Netbooks Under 200

Netbooks under 200 dollars is a website dedicated to reviewing, ranking and informing you about the latest releases in value for money netbooks.

The original definition of netbooks only included bare bones systems which were intended for web browsing, email and document writing. The small form factor, minimal specs and thus low cost of netbooks made a compelling argument for a travel computer which makes a great compliment to the more powerful desktops you may have at home.

Modern netbooks now include more advanced features found in fully fledged laptops such as:

  • Solid state drives
  • High resolution screens
  • HDMI out
  • Touch screens
  • Webcams

You may think that these great features would push the price of netbooks higher. Here at netbooks under 200 dollars, we review netbooks with all these awesome features and present to you the best around which can be bought for less than two hundred dollars.

This price point is possible with the ever dropping price of technology. Sure, you can buy the latest laptops which have all of the above and can play Crysis as well as render 3D movies. However, these laptops not only cost a fortune but are usually heavy, run hot and have poor battery life. Many are more of a desktop replacement than a laptop.

Netbooks are agile. You can slip them into your backpack or handbag and away you go. Being so light weight and small makes them perfect for Googling information when overseas (as well as entertainment on those long flights) or taking notes in college or university lectures.

Netbooks are designed to fulfil what 90% of us do 90% of the time when we need a computer. Essentially, browsing the web, emailing and document writing. Most netbooks these days can even play videos and casual games. Since these activities are relatively low demand when it comes to processing power, you can easily find suitable netbooks under 200 dollars.

Power users may find netbooks a bit restrictive for what they need. A middle market for higher profile netbooks (or lesser laptops) has emerged to fulfil this need. Although these extras bundled into the “netbook” bump the price over 200 dollars, you will still find reviews here as you may find the little extra money is worth the value of a more complete package.

Netbooks were most popular with the launch of the Asus EeePC in 2007, a revolutionary product with a perfect balance of light weight, low cost (with a Linux operating system) and adequate speed. Subsequent hardware updates added faster processing, larger storage and support for memory cards and USB devices.

Later on competition would propel the netbook market forward. Reliable netbooks such as the Toshiba nb205 and the HP Mini series proved stiff competition to the Asus EeePC range, forcing many updates in models as well as driving the street price of netbooks down.

The boom in netbook sales also spawned a development boom in the operating systems suited for such light weight systems. Many current netbook OS are stripped down linux based systems (such as Jolicloud and Linux Mint) with a user interface designed for smaller screens and lower resolutions.

Microsoft Windows 7 also runs well on most higher end netbooks. This is surprising given that you would expect newer iterations of Windows to require beefer specs on your PC and so fail miserably on netbooks under 200 dollars. However, Windows 7 has great power management, preserving battery life. Most importantly though, the vast majority of desktops still run a variant of Windows and so having Windows OS on your netbook would integrate well with your other Windows systems.

With the growing popularity of smart phones and tablets (such as the iPhone and iPad) the netbook market would be expected to dwindle.

Unexpectedly, netbook sales have been strong. The biggest advantage netbooks have over touch screen tablets is the keyboard. Without a physical keyboard, productivity on tablets pales in comparison, especially when it comes to traditional applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. Thus netbooks have their place amongst the tech filled landscape.

Tablets for potable entertainment and netbooks for portable work (and also entertainment).

Add to this the cost of netbooks can be less than half the price of the iPad and you can see why netbooks are still in demand, even with the current popularity of tablets rising.

This site is dedicated to finding netbooks under 200 dollars which are perfect for you. Feel free to browse the information and reviews contained within and if you have any questions, please email me at support@netbooksunder200.com