Netbook vs Tablet

If you're not going to keep it, that's even more reason to buy a used MacBook as MacDoc suggested. You can use it for the time needed, then resell it on Kijiji for probably the same money as you paid for it.

Netbooks just plain suck, please try one out before you commit yourself to buying one. The keyboards are bad, trackpads are terrible, screens are poor quality, battery life is bad (you can buy extended cells, but what's the point then), they're not even that small. Most, if not all, are over an inch thick.

Those old white Macbooks that MacDoc mentioned are a good idea, I just sold a mint '2011 one for $400 back in the winter.

Netbooks aren't amazing but I AM getting 10 hours or so or so of batter ylife with mixed use. And I DO get weeks of standby and pretty closeto instand on. And I don't think mine is an inch thick.

.Tom
 
There's no such thing as a "netbook." It's a scheme to make you buy an outdated laptop by calling it a fancy name. A netbook is a laptop from 10 years ago. Either get a decent laptop so you can do anything you imagine or get a tablet for the size.

No, not at all.

They have much better battery life, are physically much smaller and lighter. They didnt offer things like this 10 years ago. (And the category is now dead so likely won't again.)

..Tom
 
Netbooks aren't amazing but I AM getting 10 hours or so or so of batter ylife with mixed use. And I DO get weeks of standby and pretty closeto instand on. And I don't think mine is an inch thick.

.Tom

That's seriously impressive, what model are you using? Most that I've used have only been good for 2-3 hours without an extended battery.
 
Netbooks as Linux devices were great when they came out. Think of the first Asus EEE in late 2007 (we bought one and it was heavily used), then later bought a Dell Mini 9 running Ubuntu which was used heavily to write a Masters thesis (often plugged into an external monitor). Smartphones hadn't yet become ubiquitous with humongous screens, laptops were giant and heavy. Tablets didn't really exist as iPad 1 didn't come out till 2010.

Netbooks were the only game in town back then if you needed something light and portable and affordable. They were great devices. The ultrabooks come close, but sometimes I wonder. There was value in light and affordable that wasn't dependent on a cloud connection.

People forget we didn't always have choices.
 
That's seriously impressive, what model are you using? Most that I've used have only been good for 2-3 hours without an extended battery.

Asus EEE 1025c. Stock without any extended battery or anything.

..Tom
 
I've done extensive trips with my Asus Eee 10xx with Mapsource and additional maps loaded. Also carry a HD as a backup for photo storage. I also own a Samsung Galaxy and despite the fact that the tablet is good for quick emails, web browsing etc., still prefer my netbook for long trips when I have to do route planning whilst on the road.

I guess, as most have stated, depends what your primary use would be.
 
Pulled up the review on Cnet, that is some seriously impressive battery life. It is however 0.8-1.4" thick according to Cnet, basically has an extended battery from the factory

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/asus-eee-pc-1025c/4505-3121_7-35136090.html


Yeah the lenght and width are basicall ythe same as the iPad. It is thinker at the batetery end however in traveling I put it i nexactly the same spot as I would put the iPad and don't really notice any real-world differnece.


..Tom
 
If there's a way dump your photos from an SD card to an external hard drive I'd just take the tablet. I just went on a trip to the Yukon and BC and brought both my Note2 ("phablet") and my Dell M4600 (workstation grade laptop). The only times I used the laptop was to dump pics from my camera and video from my Drift HD. Also the Drift corrupted my SD card when the battery got low so I used the laptop to recover the videos which was only because the recovery program only ran on Windows. I actually downloaded the software on the phone. I even have bit torrent on the phone...

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 
If there's a way dump your photos from an SD card to an external hard drive I'd just take the tablet. I just went on a trip to the Yukon and BC and brought both my Note2 ("phablet") and my Dell M4600 (workstation grade laptop). The only times I used the laptop was to dump pics from my camera and video from my Drift HD. Also the Drift corrupted my SD card when the battery got low so I used the laptop to recover the videos which was only because the recovery program only ran on Windows. I actually downloaded the software on the phone. I even have bit torrent on the phone...

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

i took just my ipad on holiday with the camera card reader and dumped photos to Dropbox every night when I had wifi. If you have a tablet that takes micro sd or normal sd cards you'll be fine without wifi for a bit too. Don't underestimate the Bluetooth keyboards too. They work very well if you get a decent one.
 
i travel extensively with a Compac mini tablet and a Playbook, I carry both as they do different jobs for me while traveling. I write a lot and the lack of physical keyboard is very limiting for me on a tablet. Flip/fold/standup tablets means your now just carrying a laptop.
The netbook will never replace my laptop and for me the tablet will never replace it either. But on the plane/trail/mountain top I pick my fights.

OP pick something you can live with, selling used electronis is just a money losing idea.
 
I didn't have any Internet access (it's quite rare in the Yukon to even have GSM cell coverage, never mind wifi) so I needed more space than most flash-based devices offer to hold all the high res images and HD video.

Even with wifi you'd be hard pressed to find a hotel with fast enough Internet to easily upload a few hours of HD.
 
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I'll throw my two cents into this one.

I own a Mac and an iPad while my kids each have a windows laptop. I started shooting video and wanted a way to move the video from the card and start editing while on the road. I tried the standard laptop but they are way too big to bring on the road and all the moving parts in it make it a disaster waiting to happen. My iPad is great to surf the net but at 16GB, I can't use it to store any video.

I looked around for something cheap and small but the chromebooks seem kind of limited in their use and unsuitable to prepping video while the netbooks don't seem to last very long before MS Windows slows it down to a crawl. That left the Macbook Air 11" as the only alternative. I didn't like the idea of spending that much money on it but it runs incredibly fast, considering its clock speed, and the iLife apps are perfect for video. The machine has a 128GB SSD so no moving parts. In fact, it easily survived a weekend on the Nipissing Trail. Battery life is listed as 8 hours, which I believe you can achieve at a minimum if all you do is surf the web or watch a movie, but when editing video it cuts the life down to 3 or 4 hours. It charges really quick though. The 13" apparently get about 75% more battery life but, if you travel, you'd want the smaller one.
 
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I tried the standard laptop but they are way too big to bring on the road and all the moving parts in it make it a disaster waiting to happen.

Not really - standard hard drives have 60G protection when asleep or shut down and there is nothing else of consequence in there that would be affected tho I'd suggest shutting down the laptop rather than sleeping it but I just sleep mine without a problem.
I ride with the 15" Retina Macbook Pro all the time with no issue. There is rarely ever a ride over 5k that it's not with me. Weight is really immaterial unless on your back and the larger screen space is nice to have on the road for planning, working or editing. Any potential damage would be on the case from vibration and a neoprene sleeve resolves that.

A MacBook unibody with an SSD runs $770 and more durable than the Air and longer battery life ( tho the new ones might rival that. )
It's upgradeable in RAM and drive as well....one reason we sell so many and very very rugged.
Nice to kick back with a movie and edit the photos on the go.

I have an old 11" Air for off road in Australia only cuz it fits the top case on the ST1100 where the 15 has to go in the side cases. It's okay and is very light but not sure why weight is much of an issue when it's on the bike.
In a back pack ....sure but if you have any sort of storage on the bike the lappie will not impact things ...3 lb versus 6 lb...who cares.
 
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128gb wouldn't be enough for me. I have a regular desktop drive I drag everywhere with me and it hasn't failed even though it gets tossed around and dropped all the time and I have 3 laptops with regular drives. One has been dragged through the Yukon and Alaska, Poland, Korea, several trips to the US even in checked luggage. Still works great.
 
Exactly - drives not running have very high shock resistance. A unibody with 500 gig is $770 as well.
 
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