Netbook or laptop? Which is best for portable computing?

If you’re wondering if a netbook is the perfect laptop for you, ask yourself this: will you want to work or play on your new laptop for hours at a time whilst viewing a screen 10 inches in size?

With high-end netbooks creeping up to the $1000 mark – and in the case of Sony’s Vaio P series, well beyond it – the bigger question is whether you should be buying a netbook at all.
What about one that copes well with basic tasks, but gets a bit sluggish when you start opening lots of programs at once – especially if they are processor-intensive tasks such as watching video?
As long as you’re happy with the small screen size and lack of processing power – we’ve found that even the new Atom N280 netbook processor can struggle running lots of programs at the same time under Windows XP – netbooks are a great mini laptop for the bus or train, or for around the house or for the kids.
On the other side of the coin, for around the same price as a high end netbook ($800-$900) you can get a full-size laptop with a much bigger screen and full size keyboard, and a CPU that will cope with Windows Vista (which most netbooks can’t do).
If something small and light is your priority, look to fully-fledged mini-laptops with Core 2 Duo processors. Prices vary but at the very low end we’ve seen a 12in laptop with Intel’s T5670 Core 2 Duo processor for $1100.
You’ll be getting a bigger screen and keyboard, in some cases better battery life and more hard drive space, and the machine should be able to run Windows more smoothly, though it won’t be a powerhouse.
Another bigger cousin to the netbook is AMD’s Neo brand. Sitting between a netbook and full-sized laptop, the Neo is designed to be the next step up from a netbook.
The first and so far only Neo-equipped laptop is HP’s DV2, which should be on sale by the time you read this. It has a 12.1in screen – much better for several hours of Web browsing or work – and the kinds of features you’d expect on a full size laptop, like a DVD drive and HDMI.
In theory it should also run Windows better than a netbook, though that’s something we’re yet to test. It’s also a lot pricier, starting at $1399.

The dark horse of laptops
The dark horses in the race to build the Next Big Thing in laptops are Nvidia and ARM. Laptops using Nvidia’s Tegra chip could be even cheaper than netbooks, though there were none at the time of writing.
Linux netbooks with ARM chips might also arrive overseas this year.
The potential advantage looks like being price, as ARM netbooks will reportedly sell for around US$200. As we went to press we’d seen no hardware, let alone any information about whether these machines would be sold in Australia.
If you still can’t decide between a netbook and a laptop, our guide to Picking Your Perfect Laptop in the June edition of PC Authority gives you the complete picture. We’ve covered budget laptops, thin and light machines, and gaming and performance laptops, plus whether now is a good time to buy. The June issue is on sale now at your local newsagency.


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