Computers have been an absolutely essential tool for professionals for the past decade. Accordingly, a whole variety of personal computers have been created by manufacturers like Apple, Google and Microsoft to profit off of every niche of every computer user with his or her set of needs. In the subsequent barrage of personal computing products now flowing through computing markets, it may be difficult to even understand the difference between different models. For example, what’s the difference between laptops, notebooks, and netbooks, and why does it even matter? Read on to find out.
Laptops, notebooks and netbooks all share certain formal qualities; namely, they have monitors and keyboards that are permanently attached in a hinge formation. Their major differentiating qualities are their sizes and features. That said, there’s no universally accepted difference between a laptop, notebook and netbook; the FTC doesn’t force them to define their terms, and some of the categories seem to blending. However, there are certain general guidelines that are useful to keep in mind when determining the difference between a laptop, notebook and netbook, especially if you’re trying to figure out which one’s right for you.
The difference in size between laptops, notebooks and netbooks is this: laptops are the largest, netbooks are the smallest, and notebooks are right there in the middle. Laptops and notebooks are becoming increasingly similar as manufacturers figure out how to pack more processing power into smaller devices; laptops continue to be smaller and smaller than their previous models, causing them to overlap with notebooks a fair amount. Still, there are plenty of obvious laptops not-netbooks; for example, gaming laptops tend to have screens as large as 17 inches across and can weigh up to 11 pounds. These are powerful computers that, while being more portable than a desktop computer, are going to bog down a student’s backpack and definitely won’t fit into a tote bag.
Notebooks tend to be smaller than these laptops, weighing as little as three pounds, with screens around 12 inches. However, they still usually have all of the features of a laptop; they’ll have dual-core processors, CD and DVD drives, at least 64 GB of hard drive space, etc. Notebooks are meant to be the smallest possible full-featured laptops.
This tends to set them apart from netbooks, which are made chiefly with portability in mind. Netbooks can weigh anywhere from a pound to three pounds and often have screens smaller than a foot across. They don’t usually have CD of DVD drives, nor do they have ample storage for the typical user; they’re made primarily for accessing the internet, and any data a netbook user hopes to save will have to be stored on an external hard drive. They have headphone and microphone inputs, USB ports, potentially a visual output port and that’s really about it. Netbooks usually have low processing power, but extremely long battery life.
So there you have it. While no universally accepted definitions of laptop, notebook and netbook exist, there are some general guidelines that you can keep in mind when it comes time to differentiate between the three. Hopefully this article helped you to better understand what kind of personal computer works for you!