Just because netbooks are inexpensive doesn’t mean that you should go ahead and just buy any netbook that you see first. There is an art or skill to shopping for netbooks. Before you make a decision and buy any old netbook, there are a few things that you should consider first:
Consider your needs and wants – There are roughly two types of netbooks in the market today, netbooks with Solid State Drives (SSD) and netbooks with Hard Disk Drives (HDD). SSD netbooks boot faster, are able to withstand impact and are generally more reliable in terms of performance. But they are also notorious for having low storage capacities (the SSD netbooks that do have high storage capacity are very expensive). On the other hand, HDD netbooks can store up to 160GB of data on the hard drive, but they are less tough than their SSD counterparts. So what does have to do with you? It’s all about your needs and wants. Do you want a fast netbook with low storage or a netbook with high capacity but boots slower?
Consider the brand – There are many brands of netbooks out in the market today. ASUS definitely created the netbook market in 2007, but other manufacturers followed soon after, including Acer, Lenovo, HP, Dell, and MSI, among others. Different manufacturers have different signatures, e.g., Asus for small keyboards. Different brands of netbooks are known for different things, and it does pay if you research on what these are.
Consider the Operating System – Just like the traditional desktop computer, there is completion between Windows, Mac and others when it relates to netbooks. Many manufactures are set on which operating system comes loaded on their netbooks, but some netbook manufactures will give you the option of which operating system you want loaded on your netbook. Again, this is a user preference that should be weighed when deciding which netbook to purchase.
Read up on user reviews – User reviews are very useful for determining the actual performance of a netbook. Manufacturers will always hype their product whenever they can to boost sales. If you want to know the rundown on a particular netbook model, read up on independent product reviews by online computer magazines. You can also search for forums on the different netbook models.
Always do comparison shopping – You should never settle and buy at the first price that you see on a shopping website. One good rule of thumb is to compare prices from at least three different sellers of netbooks before making a final decision. Keep in mind things like shipping, handling and warranty to calculate the total overall cost upfront and potentially in the long run. Some sites can resell products like netbooks for less due to purchasing them in a bulk amount and therefore getting a discount overall.
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