Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
They're popular because they're cheap and have long battery life. Full-size laptops are expensive and most Joe Schmoe who does nothing on his computer but check his e-mail, update his MySpace page and watch stupid YouTube videos does not need a Core i7 Extreme. He can do all of that just fine on a Celeron SU2300 in a $400 laptop. Cheap full-size laptops typically have lol-tastic battery life.
People are starting to find this out. I know lots of people who aren't gamers and don't do anyt computationally-heavy work on their computers. Most of them have had the same computer for seven or more years. That's right, they're using computers from 2002 still.
Bottom line is when it comes to consumer use, unless you're a gamer, spending that much money on a processor you'll never, ever redline is silly.
Edit: And yes I totally agree with your assessment of netbook screens and keyboards. Financial circumstances leaving me with only my eeePC, I have come to hate the tiny screen and annoyingly small keyboard. Right now I would murder people for a laptop with a 13.3" 1280x800 display and an appropriate keyboard.
Still, there's a lot to be said for a computer that weighs less than 3 pounds and can be jammed into a purse. Trying to surf the internet on an iPhone is a lot worse on the eyes, but yeah. I'm disenfranchised with netbooks in general, and Intel doesn't show any interest in making Atom more powerful. I think Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage laptops are what netbooks should have been. Cheap and reasonably powerful ultraportables with excellent battery life.
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The difference is that a smartphone is portable and you can instantly use it in your hands compared to a netbook. With a netbook, you need to lay it on your lap or on a flat surface. The problem is that for a few hundred dollars more ($200-300), you can already get a full size laptop. The reason netbooks are cheap is because they don't have that big of a HD, less RAM, slower CPU and no optical drive. Even if the Intel Atom runs okay for basic task, will it give the best end user experience? I think that even though a Intel Atom would be sufficient for a person like a grandmother to surf the web and check email, but I highly doubt it's a very smooth one. Netbooks are more of a compromise than so with a actual computer and most of these netbooks don't even leave the house. Most consumers are better off with a Desktop if they want affordable computing, which provides even more power than a netbook would.
I have experienced with a Intel Atom before since I have built a web server using the Intel Atom motherboard for the sole purpose to check on if my grandmother is behaving. Besides streaming the video from the webcam, everything else ran slow. Loading a PHP and MySQL Wordpress took longer than it would with a normal machine. Overall, the Intel Atom is not even powerful to host a simple website with PHP and MySQL. The problem is that consumers are expecting too much out of them when they can hardly keep up with what they want to do. This is the main reason why Netbooks and Nettops are a niche, they are too slow and too limited. Most of what a netbook can do a Smartphone can do with one device. Just note that a netbook can't do most of the things like a Smartphone can like SMS messaging, camera, 3G (unless you have a 3G modem), instant on, etc. Then again, Smartphone capabilities will probably increase in the near future.
With a smartphone, I can use it anywhere (like in a car or while I'm walking or standing). Actually, I use my iPhone more when I'm out than so with my laptop. A Netbook won't allow me to do those things since it's too clunky, although there are some that are a size of a smartphone. Most of the tasks I do on line besides gaming, watching HD subtitled anime (which the Atom will struggle without CoreAVC or nVidia's Ion), programing in RealBasic, web development, etc is just web browsing, Tweeting and listening to music. These following task can be easily done on a smartphone without any bulk, so why do I need a Netbook then.
For me... I prefer a full featured 15" laptop I have with the fastest processor and graphics...
Also, any CPU over $300 is overkill already. Unless there is a price drop on them or you planning to play games like Crysis at 30 fps with high quality and full resolution, you don't need such a high end CPU since most games are optimized and not like Cyrsis. Also, the current i5/i7 is eventually going to drop in price since the new ones will come out... Personally, I wouldn't spend that much and/or just wait if I wanted to build my own gaming machine.