Geoff’s Rants and Raves – Netbooks
Welcome to the start of Geoff’s Rants and Raves articles, I will regularly bring you information on items that have made me happy or have made my blood boil.
First up for a jolly good RANT are Netbooks. These devices infuriate me immensely. The Intel Atom processor has not got enough grunt to pull the skin off a rice pudding. They seem to always ship with 1GB RAM which occupies the only RAM socket so to upgrade you have to remove the 1GB and replace with a 2GB. They have tiny screens, keyboards and trackpads. They cost around £240 to £320 (plus of course the extra RAM you will need to buy). So (in my personal opinion) they are underpowered, frustrating to use and not in the slightest good value for money.
“So what will my money buy instead”, you say, “You cannot get a proper laptop for that amount of money”. Well yes you can. A quick internet search revealed the Lenovo ThinkPad E525 with 15.6” screen, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD for just £250.
The next defensive chorus is “What about their small size and good battery life”. Well I am afraid I have an answer for this too. The ThinkPad Edge 13.3” model is available from £289 and my personal favourite the ThinkPad X121e which has an 11.6” screen and a low voltage Intel Core i3 processor for just £375!
So if you are in the market for a Netbook – DON’T DO IT! Stay in one night and use the money saved to get yourself a ThinkPad x121e. You will want to keep this little laptop but I guarantee if you buy a Netbook, 9 out of 10 of you will want to throw it out of the window in frustration.
Please do take advice before buying any laptop especially if you are a business user, many will come with Windows 7 Home Operating Systems which is not suitable for business.
I am always happy to give advice to customers and just give me a ring or drop me an email (info@delta-comtech.co.uk).
Pricing information was correct at time of press and information was gathered from the shop at http://www.lenovo.com/uk/en/
The views expressed on this blog reflect the personal opinion of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of Delta Comtech Ltd.