A NetBook vs. an eBook

[The Old Man]

I wonder if we really need or want an eBook?

I recently bought an Asus NetBook from Amazon, model 1005HA, and I am beginning to think my purchase of the Sony Touch 600 was a mistake. Here are my Cons, Neutrals and Pros comparing an eBook (my Sony but any model you think best) and my NetBook.

Cons:
The NetBook is heavier, about 3 pounds compared to 11 oz for the Reader.

Thicker, about 1 ½ inches compared to ¾ inch for the Reader in its lighted case.

The NetBook is 3 inches by 1 inch (width/length) bigger than the Reader.

The battery life on the Asus is advertised at 10 hours but actually is a good 7 plus, while the Reader is good for many days – depending… If I am going to be gone for more than 1 day I must carry the power supply. I could be gone for several days without the power supply for the Reader. But, if you are also taking a laptop computer this item becomes a pro, not a con.

Neutral:
Readability – the eBook uses “ink” while the NetBook is backlit. I have now used both and am neutral on this item but your opinion may vary and probably does. Remember, the brightness is adjustable on the NetBook.

Holding/Reading/Page turning - I hold the Asus on my lap or if I plan on doing any typing on a table. The Sony I can hold in one and or two hands. Actual page turning is neutral in my opinion but this is dependent on which program I am running on the Asus. I give it a neutral.

The Reader is great in sunlight, poor in dim lighting conditions. The Asus just the opposite. As I read more indoors it is a plus for the NetBook but your reading may be more outdoors.

Both have a flash drive slot.

Pros:
With the Asus I have a real computer with a real keyboard. I can do everything you do with a computer including typing this, sending email, playing games, surfing the Internet and reading MobileRead forums.

With eBook reading programs from Calibre, Amazon, Sony, Barns & Noble, MobiPocket and TomeRaider I can download any format book, buying from whom I like, getting the lowest price available and read it with no conversion.

PDF, DOC, HTML, etc. books read as normal, with no conversion, scrolling down, or PgDn key to view the entire page.

There is color!

I get less reflection from the NetBook screen than from the eBook.

There are USB ports to add stuff.

With the mouse (touchpad) you actually have a touch screen.

I find I spend much less time transferring reading material from my computer to the eBook. Actually no time as there is no conversion. I download to the Asus and read it in the program that matches the download. The only time spent is when I must transfer items from my desktop to the NetBook.

I can copy and past to my own notes using the program I want as much as I want, adding pictures or diagrams as I want.

I use a Bible program quite a bit (eSword is a free download) and it is thousands of times better than any Bible program I’ve seen for an eBook. I imagine this is true for any reference program you may use frequently.

I have a dictionary and a spellchecker.

With wireless available I have the entire Internet for reference.

If traveling I want my NetBook with me. I don’t need to take the Reader except if I can’t get to a power supply (mains) in a day or so. Why bother taking both computer and Reader when one will suffice?

I can buy, carry and self-install a spare battery for the Asus. I can’t for the Sony Reader.

To sum up:

The biggest, and in my opinion, the only drawback in the NetBook is the limitation of the battery. If you can live with charging the battery every day or two the NetBook has all the advantages.

[ziegl027]

I can't make a direct comparison as I do not yet have an e-reader, but a big problem I have found with using my touch-screen mini-laptop (Fujitsu 1510d which is, granted, a bit elderly at 2 years) as a reader is the time it takes to either boot up from a cold start or even come out of standby. Sometimes a meeting would be just about over before I could lay eyes on the document I needed or have access to the "notepad" type function. Just leaving it on was not an option because of the battery life issues, even with the larger battery option I got for it.

It also runs uncomfortably warm, so unless I use a lap desk of some kind, it's not suited for prolonged reading in a chair.

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by ziegl027

I can't make a direct comparison as I do not yet have an e-reader, but a big problem I have found with using my touch-screen mini-laptop (Fujitsu 1510d which is, granted, a bit elderly at 2 years) as a reader is the time it takes to either boot up from a cold start or even come out of standby. Sometimes a meeting would be just about over before I could lay eyes on the document I needed or have access to the "notepad" type function. Just leaving it on was not an option because of the battery life issues, even with the larger battery option I got for it.

It also runs uncomfortably warm, so unless I use a lap desk of some kind, it's not suited for prolonged reading in a chair.

True! I should have listed that as a "con" for the Netbook. The Reader is almost an instant on. I think I overlooked that because when I use the NetBook I generally plan on a lengthy use, not a quick look-up.

The Asus gets only slightly warm to the touch and the fan cannot be heard.

[rcuadro]

I think that if you are going to use a netbook as a laptop it is a no brainer to use it as an eReader. Especially since you can use programs like Calibre, Sony eBook Library, and Amazon PC reader to read books. You can use pretty much any source for your books and have them with you. No need to worry about converting or compatibility. Not to mention that the netbooks can also be your mp3 player, picture viewer... hell, pretty much everything a dedicted reder cannot be or cannot do adequately.... and you are lugging around one device.

However, if you do not carry the netbook around all the time an ereader is the way to go and the smaller the better. I am actually thinking about the Sony PRS300. That thing is to little!

[poshm]

For many people I suspect a netbook as an ereader as well is fine. If you can put up with the shorter battery life and are able to read from the screen with no problems then it has many advantages.

I can't read from an LCD screen for too long and have pretty bad eyesight as it is. And the massive plus of the Sony reader is the battery life which can last between 1-2 weeks at a time.

If I was traveling, I'd take my ereader and iPod touch for Internet / email and music. I used to take my eee pc but I wouldn't consider that now.

It all depends what you want from the hardware I guess.

[=X=]

I think all your points are valid and the only thing you can do is way those pros and cons to see what is of value to you.

For me portability and battery life is key, while the netbooks are small and easy to port, they are not as convenient as an eBook reader. See I'm more of an opportunistic reader, I just don't have a lot of time to sit at home and read. Having the reader with me I can quickly sneak in a few pages when there is down time.
I have a PRS-505 and carrying it in my back pocket is something I could never do with a netbook.

However right now the eInk experience is no where near as rich as reading on a PC. The GUI are just so much more efficient and the software to read is just so much more powerful. If you read mostly at home and heavily annotate I don't think there will be an ereader that will compete. I think the eInk reader market still have a lot of maturing to do, it's still in its infancy and as the devices grow. Your one of the few people that read eBooks similar to me which is mainly for learning and not leisure. And I feel that most eInk are still lacking. For us maybe Microsoft next ebook reader might just be the sweet spot, though they are not calling it an ereader.

However on an aside, most of the stuff you talked about being able to do on your netbook I can also do on my BlackBerry. Maybe buying the netbook was the mistake

[menevets]

If you don't have something to put between a netbook and lap, it could get very uncomfortable as some netbooks get very hot.

I definitely think economically, in times like these, the netbook comes out way out ahead. For the same price or a hundred or so dollars more, you get a real computer.

I'm guessing one day, netbooks will have battery life comparable with ebooks and an e-ink screen mode and the ereader will be a small niche market, but that's a long way off.

[Hellmark]

I have a Lenovo S10e, and it doesn't run too hot to keep in my lap. My stepdad's 15" laptop runs WAY hotter.

This summer, I got both an ebook reader and the netbook. They really serve different purposes, and reading on the netbook isn't nearly as nice, due to the size and layout of the screen (For instance, the stock settings for Kindle for PC makes things really short and squatty looking, with tons of whitespace on the sides). I carry my netbook pretty much everywhere with me, for school and work, and my bag has a pounch that works great for keeping my 505 in as well.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

This summer, I got both an ebook reader and the netbook. They really serve different purposes, and reading on the netbook isn't nearly as nice, due to the size and layout of the screen (For instance, the stock settings for Kindle for PC makes things really short and squatty looking, with tons of whitespace on the sides). I carry my netbook pretty much everywhere with me, for school and work, and my bag has a pounch that works great for keeping my 505 in as well.

Full agreement. I love reading novels, poetry, non-fiction on my ebooks, but hate it on my computer or netbook.

Ebook is useable anywhere for days at a time and feels, acts, appears, works just like a book, the netbook feels, acts, appears, works just like a computer. I tried reading in bed with my netbook just before I got my first ebook reader and which it was possible, it just wasn't really usable.

[The Old Man]

Interesting comments by all and with valid points.

I will reply briefly. The Asus gets only warm on one side at the bottom. Not hot or uncomfortable to hold.

The time from a complete shutdown to a completed boot is 60 seconds. There would be another 15 seconds or so until you can return to the same place in the book you were reading. This is a definite plus for a Reader.
The time from the "sleep" mode is only 15 seconds but I do not leave the Asus in that mode very often.

I find it easier to read in bed (when it's dark) with the netbook. Too much glare on the Reader's screen. perhaps it's my lighting situation.

Poetry was mentioned: I have found that very few files in eBook format have poetry properly formatted. I'm a great fan of Robert Service and I have all his poems in HTML correctly formatted as originally published. I have yet to find an ebook format that is correct. I uploaded a couple that I made with Calibre (ltf) and they are close, but not perfect.

[GhostHawk]

For me, my jet book is only 7 ounces, battery life is 20 hours. So even on the most intense book or series of books ever, I get at least 2 full days before I need to recharge.

True netbook does have a bigger screen, but whats it like reading from it for 10 hours straight?

[EowynCarter]

Well, the things I love about e-reader
1 ) Don't make my eyes suffer
2 ) Light and small
3 ) Battery.

Point 1 and 2 , mainly, are the reson i won't consider using a netbook to read. And my cybook is always on, no boot time or anything.

[GA Russell]

Is there a program which will allow the display of the text on the netbook to switch from landscape to portrait mode?

If so, would the reading experience be more like reading a book, and therefore more pleasant?

[kennyc]

Poetry need precise formatting.

It generally is not going to work will with autoconverted books and does not work well with auto-formatting.

Few poetry books seem to be available as ebooks in any case though.

[phenomshel]

Interesting thread, as I just got a netbook a week ago. I love it for reading, for all the pros that The Old Man mentioned. I take it to bed with me, it doesn't get too warm on the bottom, and yes, I can read for ten hours on an LCD screen. I *do* read mainly for leisure, but I'm still a heavy reader and have been known to polish off two paperback sized mysteries in one day. Battery life really isn't an issue for me - I have outlets everywhere I need them, and the one cord doesn't ever get in my way. I love the ability to check Fantastic Fiction's site for the book order when I'm choosing my next book to read in a series. I also don't find that the "short, squatty" view bothers me.
The drawback I'm finding, is that I like to read while waiting on my husband to get out of work at either 11 p.m. or 1 a.m. I don't think the LCD is going to like sub freezing temps that much this winter. I didn't get my EZ Reader til February last year, and didn't take it out in those temperatures either. I think that's pretty much just something with any electronics. I keep my BlackBerry in an inside coat pocket next to my body in the winter.

That being said: I still want something with a tablet form factor. And I don't mean the "convertible" kinds where the screen flips back on itself. I want a true tablet, no keyboard, but still wireless/internet capable, and with the hardware to back it up. I'd even be willing to take a chance on a dual screen setup like the proposed Microsoft Courier device. At this point in time, the Archos 9 comes closest; but it's still short in the hardware department, in my opinion. I'm hoping whatever Microsoft ends up releasing will end up being closer to what I'm looking for.