Who's traded their laptop for a netbook?

P

PointandClick

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 6, 2008
Messages
383
So who's replaced their full blown laptop with a netbook, and how are you getting along?

I bought my Macbook Pro because I figured having one good laptop would be easier than keeping a bunch of them synced and because I rarely used my old desktop.
I almost hate using it for anything intensive though because of how hot it gets. That and the sad realization that a $400 desktop could smoke it.:(

I would like to replace it soon one way or another. I was looking at the Macbook because something smaller would be better for class anyway, and the new 13" Pro's pretty much seal the deal. I've been really crushing on an i7 machine though. I hardly use my 24" ultrasharp because it's a pita to use with a laptop.

I don't really want to spend a bunch of extra money right now and I could probably replace my MBP with an i7 and a netbook. My only concern is having enough power when I come home or if I need to work away from home. Honestly I can't really think of a scenario like this though.

A netbook seems like it would be better for school anyway considering size, not worrying as much about it walking off or getting beat up, not wondering which beer is going to kill $1800 :eek:... You guys ever wish you had more power on the go though?
 
I use a mini 9 for most things at home. I have bigger machines for heavy lifting, but rarely use them as I dont game anymore on a PC.

the mini 9 is great for different operating systems. check mydellmini.com to see if anything there will help you in research.

Just remember what they were designed to be.
 
i went from a vostro to a 1000he and i really don't miss much. It does everything I would need with no real impact on performance. Hell, i'd say my laptop experience has improved switching from a 15" core duo system to a netbook. I actually have a functional portable device rather than something that needs to be plugged in at all times
 
Not exactly by choice. Laptop broke down, it'll cost me $200 to get it working again. Plus another $100 to replace the dying battery. Got a netbook instead. It wasn't as powerful, but i really didn't miss anything.

Screensize and Keyboard wasn't an issue since my desktop monitor had two video inputs and i can just switch the USB keyboard around.
 
I've sold my quad core tower. I'm currently spending more time on the Thinkpad than the netbook, but that's predominantly because my 37" LCD doesn't play nice with VGA inputs, and my netbook couldn't output 1080p that looked right (I blame the monitor).

I could live with a netbook for browsing purposes, but not without it being plugged into a larger resolution monitor, and with a keyboard and mouse attached.

I'm currently looking at moving my 37" LCD downstairs to use as a TV, and if I replace it with a 19", I'll be using my netbook for my primary browsing machine, leaving the Thinkpad to do gaming and VMware tasks.
 
Hi,

First post on this board... :D I would not get a netbook because the screen is WAY to small for my old eyes.... LOL

Too bad you don't want a SSD Drive. Some one at dslreports forsale forum has one for $225 two months old....

MnR
 
My mother said the same thing about the screen being too small for her eyes, but after actually using one for a few hours she now uses her new S10 all the time and doesn't even touch her old laptop anymore. The only thing I had to do was install cleartype to make the text a little easier to read for her.

I personally use a Sony UX for random stuff from internet on the go, to doing crosswords in bed. But I still use a DTR laptop for most things and have no desktop at all.
 
I traded my desktop in my specs for a 1000HE netbook. :)

But it's only temporary since the PSU blew after a particularly bad thunderstorm. I guess just turning it off wasn't good enough, should've pulled the plug out of the wall. I'll fix it this weekend but it was nice to have this netbook step in to fill the void... and it does the job quite well, Almost everything I did on my desktop I can do on this netbook, except for gaming with a title that came out in the last couple of years. On the other hand, I can't take my desktop on a bathroom trip.

Mobile computing has come a long way and I am enjoying the ride.
 
The more I think about it, I really can't come up with much of anything that I would need more power for on the go. It'd be nice to have something bigger when I come home, but there's always my parents computer.

I think it's more of an attachment to my Macbook than anything.:p I'd love to step down to a 13" MBP, but like I said I'd actually feel better with something small and cheap at school. I'm sure I don't need to be spending money on 3 different machines.:eek:

Anyone ever do any development on one? I'm a CS major but I've never actually done anything big enough that compiling took a significant amount of time.

I'm not too worried about the screen. My HP was 12x8 and that was on a 15" screen. Even with 14x9 I only have one page full screen so it's not like I'll miss much. I guess I won't be able to have as many things on my bookmark bar.
 
I wouldn't say replace completely, but I have been using my laptop less each day. Many times when I use the laptop it's alongside to my pc and netbook, but that's only under rare circumstances where I am doing some project that requires them all.
 
I'm about to trade my laptop for a netbook.. I have a desktop and a Sager 9262. I'm selling the Sager and will be getting a netbook to deal with mobility. I'm thinking about the Samsung NC20.. but Asus makes some nice stuff too.
 
I had a work laptop for a while that I mostly used when I wanted to do programming homework at school rather than at home... A Dell Inspiron with horrible battery life (dunno why, early Core Duo model, guess the battery was just shot). I bought a netbook (AAO) back in November though and I've been using it for the same task and a whole lot more. Frankly I don't have a single significant complaint about my purchase, I've gotten far more use out of this cheap lil' system than I originally thought I would. The great battery life and small form factor certainly contribute to that in a big way. Even the tiny touchpad isn't as much of a turn-off as I thought it might be, I still use a Logitech VX Nano sometimes though.

I've still got a desktop (see sig) where I do the bulk of my gaming/browsing on, but a lot of days I don't even touch it and I'm using the netbook on the couch instead or at the library... Sometimes I even hook it up to the 32" HDTV even though I'm not gonna be watching any Hulu or anything, just to surf from the couch. I think netbooks are the perfect school/2dary system, I wouldn't rely on one as a primary system unless you intend to hook it up to a bigger screen though. Can't imagine coding or surfing for hours on end on the 10" screen.
 
PointandClick said:
The Anyone ever do any development on one? I'm a CS major but I've never actually done anything big enough that compiling took a significant amount of time.
Click to expand...

Web development. I have Flash CS3, Photoshop CS, mySQL, etc. running on it simultaneously. I have it hooked up to a 22" monitor and full size USB KB/M.

Not only does compiling/publishing in flash take up processing power, just the process of coding for it already takes up considerable CPU, and the AAO handles it pretty well. Publishing time does take considerably longer for bigger sites, in that case, i switch back to the desktop. That's pretty rare tho.

Electric bill took a nosedive even tho i have this thing on 24/7 :cool: A desktop takes 100-150watts on idle. AAO takes 12-14 watts at full power :cool: To put it in perspective, if i were to run my desktop rig at full power for under 2 hours, it would be using enough electricity to power the AAO for 24hrs. :cool:
 
Until I can get a 24" display to use with my laptop, its not my primary machine. Even if it's faster than my desktop(figure out how a quad is slower than a dual.) I'm running 7 on the laptop and vista on the desktop. I'm tempted to buy an SSD when the final release of 7 comes out and throw it on the laptop and start using it as my main machine.
 
i tried out a netbook for a couple of weeks, i just prefer more functionality out of my computers. Regardless if its my main computer or a spare
 
I went from a desktop to an M1330 to a m1330+mini9 to a desktop.
the netbook was decent but once you get used to it 13" screens won't bother you anymore.

After doing that I've decided splitting time between 2 machines isn't worth it. Get a laptop you can work as your main machine (with a good dock) and a mid range gaming machine to dedicate to nothing else (leave it in hibernate). Between an external HDD or a NAS, HDD space isn't a problem, and with enough RAM (and an SSD) you'll be amazed at how responsive a laptop can be. The docking station keeps it usable with the desktop mouse/KB/monitor when at home.

The biggest benefits to this are the same amount of power when home or on the go, with a sufficient screen at home to use it for anything, and sufficient mobility to take the laptop with you almost everywhere. Makes the transition seamless, and avoids issues of syncing files and multiple versions if you were splitting productivity tasks between 2 computers.

Im looking at an outlet latitude e4300 or e6400 as the laptop (to be replaced by an e4310 with a nehalem based arrandale inside) and my \\vilya (in sig) for the gaming desktop. Its the best setup I've figured out thus far. And $1.5k total can build both machines and the KVM/dock, easy. Just subtract what you already have from that. Dont skimp on the KVM/dock. They're usable in multiple generations of laptops and you might want the DVI or audio connections in the future. Same for ram and the HDD. Go for stuff thats going to useful for a long time.
 
I don't do a whole lot of gaming. If I'm going to spend money on having a laptop and a desktop though, I would probably use the desktop as my "main" machine.... especially if your just going to use the laptop like a desktop anyway with external kvm. :confused:
If you use your laptop more as a portable computer, this solution might work. I will be moving at least once a day (to class) and more than likely on the couch.

In this day and age I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to keep what I need synced. Google docs would be simple enough. It would be relatively simple to set up remote access to my nas and or desktop too in case I forget a file.

It's not necessarily that my MBP is lacking. For %95 of things it's fine. It's just that with a desktop you can get so much more, for less. Like not needing to stick it in the freezer over night to encode a movie to h.264.:D
Being able to dedicate separate drives to VMs would certainly help too.
 
There's a million options to keep stuff sync'd, and just as many reasons for anyone to have one, two, or three systems if it suits their workflow or fancy, heh. VPN/VNC software (Hamachi/UltraVNC), things like Dropbox, Google docs, MS synctoy, etc.

Even if I stopped gaming altogether (and for the last few years I've been gaming a lot less), I'd probably always still own a desktop because it's easier to upgrade and I just enjoy tinkering with it... But if at some point I have a solid NAS, or better yet, a WHS set up at home, and I'm not gaming, I'd probably consider sticking to a laptop + a docking setup alone. Right now I'm happy with a beefy desktop + my netbook.
 
Impulse said:
There's a million options to keep stuff sync'd, and just as many reasons for anyone to have one, two, or three systems if it suits their workflow or fancy, heh. VPN/VNC software (Hamachi/UltraVNC), things like Dropbox, Google docs, MS synctoy, etc.

Even if I stopped gaming altogether (and for the last few years I've been gaming a lot less), I'd probably always still own a desktop because it's easier to upgrade and I just enjoy tinkering with it... But if at some point I have a solid NAS, or better yet, a WHS set up at home, and I'm not gaming, I'd probably consider sticking to a laptop + a docking setup alone. Right now I'm happy with a beefy desktop + my netbook.
Click to expand...

This.
 
I think the biggest issue I have is that when I occasionally do have something intensive that needs done, a laptop becomes uncomfortable to use. That, and plugging in just a couple different things becomes a great big hassle if you move around very much at all.

I think I may go ahead and go for it. The worst that could happen is I find it doesn't work for me.:eek:

Anyone heard anything about when a reasonable selection of Ion based machines will be out though? Everything I've found says June or H2 2009. The lack of a definitive answer makes me think later than sooner.
I guess it wouldn't cost too much to upgrade to one if I found I needed to.
 
I believe the mini 10 uses a daughter card for the cpu and memory. Perhaps they will be upgradeable, obviously, chipset compatiblility will be key. However, I'd say dont hold your breath and just plan to buy a new one when they get here.

I'd buy an ION based dell mini... if they get that damn trackpad worked out on the 10s.
 
netbooks are great. I would get one, but my little thinkpad X30 is going strong and its plenty for what I do. Basic stuff with a bit of coding. (Trying to teach my self how to code) Unload the Pro, get a new basic desktop with a netbook. I just wish we would see a 250-300$ Ion based one with HDMI. :p
 
PointandClick said:
I think the biggest issue I have is that when I occasionally do have something intensive that needs done, a laptop becomes uncomfortable to use. That, and plugging in just a couple different things becomes a great big hassle if you move around very much at all.
Click to expand...
The point of my suggestion is both of those issues are entirely removed. Its a desktop at home by dropping it in the docking station, its a laptop on the go. With a decent C2D and an SSD, you really won't WANT to use the desktop as the prime machine (SSD isn't needed for gaming, use it in the laptop and it'll be much smoother than the desktop at daily work)
 
GLSauron said:
The point of my suggestion is both of those issues are entirely removed. Its a desktop at home by dropping it in the docking station, its a laptop on the go. With a decent C2D and an SSD, you really won't WANT to use the desktop as the prime machine (SSD isn't needed for gaming, use it in the laptop and it'll be much smoother than the desktop at daily work)
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I mean though. Instead of being a portable device, it turns into a
"machine that's fairly easy to move, but I still don't feel like doing it". I'm missing the point of having a laptop if it's going to be used like a desktop most of the time. :confused: If it's only for the sake of not having to sync things then I guess I'm not too worried.

I have a Core 2 Duo. Like I said, for 95% of things it's fine, but that other 5% is still annoying. The more I think about it, I'm sure a netbook will do most of those same things while being better at what it's supposed to be.... a portable device. I've had a $500 monitor sitting barely used for the past 6 months because the experience is not what I'm looking for with a laptop.

Not to mention, from what I hear, with 12 gigs of ram there's little need for a SSD. :eek:
 
I don't think he's saying you wouldn't move it often... I think he's simply giving you an option for having a very portable system that you can still enjoy at your desk w/some of the benefits of a desktop, while still depending on only the one system. If I were to move to a single laptop I'd definitely look into a docking station... Though realistically it's only three or four cables without one. DVI/HDMI for a large 22-24" display, one USB port for a hub for any peripherals, and audio/power cables... Don't really need to hook anything else up to use it as a workstation.

There's a huge range of very portable laptops out there that are more powerful than a netbook and still very light, you just have to pony up the extra dough for that lightness though (and/or sacrifice battery life). Oh and I'd rather have an SSD and 4-6GB of RAM than 12GB and no SSD... Though I've never experimented much with RAMdisks so maybe there's a world of performance I'm missing out on.
 
Thought about it, but I do a lot of reading & coding on my laptop which would suck on a netbook-sized screen.

I wouldn't object to having a pound shaved off my tablet and about two hours of battery life tacked on though. That would be pretty hot.
 
Impulse said:
Even if I stopped gaming altogether (and for the last few years I've been gaming a lot less), I'd probably always still own a desktop because it's easier to upgrade and I just enjoy tinkering with it... But if at some point I have a solid NAS, or better yet, a WHS set up at home, and I'm not gaming, I'd probably consider sticking to a laptop + a docking setup alone. Right now I'm happy with a beefy desktop + my netbook.
Click to expand...

This ^^. I'm gonna get a netbook here soon, and i just love having a desktop to do the dirty and hard work. Desktop for (minor) gaming, video converting, photoshop, video editing. But then the netbook for irc, IM, internet.

Ill never *not* have a desktop. For the reasons that Impulse listed above.
 
Costwise.

Crysis capable gaming desktop (fairly highend) + Netbook. Is about the same, if not cheaper, than a gaming laptop.

In todays market, the laptop is turning into a halfway point between the power of a desktop, vs the portability of a netbook.

But what you end up with is a notebook that's barely as powerful as a desktop, much too heavy to casually carry around, battery life that has you needing to take the bulky power brick too, and more expensive than the netbook and gaming rig combined.

So the choice is either a Notebook or a GamingRig+Netbook combo. For practicality's sake, i'd go with the combo.
 
illuminate said:
This ^^. I'm gonna get a netbook here soon, and i just love having a desktop to do the dirty and hard work. Desktop for (minor) gaming, video converting, photoshop, video editing. But then the netbook for irc, IM, internet.

Ill never *not* have a desktop. For the reasons that Impulse listed above.
Click to expand...

If time isn't an issue, you can do the video encoding on a netbook and leave it overnight. It'll save you on the powerbill too since by my computation, gaming on a desktop for 2 hours uses enough power to keep a netbook running for 24 hours.

One thing i've been doing lately, is that i have all the peripherals connected to my AAO (Keyboard, monitor, headset, mouse, etc.; You're effectively using Dual-Monitor) and when i need more power, i turn on my desktop, then access it using "Remote Desktop Connection". So my netbook is on the 22" LCD, and the desktop rig is on the 9" netbook. For stuff like Video Encoding, DVD burning, etc. that has to be done on the desktop, i just do it over Remote Control. That way i can control both PC's with the same Mouse and Keyboard. Heck, i'm even playing Winamp remotely and making the sound output on my netbook. Once i'm done, i just shutdown the main rig without interrupting the work i'm doing on the AAO.
 
I only use my laptop for school, and for IMing people when IM in a game , and its starting to be a pain to lug around once I add my books to my bag. Im considering going to a netbook, but I dont want to sell my lappy, and I dont have money for a netbook.

The one thing I dont like about my laptop or a netbook is the small screen, Im spoiled by my 28" on my desktop to the point that even using my 15.4" laptop bugs me sometimes.
 
Sly said:
If time isn't an issue, you can do the video encoding on a netbook and leave it overnight. It'll save you on the powerbill too since by my computation, gaming on a desktop for 2 hours uses enough power to keep a netbook running for 24 hours.

One thing i've been doing lately, is that i have all the peripherals connected to my AAO (Keyboard, monitor, headset, mouse, etc.; You're effectively using Dual-Monitor) and when i need more power, i turn on my desktop, then access it using "Remote Desktop Connection". So my netbook is on the 22" LCD, and the desktop rig is on the 9" netbook. For stuff like Video Encoding, DVD burning, etc. that has to be done on the desktop, i just do it over Remote Control. That way i can control both PC's with the same Mouse and Keyboard. Heck, i'm even playing Winamp remotely and making the sound output on my netbook. Once i'm done, i just shutdown the main rig without interrupting the work i'm doing on the AAO.
Click to expand...

I know i can encode on a netbook, but i still have the mindset that desktops should do the hard work. lol. Like, I never leave a laptop on overnight. Not cause they _can't_ be left on, but I just still think that laptops are fragile.

You're doing something similar to what i want to do with my netbook. 'cept, i plan on using Linux and mpd + ncmpc to stream my music.
 
Impulse said:
I don't think he's saying you wouldn't move it often... I think he's simply giving you an option for having a very portable system that you can still enjoy at your desk w/some of the benefits of a desktop, while still depending on only the one system. If I were to move to a single laptop I'd definitely look into a docking station... Though realistically it's only three or four cables without one. DVI/HDMI for a large 22-24" display, one USB port for a hub for any peripherals, and audio/power cables... Don't really need to hook anything else up to use it as a workstation.

There's a huge range of very portable laptops out there that are more powerful than a netbook and still very light, you just have to pony up the extra dough for that lightness though (and/or sacrifice battery life). Oh and I'd rather have an SSD and 4-6GB of RAM than 12GB and no SSD... Though I've never experimented much with RAMdisks so maybe there's a world of performance I'm missing out on.
Click to expand...

I understand what he's saying, it just doesn't make sense to me.:p That's basically what I've been doing, and it's not working. Even just DVI + USB is too many cables when your moving around 3-4 times a day.
Like I said, if all you gain is not needing to sync between machines I'm not sold.

It's not that my laptop is slow for day to day tasks, it's all those little things that a laptop is always going to be slower at. I'm not spending several hundred dollars on a good SSD anyway. ;)

Like Sly said, you end up with a compromise that's really not the best for either purpose.
 
I had a fancy gaming laptop last year, which I didnt use too much since I also had a desktop. It was big though, and I didnt really take it around the house like I thought I would. It was mostly for travel gaming, then it was stolen along with a lot of other cheap crap from my house. They didnt take the expensive desktop though - they tried but I guess it was too heavy to lift, it was sitting on my computer room floor when I got home. :rolleyes:

So after getting a netbook, I dont think I'll ever buy something larger again. And now that my i7 desktop has been hijacked by my g/f to play Sims 3, I'm really appreciating the netbook :)
 
I wish netbooks had been available when I started college. I love my 13" Sony Vaio SZ, its like a Macbook Air that doesn't suck. However, for 99% of what I use it for a netbook would be fine.
 
thus the beauty of the docking station + KVM combo. Even better if you have 2 monitors and a DS that supports duals, can run one machine or each or RDP into one from the other.

In the past the limited HDD speeds have really been the cause of the "sluggish" feeling that laptops have had. SSDs completely fix that. You lose a couple hundred clock cycles compared to desktops, but thats not a big deal at all.

A 10-12" netbook isn't that much more portable than a 12-13" laptop. People keep thinking of the 8.9" netbooks that were tiny little things, but thats not an average netbook today. Plus you get a larger screen and a common resolution.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
I wish netbooks had been available when I started college. I love my 13" Sony Vaio SZ, its like a Macbook Air that doesn't suck. However, for 99% of what I use it for a netbook would be fine.
Click to expand...

Netbook that became popular locally last year.

Astone UMPC:
7" touchscreen
Via C7 1.2Ghz
1GB DDR
Bluetooth
Wifi
60GB HD
$220.00

This one i could have used back in college. Touch screen makes navigation quick as well as drawing those formulas on the whiteboard that you can't type. Pretty good for $200 price range which is well within a student's budget.
 
I don't think I'll ever ditch my desktop, or even my high end laptop. I've been using 3DS Max lately and it would shank my netbook. As of right now, I have my sig desktop that I mostly game on, my gaming laptop that I DON'T game on but do intensive stuff on and my MSi Wind netbook. I've been thinking about getting rid of the netbook and laptop and getting an ultraportable or the like but I can't really get over the fact of not having an easy to carry, very powerful laptop that I can bring to my friends houses when we have a bunch of guys over for beer and PC games or when we go to LAN parties.
 
GLSauron said:
thus the beauty of the docking station + KVM combo. Even better if you have 2 monitors and a DS that supports duals, can run one machine or each or RDP into one from the other.

In the past the limited HDD speeds have really been the cause of the "sluggish" feeling that laptops have had. SSDs completely fix that. You lose a couple hundred clock cycles compared to desktops, but thats not a big deal at all.

A 10-12" netbook isn't that much more portable than a 12-13" laptop. People keep thinking of the 8.9" netbooks that were tiny little things, but thats not an average netbook today. Plus you get a larger screen and a common resolution.
Click to expand...

I still don't see the benefit. I guess where you see beauty I see the pain of the ritual I'm trying to get away from.:p

It's not that my laptop is sluggish. For most things it is fine. What I was trying to find out is whether a netbook would be able to do most of these things too, and the general consensus is that it could.
For the same price I could use a beefy machine hooked up to my 24" monitor, then if I wanted to leave it to encode a video while I go hop on the couch with another machine.

A few years ago, the performance between laptops and desktops was pretty close. Right now though you could build a basic quad core machine for the price of an entry laptop. I think you looking at things as "is it good enough" while I'm looking at how much power I can get for a dollar.

The 3-4 lbs I knocked off from my old HP to my MBP was a world of difference and they were both 15". Dropping another 2-3 with a 10" should be pretty manageable.

Almost forgot the most important part... the piece of mind of a relatively inexpensive portable that you don't have to worry about getting beat up or something spilled on.
 
Last edited:
GLSauron said:
A 10-12" netbook isn't that much more portable than a 12-13" laptop. People keep thinking of the 8.9" netbooks that were tiny little things, but thats not an average netbook today. Plus you get a larger screen and a common resolution.
Click to expand...

Guess it depends on what you want out of it, portability-wise...

Even the 10" netbooks are substantially smaller than most 12-13" laptops (enough so that you can fit it in many non-laptop bags, etc), OTOH in many cases they actually weigh more than those same 12-13" laptops because of the materials used and whatnot... It's not a ginormous difference as most netbooks weigh somewhere around 3 pounds and change but there's plenty of 13" laptops that weigh in under 3 pounds. Then again, the netbooks tend to have the battery life advantage (as many can last 7+ hours), obviously a tradeoff for performance.

Everything's a give and take, the 5hr-ish battery life of my 8.9" Aspire One is what really sold me on netbooks though... I use it a ton more than the 13" work laptop I had before it mostly due to the excellent battery life, a lot of the time I don't even take the AC charger with me, something I could never dream of doing w/the old Dell laptop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top