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DailyTech Poll Discussion What Do you Think of the Current Netbook Craze?
Brandon Hill (Blog) - September 21, 2009 6:00 PM
Print 36 comment(s) - last by jonmcc33.. on Sep 28 at 8:35 PM
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What do you think of the current netbook craze?
  • I have a netbook and it perfectly fits my needs. (1,238 votes)
  •  
    17%
  • I have a netbook and it's not exactly what I expected. (301 votes)
  •  
    4%
  • I don't have a netbook, but I wouldn't mind adding one to my arsenal. (1,746 votes)
  •  
    24%
  • I don't have a netbook and I don't plan on getting one either. (1,275 votes)
  •  
    18%
  • I had a netbook, but got rid of it (cite reasons in comments section). (144 votes)
  •  
    2%
  • I have no intention of getting a netbook, but I understand how it can be appealing to certain people. (1,746 votes)
  •  
    24%
  • Who cares? Netbooks are a passing fad. (794 votes)
  •  
    11%

  • 7,244 total votes

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Price and size come into play
By anindrew on 9/21/2009 10:42:14 PM , Rating: 5
I think netbooks are good for their intended use. They're small, very portable, and great for things like checking your email, surfing the web, listening to music, and watching DVDs. But when I compare the price of netbooks to cheaper laptops, the difference is often $100 or less. Sometimes the cheap laptops are cost LESS! I realize the portability of netbooks comes into play, but for me, I'd rather spend the money on a laptop in order to have more processing power, overall speed, and functionality. I recall anandtech.com had a recent article about low priced laptops that compared them to netbooks.




RE: Price and size come into play
By jimhsu on 9/22/2009 8:30:41 PM , Rating: 4
I think the niche of netbooks is slowly being consumed by mobile phones that can "do more". iPhone, Palm Pre, Blackberries ... they can all effectively do what netbooks do (well, with the exception of watching DVDs, but we have Youtube and manual video encoding to compensate for that partly).

Aside from note-taking, I really can't see any niche that the netbook fills with mobile phones on one spectrum and laptops on the other.


RE: Price and size come into play
By Suntan on 9/28/2009 1:36:08 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Aside from note-taking, I really can't see any niche that the netbook fills with mobile phones on one spectrum and laptops on the other.


Small, portable computer for transfer of digital pictures in the feild. Disc based HDD allows for a lot of storage, and the netbook can be used to review/cull pictures in the evening time/ at the hotel.

Yes, a 14" notebook can do the same, but when you are already carrying 30+ pound of photo gear, the little netbook is very nice, and better suited to the job.

Prior to netbooks this niche was filled with dedicated HDD transfer gadgets that had less space, cost a lot more, and had little to no use other than copying of picture files.

-Suntan


RE: Price and size come into play
By GaryJohnson on 9/22/2009 10:20:53 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Sometimes the cheap laptops are cost LESS!


The key part of that is "sometimes". Sales are the way to get a deal on a laptop, but sales are also the way to get a deal on a netbook. A laptop on sale might come down to a price that's competitive with non-sale netbook pricing. But you might find a netbook on sale for $150 (which is a price you won't generally find a new full-size laptop at).


RE: Price and size come into play
By nafhan on 9/23/2009 12:53:45 AM , Rating: 2
Check woot.com regularly. It seems like they have $150 eee pc's every other week lately.


RE: Price and size come into play
By Smartless on 9/24/2009 2:24:38 PM , Rating: 2
I'm going to contradict myself and call netbooks both toys and useful in the niche. Most complaints are center on it being a laptop replacement which it will never be. My use for it is this,
1) It's cheap for good battery life and that's key(my Eee gets 6 hrs playing divx whereas exquivalent out of a laptop may cost $1000 min.).
2) It can do minor word processing and office work and fits between on an airplane tray (my 15" laptop can't especially if the monster in front leans back).
3) It's lighter and smaller than my laptop. Field work is much easier on this thing and I don't care so much if I totally break it.


Underpowered.
By jadeskye on 9/22/2009 7:20:42 AM , Rating: 4
I would only get one if they had more horsepower, which would basically make it a laptop.

Not a product i want, i need more diversity and faster then a Netbook can realistically handle.




RE: Underpowered.
By frobizzle on 9/22/2009 1:48:08 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. They're underpowered, the display is too small and the keyboard is a joke for touch typing. It is essentially today's answer to the Atari 2600. Both are toys.


RE: Underpowered.
By Oregonian2 on 9/22/2009 8:11:54 PM , Rating: 2
I really don't want to hear what you think about small computers like the iPod touch if you think netbooks are too small!


RE: Underpowered.
By riku0116 on 9/24/2009 11:20:10 PM , Rating: 2
Try the Acer 1410, I've been using it as my main machine for over a month now (just moved into rez and waiting for my i5 parts to arrive), and the su3500+4500mhd combo is quite awesomely fast enough for EVERYTHING I used to do on my old c2d desktop.

This includes web browsing (Firefox with over a dozen extensions and 50+ (!!) open tabs doesn't even start to slow it down, and the 1366x768 res screen makes it a lot easier to do real work on it than most netbooks), video playback (4500mhd's DXVA can handle 1080p videos perfectly even when downscaled in realtime), casual gaming (it even runs TF2 at over 25fps, albeit only with quite a few advanced performance hacks enabled, and looks horrible of course), web/application programming (c# compile times are quite respectable), note-taking (definitely consider getting the SISO Tablo tablet converter with this, it really works perfectly as advertised and makes my note-taking completely paperless when combined with OneNote), and it even runs my XP virtual machine perfectly thanks to the hardware virtualization support on the cpu.

All this in a 12.1'' package that's ridiculously effortless to carry around and has over 7 hours of battery life even with the crippled north american 4400 mAh battery. The best part is, it costs lower than most "high-end" netbooks and far below any other consumer ultraportable at $420.

I know I probably sounded like an Acer press release for those past 3 paragraphs but that just means I REALLY LOVE this laptop that much. =D


Not for me
By p05esto on 9/21/2009 8:00:16 PM , Rating: 3
I don't even care for laptops. I've got a 26" LCD screen and Core i7 desktop....anything less and I'm bored.

Sometimes I watch movies in bed on my laptop or check email if I'm sick, but that's about it. Otherwise, when traveling and doing real work (I'm web developer) I need a laptop with a little muscle, a netbook would be pointless.




RE: Not for me
By jonmcc33 on 9/28/2009 8:35:35 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. Not to mention the cost of a laptop for low end speed. If I am going to spend money I want the power behind it.


Better than expected.
By Springfield45 on 9/21/2009 10:28:54 PM , Rating: 2
I have been quite pleased with my netbook so far. In most ways, it has exceeded my expectations. I only have one frustration with it. The 600 vertical resolution is just a bit too low. 768 would be MUCH better! Mine only has a 9" screen (can you even find one that small anymore?) that is perfect as far as size, but I could definately use just a little higher resolution.




RE: Better than expected.
By pugster on 9/24/2009 4:24:24 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. Many people who are complaining the netbook expects the performance and specs of a notebook. It does not. I use it all the time surfing the web and watching divx movies lying on my bed and it works fine for me. If you are going to use it for anything else, buy a low end pentium dual core laptop instead.


Do not want vs. Passing fad
By Autisticgramma on 9/22/09, Rating: 0
RE: Do not want vs. Passing fad
By afkrotch on 9/25/2009 5:47:38 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Netbooks = Pogs - With an lcd screen, due to one fact: Its powerful enough to surf the web today(barley), but what about next week. (640k ought to be enough for everyone?)


Netbooks right now aren't powerful enough to surf everything on the web.

But they are working on increasing performance. Dual-core Atoms, dedicated graphics, etc.

I'd rather have a $1000-$1500 11-13" laptop though. My $600 12.1" Everex laptop much better than my $550 10" Asus Seashell (upgrade to 2 Gb memory and external DVD+-RW added to cost).


RE: Do not want vs. Passing fad
By invidious on 9/25/2009 10:58:14 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I'd rather have a $1000-$1500 11-13" laptop though


Well yea, and most people would rather have a $100,000 Porsche but that doesn't mean every $20,000-$30,000 car on the market is worthless.

The main selling points of netbooks are size and price, there are times when power doesn't matter and a smaller size would be more convienient. If there are no such uses in your life then don't buy a netbook, thats all there is to it.


Ive had a few
By nutxo on 9/21/2009 9:13:36 PM , Rating: 2
I had a 7 inch eepc when they came out. It was to small. Now I have a mini 10v. I upgraded the ram to 2 gigs. It runs win7 and snow leopard just fine. Its great for surfing in a recliner without cooking my legs like my last 2 laptops did. My kids love it as well.




I wanted one...
By TejTrescent on 9/21/2009 11:45:05 PM , Rating: 2
And then I got an Acer Timeline. 8-12 hours depending on brightness and usage under Vista/Win7 x64. ~6 under Ubuntu 9.04.

I'm pretty darn happy with it instead, since it's a 13" with an actual full keyboard, and even a Core 2 Solo runs circles around Atom.

And honestly, it wasn't that much more expensive.




Netbooks or POS
By HrilL on 9/22/2009 10:56:58 AM , Rating: 2
You'd think a netbook would be fine for office use with an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. But they just suck too damn much. It wasn't my choice to use one but its what I get to use. it can hardly run anything I throw at it. be it office, Rightnow, firefox. I can't even watch a flash video without it chopping some. Converting a audio file takes 10 minutes for about 50 minutes of audio. I probably lose about 2 hours a week in time I am waiting for my computer to do something. Never again will I use one of these. Once I can replace it I will. I'm too used to being able to run more than one application at a time seamlessly but sadly this netbook can't that. I'd say spend more and get something with some balls.




By therealnickdanger on 9/22/2009 11:30:11 AM , Rating: 2
I had the MSI Wind but I got rid of it for these reasons:

1. 1024x600 is a joke. I want a minimum of 720p (1280x720) resolution. 1280x800 would be perfect.

2. HD Hulu/Youtube performance is terrible. I think the biggest problem is that Flash has no real hardware acceleration. Even if it did work, it's unlikely that Intel IGP could use it anyway.

3. Ion. I was able to play Halo, but not very well. While the Atom may prevent me from getting 300fps, at least the NVIDIA GPU could eliminate the frame-rate dips provided by the impotent Intel IGP and make for a more consistent experience. So I got rid of it in anticipation of maybe one day getting an Ion-based netbook.

4. Tegra. Hot damn, give me a cell phone / MID that can watch/output 720p/1080p video and maybe even run Windows 7 and what the hell do I need a netbook for?

I'm mostly excited to see the upcoming tablet netbooks... netblets... tablooks... Apple has their SuperNewton coming out soon, but no real details have been released. If it can run Windows 7, I'll be all over it, assuming no one else comes out with something better. Tablets are sweet, I like them a lot!




Resolution!
By aebiv on 9/22/2009 11:53:18 AM , Rating: 2
When my 2.8" screen on my WinMo phone has 640x480 resolution, I'd expect a 10" netbook to have quite a bit more than 1024x600. Until they start putting a minimum of 1280x800 on 10" or smaller screens, they can keep the netbooks.




when the CPUs get better
By mattclary on 9/22/2009 1:25:41 PM , Rating: 2
The Atom is too anemic. When they get something that runs cooler and has more "oomph", call me. For now, I'll use my Latitude E6400.




Seems to be for the kids...
By cmdrdredd on 9/22/2009 5:03:42 PM , Rating: 2
Netbooks are for school aged children to me. Inexpensive, small, and they can do just enough with it to keep in touch with friends and do homework. For everyone else, spend another $200 an get a full notebook with DVD burner and the works.




No need for one
By jimhsu on 9/22/2009 8:24:31 PM , Rating: 2
Between the iPhone and my Macbook Pro and desktop, I do not see a need for a netbook. A netbook would be too unwieldy compared to my phone, and too underpowered compared to my other computers. Thus, it doesn't fill a niche that I need.




By nafhan on 9/23/2009 12:52:48 AM , Rating: 2
I had an eee PC for a while, and I decided it had to many compromises. It needed to be one of two things:
1. More powerful - I really couldn't even watch Hulu without problems. That bothered me.
2. Smaller - as I couldn't fit it in my pocket, I realized I was only taking it places that I could have taken a larger more powerful laptop.

I ended up selling it to my sister (at a discount of course), who uses it for basic email checking. I have a Windows mobile phone and that for me is more functional as I always have it with me.

If Intel ever allows dual core atoms, I may reconsider.




By Anonymous Freak on 9/23/2009 12:48:24 PM , Rating: 2
I had a 'netbook' way back in 1999. It was called the Sony PictureBook. About the same physical size as netbooks today; similarly for-the-time underpowered. I put a Lucent WaveLAN card in mine, and had WiFi way before it was common. (The company I worked for helped start one of the first "free public WiFi" nonprofits. The nonprofit is still around, the company is long gone.)

It came with Windows 98, and I upgraded it to Windows XP when XP came out. It was a bit underpowered for XP (A Pentium MMX 266 MHz and 64 MB of RAM,) but it ran it well enough. When I finally upgraded to a newer laptop in 2003, I got a bigger one. (Although still fairly small, a 12" PowerBook G4.) Sold the Sony to help pay for the PowerBook. For the Sony being four years old, it held its value very well. (Bought for $1800 in '99, sold $600 in '03.)




Dell 10v
By CalWorthing on 9/23/2009 8:54:16 PM , Rating: 2
A utility item. Picked up a 'refurb' Dell for $200 and keep it in the car for checking email and doing minor web fixes from wifi spots. The HD is encrypted (Truecrypt) and I'm not worried about theft.




One Word....crap
By afkrotch on 9/24/2009 4:50:35 AM , Rating: 2
I have one. The Asus Seashell. I upgraded it to 2 GB of ram and it's a total piece of crap. Any kind of intensive website it stutters on. It does that with forums.

I can use notepad without much issues. I haven't bothered installed MS Office. Video, no issues. HD video, don't bother. It'll stutter every few seconds, but I wasn't expecting it to work anyways, according to reviews.

I don't know what it is that makes it run like crap. 1.6 ghz, should be fine. My old 600 mhz P3 surfs the web without issues, except anything video related.

I removed any kind of piece of crap software that Asus installs on the box. I was just going to load Win2k on there, but the OS install doesn't find the hdd. I could troubleshoot that, but I really don't care. I'm going to get rid of it.

Only advantage, long battery life and it's small.




Size is key
By wolrah on 9/24/2009 9:21:54 AM , Rating: 2
The 9" size is just too small, as most netbook manufacturers seem to have realized given the popularity of 10-12" models. I have a Dell Mini 9 and the keyboard is just too damn tiny to comfortably work on. I got it on sale for under $200, so I can't complain too much for what it is, but in hindsight I really should have saved for a 10 incher.

If Intel would get the stick out of their ass and allow Atom 330 netbooks the performance might not be as terrible either, I hadn't used a single-core machine in a long time and forgot how bad they are.

I still have the thing as a coffee table PC, but it certainly does not get the use I expected out of it when I bought it.




netbooks need HD!
By invidious on 9/25/2009 10:37:19 AM , Rating: 2
Small screen size can be a perk because it makes the whole device smaller. But small screen resolution is not something I am willing to settle for. The 1024x600 screens that are on most current netbooks are just unbearable to me. If I could find one 1280x720 or 1280x800 at $300 or less I would be sold on the concept.

If an iPhone can do 320x480 at a third the physical size of a netbook I don't think what I am expecting is unreasonable.

A few other things I don't like seeing in a netbook, but these vary depending on the brand/model.
1) 4gb SSDs, single platter HDD is far superior at same price
2) 512mb ram, come on seriously? 1gb is like $5 more
3) batteries that stick out the back or bottom
4) lack of built in bluetooth, should be as standard as wifi




Poll Choices Probably Wrong
By mindless1 on 9/26/2009 5:57:40 PM , Rating: 2
I think the most popular poll choice would have been (among netbook owners):

"I have a netbook and it does not perfectly fit my needs but it is exactly what I expected."

Then among non-owners:

"I am waiting for better specs at prices lower than entry level notebooks".




Too slow
By wvh on 9/26/2009 9:25:17 PM , Rating: 2
I don't own a laptop at all, I rather work on a solid desktop machine.

I do like the concept of something ultra-portable, but so far I've not been convinced of actually getting one. With all that Javascript and dog-slow Flash contents in web pages these days, I think I'll wait for some CULV or mainstream but more power-efficient processors to populate netbook-type portables. With the complexity of webpages increasing, I can see Atom systems run out of steam just rendering HTML... It feels rather stupid to me to buy a computer that's already (too) slow when I get it.

The low price appeals though, because then I don't have to mind it too much when I take it everywhere with me.

With the lines between traditional laptops and netbooks blurring, it would be quite interesting to see where the market goes with those CULV/discrete graphics models... That gray zone actually looks more appealing and useful, since you can actually get some real work done.

I think the netbook concept is here to stay, but hopefully the manufacturers come up with some more capable power-efficient processors and graphics solutions to make the gap with traditional systems (and hence peoples' expectations) smaller.




I find netbooks useless
By rudy on 9/28/2009 10:34:35 AM , Rating: 2
I find netbooks to be a niche item they sit somewhere between a real laptop and a phone. The problem is they do not have the pocket sized advantage of a phone since my phone can get me to all the same websites and edit documents and everything else I have no use for a netbook. I think netbooks may be a passing fad we just need more companies to make really powerful bigger phones.




car PC:
By Manch on 9/28/2009 2:28:24 PM , Rating: 2
I use mine for my car. I use it to data log when I'm at the track or a road course and to record video of my driving. It's more than enough for that. Plus with the wifi I can email my tuner the logs and he can do some tweaking. I've been looking into making a car pc. One of these repackaged into a double DIN setup would be perfect.




I have a netbook...
By bertomatic on 9/21/2009 7:40:19 PM , Rating: 1
...and it perfectly fits [most of] my needs. Use it on a daily basis as a remote control for my HTPC. For compute intensive tasks, i just remote to my workstation, or server. It is perfect for the plane (I'll watch what ever movie i want thank you). It is wonderful for traveling with ALL my music, not just what will fit on an mp3 player.

The one thing that bogs it down are flash intense websites and, of course, Facebook. I have always hated flash, now even more so.




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