Here’s the quick and dirty definition from a WSJ article announcing Samsung’s intent to sell PCs in the US:

“Netbooks are low-cost portable PCs that offer Internet capabilities.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122397425628732157.html?mod=testMod

A netbook is what the marketers and consumers make it, not journalists. The 2133 is a great example. If it’s not a netbook, then what is it? Mine has more resolution, has bluetooth, runs Vista just fine and costs more than the article assumes.

A netbook is widely accepted to be a companion device that prefers portability and price over size and power. The real problem is that we don’t really need the netbook name at all. WE already had “subnotebook” which described the class well enough already. All that’s happened is that subnotebook has been replaced by netbook to make us think this whole genre is actually something new, which of course it isn’t.

Gordon

I haven’t read the article and haven’t spent much time on the philosophy of netbooks.

But price seems the wrong criteria. If $500 is the barrier, that makes my HP 2133 a non-Netbook… so what is it? Oh, wait… HP recently dropped the price, right? Does that mean it now *is* a netbook? And is my particular device (which was sold for more than $500) excluded, or does the new label now apply to it, too?

DuPlori, you’re right at the end of the day it doesn’t matter much. The problem is that once a term like netbooks comes into universal use then we have to at least make sure that when it’s used it reflects what we expect it to. Some people have even called $1000+ notebooks netbooks which confuses some folks.

well after reading the article i know why you are pimping it out.

in all seriousness though, i think all you guys in the media care WAY too much about defining this category and just dont realize to the rest of us (who’s life consist of more than computers) it just doesnt matter. you can call it whatever the hell you want, but just tell me the specs – size, weight, screen/rez, CPU, RAM, etc.