iPad or Netbook with a gaming desktop

[Knufire]

So I've had a piece of crap Thinkpad for the past three years. Most people seem to love them, but I've personally hated it.
Anyway, my last build was eight months ago, and figuring that I would only use this computer when I wasn't at home, I decided to get a Netbook once school gets out. Then Apple beat me to it, and released the iPad.
Now I'm pretty much stuck between the two. To me, it seems that there's barely any difference between netbook, and they all retail for around $400. The iPad is looking pretty attractive though, considering I don't need a full featured computer, and I don't have an iPod. Playing music on an Env Touch is getting pretty annoying.

I was just wondering what OC's experience with netbooks/iPads were.

 

[TheQuadFather]

i would go with the net book, alot more upgrade options and you dont have to go with apples ridiculous prices

250th post

 

[David]

I'd go with the netbook too, depending on what you need to do.

An iPad is fine for a bit of web browsing, music, video and book reading, plus a little light gaming.

A netbook is better for web browsing, not quite as good for music, on par for video and not really as good for reading books. Plus, a netbook is useful for word processing and occasional light gaming.

If you plan a *lot* of reading, perhaps get the iPad. A netbook is far more versitile however.

 

[Finny]

Yeah, just remember if you ever want to do anything with flash, which is just about everything, the iPad will fail miserably.

 

[Moto7451]

I surf around a lot on my iPhone and rarely find a situation that requires Flash. Developers have been really good about moving away from flash based menus to CSS menus for speed and simplicity reasons. The only odd bit of Flash I might want to play with would be a CNN or BBC video which I have to go to a real computer for.

The real deciding factor should be how much word processing you plan on doing, or really how much word processing you plan on doing on the go. With the keyboard addon, the iPad is a pretty decent word processor... just not as portable. If you want to write a paper at starbucks the netbook is the way to go.

 

[NODES]

Yeah, just remember if you ever want to do anything with flash, which is just about everything, the iPad will fail miserably.

I use the iphone for surfing as well...was going to get the ipad to help the eyes out a bit, But with no flash in sight thanks in part to Jobs bashing Adobe...

 

[Knufire]

Basically the only place that I would be doing word-processing on the go is at school, and being in high school, that isn't much of my time.
I would mostly be web surfing/watching movies/listening to music, which is why I'm considering the iPad. The only thing holding me back is that netbooks are cheaper.

 

[cobra342_]

I was able to us an ipad for a week and it's lack of flash support is a to big of an issue to ignore, for me. And if you do not hunt and peck when you type you will type faster than the keyboard can keep up with. If the ipad had flash support I could view it as a viable option.

 

[Rich'[ard]]

yeah about the word processing, i played around on the iPad in one of the Apple shops and found it ridiculously hard to type quickly and accurately.
i guess touch interaction is good, but when typing, i just rather have keys.

iPad's look pretty bling though

 

[infam0ussteven]

I say you should go with the netbook, more things you can do with it that you cannot do with an iPad! I was actually faced with this decision out of nowhere last month and just now decided to buy a 12" laptop (Asus UL20A-A1).

 

[White_Pawn]

in terms of power, even a very basic netbook, has much more power than an ipad.

i'd recommend waiting for the ASUS 1215N though, if you can.

 

[cyberey66]

I would recommend a netbook with a 1366x768 screen. Most full size laptops (and cheap flat panel monitors up to 21") use this same resolution, so you effectively have the same amount of screen area in a much smaller form factor.

For example, I have the gateway LT3103u. It has 11" screen at 1366x768 and full size keyboard. It also has 2GB of ram and an athlon 64 CPU, so it is a great compromise and still gets 4-6 hours on a charge. It cost me around $300 and I think netbooks in this category (AMD based ~11"/1366x768) are far better than the smaller dell mini's.

 

[1Coopgt]

Alienware M11x R1 or R2 . I've got the R1 and love it .

 

[cyberey66]

Just to add, I was in a similar predicament (or I think) as the OP. I had a 'high end' desktop and wanted an inexpensive mobile device and I picked the cheap netbook solution. If you are considering an iPad, I would head to an apple store and try one. I like the Apple interface I've owned an iBook, original ipod and currently have an iPhone. But, for the size of an iPad, you might want to get a netbook. It's a matter of personal preference, just think what you will be mostly doing on the device. The iPad is effectively limited to browsing, playing around and checking email.

 

[hafa]

+1 for the netbook and the versatility it brings.

 

[xxredxpandaxx]

I would say go for the iPad if all you want to do is surf the web because the iPad has a great deal of apps that you can spend hours playing a bunch of utility apps and also the battery life is better than any netbook on the market you get 10 hours out of the ipad; don't get me wrong I love my netbook but I would also love an iPad.


Final decision: iPad