I've got an Acer Netbook for traveling. Depending upon your eyesight, it might be the way to go. Does about everything a laptop does, just smaller size. I've also got a Samsung smartphone, laptop, and Nook Color. All have their purposes and "Niche" in the market.
Lynn & Diana Wagoner
Three Boston Terriers
2005 Chevy 2500HD D/A
2006 HHII 29.5LKTG
Retired
I believe a 15" or so laptop will fit all of your needs and be reasonably affordable. If you go below 15" screen size, you start to pay a premium.
A netbook can run all the same applications as a laptop but doesn't include a DVD drive. I have a netbook and purchased an external DVD drive to use with it but found that I rarely use the DVD drive so I don't recommend buying one. If having a DVD drive is important to you then don't get a netbook.
Tablets are neat little gadgets and great fun to use but they have their limitations. They're great for reading forums, email, ebooks, viewing photos & videos. They aren't very good at inputting content since they lack a real keyboard to type on. Many tablets support attaching a keyboard but at that point you might as well buy a laptop.
Another thing to consider if you go with a tablet is that the majority of the tablets available run a different operating system than Windows (most run either iOS or Android) so you would most likely need to learn a new way of doing things. There are tablets available that run Windows but they are generally more expensive. Also, Microsoft is getting ready to release a new version of Windows which is designed to run on tablets whereas existing versions of windows aren't. If you want a windows based tablet I would wait to buy until after Windows 8 is released.
FWIW I too recommend either a laptop or netbook. I noticed you mentioned that you bought an external cd/dvd player. If you purchase a netbook like Acer, for example, you would be able to plug that player into it, saving the purchase of the cd/dvd unit. As other have mentioned, the netbook screen is small but is actually the same size as the ipad screen at 10 inches. you can also plug your printer or a printer into the netbook via usb. The netbook is cheaper than the laptop but the laptop will have the larger screen and memory. Your choice.
Good luck with whatever you choose.
These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter... I go somewhere to get something, and then wonder what I'm "here after."
I have or should I say had both, a small Acer netbook and a Samsung Galaxy Tablet. My net book recently crashed, and after dealing with virus problems with it I will not replace it. I now use my tablet for all my internet needs. I will be adding a bluetooth keyboard to the tablet so I don't have to peck out messages. The tablet works great has a much longer battery life and has many other uses. I use it for our GPS needs with Co-Polit live USA app. It has a larger screen and I don't have to have expensive map up grades any more.
I just bought an Acer Aspire One. It is small,light weight and has a real processor not the Atom processor that netbooks have. Got it at Walmart for under $300. Will de everything you want to do and has a good size keyboard. I also bought a wireless mouse as I hate that pad for scrolling.
Popsie wrote: You might want to look at a Netbook. It's like a laptop only smaller and can be quite a bit cheaper. They start around $200.
IMO, you would do well to go to a store that carries that kind of stuff - Best Buy has a netbook on sale for $200 now, and compare one side by side with a laptop doing the things you need to do.
Netbooks are great for traveling when you have limited space to stash a computer (I had three that ran XP). However, compared to a similarly priced laptop, they are slower, have limited RAM and storage, and are not as durable (in fact, stay the heck away from the Acer Aspire Ones; they are unreliable junk, same as most other Acer products). For close to the same amount one will spend on a netbook, a laptop will last longer, have a larger screen (great for us flatulent geriatrics with failing vision), and just be far more usable.
Also, netbooks now only come with Win7 Starter, which is pretty much worthless, or Linux, which is good only if you are a computer geek. Netbooks just don't have the capacity to handle anything bigger than that. Win7 Home Premium, either 32 bit or 64 bit, would be the ideal OS for a laptop.
Although laptops have a touchpad for navigating the screen, you will probably be like me and hate the darned thing and prefer a mouse so make sure you get a laptop that either has a physical switch to permanently turn off the touch pad or can be set to turn off the touchpad automatically when a USB mouse is plugged into it. I made the mistake when I bought my Lenovo recently of not checking for that and I have to hit FN/F6 everytime I boot up to shut off the stupid touch pad. Of course, I never remember to until I'm typing away and what I'm typing winds up somewhere else because brushed my thumb over the stupid touchpad (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble).
If you decide to get a mouse for the laptop (or netbook), get a wireless USB mouse. You will appreciate not having to mess with a cord. Logitec sells some inexpensive mice that have receivers that are really small and don't stick out a mile from the USB port like many do.
A decent laptop can be had for under $400 if you watch for sales.
tomkaren13 wrote: I just bought an Acer Aspire One. It is small,light weight and has a real processor not the Atom processor that netbooks have. Got it at Walmart for under $300. Will de everything you want to do and has a good size keyboard. I also bought a wireless mouse as I hate that pad for scrolling.
Funny, both of the Acer Aspire Ones I owned had Atom processors. And both of them were unreliable junk. After them and the Acer desktop I have, there is no way I will ever, ever have another Acer product!
rexlion wrote: ...The tech told me that Apple's operating system is almost impossible to infect, and it has me thinking about an iPad or a Mac Mini.
You need a new tech. Macs are just as suceptable to viruses as Windows machines; they just don't get the same kind of viruses. Hackers haven't devoted much effort with Mac viruses in the past because Windows machines are far more plentiful and Apple's market share was too small to be worth the effort to learn to write viruses for them. However, that has been changing. The market share has been slowly growing, Mac users are typically more affluent, and hackers have been learning just how vulnerable many, if not most, Macs are because their owners are under the mistaken notion that their machines are unhackable and do not take proper precautions.
* This post was
edited 08/16/12 03:05pm by Lady Fitzgerald *
I have or should I say had both, a small Acer netbook and a Samsung Galaxy Tablet. My net book recently crashed, and after dealing with virus problems with it I will not replace it. I now use my tablet for all my internet needs. I will be adding a bluetooth keyboard to the tablet so I don't have to peck out messages. The tablet works great has a much longer battery life and has many other uses. I use it for our GPS needs with Co-Polit live USA app. It has a larger screen and I don't have to have expensive map up grades any more.
"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon
Same here. I loved the netbook but it was way too vulnerable to crashes and virus/spyware issues despite having protection and running scans often. This last time I ran spybot and cleared out three infections, then when I rebooted the windows screen hangs and it won't go anywhere. I could probably fix it, but frankly have fixed it for the last time. Tired of it.
rexlion wrote: ...The tech told me that Apple's operating system is almost impossible to infect, and it has me thinking about an iPad or a Mac Mini.
You need a new tech. Macs are just as suceptable to viruses as Windows machines; they just don't get the same kind of viruses. Hackers haven't devoted much effort with Mac viruses in the past because Windows machines are far more plentiful and Apple's market share was too small to be worth the effort to learn to write viruses for them. However, that has been changing. The market share has been slowly growing, Mac users are typically more affluent, and hackers have been learning just how vulnerable many, if not most, Macs are because their owners are under the mistaken notion that their machines are unhackable and do not take proper precautions.
His tech is not entirely wrong. It is true that Mac's get far fewer infections than PC's.
Straight from a tech site:
1.Newer Macintosh operating systems are one of the oldest and most secure operating systems available.
2.Microsoft Windows is used by a lot more people than the Apple Mac OS. Because more people use Microsoft Windows, it is a much better target than Apple computers.
3.Most of the computer virus writers are more familiar with the IBM platform and Microsoft Windows, which means its easier for them create a virus for that platform.
4.Many of the tools and scripts used to help users create viruses or other malware are designed for Microsoft Windows.
So while ANY OS 'could' get infected, the likelihood of this with Apple is much slimmer. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many infections my PC and netbook have gotten in the past two years despite running spyware and virus protection, while my Apple using friends have had none, and run no protection.
I like those odds.
While I don't see myself ever switching from my desktop PC to a Mac simply because I know PC so well I did make the decision last night to buy an Ipad and admittedly part of that decision was made from total frustration of having to repair my netbook from virus and malware invasion so often. If i got one infection per year on the Apple I am still doing far better than with a windows OS. I also found out tonight, which I did not know before, that you don't have to wait for the apple to boot up. That is a nice bonus.
* This post was
edited 08/16/12 06:11pm by JayWalker2009 *
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