Aug 12, 2010 Posted by admin in Articles

Your next portable computer – netbook or laptop?

Netbooks are a popular, cheaper alternative to full size notebook and desktop computers. While some netbooks ship with Linux, most consumers are opting for Windows XP-based netbooks. What makes a netbook different from a notebook or desktop computer? The primary difference is size – netbooks fall somewhere between the smallest notebook computers and a large smartphone. Netbooks are also less powerful PCs – to reduce the cost. As a result most netbooks can’t run Windows Vista and ship with Windows XP (and in a few cases Linux). To save even more money some consumers install OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office. Netbooks are available from many manufacturers including Acer, Asus, HP, MSI, Dell, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), Medion, Kohjinsha, Lenovo, Toshiba and others.

Netbooks have even caught the attention of Google – the search engine company – who are working with computer manufacturers on a next generation netbook based on Google’s Android platform.  And Microsoft is looking for Windows 7 as its sequel to Windows XP for netbooks.

So where does that leave consumers? Should you race out and buy a netbook today with Windows XP or wait until later this year or 2010 for the Android / Windows 7 based netbooks? Or should I instead pay a bit more (likely $100 – $150) and get a full-size notebook?

Here are some things to think about:

Speed – if you are planning to run anything beyond email, basic Internet browsing and basic text document creation you should get a laptop; for the basics a netbook is good enough.  And pretty much forget about gaming on a netbook – and likely most high quality Internet video.
Power Typer- if you are power typer take some time to type on a netbook in a store – are you really going to put up with the smaller keyboard? If you are just tapping out Twitter updates or email messages you’ll be fine – but if you are writing your next novel the netbook’s smaller keyboard might be frustrating.
Vista Experience: if you like or are used to the Windows Vista experience, look and feel and features then you only have two choices – get a full-size notebook now or wait until Windows 7 enabled netbooks come out later… and heres a catch – Windows 7 may be limited to basics for netbook use (details from Microsoft still pending).
Compatibility: Linux-based netbooks have pretty much disappeared from the shelves of retailers because Linux doesn’t allow you to run popular applications like Microsoft Office.  Google’s Android-based netbooks will likely have the same restriction.  So if you use Microsoft Office at all stay clear of netbooks that aren’t running a Windows-based operating system (for now that means XP, later this year Windows 7).

One thing that isn’t different are problems.  At support.com we deal with thousands of computer problems every day including netbook and laptop problems.

Netbook computers can be affected by the same problems as a full-size notebook or desktop computer. Because netbooks aren’t as powerful, anything impacting computer performance (like a virus or spyware, or too many installed programs) will be even more noticeable.

Common problems include:

Slow startup and/or shutdown time
Frequent crashes or lockups
Help getting printers and other devices / peripherals to work
Problems upgrading netbook BIOS to the latest version
USB devices are not accessible after being plugged in
Problems transferring data to my used computer
Unable to synchronize an iPod, iPhone, Treo, Centro, Windows Mobile or other portable device
Problems accessing media content (pictures, videos, music) in Windows Media Player
Windows Update errors preventing the latest security updates from being applied
Errors with Flash, Java / Javascript, ActiveX
Help connecting a used computer to a home network
Frequent pop-ups and/or warnings that my PC is infected with a virus
No audio or choppy audio / sound problems
Problems installing and configuring anti-virus / anti-spyware software
CD-ROM drive unavailable error

 

My advice is don’t jump out and buy a netbook just because it is $100 – $150 cheaper – it may be a great deal if you are the right kind of user.  Take the time to really use a netbook in a store, understand how you will use it at home and make sure you can live with the limitations.  If you can, netbooks are a great deal – if you can’t, you’ll just be returning the netbook and, at some stores, paying a restocking fee.

Jul 23, 2010 Posted by admin in Articles

Netbook Purchase Tips

Netbook is the novel and hottest craze in portable computing, as lugging a 17“ laptop everywhere can be neatly replaced by buying an ultra portable netbook. Conversely, shopping for a netbook is best by following some buying tips.

Identifying computing needs: This is an immense factor worth considering and needs proper thinking and planning about using the netbook and the related software that you need. This depends on the fact about using it for web surfing or checking email or doing some serious jobs such as video editing or graphic designing. Netbook is appropriate for lower intensive tasks that comprises of web browsing, email checking and replying, besides office applications. A netbook with full size is recommended for jobs that are processor intensive.

Portability features: Carrying a netbook around involves comprehending the size and weight as the main factor. Netbook is available in plenty of sizes, but definitely is tiny and weights less in comparison to the bulky laptops. The portability features certainly is favorable only when the netbook is light in weight and small in size. The battery size and weight also requires to be considered as some power adaptors come heavy and large in size.

Comprehending the storage types: Types of netbook available in the market should be comprehended as it helps in selecting the desired to suit the needs and wants of the buyer. Netbook comes in SSD and HDD storage types such that SSD, the Solid State Drives boot faster, possess withstanding impact and is a bit faster in performance, but is notorious for low storage. Contrarily, HDD, the Hard Disk Drives netbook stores up to 160GB data, but are weaker withstanding impacts in comparison to their counterparts, SSD. Buying a fast netbook with less storage capacity or a netbook offering high capacity, but is slow in booting depends completely on the desire and need of the buyer.

Considering the netbook`s brand: Considering the brand before purchasing is essential as the market today is filled with numerous brands of netbooks. However, good brands such as ASUS certainly carry high repute, and are followed by many more manufacturers of netbook such as Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MSI. These manufacturers vary in their signatures and a buyer should know these details prior to purchase, such as ASUS have small keyboards. It is necessary to know the different brand netbooks as well as their differences, and this can be understood by researching in the internet with patience.

Operating system: Similar to the desktop computers having Mac and Windows as operating system competitors, the netbook has Windows XP and Linux for competition. The netbook models are shipped by different manufacturers with an operating system, and hence every netbook is either featured with a Windows XP or Linux version. However, Linux version netbooks are well-known for their security and stability, while the Windows XP netbooks have gained the topmost popularity. Compatibility of versions is a must and hence a buyer usually opts for Windows XP netbook, as it is tough to switch paradigms facilitating Linux.

Reading reviews: User reviews play a vital role in determining the performance of some netbooks. Manufacturers do not leave any opportunity in hyping their product so that their sales are boosted. But, reading the reviews will assist in knowing the value or the rundown of a netbook model. Reading independent reviews of products offered in online computer magazines and searching the internet for more reviews will give valuable information about a product to be purchased.

Comparison: Settling for a shopping website at the first attempt is not recommended. Comparing prices from minimum three or five netbook sellers is the best before placing the order. Comparison is required as some websites offer the netbooks cheaper as they deal on wholesale orders, while others do the same and sell second hand netbooks. If buying online, make sure the you are dealing with a trusted website.

Jul 3, 2010 Posted by admin in Articles

The Most Recommended Netbooks

We’ve reviewed the experts’ recommendations and users’ comments on a wide range of netbooks, and here we recommend 4 highly rated ones.

Firstly, what are netbooks? Like the meaning of “responsible” (as in “who really is responsible for the deep economic mire we find ourselves in – greedy bankers or incompetent ministers?”) everybody seems to have a different point of view.

For the non-techy they are small, very portable laptops which are more likely to be used for basic wordprocessing, emailing, surfing the net, and watching and listening to video, pictures and songs on the move. Later models are now able to play more sophisticated games, and even do some video editing, though this is still best left for a more powerful laptop or desktop. They are at the smaller end of the screen sizes, up to 11 inches (measured diagonally), though there are no hard and fast rules.

Don’t get confused with notebooks – notebooks a bit bigger, and less portable, lying between the netbook and the laptop; nor are they “tablets” – the most famous of which is the newly launched iPad. Tablets have no keyboard and are principally for playing media and surfing the web, not more serious multi-tasking.

The important thing is that netbooks are designed to be very portable laptops – though a recent survey of US owners found that 60% never took them out of the house! Most have inbuilt wifi to connect to wireless internet wherever you are, or have the capability to link to the internet via a 3G link (like a phone).

Why would you want one? Apart from establishing your IT revolution credentials on the 7.36 from Tring, it could perfectly adequately satisfy your general computing needs whilst on the move. Battery life of the more modern netbooks is between 6 and 8 hours.

However, the basic fact is that you trade off convenience for power – ie what the thing will do for you. For example, they are unlikely to do lots of tasks at the same time, or even a single, power hungry application such as video editing. Also, one of the key things to bear in mind is the size of the screen – its small size may mean that it’s easy to slip into a large pocket or bag, but as a result it may be less easy to see what’s on it. Nevetheless, you just have to read a few user reviews to see how popular they are, and how they fulfill most users’ computing needs.

The other thing you are unlikely to find in a netbook is an inbuilt CD/DVD player – though a reasonable solution is to buy a seperate player (or “drive”) for around £30.

So what netbooks do the experts recommend? We’ve scanned the web to find their recommendations, and have found suggested best buys listed by Cnet, PC Advisor, Netbook Review, Budget Netbooks, TechRadar, Stuff.tv, Pocket Lint, Trusted Reviews, and we’ve also reviewed user comments in Revoo, Review Centre and Amazon. We’ve aggregated the rankings, and come up with our own definitive list of best buy netbooks – ones we would happily buy ourselves.

One thing to bear in mind is that manufacturers are developing their products all the time – new versions are being released regularly. This means that reviews and recommendations may be out of date after a short while. However, where a notebook has been around a while, and there is an updated version, we’ve mentioned it as worth checking out.

We’ve looked at the budget end of the notebook spectrum – under £260. You can spend more – over £400 – and you will generally get a more powerful machine, with more features. However, we think, for general use, you can buy an excellent notebook for under £300.

Here are the 4 top recommended netbooks in priority order, best first. To get more detail and the price, click on the name of the netbook. To see a particular review, check out the full article at 1.Samsung NC10 Netbook

Possibly the most recommended netbook is the Samsung NC10. Described as “Most Popular” byBudget Netbooks, given 10/10 by Trusted Reviews, 4.5/5 by PC Advisor, 5/5 by TechRadar,  5/5 and a “Hot Buy” by Stuff.TV.

In terms of user reviews, it gets 4.5/5 (11 reviews) at the Review Centre, and 5/5 (22 reviews) at Amazon.

Unfortunately, this notebook is getting a bit old now (though still available and still getting excellent reviews), so you may also wish to consider a newer netbook from the same stable, such as the Samsung N120 (TechRadar gave it 4.5/5 ) or the Samsung N130 (TechRadar gave it 3/5 and 52 users gave it an average of 4.5/5 at Amazon). They all seem great notebooks!

2. Asus 1005HA 10-inch Netbook

This netbook is highly recommended by Netbook Review (2nd out of 5), and is considered “Good Value” by Budget Netbooks. It gets an average of 4/5 in 7 reviews at Amazon

It supercedes the highly acclaimed Asus 1000 HE. A good alternative, though more expensive, is the Asus Eee Asus PC 1008HA, which is ranked 9/10 by Trusted Reviews, and 5/5 by Stuff.TV, and rated 4.5/5 on average by 12 customer reviews at Amazon
.

3. Toshiba NB200-10z 10.1-inch Netbook

Highly recommended netbook, by Netbook Review (5th out of the top 10), Cnet (8th out of the top 10), Trusted Reviews (9/10), PC Advisor (4/5), and Stuff.TV (4/5).

9 customer reviews average 4/5 at Amazon

4. Acer Aspire One D150

Whilst this notebook is getting a little long in the tooth (relatively!), and has been updated during 2009, it is still rated very highly by the experts and users. Budget Netbooks said it was “easy to use”, PC Advisor gave it 4.5/5, as did TechRadar. Stuff.TV rated it slightly lower at 4/5, but still recommended it. 33 customer reviews at Amazon rated it 4 /5 on average.

You might equally consider the Acer Aspire One Pro 531 which is rated  4/5 by Stuff.TV, and gets rated 5/5 by 1 customer at Amazon.

Jun 23, 2010 Posted by admin in Articles

How Do I Buy The Best Netbook For 2010

A netbook is a small, light, cheap and extremely portable, but has the computing power in less than a full-sized laptop. However, it is well suited for general computing, word processing, running a web browser and Internet connection. Laptops are small, usually slightly less with 10-inch screen, but some images may or greater. It weighs 2.5 pounds and sold for less than $ 500 nowadays.  Most of the netbooks come with Intel Atom processor with at least 1GB of RAM.

Released With the ever increasing demand of many companies design netbooks growing netbook models in the global market. Therefore, it is not easy to make the right choice for buying a netbook good for the buyer. For anyone who wants to buy a Netbook, here are some key features considered netbook:

Keyboard and touchpad
A keyboard of netbooks is usually smaller than a standard keyboard of full size laptops and range from 88-93% of the full-size keyboards. The keyboard layout of netbook is quite similar to the full size keyboard but key buttons on netbooks are smaller and closer.

But even if two netbooks have the same size keyboard, their layouts could be different and their keys are closer on some netbooks than others. If possible, please test out the keyboard to ensure they are large enough and user friendly.

Touchpad is one of features to consider. At present, a wide variety of touchpad have been developed and specially designed to offer a more comfortable experience during prolonged use. So, try out and get a touchpad that supports multi-touch gestures.

Screen size and display resolution
Netbooks generally come with a screen size which ranges from 7 to 12 inches. That’s a big difference from the average 15 inches on a full-sized laptop. In order to decide which screen size is good enough for you, you should try to run your favorite programs and view your favorite websites on a variety of different sized screens.

Try to buy a screen size of 8.9 inches or larger otherwise the screen and its resolution might be too low and finally make it more difficult to read. A 10-inch netbook usually has resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels and weighs less than 3 pounds whereas 11- and 12- inch netbooks usually have resolutions of 1280 x 800 and 1366 x 768 respectively and weigh a little bit more. However, when considering its price and weight together, a 10-inch screen is a perfect choice and is the best selling netbook size on the retailer’s site.

Processor
Intel Atom is the most common processor available for the netbooks (most of them run on the Intel Atom N or Z Series). Here you should go for the latest technologies because they are available with more efficiency and try not to buy an old netbook because you can face problem of speed and efficiency.

The latest Atom processor on netbooks for 2010 is Intel Atom N450 Processor (1.66 GHz). Most netbooks launched into the markets last year were Intel Atom N270 or N280 which are being replaced by new Intel Atom N450. We can notice that all processors on netbooks are slower than the standard processor on laptops, which is about 2.1 GHz. This means that a netbook will be slower when running heavier programs. So, you shouldn’t use a netbook for heavy processing, such as photo/video editing and gaming. However, netbooks are perfect for light processes like web surfing, email, and word processing.

Operating system (OS)
Netbooks are available for Linux and Windows operating systems and new netbooks have moved to Windows 7 Starter, which is a lighter version of Windows 7 to help with load time and overall performance. As we all know about windows because that most people are familiar with the Windows layout as they have been using it for several years on their home and office computers.

You can also get a netbook with Linux, which is a much more basic and faster operating system. Netbooks with Linux run great for web surfing, email, and word processing via Open Office. However, Linux may be incompatible with some programs. Lastly, you can still find netbooks running on Windows XP or Vista.

Battery Life
Old notebook batteries usually come with 3-cell (less than 30 Wh) units but for new netbooks, they have upped their standard batteries to 6-cell units which can get you unplugged for about 6-9 hours while 3-cell systems usually get between 1 and 3 hours of endurance. If your job or work require traveling then you should look for the 6-cell option that can get you unplugged for about 6-9 hours on a single charge. These are little costly than 3-cell battery netbooks but can be very useful if your activities involve overseas travel or all-day classes.

After Intel has unveiled new Atom N450 processor, new netbooks can consume less power approximately 20% over previous netbook generation (e.g. Intel Atom N270, N280). New latest netbooks are coming with battery life of 10-14 hours such as models Asus Eee PC 1005PE-P, Asus Eee PC 100P, Acer A0532h and Toshiba Mini NB305-N410 (10-inch screen).

Want cheap laptop batteries? View my bio.

Jun 3, 2010 Posted by admin in Articles

Samsung Nc10 10” Netbook – the Ultimate Ultra-portable Laptop

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With the rest of the notebook industry rushing to grab a piece of the netbook market share, Samsung has responded by producing the Samsung NC10 netbook. Like many netbooks in the market, the NC10 is 10.2 inches wide and has all the basic netbook necessities such as a 1.3 mp camera, 802.11 b/g WiFi and runs on Microsoft Windows XP Home. It is powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and has a 160GB hard drive.

The Samsung NC10 has no frills minimalist design and it comes in white or blue. It has a matte exterior and is adorned with a reflective Samsung logo. It simple design and rounded corners gives it a more professional design compared to other Asus and MSI netbooks. Weighing at just 2.8 pounds, it is also lighter than most of the other netbooks in the market (which usually weigh more than 3 pounds).

The keyboard on the Samsung NC10 is 93% of the size of regular keyboards. The positioning of the keys are very comfortable, with a full size shift key below the enter button on the right. The great layouts of the keys take little time to get used to (unlike some other netbook models).

Most of the new netbooks in the market today have a glossy display screen, which greatly reduces its visibility under bright conditions. The screen on the Samsung model is matte, maintaining good visibility even under bright sunlight. Although it has the standard 1024 x 600 pixel screen, the images are crisp and vibrant.

The powerful Samsung NC10 resembles more of a laptop than a netbook in terms of functionality. Due to the extra features found in this model, it cost a little more than the average netbook. From the raving reviews received by this netbook, I would say the price is well worth it!