I am thick please can someone explain the difference between

[Trebuchet]

A netbook and a laptop? My sis wants one for her birthday, she just wants to be able to play around on the internet and send emails. Which is more suitable? Thank you x

I don't know much but I know a netbook lets you access the internet and therefore send emails but doesn't usually have all the extra capabilities of a laptop (ie the ability to have MS office etc) perhaps has less memory etc?

Does PC world have any info on their website?

Laptop can do everything a desktop PC can do, eg word processing, programming, etc. You can install pretty much anything you need on it, games, etc.
A net book only had t'interweb and emails. If that is all you want, fine, but you will never be able to add to it, iyswim?

Hope that helps!

Yep, much lower memory etc as they don't need it.

Sorry to butt in on your thread, but does a netbook have any kind of word processor function does anyone know?

Thanks Nicky and Cargirl, much appreciated. Think a netbook is all she needs.

DH says ...

'netbooks are physically smaller and they have smaller disc drives which means they store less documents and so on.

Because they're less powerful than a laptop they run on windows xp not vista. If you want a second highly portable option, they're fantastic.'

AFAIK a netbook can have a word processor function

A netbook is essentially a small laptop - the screen is small, the memory is small, the keyboard is smaller and obviously its easier to port about because its...... smaller

I want one for emails and internet - when the kids are using my laptop and for travelling

A netbook is just like a laptop, only smaller.

you can have many of the programs that you have on a laptop.

Linux / Open office / non-Microsoft web browser is also an option, as well as xp.

the price of a small cheap laptop (netbook) tends to be smaller, so the cost of xp + microsoft office is proportionately larger, and you can save by having free software.

I read that Windows 7 for netbooks will only allow you to have 3 programs open at once.

Most of them do not have dvd or cd drives so cannot be used for films and it can be difficult to add software to them. They are also a similar ish price as a laptop which can do everything IYSWIM

I have a laptop and a netbook. The netbook was much cheaper than the laptop (about £120-£140, I think) and has (running under Linux) Firefox, email software, news readers, games, OpenOffice (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, etc. (can import most MS Office files quite happily)).

If you do want to install something else it's not as easy as on a Windows PC or a Macintosh, but it's not too difficult (provided whatever it is comes in a Linux version -- but there's a lot of good free stuff out there for Linux and websites dedicated to telling you about it).

My netbook allows you to use an SD card to increase its storage capacity.

Biggest difference is that Netbooks usually don't have DVD/CD drives, and have smaller screens.

What you do need to be aware of that some Netbooks don't have a hard disk drive - they use solid state memory instead - so are inherently more restricted, but more reliable!

Apart from that, they are just as capable as their big brother laptops.

For what it's worth, I have a (work) laptop which is used for number crunching, and a (personal) netbook which is used for internet access as and when required.

i nearly bought a netbook,as i was desperately needing internet access and didnt have much money to spend,
however when i looked on ebay i got a brand new laptop for £189,it was classed as graded but it was a TINY mark on the outer casing which isn't even noticable,

im SO glad i bought it and not a netbook,
a laptop is MUCH more versatile,and has many more features,

we have a netbook and I would not want to use it all the time, even just browsing mumsnet it does my head in because the screen is soooo tiny (you're constantly scrolling to read pages because they don't fit on) and the keyboard is too small

it's fine if you just want to check stuff briefly, or send a couple of e-mails. but if you're wanting to sit online for an hour or so fannying about it's pretty irritating.

But will it fit in your handbag? The major feature of my netbook is that it will

Sorry P&L you may be right, I just noticed when I was looking that basic netbooks were around £200 and basic laptops were around £250 - £300. Whilst it is a fair %age difference in terms of £s to performance it seemed a bit of a waste to me. Obviously it does depend on how much money you have but I thought that the versitility of, even a more basic, laptop was worth the extra.