You may have seen that Wal-Mart has a netbook for sale at less than $300 (actually, it was $288 the last time I checked). Click here to see for yourself. If you were already in the market for a netbook and you have an extra $300 laying around, this may be the perfect time to drive down to your nearest supercenter and come home with a new toy.
The ultra low price of this “computer” certainly raises some serious questions about the age-old debate of repairing a computer vs. buying a new one. But, it also makes me ponder the impact that disposable computers are going to have on our environment… not to mention the security issue that are created when someone throws out a broken computer with all of their personal information still on the perfectly good (and still readable) hard drive.
Aside from all that, however, $300 is a heck of a deal!
Before you burn rubber all the way from your driveway to your Wally World with credit card in hand, you should know what you are getting yourself into.
Here are a few things to consider:
First of all, the keyboards on netbooks are sometimes smaller than a standard keyboard. If you “hunt and peck” for keys anyway, then if may not be a huge concern. If you have large hands, you may want to opt for something that has full-sized keys. I suggest you use one to see if you can adapt. Type a full paragraph of two, right there in the store. Be sure to use the shift key to capitalize a few letters, too… a big pet peave of mine is when laptop manufactures shrink the shift key and I’m contstantly hitting the Enter key by mistake.
Seondly, the screens are very small. The more popular ones are about 10 inches diagonally. If you already have a hard time reading the screen, you may want to opt for a desktop. With a desktop, you can throw a 24 inch LCD monitor on for less than $200. That’s more than twice the visual real estate for tired eyes. Think about it.
Third… and probably the most important point. You get what you pay for. Don’t expect top quality from a sub-$300 computer. As long as you don’t expect fine china at a paper plate price, then you will probably be okay.
Warning: The data on the computer is usually more valuable than the computer itself (photos, e-mails, geneology projects, book projects, etc). So if you are buying an ultra-cheap computer BACKUP YOUR DATA on a very regular basis! There… you’ve been warned.
On a more positive note, ultra-portable netbooks can be very handy to have if you are looking for something small, cheap, light, and has a good battery life. The netbooks with built in 3G cellular data connectivity are very nice, but you won’t be getting those for $300. They will be even better when 4G enters the picture (4G is going to be a game-changer).
Long story short, if the idea of a smaller keyboard and smaller screen doesn’t turn you off, then check them out. But, please test it out thoroughly before purchasing. Type on it, go to some web sites, anything. But, most importantly, don’t trust any single computer to keep your data safe – especially a cheap one. Always keep your important files in at least two locations.
If you need help deciding what computer is best for you, give us a call today.
Happy shopping!
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