Dell: netbook fad wears off within hours

I agree with his point. I have a 15" Toshiba laptop with 1680x1050 resolution. It is a little cramped for working - I dual-head it in the office with a 24" screen, giving me 3600x1050/1080, which is great for working in the office. On the road, the 15" is cramped, but usable.

I have an old 15" at home with 1280x800 and the vertical resolution makes the laptop all but useless. Dropping down to 1024x600 (or less on some) is a total non-starter, especially for web browsing. Most of the sites I visit are too tall to be able to enter information and see the submit button at the same time.

I use my iPhone in emergencies or for a quick bit of information, but I wouldn't use it, or a Netbook for general surfing.

One of our managers got a Dell netbook for €1 with a 3G dongle contract recently.

He enthused about it on his first visit to head office, the next visit, he was lugging his 17" Toshiba again...

By big_D on 14 Oct 2009

I disagree

It depends if you bought a netbook as a "fad" purchase, in which case more fool you.
If however, like me, you bought one BECAUSE you wanted a small and highly portable PC, then you'd (like me) still be using it over a year later.

Whenever I'm away with my camera, I can offload photos to my USB toughdrive via my Netbook, giving me a 250GB photo & video capacity.
And yes, I COULD use that much. Last time I went away I used 43GB in a week on photo and video.
I did at one time use the Apple iPod camera connector, but Apple stopped supporting it and didn't make a new one. The alternatives all cost more than my netbook (£159)

By cheysuli on 14 Oct 2009

horses for courses. I quite like my Samsung NC10. If you need verticle space while web browsing then press F11. That sorts it out

By TimoGunt on 14 Oct 2009

A reflection on Dell's hardware, not on the genus

The man is right. A Dell netbook would be pretty disappointing and useless after a couple of hours. Its battery will have run out. And the user will be bored of admiring his/her self in the mirror Dell fits in place of a screen. Someone should lend the poor man a decent device like the Asus 1000HE I'm typing on right now, or perhaps one of Samaung's excellent efforts. Since investing in my first netbook 18 months ago, I have sold my Dell Inspiron and have only turned my desktop on half a dozen times.

By verdot on 14 Oct 2009

Does anybody buy a netbook as a primary PC

Obviously if someone did, they would find the limitations irritating. However as a net device they are very handly -good enough for email and web browsing on the move.
Sadly none of the vendors seem to realise it's a second device so the sorts of utilities you have on a phone (syncing to a bigger PC, USB target functionality) are all missing.
Some clever software and minor harware upgrade could make these devices integrate far better into a desktop/portable strategy.

By milliganp on 14 Oct 2009

I think the key point here is that he is talking about somebody who already has a 15" notebook, if they then get a 10" netbook, the difference in portability probably isn't enough to make up for the netbooks shortcomings.

By big_D on 14 Oct 2009

Well I Think Dell haven't done enough research here or don't recall what the device was intended for and who. Maybe somebody should tell'em! But they could just be saying so to find an excuse to exit the market, :lol: as obviously Asus is the clear market leader here and they can't top that :)

By nicomo on 14 Oct 2009

Stonecot

I find an Acer netbook invaluable for travelling on Ryanair with the luggage limitations imposed.

By stonecot on 14 Oct 2009

Portability difference

I fully agree with you Big_D. I have quite thin 15" primary laptop so purchasing 10” netbook would not change much. So I’ve bought myself 8" Vaio P series. The size difference is noticeable and though the screen is hellishly small, with some screen/font tweaking I made my listener quite happy with presented data.

By stasi47 on 14 Oct 2009

Bizarre comment ...

I've got a Dell Mini9... it fits under the seat of my motorcycle... try that with a 15" laptop!

It's got enough functionality I can do my writing / training presentations on it without issues (something I can't do on my smartphone), battery life is reasonable @ 3 hours (after which I want a break in any case!) and at home it sits neatly next to the TV and allows me to pull streaming video off my wireless network when I'm not working.

If I really need processing power or screen real estate, I simply use the desktop!

My guess is that

a) netbooks have actually pulled the rug from under the more highly spec'd and profitable laptop sales as people realise that these machines DO provide 90% of the functionality 90% of PC users actually need.
b) they create a lot of returns from people buying them for the wrong reasons

By survivalskills on 15 Oct 2009

I wouldn't mind a netbook if I could find one with HDMI out and a tightly matched big screen. Then I'd leave it as a desktop surfing tool - the new Apple monitors come with a pop-port connector so you can power a MacBook off the monitor. That's about the right way for me to use this kind of technology...

I think Dell are responding to various corporates who are finally choping back those infamously bloated annual purchasing budgets, not so much to consumers who have a wider basis on which to make a buying decision.

By Steve_Cassidy on 16 Oct 2009