With growing interest in netbooks, those basic laptops used mainly for email and Web, we went into the lab to review the new tech toys. While some are great, others are frustrating to use. PC Makers: Stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
If you haven’t seen a netbook, you have likely heard about one. They are a new PC that is compact, easy to carry and stripped down for Web and email use (rather than the powerhouses meant for video editing and Photoshop). Basically, a netbook is a marketing term designed to sell you something you already own.
Many tech observers believe netbooks can become the next big hit with computing fans because they’re tiny, easy to carry and usually cost less than $500. Look at the stats: netbook shipments reached 10 million in 2008, with shipments expected to double in 2009, according to research group IDC.
And this is when it’s worth pausing to note something very important: Increasing sales don’t always mean a product is a must-have. Furthermore, when a PC manufacturer reads a review of a notebook and the writer says the notebook is nice because it’s small, that doesn’t mean a smaller laptop would be even better.
DigitalJournal.com is increasingly asked what we think about the trend, and what size notebook is best. We tested out a number of Dell laptops, including the Inspiron Mini 9, the Inspiron Mini 12 (both netbooks) and traditional notebooks, including the XPS 1330 and the XPS 1530.
Other companies like Acer and HP also make netbooks, but we’ve tested a product line from one company to see how design is affected with size.
We’ll start with the traditional notebooks, then highlight where netbooks work and where they don’t:
What works in a notebook?
DigitalJournal.com tried out two traditional notebooks from Dell: the XPS M1530 and the M1330, the 15.4-inch and 13-inch notebooks respectively. They are solid powerful machines, with the kind of high-performance Intel processors you’d expect from a notebook.
The XPS 1330 is not new, but it’s still a favourite for us. It’s small enough to be portable and powerful enough to edit video and use PhotoShop. It comes with a steeper price tag, though. Expect to shell out more than $1,000 when you’re done loading it with strong guts.
The XPS 1550 was on our radar right away because everyone loves a big screen. Right? That is, until you have to lug the thing around to business meetings, on vacations or to a friend’s house. It’s too heavy and bulky.
Laptop design has changed a lot over the years, and big screens are not all they’re cracked up to be if you ever plan to take it off your desk at home. We recommend the 1330 over the 1530 if you’re looking at Dell.
Netbooks: What works, what doesn’t
First, we started with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9: As much as we appreciate the four-hour battery life and compact size, we couldn’t shake the frustration of actually using the netbook. The Mini 9 (dubbed for its nine-inch screen) has a keyboard so tiny you practically have to peck at the buttons with a pen. If you’re a fast typist, or if you have large man-hands, forget about being accurate even in a simple email.
While this issue might not be dire for those accustomed to dwarfish keyboards on a BlackBerry or iPhone, for instance, the PC user could sweat over this simple exercise.
Also, what you get in mobility you lose in speed. This is expected because it’s a stripped-down version meant to deliver simplicity at a good price point. However, we found the Mini 9’s processor to be sluggish. While it is to be expected, not everyone can live with a slow processor.
Lest we sound like griping curmudgeons, we did find a netbook we’d gladly recommend. Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 is a great unit that is not too small, not too large. Just right, to quote Goldilocks. The unit we had came with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor that completes most tasks reasonably fast, and its casing is quite sleek. It came with 1GB of RAM and a 30GB hard disk.
The Inspiron Mini 12, however, doesn’t come with an internal CD/DVD slot so you’ll have to buy an external drive if you want to watch movies or install programs from a disc. A few years ago this would have been enough to say a laptop was a piece of scrap plastic, but with so much media flowing freely over the Web, including software, videos and movies, a CD/DVD player isn’t always necessary. When was the last time you loaded something from a CD or DVD on your laptop?
The biggest gripe we have with netbooks is keyboard size. The Mini 12 is decent, but not perfect. The period and comma buttons are smaller than standard size, so if you type blindly or with any speed over 40 words per minute, you might find yourself stumbling over typos.
Manufacturers need to realize they cannot keep making things smaller if it’s going to sacrifice functionality. It’s akin to a car manufacturer putting the brake pedal on the passenger side. How much sense does that make?
So consumers: Before you buy a netbook or notebook, go to an electronics store and try out the keyboard, check out the screen size. Play around with it as much as the salesperson will allow you. You don’t want to come home with a computer you end using to prop up that tilted shelf in the attic.
