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Are netbooks the new laptops of business travel?
I manage a team of sales representatives who travel on a weekly basis. The teams current laptops are getting old and in need of an upgrade. I am trying to figure whether or not to get them netbooks or to stick with the standard PC laptop. Does anyone have any previous experience or thoughts about netbooks. I know they are portable, light weight, and spill-resistant, but can they hand the daily grind of business travel and do they have enough memory to last for a couple years?
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5 Answers
Netbooks are actually computers with a slower (and less consuming) processor, with actually no motors (no DVD drives), less screen, overall less consuming gadgets that allow for longer battery life.
As so, they are not for heavy work, like high processing (i.e. graphics rendering), disk intensive operations (disk motor will drain battery), or high memory consumption (large servers or multiple applications).
If what you have to do with them is work in spread sheets, or documents, or access email, or event work with a web app, or a desktop app for queries or to do presentations or taking notes in meetings, they are just fine.
The problem with normal laptops is that, at some moment in the past, they started to be built to simulate normal desktop pcs. I have seem developers with them, when development takes a lot of pc power. And thus, they started to be not so mobile.
The problem with Netbooks is more about their small factor: keyboard and screen size will bother some people, and may tire some other if working all day long (they can also be connected to a normal screen and keyboard if used at the desktop).
Check on the needs and go for it!
Hi Ben,
Thanks for posting this question as I am starting up as a free lance coach/trainer/photographer and will need something 'mobile' such as a netbook. I know for photographs the netbook does not have enough power as well as a screen resolution that is inferior. Other than that, I think it will be a very good investment looking at the money/quality. Unfortunately I can not share any experience, but maybe you can try one out yourself first (or one of your representatives) and evaluate. Consumer feedback or word to mouth is ok, but your own experience is still the best...
Regards,
Joeri
I think netbooks are relatively new, so to make that transition will take a lot of research. It pretty much comes down to what you value most with your laptop. I travel alone, so when I'm not doing business I like to watch DVD's. The netbook has yet to offer that capability. The extra weight doesn't hurt and I also like messing around with photos and music in my spare time, so memory might become a problem down the road for the netbook. Like I said, it pretty much comes down to what you value most. Try getting hands on with a netbook at your local entertainment store to see what you like and dislike and also try getting feedback from your team representatives.
I agree with William when it comes to the issue of the netbook's physical size and small keyboard. I've read this to be listed on every review under "cons". Plus, think about the amount of storage space they have. Make sure if you do get them that they come with the basic office applications so a user can edit a word document (at least I heard the earlier versions didn't have the software MS OFFICE). IAgain, t depends on the purpose of their use. our office purchased blackberries for sales and I can respond to email, surf the web, open attachments and it fits in my pocket.
With netbooks, it's as much "the net" as it is "the book." That is to say, you don't need to run Microsoft Office (or OpenOffice.org, for that matter) on a netbook if you can access and work with, for example, Google Docs & Apps, which stores your documents "in the cloud" instead of on your particular machine. As Jasper and Bird indicated by their replies, to make a good decision, you need to at least look at, if not "play" with a few -- AND you MUST identify and prioritize the particular business needs you're trying to address, to make sure what you learn, about netbooks AND any supporting network/cloud-based services, actually maps closely to the problems you're trying to solve and the opportunities you're trying to pursue. Good luck!
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