But Atom lives on! Death of netbook in name only

There are certainly plenty of ultra-portable laptop/tablet hybrids being planned that are based on Clover Trail, the next generation SoC Atom, that will be a lower cost lower powered (and also better battery life) alternative to the i3/i5/i7 devices. It will be interesting see if we also get Clover Trail devices that are pure laptops - anyone know?

Part of the problem is, what is the definition of a "netbook"? If we define it as a machine with Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 1024x600, then I'm glad that spec is finally dead - but that makes no more sense than saying a tablet is a device with 512MB RAM, and saying tablets are dead. If we define it as a low cost ultra-portable, then is it still true that netbooks will disappear?

If in 2013, I can still buy a lower end portable laptop, I don't care whether it's called a netbook, ultrabook, ultra-portable or whatever else - it's still the same thing. But if lower end portable laptops no longer exist, and the only choice is tablets, much more expensive (and poorer battery life) high end ultra-portables, or the remaining stock of old netbooks, that's a bit sad.

I love my Samsung N220, and have no desire to replace it with a less functional tablet. What will the upgrade path for it be?

"Meanwhile, the original netbook concept of a compact, ultraportable PC has reemerged in the form of Ultrabooks, Intel's attempt to encourage PC makers to develop devices to compete with Apple's extra-slim MacBook Air."

Well high end ultra-portables existed long before Apple joined the market late (as always). The key new thing about netbooks was the lower cost (and better battery life). Ultrabooks were nothing to do with Apple, they were a continued trend of ultra-portables, with Intel making up a trademark for better marketing. Ultrabooks are falling in price so could well eventually fill the place of netbooks anyway.

"by 2016 virtually every notebook will resemble an Ultrabook, leaving the netbook era as little more than a quaint and whimsical memory."

Or rather, the netbook was the immensely successful revolutionary device that later evolved into the devices we'll be using in 2016. By 2016, I suspect ultrabooks will be at the same price as netbooks - the reason for calling them ultrabooks will simply be a matter of marketing ("ultrabook" is an Intel trademark; netbook is simply a generic name, and one that's now become old fashioned).

Not to mention Chromebooks, effectively netbooks too (low cost, portable, good battery life). Ironically Chromebooks used to be viewed as pointless as you could just get a netbook, but soon Chromebooks might be the only thing in that market you can buy!

Typing on one right now

I'm sitting in a villa on holiday at the moment and wasn't going to lug around a large laptop. So I took an HP Mini 210 with me. This is a really basic netbook but it still manages to let me run eclipse, games, word processors and other stuff and fits into a smallish zip neoprene case which in turn goes in my carry on case. It's a fantastically useful form factor made more so by the price.

If the netbook market is disappearing its not because these devices are not useful, but because manufacturers sense more profit in other markets where they can charge an arm and a leg - tablets and ultrabooks. When this netbook packs in I'll probably forced to get an ultrabook, not because I want to but because the netbook market will be barren by that point.

netbook v windows 8

Very happy with my eeePC for use on the road. However the maximum screen resolution is insufficient to launch from 'Metro'; have to click through to the traditional desktop in order to run anything. Bit annoying.

My netbook

Has been relegated to the position of a server, I saved a fortune in electricity from using that over having my standard desktop on 24/7. A slightly fancier NAS than i have would likely eliminate the need altogether though.

I had high hopes for it, but as stated in the article its just too small and with a rubbish screen. It's pretty much been replaced as my portable machine by a thinkpad x61 I picked up off eBay, better screen, better keyboard, better processor and about half the price.

I like my eeePC 901!

Runs Windows. And a bunch of development stuff. And a RISC OS emulator with full dev kit for that. Plus plenty of songs/animé on a 32Gb SD card. It didn't cost a lot, it is small enough I can pop it into a backpack. It runs for ages on its battery. And I can use it in the car on rough country roads without worrying about trashing the harddisc going over potholes and the like (BTW, I'm not the driver, before anybody wonders...). Although, to be honest, it's main use is to sit on my stomach while I'm in bed so I can watch movies and generally be a lazy lump. (^_^)

I know its specification is not the best. I had to up the memory to 2Gb to get Firefox and Thunderbird running side by side without stuff falling over. It isn't up to H.264 HD (but can cope with HD XviD okay). I can't say about games as I'm not really a games person. It runs VisualBasic and various other compilers without too much struggle. I figure it might take the machine a little longer to do things (like transcoding to XviD for recordings from my Android phone) but, you know, it is older slower hardware. I live with it.

One of the very best features, by far, was the adaptive WiFi when my older Livebox only offered the b/g types. The eeePC 1001 I got my mother, and both of my Android phones, would lock in at 54mbit and stay there. Given this is a rural property with metre-thick stone walls, it is quite feasible that I can be in my bedroom approximately eight metres away from the Livebox, and struggle to get any sort of connection. The 901, however, would adapt, dropping the speed as low as 2mbit and raising it as conditions require. This is less of a problem now that my newer Livebox offers b/g/n and the other hardware seems to realise that it too can adapt, but even so my phones don't live to go below 65mbit. My eeePC, side by side with the phone, is running at 13mbit. Guess which one can stream reliably and which one cannot.

All in all, I have been very happy with my netbook; and when its is time for an update to newer hardware, I will have to search around for something that offers a reasonable specification in a form factor as close as possible to that of the netbook range. I accept that netbooks were not for everybody, however for those who took to them, they will be missed.

User over-optimistic rather than netbook under-powered

I always thought anyone who bought a netbook and then complained it was underpowered was either missold or over-optimistic. It's an Atom with a gig of ram and a low res display. Don't expect too much!

I've had an Asus 1001P for a few years now. It's not my main machine; I bought it for travelling. I wanted long battery life, wireless, ethernet, USB, VGA out, SD card slot and most of all cheap! We used it to keep our then toddler entertained with her favourite TV shows on long haul flights (10hr plus). Once on holiday, it got plugged into the hotel TV and used for uploading photos from the camera, emails, booking the next hotel room, facebook updates etc. I don't like travelling with expensive equipment, always that slight niggle of where's-my-bag at the back of your mind, so the low-cost was important.

I'm not sure that there is anything out there other than a netbook that can replace the feature set above. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it revolutionised our travels (that and free wifi in budget hotels/hostels ;-).

With age, the battery died, the keyboard has some quirks and the mouse-pad only works if I enter the BIOS first on booting up (never worked that one out!). It still gets used daily though (writing this on it) despite being tied to the mains. It's the kids computer at home, the lounging around balancing it on one knee machine and it is still machine I reach for when packing the bags for foreign lands.

I think there is always room for such a device. Long battery life, proper keyboard, light, cheap, and with enough ports to be useful.

I'll still keep Mine

I've had an Asus Eee for a few years now. I loaded Ubuntu on it 3 minutes after it came out of the box. I use it as a system console on the computer floor if I have to get into a Sun box or HP iLo. Beats the crap out of lugging around a bloated Lenovo laptop

Just to pile on to this thread . . .

My little Toshiba NB305 has been my workhorse portable device for 3 years. Cellular internet, 40gb SSD, 2GB DRAM and Win7Pro has made this a very capable device for most all of my computing in spite of the little Atom CPU. Yes I have invested about US$400 on it (not counting the windows licence I have with MS ActionPack), but an equivalent ipad or small notebook would be much less functional for me. I know it is not sexy but that has its advantages as I'm far less concerned about this device being nicked. Hopefully the manufacturers were right about the lack of demand in the market and I'll be able to buy a couple at discounted prices.

My Dell Mini 9 with OSX Snow leopard, ran surprisingly well with only 1GB RAm and booted faster than a Macbook of the day due to it's SSD. OSX was £22 from Amazon.

4-5 years ago plenty of people were still using old Beige boxes for office work and light gaming. Those old boxes could happly be replaced with a Netbook attached to an external monito and keyboard. Netbooks were fine if you didn't mind keeping a couple of steps behind with software. Very convenient form factor at a cheap price.

Sadly Netbooks got a lot of bad press as vociferous newcomers to computing tested them, pointed and laughed as the Atom chip struggled to run the latest office suites, intensive web based apps and latest 3D games.

I imagine if a Raspberry Pi type Netbook scene was made possible, people would stop pointing and laughing and embrace cheap computing again.

Good riddance

That's it really.