The Great Laptop vs Netbook Debate

[xerotic]

I have had many laptops in the past 10 years. However this year I bought a Dell Mini9 netbook and I am very satisfied. I may never buy a full sized laptop again.

Many think netbooks are just cheap gimmicky toys but I disagree. They tend to be powerful and get the job done. You can run Win XP pretty well or Linux very well on just about any of these. On my Mini9 I have a 16gb solid state drive and I only use about 1/2 of that. It's more than enough for travel and mobile usage.

The weight of netbooks is superb. I can even hold it with one hand and type with the other with ease.

Fully functional laptops are still expensive, weight too much, and are still under-powered. It's my view that getting a full sized desktop accompanied with a netbook is the better value and it's usually about the same price. Why grab a laptop with even a 16" screen when you can have a desktop with a 19" at least.

One negative to netbooks is their keyboards. The Mini9 is a fair keyboard but I played with an HP netbook and felt the keyboard was better. It was darn close to a full size keyboard. The Asus EEE is imho a piece of crap. It's not a very good design and it does feel cheap.

So let's debate the netbook vs laptop.

I love netbooks. They are amazing. My only problems are the keyboard and the lack of a disc drive. It is a definite must though, for those who use Linux. Linux requires very little to run.. so it is perfect.