T3 Top Ten: Reasons to HATE netbooks

Posted by Al Warmington on Tue 2 Dec 2008

Time to unload on the Eee PC fad

The internet was left aghast today after renowned tech blogger and Silicon Valley insider Michael Arrington had a good old gripe about netbooks – the tiny, low powered laptops that have been appearing by the dozen over the past 18 months. He came up with three reasons why they weren’t good enough for purpose, but we reckon that might be just be the tip of the iceberg.

Read on for ten reasons why you should save your £300 and put it towards buying a proper computer.

1. Build quality

Despite what penny pinchers will tell you, you do get what you pay for. Netbooks are designed to be low-budget devices that you won’t use for intensive computing tasks. As a result, their build quality doesn’t reach the same high standards as more expensive systems made by the same companies. While that might mean the odd sticky key here and loose bit of chassis there right now, who’s to say how well these things will be holding up when they’ve been in use for a year or so?

2. Keyboard

The standard netbook keyboard layout is, well, yet to be decided on. ULPCs like the MSI Wind have worked around the issue by having nearly full-sized keyboards, but by the time you’ve managed to squeeze one on, you’ve lost a significant proportion of the size and weight advantages. The smaller models are stuck with either stupidly compact keyboard layouts that need fingers the size and shape of knitting needles to use effectively, or have shunted their keys around to all the most ridiculous places. We’re looking at you Dell Inspiron Mini 9.

3. Connectivity

The average netbook lingers in a strange no-man’s between a real notebook and a smartphone. Unlike most PDAs, 3G/HSDPA-enabled netbooks are rarer than hen’s teeth. Sure, a lot of companies are talking about slipping a 3G chip inside their netbook models, but that’s only half the battle. Coaxing phone networks, especially in the UK, into allowing mobile web access from full-sized browser onto their already over-stretched networks is the other hurdle. If that ever happens, we’re guessing we’ll be looking at a fairly hefty data subscription for the privilege.

4. Disc drive

Oh, isn’t physical media sooo 90’s? Well, guess what – nearly every bit of software worth a damn still comes on disc. If your netbook version of Windows XP dies, you’re faced with the complication of running a clean install, sans integrated disc drive. If you want to install an old copy of Office, or Photoshop, or anything else, you might as well just hit up the torrent sites, because it’s now the easiest way. Are these things advocating piracy or what?

5. Operating system

Netbook makers have tried extremely hard to make their underpowered devices useable. Leaving Windows out means you can use a less demanding Linux system and save a few quid too. But the truth is, there’s a reason why serious IT geeks love Linux – actually using it is like trying to solve calculus problems by scribbling equations on a fag packet. Using your own blood.

6. Battery life

Batteries are heavy. Netbooks are not meant to be heavy. Thus they come with battery lives that make the Atari Lynx look like a Nintendo DS. A lot of them are so pathetic you’ll be reaching for the power cable after a mere couple of hours of editing spreadsheets. Oh you’re on a four hour flight? Sorry mate, looks like you’ll be twiddling you thumbs for the rest of the trip.

7. Processor

Although there’s been a couple – literally – of other processors tossed around in netbook space, Intel is ruling the CPU roost with the Intel Atom N270, offering a paltry 1.60GHz of processing power. AMD hasn’t quite got round to launching a direct rival, VIA’s old C7-Ms are rubbish and the newer Nano hasn’t shown up yet.

8. Upgrades

Upgrading laptops – i.e. dropping in an extra RAM chip or two – was never easy. Within the tight confines of a netbook it’s damn near impossible, involving a major excavation deep within the system’s bowels, fifty tiny screws and a desperate game of chance to see if you break anything permanently. That’s just RAM. Replacing disc drives can involve soldering irons. Not good.

9. Size

There’s nothing quite as funny as seeing a grown man hunched over a teenyweeny laptop screen, tapping away at its teenyweeny buttons. Awww, bless.

10. Specs

By far the most annoying thing about netbooks is that you can never actually get the specs you want. Every netbook maker seems to want to think three steps ahead of you – presumably to improve their profit margins – resulting in some peculiar holes in spec options. Say you want the 9” screen, Linux, a decent amount of RAM and a SSD that might fit more than an hour of music on it, well sorry – that option doesn’t come with Bluetooth. Or there’s only an HDD version available at that size. Or worse still, you won’t be allowed to get the decent RAM version because you don’t want XP. Oh wait, here’s one – oh no, it weighs twice as much as everyone else’s.

But we’re not complete curmudgeons – actually we love our little netbooks and we don’t care how girly it looks typing on a 7” computer. Keep an eye out tomorrow for ten reasons why should love netbooks.