Netbook vs. Ultraportable laptop: Who to put your money on?

Different ideology but how different

When laptops came into the market, we as guileless consumers were enticed by its essence of portability. And now, in the contemporary era where conventional electronic devices recurrently cling on to the dictum of 'small is beautiful', laptops too have undergone a more convenient yet transportable revamp. The end products of this 'compact' revolution can be broadly categorized under netbooks and ultraportable laptops.

Netbook vs. Ultraportable laptop

Now, even between the two of them, there are some significant differences when it boils down to their inherent features. Coming to netbooks, they are actually ultraportable in the literal meaning of the word. But on a generalized scale, these 8-12 inch screen contraptions are adept at net browsing, e-mail exchanges and working on light programs such as Microsoft Word. On the other hand, the industry defined ultraportable laptops are infused with 11-13 screen sizes, copious processing power and almost the same level of portability (as netbooks). Though, on the scope of budget, they are much more costly than netbooks.

Power punch

When it comes to packing a power punch, the ultra-portable laptops can be viewed as mid level laptops that tread the fine line between processing prowess and portability. They can typically support productivity features and high-end applications, with upgradeable RAM, and hard disk drives. Now, when we consider lightweight netbooks, they ubiquitously exhibit low processing attributes, but are tailor made for soft applications such as web browsing and net communication. As a matter of fact, their OS pretty much epitomizes their 'power train'. Most of them are supported by Windows 7 Starter edition (with some even powered by Linux).

Cost claim

Now, this is the zone where netbooks beat ultraportable laptops hands down. Ultraportable laptops typically hover around the price range of $800 to $1200, depending upon the company and to some degree the included specs. Netbooks on the other hand are conveniently priced within $250 to $600, depending upon their wealth of features.

Which way is smoother

Once again, it boils down to functionality offered by the different set of devices. If you are a consumer looking for a cost effective laptop with good net connectivity and basic applications (like Excel and Word), the netbook is the way to go. In simpler terms, the compactly designed netbooks are optimized for those short business trips. On the other hand, the ultraportable laptops pose as sleek yet credibly powerful mid level machines, which can satiate your processing hunger by running boisterous apps like video editors alongside Photoshop. Of course, you have to pay the extra moolah (which can be double the cost of a netbook) for those in-built advantages.

Comparison

As they say, solid figures sometimes give better examples than lengthy explanations. In this regard, we have taken up four such specimens (two for netbooks and two for ultrabooks), to give you a more comparative perspective.

Netbooks

Asus Eee PC 1215B

Described as a competent yet simplistic netbook with some fairly useful attributes, the Asus Eee PC 1215B comes as an overall good package. The 12-inch laptop is powered with a 1.6GHz AMD E-350 dual core processor, and has features such as USB 3.0, HDMI (with1080p output) and chiclet keyboard. Though as disadvantages, the keyboard can appear to be small, along with low battery life.

Price: $382.99

Sony Vaio VPC-YB15KX/S

The Sony's Vaio VPC-YB15KX/S comes with 11.6-inch screen, powered by the same boisterous AMD E-350 dual core processor (clocked at 1.6 GHz). Adding to its advantage is the substantial 500GB space, with a wealth of features like Bluetooth, media card readers and even web cam. On the darker side, the machine is a bit costlier than its peers, with limited keyboard size and some included light bloatware.

Price: $549.99

Ultrabooks

Lenovo IdeaPad U300s

Powered by the 2nd generation Intel CoreTM i7 processor, the fascinatingly thin 14.9mm IdeaPad U300s boasts of a 13.3 inch display, 4GB DDR3 memory and up to 256GB of SSD storage. The contraption also has a lightweight demeanor (at only 2.9 lbs), but its definitive feature is obviously the ergonomically designed 'Breathable Keyboard'. According to Lenovo, this special keyboard is air cooled by Intel Advanced Cooling Technology, thus extending the laptops overall battery life.

Price: $1,595 for Core i7 processor and $1,195 for Core i5 processor.

Acer Aspire S3

Infused with a Core i7-2637 processor, 240GB SSD and 4GB of RAM, the Acer Aspire S3 took a change in design which alludes to being lighter and enhancement of overall battery life (peaking at 7 hours). On the bearing front, the sleek 13.3-inch machine fulfills its ultra-slim criteria with just 12.9mm thickness and roughly 3 lbs weight. But again, as with its design revamp, the price was also notched up to a higher level.

Price: $1,299.99