Thinking about casting aside that bulky laptop in favor of a netbook?
So I’m heading out this morning to attend a friend’s wedding in New Jersey. It’s the perfect opportunity to give my newest toy a trial run.
For the past couple of years, my travel computer has been a small Dell XPS series laptop with a 12-inch screen. I’d always thought it to be pretty small and travel-friendly (at least compared to laptop behemoth my wife has) until I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. That’s when I came to understand the netbook has a place in my life.
After considerable research, I settled last month on a Samsung NC10 Netbook. It’s tiny, with a 10.2-inch screen and weight under three pounds (about half the weight of my Dell). With a 120 gb harddrive and an external floppy drive, it’s pretty much everything I need for traveling very light.
I won’t be playing World of Warcraft on it. And I won’t be running processor-hogging programs like Photoshop. But I will be able to email, take notes, watch movies and surf the Internet.
And really, this is the key thing you need to understand when shopping for a netbook. Don’t expect too much. It’ll only replace a notebook if you are a light user. Otherwise, it’s probably more of a complement.
Apparently, this is a distinction that’s creating a bit of confusion among computer shoppers, according to a recent report by the NPD Group.
The research firm found that consumers who think the terms “notebook” and “netbook” are interchangeable were more likely to be disappointed when they bought a netbook.
Only 58 percent of consumers who bought a netbook instead of a notebook said they were very satisfied with their purchase, compared to 70 percent of consumers who planned on buying a netbook from the start.
And here’s one funny finding from the study, which was conducted in May. Sixty percent of netbook buyers said portability was a key reason for their purchas. The same percentage then later admitted that they never took the computer out of the house. But hey, I guess it still counts as mobile if you are just moving it from room to room.
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
I love my netbook and take it everywhere. I guess since I already carry a purse and can throw it right in there, it is fairly simple for me. I don’t understand that 60% that don’t leave home with it.Maybe those folks meant it was easy to port around the house?