<p>Is a netbook worth it in college? I already have a laptop, but I was wondering if a netbook would be easier and more convenient to carry around and use in class. If I got one, it'd be around 400 bucks.</p>
<p>Netbooks are normally smaller laptops, but I only see them as overpriced underpowered decontented laptops. Instead of a netbook, what about a convertible tabletpc? That’s basically a regular laptop with a screen that can flip around and fold flat to become the most awesome notepad ever. Most are 12.1", so like the netbook, it’s smaller than most laptops. Even if you never use the tabletpc feature, you’ll only spend $100 more if you get a refurbished HP 2710p. That’s one of their business class computers, so they built it to be more durable and usable than their consumer line of computers. This tablet is very thin and light for a tablet pc, and it’s more powerful than any of the netbooks you’ll find. If you fully adopt the benefits of using a tabletpc, it’ll pay for itself in a couple of years…I’ve spent about $2000 on my tabletpc, accessories and software, yet mine has already more than paid for itself. Anyway, here’s the site for HP refurbished computers:
[HP</a> Small & Medium Business Store - Refurbished business products](<a href=“http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/hpremarketing/daily.asp?jumpid=re_R295_store/buspurchase-refurbished/computing/price-list#tablets]HP”>http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/hpremarketing/daily.asp?jumpid=re_R295_store/buspurchase-refurbished/computing/price-list#tablets)</p>
<p>Oh, and I’ve never heard of any problems with their refurb’s, and that $500 includes a 1 year warranty.</p>
<p>Edit: I just noticed HP has one 2710 for $450.</p>
<p>I have to recommend the netbook over the tablet PC, which is fast becoming a dead format that never really took off.</p>
<p>Netbooks are going to be much lighter, thinner and have significantly better battery life, which are the only things that really matter as far as portability goes, right? They are definitely not designed for really intense stuff like gaming and watching HD media, but that’s probably not a concern for you. You’ll be happier with a netbook, I think, given what I assume your needs are. Not as powerful as most laptops, for sure, but PLENTY powerful for word processing, web browsing, and 95% of what most students do.</p>
<p>Netbooks are great. But since you already have a laptop, don’t bother buying one. They aren’t THAT great.</p>
<p>TroyS, the tabletpc is hardly becoming a dead format. If you’ve been paying attention to Microsoft, you’d already know that. The important thing is to get the best solution for school. If you’re right about the format going away in the future (you’re wrong though), why would anyone care if it happens to be the perfect solution right now?</p>
<p>As far as size and battery life, some of the new netbooks on the market have little advantage over a tabletpc. Those things are already pushing 10". The HP tablet gets around 5 hours of battery life. How much more does a 10" netbook get? Sure, there are smaller netbooks, but then they become that much harder to type on, which makes them a poor choice for typing anything, especially at the hectic pace of some lectures. You can also get bigger extended batteries, but then that sacrifices the size and weight advantage it may have had.</p>
<p>Still though, tabletpc’s are not for everyone. Some users to take advantage of their benefits, which just makes them laptops that cost a couple hundred more than regular laptops…although since the 2710 is only $500, have fun trying to find a laptop or a decent netbook that’s a couple hundred less.</p>
<p>Tablet PCs are undeniably far below the level of popularity that netbooks currently enjoy, and have always been and seem certain to remain a niche product, so I stand by my assessment. Also, since when is ANYONE paying attention to what Microsoft is doing as a predictor of upcoming computing trends? My apologies if you’re one of the 9 people bitter that you bought a Zune and filled it with music from the defunct MSN Music store. ;)</p>
<p>Tablet PC’s relative lack of popularity and slower development cycles isn’t really an argument against them, mind you. Get what works for you. However, it is indisputably true that current netbooks on the whole have better battery life with lower cost, lower weight, smaller size, etc. than tablet PC’s. Are there some current netbooks with only marginally better battery life? Of course. On the whole, however, their battery life is superior. Approaching 8 hours of real world usage on 6-cell batteries is impressive, any way you slice it. Also, most 10" netbooks after the first generation have keyboards that are at least 90% the size of “full size” keyboards, with many even larger than that. Typing is not a problem whatsoever, unless you have massive hands. </p>
<p>If portability is your concern, netbooks are definitely the way to go. You’re going to pay more for a Tablet PC that may be more powerful, but is power what you need for a portable machine that you’re likely typing, looking at spreadsheets, and possibly surfing the 'net on? Especially when it comes at the cost of size, portability and battery life? Plus, keep in mind that tablet PC’s are still far below the specs available on decent laptops. </p>
<p>For your purposes, it seems like netbooks win in a landslide. I’ll see what Microsoft is up to, though, and get back to you.</p>
<p>Troy, there’s a reason why I only recommended the 2710p. It hardly matters what kind of battery life other tabletpc’s get because I didn’t recommend those. In Amy’s price range, I see that the NC10 looks to have the best battery life at 6 hours. I’ve heard of 5 hours with the 2710p. I’ve been able to get over 10 hours of battery life with my tablet, but did I recommend it? No, because it costs way more than Amy would like to spend. As far as saying a tablet has lower specs to a laptop, dude, you recommended a netbook! Come on! If power and screen size is what you’re after, a netbook is the worst expenditure of money ever. The advantage of a netbook is its size, but for a student, I believe the tablet is still a better solution.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt a computer will be the only thing Amy will carry around, but it just about can be. With a tabletpc, Amy can scan in her textbooks so don’t have to carry those around either. Since the tabletpc literally becomes her notepad, textbooks and laptop, the amount of bulk to carry around can be reduced considerably. Now if she never carries textbooks around campus, this won’t help her. Sure, I suppose textbooks could be read on a netbook or laptop, but you certainly can’t quickly grab a pen and handwrite in the borders and highlight like you can with a real textbook and like I do with a tablet.</p>
<p>Now I do wish I could show you how thin and light my bag is, but I’m usually on campus for 14 hours. That means I carry food, water, gym clothes, along with my motorcycle jacket and overpants. Oh, and an ac adapter because even though my batteries could probably stretch long enough to last all day, I’d rather not gamble. 4-6 hours, no problem, but I start getting nervous as I approach the 8 hour mark.</p>
<p>Amy, if you’re local, I’ll be happy to let you check out my tablet. I may even be able to let you try it out during a lecture. Mine is faster, thicker and heavier than the 2710p I’m recommending, but it’ll help you understand how these may or may not benefit you. You may find it too big, or you may find that you can carry around less with a tablet, in addition to saving or even making money.</p>
<p>Troy, you’re welcome to check mine out too. I won’t exclude you just because we disagree. Hopefully we both walk away with more knowledge and understanding than we started with.</p>
<p>My discussion of the inferior specs of tablet PC’s to normal laptops was simply meant to highlight the fact that if the choice is between the two, you’re paying a premium for tablet PCs, and for that premium, the processing power you get isn’t even on par with lower priced laptops. The original post left me with the impression that portability was the big selling point, so it made sense to me to highlight the fact that netbooks are smaller and lighter, and will likely meet her needs. No dispute about their lower processing power overall (although the model you recommend is an ultra-low power Core Solo, if I’m not mistaken. The new N280 netbook processor is probably comparable or possibly even superior.)</p>
<p>I have no problem with tablet PCs, actually. I’m a high-end electronics person whenever I get the opportunity, believe me, and tablet PCs certainly have many useful applications. Like I said previously, if a tablet meets a user’s needs the most effectively, they should get one by all means.</p>
<p>The one I referred to was a dual core. I know some of the Atom powered netbooks are dual core too, but I’ve read some real bad things about them. If I remember correctly, the dual core Atom was only about as fast as computers I was working on 10 years ago. Maybe I remember it incorrectly, but it doesn’t matter because as you said, it’s fast enough for Office applications and the internet. Hell, I’d probably still be using my old Celeron 266 Mhz if I could’ve replaced the video card at a reasonable cost.</p>
<p>I’m with you on the portability. I don’t really think tablets are worth all that much unless books are put on them too. Actually, I’ll add that the main reason I use a tabletpc is because I ride a motorcycle. There was absolutely no way I was going to ride a bike with a bag full of books. This is why I see the portability of a tablet being so advantageous. Portability is also enhanced by using a graphing calculator emulator (HP 50g) Getting textbooks into a pdf is a whole different subject, but let’s just say there’s a few different ways of doing it, and I’ve tried at least four of them.</p>
<p>I’ll also admit that the power of tablets was really bad about 8 years ago when I first started using them. I traded mine in for a dual screen desktop and surround system system, plus a pda. Those early tablets seemed really cool, but waiting 45 minutes to boot wasn’t bad at all. Besides, I was a programmer, and needed the screen real estate. All current tablets are much much faster than those I messed with many years ago. I believe the biggest bottleneck in the most portable of tablets is the 1.8" hard drive. Swap that with a fast ssd, and it should be more than fast enough for classroom and library duty. Gamers and anyone that does serious graphics work should be using a desktop or high end laptop, but something in that class of hardware will cost well over $500 as we both know. There aren’t any real high powered tablets, but the HP tx2/tx2500 and Fujitsu T5010 are pretty decent, especially when you compare them to laptops of similar price and size. The HP doesn’t have the greatest graphics card, and the Fujitsu only has integrated graphics, but I can’t see why anyone would want to do serious graphics or gaming on a 12" screen.</p>
<p>NB: Each quarter more professors ban computer use in class. Don’t bother.</p>
<p>imo, netbooks are junk. it’s slow and the only reason why people use it is to surf facebook in class or to pretend to be pro in class by typing.</p>
<p>you might as well take notes in a notebook (you can at least draw diagrams) and surf the web in class with an itouch which most students have.</p>
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<p>I’ve had teachers that ban “computers”, but told me it was okay to use my tablet in slate mode. The only teacher that came close to banning my tablet was my ochem teacher during lab, and it wasn’t even a full out ban, just that I couldn’t put my computer in the hood. That’s the only class I haven’t used mine in…well, except for gym. I also had a history teacher that didn’t allow laptops while allowing my tablet in slate mode, but then allowed me to use mine in laptop mode after she asked me to take notes for a student with special needs.</p>
<p>Fwiw, there are smaller tablets too. One tablet, the Fujitsu u820, is smaller than most netbooks, but has a higher resolution screen than most netbooks. It’s small enough that if you really wanted to be sneaky (and waste money), you could cut a hole in the pages of a textbook and hide the u820 in it. I actually had a friend that wanted to do this because he took the bus and wanted to hide his computer somehow. The only thing I don’t like about the smaller tablets is that they use a pda style screen where you have to use a plastic stick to press down to write, whereas my style of pen can move the cursor without touching the screen…hard to explain, but it feels much more natural. I would already have the u820 if it used the type of pen on my current tablet.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your opinions everybody. I never knew so much about netbooks and tabletpcs, and I didn’t even know tabletpcs existed, lol. Well… my boyfriend kinda just went out and bought me a netbook for my graduation gift, so I guess I don’t have to decide myself anymore. xP I hope this thread is helpful to others though. Thanks!</p>