Question about netbooks vs small laptop

eduparent
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:31:25 +0000

In our house, we have PCs, Macs and Linux, but I’m mostly going to address PCs here. I’m not much for netbooks. The keyboards are cramped and the screens are too small. Go to the store and try them out.

When I’m checking my email, it’s easy to have 4-5 windows open with several tabs open at once. Sometimes there are videos to watch or jpegs/photos to open. Sure a netbook might be able to adequately handle that but any mid-priced laptop will easily handle that as well as having other programs open at the same time.

With laptops you have the choice of what kind of processor to get. The two core processors (Core 2 Duo or newer i3/5/7s) run faster and cooler than the cheaper single core processors. You don’t have to pick the fastest machine, but any mid-priced laptop will do for the first few years.

Your student might have a class that involves group projects (meet outside of the dorm) or class presentations (projected onto a large screen) and a laptop will not have any problems. Also, if your roommate is noisy or the apartment’s livingroom (or the neighbor above) is loud, just take your laptop to another room and do your school work.

This usually is the student’s first time away from home so there are some hard lessons to learn about losing your stuff. Netbooks and laptops are easily stolen so you might consider how much to spend on a machine.

A good (not cheap) laptop is not that much more than a netbook and will be more versatile. Good luck on whatever you decide.