Netbook & Laptop or Ultra portable Laptop

Inga

I am hoping you knowledgeable people can give me some focus, I need to replace my ancient PC and fancy having some portability.

I mostly surf the net and do bits of word processing and spreadsheets because that is all my current PC can cope with but I think I would watch tv, dvd's and listen to the radio on the move if I had the right machine(s).

Would I get all that with any one very portable machine or am I best to buy one of each?

Can anyone make any recommendations for minimum specs and if there was a bit of extra money, what upgrades would be most beneficial?

I have only basic computer knowledge so any advice will be gratefully received.

bonzer

You probably want a standard laptop, virtually any on sale today will do everything you have specified. Mainly it will depend on the physical weight of machine you are prepared to carry.

Netbooks have the advantage of being cheap and small but have comparatively tiny screens and generally lower performance than laptops. They're intended for moderate use while out and about rather than as a general machine. So if you buy a netbook, you will probably eventually end up wanting some other machine as well, either a desktop or laptop. Also netbooks don't usually have a DVD drive if that's something you are particularly interested in.

Another alternative is a smart phone, many of which can do streaming media e.g. radio and TV and surf the web, so could do some of what you want although are unlikely to be suitable for prolonged general office tasks due to tiny screen and lack of a decent keyboard. So again, you'd probably want some other machine as well.

One key consideration is how you intend to get internet outside of your house. Mobile dongles can cost a lot to use (particularly for TV & radio) depending on the contract, and mobile coverage that would reliably enable you to do that is a bit patchy outside of cities.