If you are looking for a laptop and your top priority is for it to be portable and lightweight, opt for netbooks!
Netbooks allow you to surf the Internet, use a physical keyboard and have an operating system while being easy to carry around. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a student or a businessman, the possibility to have a portable netbook by your side is extremely convenient.
However, it is essential to consider lots of things when buying a netbook, just as it is essential to knows its advantages and disadvantages compared to a regular laptop.
That’s exactly the reason why we’ve put together the chart below for you to choose the best netbook that could possibly replace your tablet or even laptop if you are not too demanding in terms of performance and multitasking.
Top 10 Netbooks Complete Table
| Picture | Name | Screen Size | Price | Rating (1-5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Apple MacBook Air MJVG2LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop | 13.3 inches | $$$$$ | 4.8 | |
| 2. Apple MacBook Pro MD101LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop | 13.3 inches | $$$$ | 4.5 | |
| 3. Samsung Chromebook 2 (11.6-Inch, Jet Black) | 11.6 inches | $$ | 4.4 | |
| 4. ASUS C201 11.6 Inch Chromebook | 11.6 inches | $ | 4.4 | |
| 5. Toshiba CB35-B3340 13.3 Inch Chromebook | 13.3 inches | $$ | 4.3 | |
| 6. Acer Chromebook, 11.6-Inch, CB3-111-C670 | 11.6 inches | $ | 4.3 | |
| 7. ASUS Chromebook 12-Inch | 11.6 inches | $$ | 4.3 | |
| 8. ASUS C300 13.3 Inch Chromebook | 13.3 inches | $$ | 4.2 | |
| 9. HP Stream 11.6 Inch Laptop Includes Office 365 Personal for One Year | 11.6 inches | $ | 4.1 | |
| 10. ASUS Zenbook UX305FA 13.3-Inch Ultra-Slim All-Aluminum Laptop | 13.3 inches | $$$ | 4.1 |
Things to Consider When Buying a Netbook
- First of all, do not expect your netbook to be as powerful in terms of multitasking and overall performance as a laptop. Netbooks usually have a lesser number of gigahertz compared to laptops. The higher the number of gigahertz, the faster the processor can retrieve and calculate data.
- Most laptops feature 4 to 8 GBs of RAM, while some cutting-edge go as high as 16 GB, and netbooks usually offer just 1 or 2 GBs of RAM. Therefore, if multitasking is your first priority, the best netbook for you would be a netbook with at least 2 GBs of RAM. If you buy a netbook with 1 GB of RAM, you may experience a low processing speed while browsing the Internet and having several windows open.
- Another thing to consider is the fact that netbooks do not feature as many ports as laptops normally do. However, the offered range of ports in netbooks is usually sufficient for most users. Also, netbooks do not have an optical drive because they are too small to sport such a thing.
- The main advantage of netbooks is their portability that allows you to place a netbook into pretty much any bag. Due to their portability, netbooks feature a smaller size screen than full-sized laptops, but it’s more than enough for comfortable browsing of the Internet and working on the device.
- Replacement parts for netbooks are usually much cheaper than those for laptops. So for example, if you want to buy an extended battery that would allow you to work on the netbook for longer hours, it will cost you much cheaper than if you’d be buying it for a laptop.
- If your first priority is the style and design of your device, then you’d be better off with a laptop, as netbooks are usually made of plastic.
Top 5 Best Netbook Reviews
1. Apple MacBook Air MJVG2LL/A
It’s not a surprise that we’ve named Apple MacBook Air the best netbook available today. Our champion is fast, stunningly beautiful, stylish, features a remarkable screen and feels great every time you’re using it.
The netbook is equipped with 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with a Turbo Boost of up to 2.7 GHz and 3 MB shared L3 cache.
As discussed earlier, the higher the number of RAM in a netbook, the better its overall performance is. And our today’s champion has 4 GB of 1600 MHz LPDDR3 RAM and 256 GB PCIe-based flash storage. 4 GB of RAM can easily handle editing photos in Photoshop and browsing the Internet having many windows opened.
The 13.3-inch LED-backlit Glossy Widescreen Display is bright and produces outstanding colors and has a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels.
Apple MacBook Air is running on OS X Yosemite and offers you up to 12 hours of battery life. You can even play some games with pretty good graphics quality thanks to the Intel HD Graphics 6000.
2. Apple MacBook Pro MD101LL/A
And it’s Apple once again with its MacBook Pro! In Apple’s style, the MacBook Pro was made of a single block of aluminum, creating a thin (1-inch), light (only 4.5 pounds) and solid machine.
The netbook features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit glass display and lets you work for up to 7 hours on a single charge.
The MacBook Pro is equipped with a 2.5 GHz (can accelerate to up to 3.1 GHz with the help of Turbo Boost) Core i5 dual-core processor and 500 GB hard drive. Just like in case with the best netbook of our chart, the MacBook Pro has 4 GB of installed RAM, which gives you a smooth and snappy performance.
It must also be noted that the netbook features the MacBook Pro’s HD 720p FaceTime camera that allows you to easily communicate with your friends, relatives and colleagues.
The MacBook Pro also features a Buttonless Multi-Touch Trackpad, so that you have more room to track and click wherever you want.
3. Samsung Chromebook 2
Samsung Chromebook 2 is a 0.66-inch thin netbook that weighs less than 3 pounds. It has leather-like cover with stitching along the edges, which allows you easily hold the netbook. The keyboard is equipped with curved keycaps that give you a nice feeling when you are typing.
The netbook features the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420 1.9 GHz Processor with 2 MB of Cache. Just like the top one and top two netbooks of our chart, it has 4 GB of RAM.
The Samsung Chromebook 2 is also equipped with a 16 GB Solid-State Drive, while offering free Google Drive storage. The 11.6-Inch display with the resolution of 1366 x 768 LED HD provides bright and high-quality images.
The netbook is running on Chrome OS and offers you up to 8 hours of battery life.
4. ASUS C201 Chromebook
The ASUS C201 is equipped with a Rockchip 3288-C Quad-Core 1.8 GHz processor and offers 4 GB of RAM, which allows you to do multitasking such as opening multiple tabs and navigating between several windows without any delays and slowdowns.
The netbook offers 13 hours of battery life, which is even more than our today’s champion. The ASUS C201 has a glossy and bright 11.6-inch HD LED screen and features a spacious touchpad.
Overall, the netbook looks stunning thanks to its attractive blue color with a few silver accents. Although the ASUS C201 is made of plastic, it feels durable while being extremely lightweight (less than 2 pounds and about 0.7 inch thin).
5. Toshiba CB35-B3340 Chromebook
The Toshiba CB35-B3340 features a 13.3-inch 1080p display, which is spectacular as for a netbook. The netbook is also equipped with the Intel Celeron Processor N2840 and 4 GB of RAM.
You can work up to 9 hours on a single charge and have a pleasant experience thanks to the very accurate touchpad. The keys have a little spring to them, which feels nice and natural.
The netbook weighs less than 3 pounds and has a sleek and lightweight design.