With so many devices on the market,
sometimes one can’t help but desire the latest one. But with a strict budget to
consider, I have to weigh the pros and cons of getting another electronic toy
especially when an old, reliable one continues to suffice. So this is about the
case for not buying an ultrabook, chromebook, or a windows 8 device and keeping
the ole’ netbook which still meets my needs.
First, the cons of the netbook. With its Intel
Atom processor and even with the maximum allowable 2 gigabytes of memory, it is
underpowered and slow. The boot up time takes about four times or more longer
compared to tablets. It also takes a long time for programs to load, and so
does opening webpages regardless of internet speed. Sometimes whatever you type
or click lags. The latest news on this netbook is that Asus has stopped making
them.
That being said, let me tell you
what I like about it. First and foremost is its battery life. Rated by the
manufacturer at 14 hours, it only usually lasts for 10 but still much longer
than ultrabooks and chromebooks which only last for about 5 hours at best. Let
me say though that I am not talking about Apple products which are beyond my budget.
Then there’s the price. Ultrabooks are still expensive because part of what you
are paying for is the lighter weight. Although you can buy a chromebook for as
low as $200 now, it’s more of a cloud machine which works best if you constantly
have an internet connection. I’m still
not sold on the new Windows 8 devices even though I’m already using that
operating system on my laptop at home. First, I hardly work in the Tiles area
and spend most of my time in the Desktop. Even if I can afford it, I may find
that the cheapest Windows 8 RT device may not be flexible enough for my
computing needs. As far as weight is concerned, my 3 lb. netbook rivals the
weight of ultrabooks and chromebooks, and the keyboard and screen size have
never been a problem for me. It even has a 250 gb hard drive which is plenty
for my purposes. Besides, I already save my files to the cloud.
The only thing that the netbook
requires is my patience due to the sluggish boot up, program launch, and
webpage loading. If I need a quick boot
up all I have to do is surf the web, I still also have my trusty old 10 inch
Asus Transformer tablet which has an
attachable keyboard that can make the battery last as long as 16 hours. If only
I could get used to the android word processors and an easier way to copy and
paste to my blog, then I’m golden. And guess what, both my netbook and tablets
were purchased as refurbished products, thus cheaper, and they work just as
well as brand new ones.
Netbook: Asus eeePC (Windows 7)
Tablet: Asus Transformer TFT 101 (Android ICS)
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