The Differences of Netbooks From Laptop Computers

A netbook is smaller than a laptop.

While laptops are like miniaturized versions of PCs, netbooks are like miniaturized versions of laptops. Both laptops and netbooks target people who are always on the run, but the balance they maintain between usability and portability differs, with laptops focusing more on usability and netbooks focusing more on portability.

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Physical Size
- Physical size is the first noticeable difference. Netbooks are smaller than laptops. Even though this increases their portability, it also brings some disadvantages, such as a smaller display and a smaller keyboard. The display and keyboard are not the only components that had to suffer because of the smaller size, as it also had an impact on the internal hardware and the overall performance of the netbook.
Performance
- Unlike laptops, netbooks use slower low-power processors for two reasons: power usage and heat dissipation. This leads to a lower performance, limiting the range of activities a netbook can be used for to only the basic tasks. The hard drive in netbooks is usually a solid state drive, which uses less power than a traditional hard disk drive and is sometimes faster. The graphical capabilities of netbooks are also lessened because of the integrated video chips, compared to laptops which have dedicated video cards, capable of handling graphics-intensive applications and even 3-D games.
Connectivity
- In terms of connectivity, the difference between netbooks and laptops is small; they both incorporate basic Internet connectivity options. The difference is in other types of connectivity, such as USB ports or multimedia ports. The number of additional connectivity ports is smaller on a netbook, and some ports available on laptops, such as HDMI or FireWire ports might not be present on netbooks. Also, netbooks lack an optical drive, so an external optical drive is required to install the operating system or any application that comes on a CD or DVD.
Battery Life
- This is where netbooks take the lead. The smaller screen, low-power processor and the lack of an optical drive increase the battery life considerably. With some power management, netbooks can achieve several hours of battery life. You can also configure laptops to use less power, but their performance suffers.