About a couple of years ago I got the first Asus netbook. It was convenient to carry around, able to fit into my video camera bag. The 7 inch screen was tiny but I can’t complain for the convenience, beats the Blackberry, iPhone in screen size but of course you use these pocket high tech gadgets for serious business situations.
When I got a newer 10.1 inch Asus about a year ago, I have a nagging feeling those folks who bought the 8.9 inch model based on price during the holiday sales while actually buying a good product short change themselves with too small a keyboard size and will come to regret it. Sure enough the 8.9 inch size is now history, replaced by the more or less standard 10.1 inch model, the manufacturer figuring that is not a good size. There is no particular rule to say which size will become the de facto standard. When I get the 10.1 inch model, I find the size suits me just fine, an average size hand and the screen is acceptable. After all one should be realistic when a netbook of this size offers sufficient screen size for a decent viewing experience plus very important in my view, a keyboard size that allows me to type as fast as the full size version. No, you cannot do that with the 8.9 inch version, a wee bit too small.
The 10.1 inch model allows me to type wireless with the netbook on my leg, really relaxed. It is the kind of size that allows one to do fast typing into a blog as I do now, catching thoughts on the fly, no, you cannot do that speedily on a BB or iPhone, your brain output ideas faster than your pocket gadget thumbing allows you to enter them! Yes, there are times when you fingers are flying off the keyboard and the iPhone or BB just won’t do.
Today as I was suspecting for a few months already, somebody is going to come up with another ‘netbook’ to up the competition. Perhaps market research tells them consumer wants a slightly larger screen, maybe half inch extra. To me, maybe that is about the limit of what you can call a netbook, a 10.6 inch perhaps but no, we have Acer now topping everybody else with a 11.6 inch ‘netbook’! I saw that at Costco and the price was very competitive, much cheaper than the last 10.1 inch ‘all day computing’ Asus which I got barely two months ago. Now this Acer is tempting me to buy their 11.6 inch ‘netbook’ for less than what I paid a couple of months ago, it is around $350 in Costco but I don’t think I’ll fall for it. Too many computers!
Typing from my relaxed posture, netbook on my leg, one crossed on top of the other with pillow support below, how relaxing I can type and swivel my chair to change my views. Absolutely unconstrained convenience, no table needed. I look at the netbook and it took all the space that is available along the lower length of my leg. Hmmm, the new Acer 11.6 inch while it gives more bang for the bucks probably won’t suit me fine in this department. I will not be able to have this much convenience in this kind of situation. Secondly when you go to a coffee shop, the newer 11.6 inch ‘netbook’ probably take up too much space on the small table. Which leads me to conclude that this new Acer is a netbook in the mind of the manufacturer, but as a consumer, it is a bit too big to qualify as one. However,the Acer 11.6 inch may yet be a netbook class for those whose hands are too big, especially Americans! Besides at this price, it may well be a very hot seller serving as an ‘faux netbook’ and laptop hybrid for budget conscious buyers. But mostly for others 10.1 inch seems good enough, so me think!
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Peter Yew said
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