What's a Netbook?

Differences between netbooks and laptops

Netbooks, by the traditional definition, are minimally capable mini laptops that are primarily useful for web browsing, limited word processing, accessing email and some nondemanding multimedia tasks and gaming. However, the industry -- with the aid of marketers, new technology and the media -- has extended that term to cover all kinds of mini laptops, regardless of how powerful they may be.

Most "typical" netbooks used to come with the same lineup of features, including a 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive, integrated Intel graphics and Windows 7 Starter Edition. You can still find netbooks with this component lineup selling for $300 or less. Since those offer performance that is similar across the board, usability is a good way to differentiate among netbooks in this class, and reviewers spend a lot of time discussing the differences between displays, keyboards and touchpads.

Moving up in class, you'll find a newer generation of netbooks that blur the line between themselves and lower-powered but still full-fledged laptop computers. They are powered by AMD's Fusion line of chips and benefit from better graphics from Nvidia's Ion technology, and they bring, high-definition video, photo manipulation and 3D gaming within reasonable reach.

The latest category-blurring development is a new class of netbooks that are designed almost exclusively to run in tandem with the Internet. The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 (*Est. $430 and up) is one of the first examples; it runs Google's ChromeOS operating system, sports very little storage and support for peripheral devices, and does everything from word processing to printing via the Internet. The Acer AC700 (*Est. $350; $430 with 3G) is another Chrome-based netbook; although the Samsung Chromebook has been reviewed extensively, experts seem to have taken a pass on commenting on the Acer.

In the reviews we scoured, we kept to the basic definition of a netbook: It had to be small, light, equipped with a permanently attached keyboard and commonly available for less than $500. At the lower end of the pricing scale, below $300 or so, netbooks are reasonable for first-time computer users and those who don't need the full power of more traditional laptops. Netbooks can also be a practical and lightweight traveling companion for business users. While most experts say netbooks are best as secondary computers, if you only use a computer for web browsing, email and light-duty tasks, a netbook might be all you need. Just keep in mind that netbooks typically lack features you may be used to on a full-size laptop, such as a CD/DVD drive.

Once you approach the $400 mark, you enter a realm that also includes budget-priced, full-size laptops. With those, you typically get superior processing ability, a more readable 13- to 17-inch display, a full-size keyboard, optical drives and sometimes a DVD burner. Of course, you also pick up considerable bulk and heft -- most netbooks weigh less than half as much as their closest full-size competition -- meaning that regardless of price, netbooks can be a good choice where portability is prized. If you want to learn about the top choices among full-size laptops, ConsumerSearch has a separate report on those. If your budget is limited, the ConsumerSearch report on cheap laptops covers some notebooks that don't cost much more than a well-equipped netbook -- and a few that cost less.