Five or six years ago netbooks were predicted to have a great future. Inexpensive, compact size, the battery, which lasts longer than laptops. Netbook is ideal for those who are always on the go and value their time. Browsing the web, reading email, social networking, watching photos and videos, working with documents.
The rapid proliferation of tablets and the development of other devices have seriously changed the market. In the last couple of years many leading manufacturers abandoned netbooks, moving to tablets and other devices. Ultrabooks are on the market. Transformers have emerged, devices "2 в 1" – The keyboard can be detached from the screen, which becomes a full-fledged tablet.
Nevertheless, "purebred" Netbooks are still on sale. These devices are relatively inexpensive and suitable for simple tasks. How to choose a netbook? What you should know, what to look for when buying.
Netbook screen
Screen sizes range from 9-12 inches diagonally. This is enough for comfortable work, watching movies and surfing the web. The bigger the screen, the better. The size of the screen affects the size of the keyboard, and it is convenient to work, especially with documents. It is worth remembering that not every bag will fit a netbook with a big screen. The advice is simple – Think about what you’ll be carrying a machine that weighs about a kilogram. It is not necessary to chase the size, and stop at a compact device.
Some models have a touch screen, like tablets.
Netbook Battery
Battery life is a key factor in your choice. The longer the battery lasts, the better. Official manufacturers claim 7-9 hours of battery life. In practice, the netbook works autonomously for 6-8 hours if you limit yourself to work with e-mail, texts, social networking. Watching movies or listening to music "will eat up" battery in 3-4 hours.
If you are interested in a long battery life, look for 6-cell batteries. The number of batteries affects the weight, so if you do not like to carry heavy things, then models with 3-4 cells will do.
Memory for a netbook
Netbooks have 1, 2, and 4GB RAM. Which choice you make depends on what operating system you’ll have on your netbook and what set of applications you’ll be using. For example for the Windows operating system recommends 2GB. As an option – Buy a model with 1GB of expandable memory. If there is not enough, then you have the option to add.
External ports and netbook connectivity
What you need to know in this regard? First of all, there are very few models with optical drives. Secondly, this is easy to solve because most netbooks have USB ports. There are several such ports and they support different standards, like USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. So you can easily connect both a flash drive and an external hard drive. Some models have a built-in card reader that supports SD/SDHC cards.
To connect to the network use WiFi, there are also models that support Bluetooth 4.0.
A hard drive for your netbook
Netbooks use both traditional hard drives and flash drives – SSD. The latter has advantages: low power consumption, high speed of data access and less weight than HDDs. SSDs are more reliable. They do not contain mechanical parts, which is critical for mobile devices that are always shaking in bags and backpacks. The disadvantages include their high cost compared to HDD.
The models, which are on sale now, have HDD capacity from 250 to 500 GB. HDD capacity is not critical for netbook price and you are better to buy a bigger capacity. Especially if you plan to watch movies or store photos.
Operating system for your netbook
Netbooks are sold with an operating system already installed. In principle, the operating system should match "hardware" laptop. But this is not always the case. If a netbook lags when working with certain applications you should "switch to " on a different "axis". There is a fairly wide selection of operating systems for netbooks – Ubuntu Network, MeeGo, FreeDOS, Google Chrome OS. However, before you put them on your netbook, you should consult experienced users. The most preferred choice is still Windows. There are a lot of applications for it for all occasions.
The netbook price
The price of netbooks ranges from 4000 to 8000 usd. It all depends on equipment and functionality. It’s comparable to the price of a mid-priced tablet.
