Netbook or iPad?

[FXB]

My mom asked me to find her something small and light that can do the following

surf the web
be portable and light
watch youtube no movies
spreadsheet, word processing and presentation software
she want's to leave it in the kitchen withing arms reach.

From what I've seen netbooks seem to have reached a peak in specs and the trackpad on most netbooks is odd unless you get into the 12" netbooks.

I would either get a netbook with 2gb of ram 200 some gb of HDD 10" screen or so running win 7 HP or the base model iPad at 519$ CAD. The netbooks with the specs mentioned above are around the same price range from what I've seen.

What do you think netbook, iPad or something else?

 

[Tuffie]

I say netbook, since they've got more functions and uses.

 

[FXB]

How? a netbook with windows 7 starter is limited in functionality and a netbook with windows 7 HP is resource consuming

 

[strollin]

Win 7 HP doesn't use any more resources than Win 7 starter.

I run Win 7 Pro and my netbook and it does quite well at the functions the OP says his mother wants to use it for,

 

[tremmor]

Netbook

 

[voyagerfan99]

I say netbook, but if you want a tablet with the functionality of a netbook, have a look at the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer running Android 3.0. It starts at $399 and has an optional keyboard dock that also acts as an extended life battery. With dock it's $449.

 

[DMGrier]

I would say a netbook. It has more functionality. The one I am listing is a dual core cpu with 2 GB DDR3 ram so it will run windows 7 with no problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220806

Beats the hell out of a ipad or any tablet.

 

[FuryRosewood]

mmm i might have to go against the grain and suggest the iPad...has better battery life than your average netbook and the base functionality might be better for someone who is just beginning to learn a computer to understand

tho however if shes wanting to do word processing...have to say get her a netbook...keyboards are far easier to type on to me than a touch screen.

 

[Quiltface]

netbook definitely, i wouldn't want to work with spread sheets or word processing on a tablet.

 

[Hsv_Man]

I voted netbook although they are a bit small for my liking. Still they are better than a tablet or Ipad.

 

[Thunderdome]

mmm i might have to go against the grain and suggest the iPad...has better battery life than your average netbook and the base functionality might be better for someone who is just beginning to learn a computer to understand

tho however if shes wanting to do word processing...have to say get her a netbook...keyboards are far easier to type on to me than a touch screen.

I say the iPad as well, for the listed functions from the op. You can use a keyboard with the iPad and it works very well, with no lag or delay. 2 options, using the wireless bluetooth keyboard or the keyboard dock. You can print as well from the iPad. The iPad has pages (apples version of word), numbers (apples version of excel) and keynote (apples version of powerpoint) and they run very very well, not just light versions of the desktop versions.

Also the iPad is incredibly simple, my dad, who is the furthest from being tech savvy is using his iPad and enjoying it. I chose the iPad because of its simplicity, but its still a powerful device capable of a lot.

 

[tlarkin]

Take her to an Apple store and have her demo an iPad, then take her to best buy or what not and have her demo a netbook. There is really no right or wrong answer, only preference.

 

[Quiltface]

is "numbers" compatible with excel... i mean if you make a spreadsheet in excel and open it in numbers (and vice versa) are you going to get a bunch of formula or macro errors?

 

[tlarkin]

is "numbers" compatible with excel... i mean if you make a spreadsheet in excel and open it in numbers (and vice versa) are you going to get a bunch of formula or macro errors?

iWorks is completely compatible with MS Office. Furthermore it outperforms it as MS office is bloated as all hell. I typically use open office more so than MS office, mainly because it performs faster. I also don't need any advanced specific features MS Office may have over Open Office.

Also, MS makes a converter app for the Mac platform, so if an iPad was used the converter app can convert any MS document into an open standard (txt, rft, csv, etc) or into any version of an MS office file.

 

[Quiltface]

I only ask because going from MSO to OO isn't exactly smooth.

 

[tlarkin]

I only ask because going from MSO to OO isn't exactly smooth.

We just migrated to office 2011 and while it takes forever for my Mac/PC to load Office, once it loads it seems to run OK. However, it runs so slow that I hate it when I get any office attachment in an email that could have been just an rtf file instead and opened up in my super fast plain text editor.

 

[Quiltface]

i dont want to steer this too off topic but i can honestly say that MSoffice loads fine for me... I just did excel... loaded in like 2 seconds. maybe its mac version of office? Now to steer it back... your saying that if i open up an excel document in numbers i wont have to reformat anything to get it to look right?

 

[Thunderdome]

is "numbers" compatible with excel... i mean if you make a spreadsheet in excel and open it in numbers (and vice versa) are you going to get a bunch of formula or macro errors?

Never had an issues, though I dont work with numbers, so cant say. But if Keynote and Pages are any indication then it should be no problem.

Also agree with tlarkin, it comes down to personal preference. Its really dumb when people just pick a side of the computing world (apple vs windows). Use what works best for you, for some its Apple (me) for others its Windows, and for a select few its Linux. So let her try both and see what best works for her, that seems like the easiest solution to get the right product for her needs.

 

[tlarkin]

i dont want to steer this too off topic but i can honestly say that MSoffice loads fine for me... I just did excel... loaded in like 2 seconds. maybe its mac version of office? Now to steer it back... your saying that if i open up an excel document in numbers i wont have to reformat anything to get it to look right?

It depends on the file you are opening and it I notice it running sluggish on my PC at home as well (which runs windows) but I am used to extremely light weight text editors as I barely use MS Office or Adobe products really. Which seem sluggish and bloated to me, but that is probably because I don't ever use such products when compared to other or most users.

 

[Quiltface]

Never had an issues, though I dont work with numbers, so cant say. But if Keynote and Pages are any indication then it should be no problem.

Also agree with tlarkin, it comes down to personal preference. Its really dumb when people just pick a side of the computing world (apple vs windows). Use what works best for you, for some its Apple (me) for others its Windows, and for a select few its Linux. So let her try both and see what best works for her, that seems like the easiest solution to get the right product for her needs.

well spreadsheets are a lot pickier than a word document type of thing because of all the formulas and what not.

I dont think this is necessarily a apple vs windows thing more of a netbook vs tablet thing.

But your right, personal preference... tablets have their place IMO but i dont know if i could do large spreadsheets on one i would have to put it on a pc and then transfer it to the tablet to look at on the go.