Netbooks Disappoint Michael Arrington

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/29/three-reasons-why-netbooks-just-arent-good-enough/' target='_blank'>http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/2...nt-good-enough/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"A typical Netbook has a 7 inch screen, an Intel Atom or Via Nano processor, a solid state (flash) hard drive and a keyboard that&rsquo;s 80-85% standard size. Most have Wifi. Some have other bells and whistles like bluetooth, a camera, etc. I find Netbooks unusable for three reasons: they&rsquo;re underpowered as PCs, the screen is too small for web surfing, and the keyboard is so small that effective typing is impossible. The basic problem as I see it: Netbooks are designed to appeal to two very different marke</em><em>ts - the price sensitive and the size sensitive. The two are really mutually exclusive."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1228201789.usr20447.jpg" /></p><p>Michael Arrington has posted a scathing article on Netbooks, describing them as a inadequate for the markets it is targeted for and even takes the opportunity to plug his concept tablet.&nbsp; I have to disgree, as I see Netbooks happily serving many customers.&nbsp; On paper Netbooks definately do not impress, but their purpose is to serve as a lightweight, mobile companion.&nbsp; I think Arrington has fallen into the same trap that many others do in seeing a Netbook that is the same form factor as a notebook, his expectation is that it is a notebook.&nbsp; Netbooks fill a much different need, with customers, not techies, who just want to be able to access the Internet to check their email, IM their buddies, and twitter a bit.&nbsp; Netbooks are capable of a bit more, of course, but even in only serving that much, they probably fit 80-90% of what a customer needs.&nbsp; Does Arrington have a point?&nbsp; Sure.&nbsp; But I think he's only highlighting that Netbooks have a limited use for someone into tech.&nbsp; Tell me there's at least one person other than myself that have welcomed Netbooks with open arms.</p>

[David Tucker]

1) Mr. Arrington must have huge fingers because I use my Dell Mini plenty and find typing on it to be a good experience. No issues with keyboard size.

2) This should probaby be 1 - his 'typical' netbook isn't typical. Typical netbook is a 1.6 gHz Atom processor, 8.9" screen, 120 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM and WiFi. Very few have ever used a 7" screen and SSD never seemed extremely popular either.

3) Price & Size sensitive people are mutually exclusive? Tell all the people who buy and love these that?

Honestly this guy seems like a huge hack. He's got safari installed on there and he actually compared a netbook to an IPHONE. Yes...it sounds like he is implying that the screen on the netbook is too small to have a good internet experience...but if had a touch screen like the iPhone it would be ok.

He tried to backup later and say he has a bunch of unreleased 7" netbooks (that the world apparently has never heard of). Its a pretty poor journalistic effort...even for an opinion piece!

[Joel Crane]

My current laptop is a Pentium III. It has a 12 inch screen, a 20gb hdd, and it is very thin. It only has a floppy (What's a floppy drive?) and optical drive when it is attached to the dock, but i usually don't carry it around.

It's certainly not powerful, but XP runs smoothly and it checks Thoughts and emails, so I'm totally happy with it. Unfortunately, being a laptop, it's starting to wear out. The MiniPCI slot quit working, and the screen hinges are beginning to fail. The batteries has lasted amazingly well, but they are slowly beginning to die. Laptops wear out very quickly, and soon, I'll need a new one.

600 dollars will get me a large, cheap, and decently fast laptop with a horrible videocard. 1200 dollars will get me a slightly faster but very portable laptop with a decent but not amazing videocard. Both laptops will be useless for gaming, and only the expensive will be very portable, but it still won't be as portable as what I have now.

The answer for me is a netbook. 450 bucks gets me a cheap, portable, gutless laptop. I'm not sure how an Atom compares to a Pentium 3, but it will have more ram and a hard drive about 8 times larger than what I have now. The keyboard and screen will be small, but if I need a big screen I'll plug it into one of my huge old CRT monitors.

Netbooks are awesome! :D

[Macguy59]

With my old eyes I find that a 12" screen is the smallest I care to go. I had an Acer Aspire One for a couple of months but sold it and bought the new Unibody MacBook. My only real issue with Aspire One was the 9" screen. It performed well under XP and was capable of transparency without too much of a hit to performance. After Christmas I will probably move to the upgraded MacBook Air. I agree that reviewers are probably going in with unrealistic expectations but I see a bunch of them up for sale on Craigslist (and not just the Linux versions). That tells me the manufacturers still haven't found that sweet spot yet. None of them have that perfect combination of screen size, keyboard, trackpad and performance yet.

[Chris Gohlke]

I had the Eee and now am using the Aspire One. The Eee was usable, but really needed a higher res screen even if at the smaller size. However, I found the bigger size of the Aspire was worth it for the larger and higher resolution screen AND the much improved keyboard. As for performance, I find the Aspire handles XP just fine and can handle pretty much everything I need it for - Web browsing, OpenOffice, Netflix Streaming, and Slingbox. Those saying it does not have enough power seem to forget that in the early days of XP, we were running it on less powerful hardware than most of these newer netbooks have.

[Hooch Tan]

It seems that Arrington has caught a lot of flak for his post:

"I should have been clearer in my post for those people, like you, who really know the space. I’ve tested a ton of these, and I have definitely done my research.. They litter my office. A lot of them are older 7 inch models. I have a Nano device that I guess hasn’t hit the market yet, running vista. not so well. I’ve got one of the Dells. I’ve tested 10 inch, 8.9 inch and 7 inch machines on every OS they offer (XP, Vista, Linux). I’ve even scraped machines and put my own stripped down version of linux with a browser… and that’s when things start humming. The screen still sucks, and the keyboard still sucks, but the machine works well. as in as well as a desktop, at browsing the internet."

I think it still highlights that Michael Arrington is focused on his particular uses, without seeing who Netbooks do fulfil needs for. Like what it seems that most of you have, I don't have the budget to be able to replace computers every two or three years. The one I'm working on is about four years old and I'm betting is good for at least another two. Sure, it isn't hot for gaming, and it takes a bit longer to do some things, it meets 90% of my needs, which I bet match what most people use their computers for. And that's good enough for me.

[John Lane]

I have never used a netbook, but I bought an HP notebook a year ago for $450. For that, I get a 15.4" screen, a full size keyboard, a 160GB hard drive and 3GB of ram running Vista Home Premium. I find it perfectly portable and if I ever need to do serious work on it, I can.

I get someone wanting something smaller and even easier to transport, but to me, the price difference doesn't justify getting a netbook. It just seems like you can get a heckuva notebook for close to the same price and that your paying a premium for miniaturization.

[David Tucker]

I think you and I have a really huge difference in opinion of 'heckuva' notebook when you think a $450 notebook falls in that category ;) I'm not paying a premium...a netbook is far less than I spend on my primary computer. Between my desktop PC and work laptop I hardly need another high power machine. A netbook isn't a premium price for somethign that size...Sony's lightweight notebooks are over $2000.

[Sven Johannsen]

I have never used a netbook, but I bought an HP notebook a year ago for $450. For that, I get a 15.4" screen, a full size keyboard, a 160GB hard drive and 3GB of ram running Vista Home Premium. I find it perfectly portable and if I ever need to do serious work on it, I can.
Perfectly portable is in the eyes, or in this case, shoulders, of the beholder, or schlepper. I would suppose your setup weighs 5-6 lbs, plus the power brick? In my experience there is a heck of a difference dragging that through airports and such, along with the other travel paraphenallia, than dragging a 2-3 lb device. Before the netbook craze, I spring for a nice little 9" screen Vaio, but I laid out north of $2000 for it because of the size and weight, not because of the Processor, RAM, DVD/RW, etc. What I do on it, I could reasonably do on a Netbook. I can come close to doing it on a PDA (WM6 device). The web browsing, timecard entry, input capability isn't quite there.

So I get the netbook genre. I might have one if I didn't already have my Vaio.

[John Lane]

You say that if you didn't have your Vaio, you might get a netbook. Exactly.

I get the appeal of the netbook, I do. Small size, easily transported. Kind of like a big powerful blackberry.

But I just think for most people my setup would fit the bill better: a cheap yet powerful notebook + a higher power desktop. I don't want a 3rd device to pay for or keep up with.

So, it really comes down to portability. When I travel, I don't find my HP notebook that cumbersome, but then I am a really big guy.

[David Tucker]

Most people haven't dropped $2K on a sub-notebook though.

[Hooch Tan]

Most people haven't dropped $2K on a sub-notebook though.

I've done $1500! I am a big guy as well, but I still like small things. I wonder what that says about me. :(

I do see John's point in that a lot of people also will see the $450 Vista Laptop as getting more for your money, and be willing to truck it from place to place, but I am seeing lots of people being quite attracted to something half the weight being able to do most of what they need as well.

In having both an sub-notebook and a larger workhorse type laptop, I find that the wee one gets more attention around the house, and the workhorse only makes trip to and from work, with the occasional foray to a presentation.

[David Tucker]

That's how I find it as well. My work lappy only is pulled out for...work. If I need true heavy lifting done I turn to my desktop. But generally I want to follow fantasy scores while watching a game or maybe take it with me to Starbucks and sip a latte and surf or write.

My gaming is mostly confined to my 360 now so my laptop doesn't need to be nearly as powerful as I might have once wanted.