I just saved myself from making a $350+tax mistake.

I’m pretty sure everyone has seen those cool looking, 9-inch screen, lightweight laptops that are referred to as netbooks. These little things are really cool. Great for travel, a student that needs a computer in all classes, very compact, and a rock bottom price. In general, you would think that the smaller the computer gets, the more money you would pay. Not the case here. These netbooks also come in your choice of color, linux or windows, and a 6 hour battery life. Now I just told you why this thing is cool. Where is the mistake? Here it is.

I played with one at Fry’s and realized it is not as cool as I thought. I’ll admit this though, no laptop will “look” more attractive than these netbooks. The keyboard is not what I’m used to. Keys are squished together. I know what you are thinking, “Duh… A smaller laptop means a smaller keyboard!!!” I understand that well, but it was small to the point that I don’t think I would want to type a term paper on it. It isn’t comforatble for all nighters.
The screen is ultra clear, but that is it. I like to view YouTube without having to scroll the screen up and down to watch a video. Why not just go into fullscreen mode? Well, I like the “related videos” column on the side.
The biggest downside that I cannot live with is the fact that there is no CD/DVD drive. I though that it might be ok to leave that out. I never realized that I use a CD/DVD drive for everything that I do. Without this drive, I can’t test out different OS as easily. I cannot convert DVD movies to DIVX. The list goes on.

At the end of the day, I realized that I don’t need any razzle dazzle to have a great computer/laptop. I’m pretty sure everyone has seen that heavy brick of a laptop that I carry around. It may not look cool, but it’s solid. Instead of chasing a netbook, I decided to just upgrade my current laptop. I spent $25.00 for a 2GB memory upgrade. You can’t really do that with a netbook. With a netbook, you are pretty much stuck with the stock specs.

Let me make this clear. I’m not bashing on the netbooks. I’m just saying that it is the worst device for me. Depending on what you are looking for and what you intend to use the netbook for, it can be the greatest computer that you own. Because of the solid state hard drive, it’s fast. Problem is that you are limited in size. If you are a person that is always traveling, or if you are a student that needs to walk to different buildings and rooms, then the netboook is the perfect tool for you. I probably would still buy one in the future. I just want to look cool in public using a netbook. But if that’s the only reason, then that is just a waste of money.