Laptop or Netbook?

TeetersOnHeels

Hi.
Am wanting to invest in a second computer, and am a bit confused between a laptop & a netbook.
It would be used mainly for browsing the internet, emailing, online banking & some shopping ( I do my mum's supermarket shopping online for her). It would need to be wireless, but not necessarily used away from home.
Does anyone have any advice/tips about wether a laptop or netbook would suit my needs.
Thanks in advance!

nomoneytoday

Do you need a cd/dvd ?
What size screen do you want? 9-10" or 13-15" ?

emmonk

That sounds like the kind of thing I do with my net book. I bought a Samsung NC10 about 6 months ago and it has been great.

I previously had an Eee PC 701 and although it was cheap and I could surf the web etc, the key board was so small that I was forever spelling things wrong as every keystroke activated several keys!!

The NC10 has a really good size keyboard for a netbook.

It has wireless and bluetooth connectivity.

It doesn't have an internal CD drive but has several USB ports so I can connect an external CD drive if necessary.

Hope that helps!

kwikbreaks

Based on what you have said a netbook would be adequate but please note that netbooks...

usually have no optical drive

are small - that means small screen and keyboard which will not suit everyone

usually have low power processors and onboard graphics - don't expect to run any games software

often come with linux operating system which is fine but may need a little getting used to plus don't expect to (easily) run windows programs on it

A full (but low spec) laptop could be a similar price to a netbook so if portability isn't an issue may be a better choice.

What it boils down to is that you shouldn't expect a £250 netbook to do everything a proper laptop can.

===

This post was made using an Advent 4211 netbook (MSI Wind clone) using a Vodafone mobile BB modem. It's great for mobile internet but I wouldn't use it for full time word processing etc.

james_collins_2

Netbooks also typically run on Windows XP, which is far less secure than Windows Vista, the operating system you can find in a new laptop. If I were you, i would go for the laptop...you'd rather spend a little bit more because you never know what you'll end up using your computer for.

TeetersOnHeels

Thanks for all the replies.
I don't need it for games, or CD's/DVD's, but do download photo's and put stuff on ebay.
The point about not being Vista, and not as good security wise is something I didn't know, so thanks for that.
I'll have a scout round and see who's got some good deals going.
Thanks again.

bribrian

james_collins wrote: »

Netbooks also typically run on Windows XP, which is far less secure than Windows Vista,

Is this true, i always thought Vista was a load of ****.........

Rich44_2

Vista is inherantly more secure than XP providing you don't turn off features like UAC etc as even an admin account does not run with "full" admin credentials this prevents things like malware sneaking onto your PC.

Since SP1 tbh Vista has been pretty good most people trashing it are running it on older hardware, had it preinstalled and its loaded down with crap or just dont like how different it is from XP

As for your laptop vs netbook question as has been mentioned it depends on how portable you want it, do you need an optical drive built in or have to buy an external one (£60ish) do you need a bigger screen than 10-12" are you likely to want to play games (the new lenovo ideapad S12 looks sweet for netbook and gaming with nvidia graphics too)

Have a look round here

http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/

Cirrus_Clouds

A laptop would be better value for money especially as you mentioned that you may not be using it away from home. You will be paying extra for portability when purchasing a netbook. The main reason I bought a netbook was due to the fact that they are extremely light and have solid state hard drives. However I found them to be over priced relative to their specification. For example:

£300 may buy you a netbook with 1GB ram, 80GB hard drive and a basic processor or a laptop with 3GB ram, 160GB hard drive, a fairly good processor and graphics card.

Rich44_2

This is quite a peach for £299

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167514

or similar price for a netbook instead

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150183

The thing is you dont need more RAM on a netbook thats the point they're not designed for the same job. The netbook will use less lecky as well dont forget worth bearing in mind and you can get a decent netbook for considerably less than even a very cheap laptop (if you're prepared to take a recon one less than £100)

silkcutblue

What vista gives in security it takes away in every other aspect - hence the huge problems.

As such it's not a bad thing that a netbook comes with XP and not Vista. That is a plus point.