Nowadays, life without a computer is unimaginable, particularly for undergraduates such as myself. Aside from semi-monthly case studies, my very demanding coursework entails having to do several write-ups everyday. Aside from typing these assignments, I also use my five year old laptop for researching online and emailing. Although extremely helpful, my laptop which tips the scale at three kilos not to mention takes up most of the space in my backpack can be such a pain to carry around the entire day. Hence, I looked for a unit which can still provide my mobile computing needs that at the same time wouldn’t make my shoulders sore at the end of the day.

Most of the laptops, the reliable ones anyway, are priced around $700. Since I am living independently, I didn’t want to purchase something too expensive. So I did a search online for budget laptops, and that was when I stumbled upon cheap netbooks. The similarities of laptops and cheap netbooks end with them being both portable personal computers. However, there are several factors which distinguish one from the other, weight and dimensions being the most apparent of these. Most laptops weigh around 2-3 kilograms, while netbooks weigh typically half of that. Laptop computers typically feature wide fifteen to eighteen inch screens. Netbooks in contrast have displays that are at usually ten inches across.

Because netbooks are very portable, I knew there would be some tradeoffs. Their processors are not as powerful and typically can’t run 3D games and video/photo editing programs. Also, netbooks don’t have optical drives. These limitations didn’t bother me the slightest because in the first place I only wanted a unit which can access the Internet, and have adequate resources for word processing.

There are quite a lot of cheap netbooks for sale on the Internet and offline. All netbooks are Wi-Fi ready, and have built-in Bluetooth connectivity and camera as well. They typically have at least 160GB of storage space and 1MB RAM, and are shipped with an operating system, Windows being the most common. Most cheap netbooks for sale today also come with an Intel Atom chipset.

I decided to buy from an online seller to take advantage of their reduced prices. I compared several netbook reviews prior to the purchase, and even went to the local mall to try some of them. At three hundred fifty dollars, my new feature-rich netbook computer was a very good purchase. Apart from being extremely lightweight, it is also very ogle-worthy.

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Computer Hardware & Accessories