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Netbooks, or mini laptops, are such cute toys that the moment I saw a 7” Asus, I fell in love with it and I decided to buy one. I have a laptop and 2 desktops, but the netbook was so irresistible that even though I didn’t need one more piece of machinery, I couldn’t help the desire to have such a cute toy.

Well, after I browsed the Net a bit, I made my mind that a 7” netbook is too small, especially for somebody as short-sighted as I am, and that is why I decided that a 10” inch netbook is a better idea.

I had to wait a bit till a 10” netbook with decent parameters appeared but I don’t regret. I have been using the netbook for a long time and I can say that it perfectly meets my expectations. For me buying the netbook was worth every cent of it.

But I know people, who were very disappointed by the netbooks they got. For truth’s sake, I think that the reason for the disappointment is that these people had the wrong expectations. It is true that a netbook is a portable computer and you can use it for many different tasks but if you expect that a netbook is the ultimate computer for you, then be warned.

A netbook is good for everybody who travels a lot and for whom it is not an option to carry a laptop. Netbooks are about 1-2 kgs and they are much lighter than a typical netbook.

Ultraportability is the main advantage of netbooks. But this comes at a price. As I already mentioned, the screen is not very big. Even a 10” screen seems small, especially when compared to the 24” inch monitor I use on my main desktop. The small screen is OK for reading books, browsing the Web, or watching movies but if you attempt to do any serious work, than the constant scrolling becomes very painful.

Another disadvantage of netbooks is that they don’t have a CD drive. For me this is not a problem because I have CD drives on my other computers. I copy the contents of the CD on another computer and then I use a USB stick to transfer it to the netbook. That simple!

So, if you are wondering whether to buy a netbook or not, my advice is that a netbook is worth buying but only as a secondary computer. If you want to buy a netbook and trash your old PC, you’d better wait a bit before you throw your old machine – you might need it.