Comparison between Laptop, Netbook and Smartphone

Network administration - The world of personal computers is changing. Viewed from sales figures, laptops surpass desktop computers as the dominant form of computers .

The increase in netbook sales has shown that users are willing to sacrifice performance in exchange for mobility and price. More importantly, smartphones are now fully functional computers with a wide range of different applications and services. With discounted laptops, increased netbook premiums, and smartphones not being forced to go for $ 400 or higher, the price difference is no longer necessarily a concern.

Before deciding on a purchase, consider what you want to do with the new mobile device you plan to buy. In this tutorial describes some common tasks for mobile computers and discusses the pros and cons of different mobile devices for each task.

Machine to work

When professionals need to do business, they often have specific requirements. Projects where users work are often on large Word documents, large and complex Excel spreadsheets, multimedia presentations, or even customized software and databases. IT departments may also need to manage this device. Below is a summary of the evaluation of each type of mobile device for these jobs.

Laptop: A Laptop is probably the best option to do office work. The high-resolution screen is suitable for large spreadsheets, high-power CPUs, and large RAM capacity for smoother multitasking tasks. You can find many 'enterprise-class' laptops that are able to survive on many flight trips as well as standard IT management features. Defect? A good business class laptop costs twice as much as other devices and has twice the weight of a netbook. Even an enterprise-class ultraportable is heavier than most netbooks, and obviously much heavier than a smartphone.

Netbook: Some high-end netbooks also offer IT management functions or an 'enterprise-class' design that started with HP Mini 5102. However, regardless of CPU capacity and limited RAM capacity , with just a narrow keyboard and screen, made it difficult to implement major business projects without causing frustration. Netbooks are only good for office workers who just need to send e-mail, navigate, or read news on the go, but they are not ideal for important work.

Smartphone: A good smartphone is practically indispensable for dynamic office workers. Having both access to contacts and a calendar in a device is always a huge benefit to you. Even so, phone applications do not handle well for all major business projects, and small keyboards (whether it is physical keyboard or touch screen keyboard) are not suitable for anything more than a brief sentence or two in an e-mail or a message.

What to buy: If you're a business user, who really needs to work on the road, you need a real laptop. A smartphone that allows you to access business contacts, schedules, and e-mail is no problem, but cannot be used when you have to update the powerpoint presentation or edit some of the boxes a large multipage spreadsheet. The best combination is a solid business class laptop and a friendly IT smartphone.

Student and family life

You are not a regular office worker moving on the road? That doesn't mean you don't need to work on a mobile device. The effect is not just for Fortune 500 managers: Students also need laptops to take notes or write articles, while home users have to write letters, do taxes, or balance their budgets. family. However, the requirements of home and student users differ from those of business professionals.

Laptop: A good laptop will do everything you need, but size and weight can discourage anyone who intends to take their computer anywhere. A small, lightweight system is especially good for college students who often have to walk on campus with their laptop everyday. Basic home laptops can cost between $ 400 and $ 500, and even better-featured models start at $ 600 to $ 700, so you won't have to break the budget. mine.

Netbook: A good netbook (or inexpensive, or a small ultraportable laptop) may be the best choice for home and school work. If there's a netbook with a good keyboard, like the Lenovo ThinkPad x100e, you can easily write a history article or a letter to your grandmother. Limited screen size and resolution are not suitable for making tax reports or using personal financial applications such as Quicken. The most important thing of netbooks is probably easy to carry around all day, and the battery is long enough that you may not need to carry a charger.

Smartphones: Smartphones are great for general users, and they can be great tools for keeping grocery lists or keeping in touch with friends. However, when it comes to efficiency, they have the same problems for home users as they did for business users: the keyboard is small and difficult to use, making it unsuitable for anything more than a brief sentence or two in an e-mail or a message.

What to buy: If you are a home user or a student, a good netbook can be effective along the way. It's hard to beat compact size, light weight, long battery life, and low prices. Small screens and keyboard sizes are not ideal, but they are certainly good enough for everyday tasks.

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Browsing

Web browsing happens dozens of times every day: You get off the desk to search for something online, or you have a few minutes to read the news online. Do you really need a full-size laptop to have a good browsing experience?

Laptop: With a large screen makes it easier to view a Website, and they eliminate all formatting problems. However, you will need to find a Wi-Fi or a 3G modem to go online. You may also have to wait a while for your laptop to boot, and would anyone want to carry a 5-pound computer just to browse a few sites? But at least you can use any browser with any utility you want. Of course, you can also access Flash, Silverlight, and any other Web technology you choose.

Netbook: For the Web, netbooks have some advantages over laptops. Mostly they are smaller, lighter and cheaper; One thing that is also important for Web users on the road is the high-end netbook battery life. Limited screen resolution can sometimes make it hard to see most of the websites you visit, so it uses a lot of screen scrolling. Just like laptops, with netbooks you can use any browser and utilities you want.

Smartphone: In many ways, a good modern smartphone can be the best way to browse the Web on the go, despite the limitations caused by its small screen. Smartphones are almost always connected online and allow you to visit websites you want to read without having to wait through the boot process. The latest phones have very good Web browsers and screens, but browser choices are limited and support utilities are almost nonexistent - and you can forget Flash unless you run one. Android phone with software update 2.2.

What to buy: Netbooks and laptops provide large browsers and full user control, but buying a computer just to browse a few websites is almost overkill. If you will spend half an hour or more on Web browsing, a cheap netbook might be your best choice. But if you just want to pop on some websites, then smartphones with natural connections will be better.

Watch video

Video is an integral part of today's mobile devices. Whether it's watching YouTube clips, downloading movies from Netflix, watching a lost show through Hulu, or enjoying a DVD on a long flight, everyone loves watching videos. Laptops can obviously do it all, but video capabilities are also a common feature of modern smartphones.

Laptop: A laptop easily provides the best video viewing function. A laptop may have an optical drive that you can use to watch DVDs (even Blu-ray movies, if it's a Blu-ray drive). Large screens, high resolution are convenient to watch for long periods of time, and good speakers are an option you won't find in the other two types of devices. Nobody wants to huddle around a 9-inch screen or a 3.5-inch screen to share the joy on YouTube.

Netbook: You get better battery life with a netbook, but give up too much in the video viewing function. Netbooks don't have an optical drive, so you can't watch DVDs or Blu-ray discs. The 9-inch and 11-inch screens are hard to watch for a long time, and even harder to share with friends - and must be lucky to find a netbook with good speakers. Sure, all online video services are still at your disposal with netbooks, but you'll be happier watching them on a laptop.

Smartphone: Smartphone is only really useful for very short video clips of a limited number of suppliers. No smartphone has legal access to Hulu. Netflix downloads can be done with smartphones, but it has not been approved yet. Many Flash-based websites will not download videos on smartphones until Android 2.2 appears. Even if you can find something to watch, staring at a 4-inch smaller screen will make you quickly get tired of your eyes.

What to buy: Laptop is the best. You can watch whatever you want, whenever you want, on a big enough screen with speakers good enough to really enjoy it. The only real drawback is the battery: A good laptop will let you see all one or two movies, especially if you want to prioritize viewing on the plane or on a long journey.

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Gaming

Need to kill some idle time? The best way is to play games. Mobile gaming is very rich, but you see a big difference in the quality and quantity of games available for these three types of mobile devices. Whether a casual gamer or a professional gamer, you always have important choices to make regarding your mobile gaming machine.

Laptop: A gaming laptop needs a dedicated graphics chip, and therefore costs a bit more than the basic model, but you can still get a cheap price. If you're a shopping person, a good gaming laptop costs no more than $ 1000. With such a computer, you can access the big Windows game library and play services. Great games like Steam, web games, and more. You have to choose carefully to find a laptop with really good gaming capabilities, and you might end up finding a slightly larger and heavier model - with a shorter battery life - than a laptop is not dedicated to gaming. Many PC games don't play well with a touchpad, so you'll also need a mouse and a suitable surface to play these games, resulting in some portability.

Netbook: Certainly not. Low-power CPUs, lack of graphics capabilities, small amounts of RAM and tight screens make gaming on netbooks horrible. You can play games with simple browsers and some old games but you won't be able to play all modern games.

Smartphone: Photographers often say that the best camera is the camera you have, and this means it's true for gaming consoles. When you have free time, a modern gaming laptop is not good if you don't have it, but the phone is almost never away from you. The phone is small enough for easy use on buses or trains, and since most mobile games are designed to be played in a short time, you can play for 5 minutes and exit and play back then.

Among smartphones, iPhone has the best and largest game library, easily competing with libraries of dedicated handheld game systems. The Android phones ranked second, but the gaming choices and quality on the Android market are growing rapidly. Blackberry devices are not free gaming devices, but they are not the worst choice. Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 may be an optional gaming smartphone that is hard to beat by the integration of Xbox Live and partnerships with major game publishers.

What to buy: If the games you like are big, full-featured, AAA-level games have high production value and lots of clocks to play, you need a laptop with discrete graphics chips. Don't buy netbooks or laptops with integrated graphics, unless you're only interested in simple browser games. For gaming on the go, it's hard to beat the iPhone, although Android phones are growing. After all, a handheld game machine will be good for you to carry around every day.

Keep contact

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare . the list of social networks seems to be endless. What is the best way to access, update, and manage your social network?

Laptop: A laptop is probably overkill for most social networking applications. Sure, you can do everything with a laptop, but you don't need to be something big, heavy, expensive, or even just easy to type in to update your Facebook status.

Netbook: A netbook is a better option than a full-size laptop for social networking. A netbook will be cheaper, smaller, lighter, and has a better battery life. Because netbooks still run a full operating system, you can easily perform common tasks like editing and uploading photos, linking your friends to video clips, playing social networking games, or chat with friends.

Smartphone: Most popular social networks have pretty good apps for mobile phones and some (like Twitter) there are many applications to choose from without problems with the smartphone platform you love. prefer. It's simple and convenient to unplug your phone from your pocket and update your Facebook status or read what your friends are doing, but the experience is narrow and limited. Casual Facebook games will not play on smartphones, editing and uploading images is difficult, and real-time chat using the phone's tiny keyboard is a nuisance. Unless you're really involved in social networks like Foursquare or Loopt, you should use a netbook. Of course, if you have a smartphone for other reasons, there is no reason not to use it to access social networking Web sites.

What to buy: This is a hesitation between netbooks and smartphones. Although netbooks are usually smaller, lighter, and less expensive than laptops, they still have access to social networking sites. You will have no problem with simple editing and uploading photos, links to videos and websites, or playing social browser-based games.

Smartphone is a poor choice for sharing photos, videos, and links to other websites on social networks. You can do those things, but the process is not the best. Phones are only really effective in determining your location, a requirement that is becoming a very big part of social networking. Your phone will tell you where you are, and it always accompanies you like a bee to discover what your friends are bringing - or let them know what you're doing.