Netbook Versus Smartphone

The question of netbook or smartphone is on many people’s minds at the moment, and it is interesting, if not amusing, to watch as smartphones get bigger and netbooks get smaller. Soon they will be one and the same, and then what name shall be given to them? Smartbook or Netphone? What’s your money on?

If truth be told, it could be neither of them, because a hybrid looks likely given the rate at which technology advances these days, and it is not only you and I that are considering this dilemma but the developers themselves. Neither meets all of the needs of the other device.

When choosing between them and making a decision whether to purchase a netbook or smartphone you have several things to consider. Taking a very brief look at each, the smartphone is generally switched on since the battery will last days on one charge. That means no boot-up time and you are always ready to go. A netbook’s battery, however, lasts 3-4 hours, so you have wait until it boots up before you can use it – not much use for answering calls!

It should be pretty obvious that if your main use is going to be connected with office work and/or if you are going to be browsing the internet frequently rather than just now and again, then the netbook will be more appropriate for you. You can easily purchase an inexpensive pay-as-you-go cell phone for your ordinary calls, and your netbook for prearranged business calls.

Quite frankly, the netbook or smartphone decision boils down to this. If your phone is predominantly used as just that, and you also use the internet occasionally and a few of the other apps, then go for the smartphone. If you do a lot of browsing or writing letters and notes, or perhaps you have to use spreadsheets and databases on the go, then choose the netbook with a cheap cell phone for your calls.

If you opt for the netbook or smartphone as your sole device, you will not thank yourself for it. If you have one or the other, then purchase what you need to meet your needs either as a mobile computer or as a cell phone for occasional calls. The netbook is no good for calls because it will either have a flat battery or will take a minute or so to boot up – who is going to wait that long for an answer? The smartphone is no good for reports and spreadsheets, so your options are limited and your choices therefore obvious.

The day will come when the two are the same: the netbook will have long stand-by battery life and the smartphone will have roll-out keyboard and extendable screen suitable for spreadsheets. Although the technology is available to achieve this, the day has yet to come before they are combined, but until then do not expect to use the netbook and smartphone as the same devices.

A roll-out screen and keyboard will take care of the office side of the notebook, and it can all be slotted into a slightly bulkier version of current smartphones such as the iPhone. It will come, but until then use the advice above. There is still no device that can adequately work both as an instantly-available phone and as a functional portable computer.

Robert Mann manages online technology products for a Fortune 500 firm. He has developed an online application for finding the best product by sales rank located at http://www.BestProductSpy.com.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Smartphones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.