Users have forced changes in the evolution of computers. Of course, the thing which is meant for users needs to fit the users’ frame of needs and necessity. Users have wished for a portable personal computer and so evolved a laptop. Since then the computer makers are relentlessly trying to make laptops more efficient, handier and less expensive so that one can reach every user and the user can get maximum justice to the investment made. One such recent evolution is netbook. You can try one if you opt for lighter laptops and smaller notebooks and if you do not need to have a great computing capacity in your portable computer. Netbooks are ultra portable devices very light and smaller in size than a notebook. They are inexpensive and affordable. A netbook is a subcompact notebook pretty recent in origin. These have a moderate computing capacity along with ability to access web based applications. “Companion devices” that is boosters to other computer devices and access – is one more usefulness of netbooks. These subcompact notebooks as told earlier are lighter in weight and cheaper than the laptops. To accommodate these two main features some compromises
were made in the hardware and the capacity of the devices. They possess smaller keyboards than the normal laptop keyboards and have reduced capacities and specifications. The screens are also quite reduced in size which range from 5 inches to 10.1 inches measured diagonally. They also lack optical drives. The weight of netbooks range around 2 to 3 pounds. That gives a little bit of problems for the user to use the device but the positive side is the reduced price. Their affordability can be guessed from the fact that they were offered to the customers of a wireless data company in 2009 as a free gift on purchase of an extended service. As a result of compromised price and weight a netbook contains less powerful hardware than the normal laptops. While laptops have storage capacity of more than 160 GB a netbook has 8, 16 or 32 GB storage capacity. Instead of hard Disk there is a solid state drive in some of them, needing less power, light in weight and shock proof. Wi – Fi connections, mobile broadband services, dial up networks or broadband are available which vary model wise. Operating systems like Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS are common in these devices. Leading netbook manufacturers are Asus, Apple, Dell, HP etc.