How is a Netbook Different from a Laptop?

Laptops have been around for almost a decade now. The first concept of a laptop was envisioned by Alan McKay in the early 1980’s. It took a while for the laptop to be developed into a functional and practical mobile computer. Laptops have gone on to replace desktops in many areas ever since. 

However now we have a new kid on the block that is posing a challenge to the crown of mobile computing. The netbook which is a fairly new concept has taken the computer market by storm. It even smaller and lighter than a laptop.

Netrostar Reviews compares these head to head to find the difference between netbook and laptop.

Size – The conventional laptop comes in sizes from 14 to 20 inches and upwards. The netbook on the other hand is available in the 7 to 10 inches range. These make the netbook smaller than laptops. But this however is not necessarily and advantage as consumers have complained about texts and display on 7 inch screen to be too small.

Processor – Laptops have moved on to the faster and more efficient i3, i5 and i7 processors however netbooks come with a slower Intel Atom processor. But as a netbook is predominantly used to browse the internet the slower processor provides enough power. The smaller processor also consumes less energy.

Optical drive – Latest laptops come with an option for Blu-ray compatible optical drives each Blu-ray disc has a massive capacity to store data. Netbooks on the other hand do not have an optical drive at all. You would need to purchase an external optical drive if you wish to have one. But with the advent of cloud computing many users will save their data on cloud servers thus eliminating need for compact discs. 

The absence of an optical drive drastically reduces the weight of netbooks making them light weight.

Battery – Laptops generally come with 6 or 9 cell battery packs whereas netbook have a smaller 3 cell battery though some models offer a 6 cell pack. Smaller battery means less operating time when using the netbook on battery charge. This however reduces the weight of a netbook further.

Operating system – The latest laptops come with Windows 7 preinstalled which is the best operating system offered on the market these days. Netbooks also feature windows 7 but netbooks have an important feature which gives them an edge when browsing the internet.

You do not need to boot the operating system to browse the internet you can do so instantly as soon as you switch the netbook on.

These are the basic differences between a netbook and laptop.