Netbooks are highly portable, low-cost systems named for their intended purpose: getting users online fast. Netbook prices are low and portability high and are designed to be companion or secondary PCs.

Is a Netbook For You?

Get a netbook if:

  • You’re looking for a highly-portable secondary PC.
  • Portability is more important than processing power.
  • You need a first notebook for a young student.
  • You don’t need to perform high-end tasks like video editing
  • You can live without watching DVDs.

If you’re looking for something more powerful at a low price, consider a budget notebook. If you want something highly portable, but more powerful, spend a bit more to get an ultraportable.

What to Look For

Size and Design: When shopping for a discount laptop battery , it is important to look closely at the measurements and weight. The best 10-inch netbooks are about 1-inch thick and weigh under 3 pounds. Netbooks with 11- and 12-inch screens weigh a little bit more but offer more screen real estate and larger keyboards in exchange for the added bulk.

Screen: Panel sizes range from 8.9 inches all the way up to 12 inches, though by far the 10-inch size is most common. 10-inch systems usually have resolutions of either 1024 x 600 or 1024 x 576 pixels. 11- and 12-inch systems usually either have resolutions of 1280 x 800 or 1366 x 768.

Unless you enjoy eye strain, go for a 10-inch screen or larger. To avoid endless scrolling, choose a higher resolution or a larger screen. On 10-inch netbooks, a resolution of 1024 x 600 is better than 1024 x 576. In some cases, 1366 x 768 is available on 10-inch netbooks, but for most users that level of detail is overkill given the limited real estate.

Keyboard / Touchpad: Because netbooks are smaller than most notebook akku , their keyboards and touchpads tend to be smaller as well. So look for a keyboard that is close to full size and whose layout mimics that of a traditional notebook. There’s nothing more annoying than a netbook with a cramped keyboard or one that positions the right Shift key next to the Up arrow (or worse, does both).

If you can, try out the touchpad and mouse buttons to ensure they’re large enough and easy to use. The best netbooks have buttons that are directly beneath the touchpad; and we much prefer separate left and right mouse buttons, as opposed to a single bar. Try to get a touchpad that supports multitouch gestures so you can, for example, pinch to resize images or drag your fingers to scroll through Web pages.

Battery: Netbooks usually come with either 3 or 6-cell batteries. Three-cell systems usually get less than 3 hours of endurance, while their 6-cell brethren last between 6 and 9.5 hours.

Unless you insist on buying the cheapest netbook, don’t bother with anything smaller than a 6-cell battery. Even if you never take your netbook out of the house, you’ll appreciate being able to carry the system around, without being chained to a power outlet. The price difference between 3- and 6-cell netbooks is typically $50 or less.

Processor: The vast majority of netbooks have either 1.6-GHz or 1.66-GHz Intel Atom CPUs. However, a few have the slower Atom 1.2-Ghz CPU. And a very small number have VIA processors.Don’t settle for anything slower than a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom.VIA Nano processors  also offer reasonable performance.

RAM: Most netbooks come with 1GB of RAM and are expandable up to 2GB. 1GB should be plenty for running Windows XP, but you’ll want 2GB for Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

Operating System: Windows XP Home is nearly ubiquitous on netbooks today. However, a handful of systems, such as HP’s Mini Mi Edition, come with custom versions of Linux. Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 Starter are likely to replace XP in the near future.

Unless your goal is to learn the complexities Linux, buy a netbook with Windows pre-loaded.

Hard drive / SSD: While a few systems come with low-capacity solid state disks, the vast majority come with standard hard drives.  On most notebooks, we recommend SSDs, because of their increased performance. However, the type of inexpensive SSD that comes preinstalled in a netbook is actually slower than most hard drives.

Make sure you get a mechanical hard drive that is at least 5,400 rpm in speed and at least 120GB in capacity. 160GB is currently the most popular size. Smaller drives may not have enough room for all your media and slower, 4,200 hard drives will make your system hang.

Optical drive: Ninety-nine percent of netbooks don’t have internal optical drives, but the good news is that these days you don’t really need one unless you want to watch DVDs. You can always purchase an external optical drive for $50 or less.

Wireless: All netbooks come with built-in Wi-Fi, and most offer 802.11g, though a few models also support the newer 802.11n standard. You probably don’t need 802.11n, because it doesn’t speed up your Web surfing experience.

Many netbooks also support Bluetooth for connecting to wireless headsets or syncing with your phone. If you plan to use Bluetooth devices, make sure your netbook supports it.

Mobile Broadband: As with cell phones , cell phone carriers are subsidizing part of the costs of netbooks in exchange for a mobile broadband service contract. However, that will likely cost you about $60 a month, so do the math and figure out if it is worthwhile to commit to 24 months of that expenditure in order to get a netbook at a reduced price.

If you want to use mobile broadband on the go, you may be better off buying a USB broadband modem you can move between your netbook and other mobile devices like a larger notebook.

Temperature: Because of their small size, some netbooks can become incomfortably hot, with keyboards or bottoms that reach temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Other systems keep it consistently below 95 degrees. Be sure to check our reviews for the results.