Following the avalanche of so-called netbooks – low-cost ultraportable laptops – the line between smartphones and laptops has never been more blurred. A Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone is capable of many things, but it’s still not quite the same as using the full-featured Windows XP on a 9 or 10-inch screen. The question then is: Do you need a netbook if you also own a competent smartphone?
The short answer is no – there is probably no need to lug around two devices if you also own a “normal” laptop or desktop PC, but seeing as many smartphone users are inherent gadget freaks that just might get a netbook anyway, let’s have a look at what the devices are capable of so far.
Netbook: UMPC, MID or Neither
The term “netbook” was only recently coined by the processor giant Intel, which is also the company (partly) responsible for the less successful UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) concept and its outcropping, the even more confusing MID (Mobile Internet Device) products. None of these acronyms have garnered that much attention in mainstream media. However, the netbook seems to have been adopted fairly quickly, and it was the laptop manufacturer Asus’ EEE PC 701 model that set the ball rolling.
As most of you already know, the EEE PC was a massive success, and was quickly followed by other, similar models from both Asus laptops and competing brands. Most netbooks being designed and built today use Intel’s new Atom CPU, whereas the first generations of the EEE PC used a custom version of Intel’s low-end Celeron processor. The Atom CPU provides slightly better performance and a lower power draw, which of course is a deciding factor in battery-powered devices.
Atom in Smartphones
It’s undeniable that netbooks offer better performance and more options, such as hard drives and full-featured operating systems, than what smartphones are capable of today. However, they are also larger, and this is part of the problem – the Atom CPUs are still a bit too large and power hungry to be used in smartphones.
More energy-efficient ARM-based processors and the Windows Mobile OS will likely continue to dominate the smartphone market for years to come, but the situation might change in the future as the technology behind Atom matures.
Judging from experience, smartphone technology will sooner or later achieve the same level of performance as that offered by today’s netbooks, while netbooks might evolve into something else or become obsolete. Until then, the smartphone user will have to decide whether it’s worth it to spend the extra money on a netbook to get those additional features.
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