Laptop vs Notebook/netbook

[phil_burt]

<p>As far as traveling goes is there an advantage of one of these.<br>

We will be going to the Grand Canyon and other vacations and I would like to take along something that will store my photos that I take along the way. I have done this before with a laptop but I do need something new and the little ones have caught my attention. I know they do not have a cd/dvd uses but I am really not looking for that. I usually take photos during the day and then transfer them to our old laptop until I get home.<br>

I have seen a few in the $300 range that have a 160 GB hard drive.<br>

Are the little ones good for photographers, can you upload your photos easily (either by USB from camera or a USB reader for SD cards), get e-mail and maybe surf the web if you need a question answered.<br>

Anything else I may need to know?<br>

Thank You,<br>

phil b<br>

benton, ky</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>I have been buying the ASUS netbooks and really like them (a related business I have is a software program I wrote and sell to clients with the netbook). Great for storage, but Intel/Microsoft limited the motherboards so the low price would not take away from more profitable notebook sales. The last ASUS' I bought from Best Buy were $279 with 160GB drive, Wireless N (which connects almost instantly to a network), and 1GB memory (you can upgrade to 2GB, but you have to discard the 1GB chip).</p>

<p>You can absolutely do what you need to do. I was actually surprised by how much computing power they had (I wasn't expecting much). The <em>only </em> thing wrong about it for photographers is the screen size being too small, but the resolution is beautiful, speed is great, and there is a great deal of processing power. In fact, I like it so much, that I bought a power inverter for my car so I can run it all day if I had to. Except for a couple of Linux versions, they all use the same Intel motherboard, so the specs are nearly identical.</p>

[francisco_disilvestro]

<p>Netbooks are fine for that. Most have a card reader for SD. If you use CF you'll probably need a USB card reader or connect your camera. I agree with Michael that the screen is small, so I will not recomend that for editing.<br /> I will suggest that you buy some external storage like a small USB hard drive to backup your data. Never trust only one hard drive.</p>

[tedms gallery]

<p>We have 2 Asus 900HAs, they are great for backing up SD cards (not sure what other sizes they may take, but there are 2 usb ports). <br>

However, I can't type easily on them, so don't really do anything with them but store data. I haven't found any netbooks with usable touch typing screens, and the 1024x600 screen resolution is unusable as well.<br>

Get a cheap notebook if using for anything but card storage.</p>

[hjoseph7]

I bought a laptop a couple of years ago from Dell, it came with Vista operating software which was a total nightmare. The laptop was advertised as having an 80Gb hardrive, but Vista took 20GB of that 80. Next came the Monitor. As far as editing pictures on this monitor, it was nearly impossible. The colors changed dramatically depending on the angle you were viewing it. The only good thing about that laptop is that it is heavy and durable. I would seriously recomend getting a Notebook. These days they come with at least 180GB of Ram, are very light and portable, and the monitor does not play tricks with your eyes.

[will_daniel1]

<p>I believe I have the same Asus netbook as Michael, based on his description. It does have a card reader for SD/SDHC cards, and I use it all the time. However, I also travel with additional memory cards, and use those as redunant backup. Never needed it, though -- the netbook gives me great service.</p>

<p>Will</p>

[ronhartman]

<p>My wife used an ASUS last summer while traveling to Romania. Every couple of days she was able to upload photos to a blog she was writing about her trip. We also used it to keep up with email and research things.</p>

<p>We installed Picassa on it for photo (and video) organization. We both normally use Macs, and that program just seemed easier to use to us.</p>

<p>tThe netbook was our backup of photos. I'd recommend leaving the original pictures on the flash cards. Memory is so cheap now.</p>