Five Tips To Remember When Buying A Netbook
Netbooks may be cheap and all, but that does not mean you should go ahead and buy the first netbook you come across. As with any other kind of shopping, there is an art to shopping for netbooks.
And if you are considering making netbooks a part of your life, here are some tips to consider:
1. Consider your needs and wants There are roughly two types of netbooks in the market today, netbooks with Solid State Drives (SSD) and netbooks with Hard Disk Drives (HDD). SSD netbooks boot faster, are able to withstand impact and are generally more reliable in terms of performance. But they are also notorious for having low storage capacities (the SSD netbooks that do have high storage capacity are very expensive).
On the other hand, HDD netbooks can store up to 160GB of data on the hard drive, but they are less tough than their SSD counterparts . So what does that have to do with you? It’s all about your needs and wants. Do you want a fast netbook with low storage or a netbook with high capacity but boots slower?
2. Consider the brand
There are many brands of netbooks out in the market today. ASUS definitely created the netbook market in 2007, but other manufacturers followed soon after, including Acer, Lenovo, HP, Dell, and MSI, among others.
Different manufacturers have different signatures, e.g., Asus for small keyboards. Different brands of netbooks are known for different things, and it does pay if you research on what these are.
3. Windows XP or Linux?
Like the desktop computers where there is competition between Mac and Windows, there is competition between Windows XP and Linux and its many different versions. The only difference is that different manufacturers ship netbook models in both operating systems.
For every netbook model, there is a Windows XP or a Linux version. While Linux netbooks are known for their stability and security (Linux users rarely, if ever, complain about malware infection and the like), Windows XP netbooks have the advantage of popularity.
Many computer users are so used to using Windows XP, it’s very difficult to switch paradigms to use a Linux. The fact is, users of Linux netbooks are more likely to return their netbooks than Windows XP users.
4. Read up on user reviews
User reviews are very useful for determining the actual performance of a netboook. Manufacturers will always hype their product whenever they can to boost sales. If you want to know the rundown on a particular netbook model, read up on independent product reviews by online computer magazines. You can also search for forums on the different netbook models.
5. Always do comparison shopping Never settle for the first price that you see on a shopping website. Compare prices from at least three netbook sellers before ordering. Some websites sell their netbooks cheaper than others because they have made larger wholesale orders.
Still, others sell cheaper because they are selling second hand. In any case, just make sure that you are dealing with a reputable website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Kessler
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