The value of netbooks
by James on Jun.19, 2010, under Computers
I’m pretty much on the fence with netbooks. On one hand, for the money that you pay, you get a tiny screen and fairly anemic performance. On the other hand you get a highly portable computer that has exceptional battery life. On certainty that I do have is that netbooks have increased the resale value of used notebooks.
It used to be that used computers were worth close to nothing. This is, of course, because technology advances so quickly that unless you plan on selling your computer within a few months after purchase, the cost of new one will net you a better cost to performance ratio than a used one.
Netbooks have upset that, though. Not everyone buys a netbooks simply because it is tiny or that they can use it in a Starbucks for ten hours straight. Some people look at them and see them simply as affordable computers. Enter used laptops.
Unless your laptop is so old that its battery has to be worn on your back, then it specs out better than all but the most top of the line netbook and all with much larger screen. So for all of you with two, three, or even four year old laptops collecting dust in a closet somewhere, you might actually be able to get some money out of it.
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4 Comments for this entry
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June 19th, 2010 on 22:22
The only important thing about owning an older laptop is the operating system on it. If a laptop is capable of running Windows XP then in my mind it is “good enough.” However, Windows XP is getting onto a ten-year old operating system and won’t be supported for much longer. The solution to this, in my opinion, is to use an alternative operating system such as Linux on your purchase of a lower-spec used laptop. Most Linux distributions are more than capable of providing modern services with hardware requirements equal or less than Windows XP. The only stumbling block for an average person would be to have a familiarity with Linux itself. Granted, a system such as an Eee Pc can come pre-installed and pre-integrated with a Linux environment and therefore offer more performance than you would expect out of a netbook without requiring the knowledge to install Linux yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_Eee_PC
June 20th, 2010 on 03:42
DSL is my personal favorite for that, though it is not very user friendly to the uninitiated.
June 20th, 2010 on 03:03
What about mine? It’s 7 years old.
June 20th, 2010 on 03:05
It’ll still spec out better than many netbooks.