Netbooks, are they really worth it?

Netbooks have become a sort of ultra cheap computer in the tech scene today, and in my view they give you what you pay for. I own a Lenovo S-10 netbook, I love it and it’s become my main computer. But after having it for about 8 months, I’ve come to learn that I may have made an error in judgment when purchasing it. Sure it’s portable, the battery lasts for quite awhile and it’s a windows machine; but it can’t compete with a real PC which is what I think that a lot of consumers in the market are expecting it to be. You can’t run any sort of game on it, or anything even remotely graphic intensive such as Photoshop. Netbooks are made for light internet browsing and email etc… In the current economic position that most consumers are in today, they are looking for something cheap that will give them good value in the long run. Netbooks just can’t fulfill that yet, you can spend a few hundred dollars more and get a regular laptop that really lasts and can keep up with the rest when it concerns running more CPU intensive applications. I would even recommend substituting a netbook with an iPod touch for instance. It’s a portable wi-fi device that is basically a small version of a netbook without the fancy OS. It still has a keyboard (and a separate Bluetooth one if needed) and it has a slew of applications that do just about anything you can think of. The only difference that really sticks out is the lack of a webcam and video conferencing capabilities. I’d just like to point out that I am not trying to discourage anyone from buying a netbook, I just don’t want anyone to be me a few months down the road realizing that my new little gadget doesn’t do all the things that I expected.

In conclusion, if you are a light internet surfer, watch a few Youtube videos here and there and don’t need to do anything that intensive on a computer like gaming or graphics then a netbook might be a good choice for you. But if you are into even light gaming or have a big music collection etc…, I would highly recommend getting a regular laptop and maybe even an iPod touch to go with it.