that scale? Right in between the 2... So, it is basically filling a void that has been there for a long time... At least that's what I think


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## RailRide (May 10, 2009)

Last summer I bought my first 17" widescreen laptop. It's sitting behind me now, waiting to become my primary system. 

This spring I bought my first netbook (after some unexpected overtime). I swapped out the 15" screen laptop I was carrying almost every day and replaced it with a glossy black Eee, with its RAM upgraded to 2GB. 

For what I use it for, it does the job. I even edit images with it, (although what I use for image editing is positivley ancient--gigahertz-class CPU's were unheard of when it was released  )

---PCJ


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## Shino (May 11, 2009)

prettylilpup said:


> Mine is fast, cheap and reliable. I'm posting on it now, and for basic things, it works just fine. It's somewhat slower than my other computer, but its not deathly slow.


 
I think it was RuneFox I stole the quote from, but I've been wrong before.

Anywho, I might be a bit biased because I tend to ask a lot from a machine. I rarely focus on one task, and when I do (like browsing) I'm usually using 5-8 tabbed and seperate windows simultaneously.
Hell, I even tend to max out my Windows Mobile phone (with it's pathetically underpowered ARM processor) on a regular basis.

The tablet I'm looking at is powerful enough to be a desktop replacement, because I refuse to do computing half-assed.

Yes, netbooks are perfect for grandparents and "e-mail and word document" users, but for a power-hungry multi-tasker like me, they're utterly worthless.

I see it as one of those niche items. Perfect for a select few, but the rest simply buy them because it's "in".
Kinda like Hybrids.


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