Many years ago when the computers were invented, they were really big and heavy devices, that were capable of doing just some simple operations. But the technology evolved so much that these days there are very small and very light computers, that are capable of doing very complex tasks. And we are talking here about the laptops of course. But the technology never stops evolving, and engineers came with even smaller devices than laptops. And these are the netbooks. A netbook looks just like a regular laptop, only that it is even smaller. Netbooks usually have a display screen of 10 inch (compared to the regular screen of the laptops which has 15 inch or more) and a weight of around 3 lbs.

So this means that they are highly portable, so the netbooks are the best travel laptops. But it wasn’t possible to integrate the exact same features of a big laptop into a smaller one, so the netbooks are usually weaker than the big laptops. They don’t have a full size keyboard (they have all the keys you really need, except for the numeric ones) and they also don’t have an optical drive. So in case you want to use a CD or a DVD, you will have to use an external optical drive, that can be bought separately.

And since they have weaker features and smaller dimensions, the netbooks are also cheaper than bigger laptops. They usually have prices around 300 dollars, and this is quite ok compared to the prices of laptops that can go from 500 to 2,000 dollars. And if you are wondering where their name comes from, it is simple. “Net” comes from the word “internet” and this is because the main activity netbooks were made for is browsing the internet.

So let’s discuss more about a certain netbook, the Dell – Inspiron Mini Netbook with Intel® Atom™ Processor – Promise Pink, Model: IM 1012-688 PPK | SKU: 9778708. Its  original price is 329 dollars, but the price offered at Best Buy is 289 dollars. So this way you save 40 dollars, which is quite a really good deal. First of all let’s look at the dimensions of this netbook:

-Product Height 1.3″
-Product Width 10.5″
-Product Weight 3.1 lbs.
-Product Depth 7.8″

As you can see in the images, it is a pink netbook. And the pink laptops are quite really popular these days, especially among women and kids. Its processor is an Intel ® Atom ™ processor N 450, which features a 667 MHz system bus, 512 KB cache and 1.66 GHz processor speed. As we said a netbook is weaker than laptops, and the usual RAM memory found on netbooks is 1 GB of DDR 2 memory. And it’s the same with this model too. As we said it doesn’t have an optical drive, and its widescreen has a diagonal of 10 inch and a resolution of 1024 x 600. The hard drive is quite ok for most of the computer users, and offers 160 GB of disc space.

The graphics engine is just a basic  Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3150, so you can’t expect from high video performances on video games from this laptop. It also comes with built in stereo speakers with High Definition audio 2.0 support and a built in webcam of 1.3 megapixels. It also offers a 4 in 1 media reader, to easily copy files from a digital camera, cell phone or from other devices. (Supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO formats).

It has most of the ports you might need (for example 3 USB ports, audio ports, Ethernet port and others) and it also has wireless connectivity for easy access to the internet, from almost anywhere. It is Energy Star qualified and comes with an installed version of the Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system. So this way you can use it right after you bought it from the store.

So now you know which are the best travel laptops, and if you are interested just in simple computer activities such as browsing the internet, writing documents, etc…a netbook can be a really good and cheap solution for you. have a nice day!