Netbook vs Smartphone: The Great Debate:
For the past year I've been drooling over the awesomely small-sized netbooks. I especially appreciate their latest keyboard and netbook lid designs.
So, the above paragraph described my lust for a netbook but now let's look at what I currently own:
For almost a year now, I've owned a BB (Blackberry) Curve 8330. I have a combined voice and data plan from Bell that's $45 plus fees, plus a $15 combo that includes a VM (voicemail), CallerID (which alone would be $7 monthly) and 2000 text messaging where I think I never went over 100 incoming or outgoing texts monthly.
Oh right, the combined $45 voice and data plan consists of the following:
•Weekends are free for incoming and outgoing calls
From Friday night until early Monday morning
•Weekday incoming and outgoing calls at 5pm are free
•Daytime minutes: 250 + 50 monthly
•Web browsing + emails: 500MB monthly
Other than the extra system access fee of $7 monthly, I think it's an okay plan.
My monthly total does come up to $75. But remember that's because I have a combined data and voice plan for $45, a combo of VM, CallerID and 2000 texts for another $15 and a system access fee of about $7. So $67 + taxes (Quebec taxes) equals $77.05 but I think I get a $2 discount because I have my bills sent to me via email instead of snail mail.
Okay, so if I have a Blackberry and I'm satisfied with the service, why would I want a netbook for? Well below I've listed my Pros and Cons of my Blackberry:
Blackberry Pros:
•Instant access to all my email accounts
•Instant Web surfing while standing in line at the store or waiting for someone in the washroom is awesome
•SD card holds almost 4GB of music. Actually I only use 2.7GB for music and I leave the rest open for my Documents
•I love to journal and blog so my Word To Go makes it easy for me to record my thoughts at anytime since I carry my Blackberry everywhere.
•Here's a more obvious reason: To use it like a regular cellphone : D
•The cute cases I can fit on it :D
•I never used it but the Voice Notes to record my professor's lectures. Well, maybe I can use it like a karaoke player! Whoa! I never thought of that! Cool : D
•Whenever my friends or family can't remember a name of a celebrity, TV show, recipe etc, I can look it up instantly!
•I haven't used it but I was told that I could use my BB as a modem to connect to the Internet for a laptop or netbook.
There's probably more reasons but I can't think of any at the moment...
Blackberry Cons:
•People say it makes me anti-social but how can it when I'm using social networks like Facebook? Just joking, I know I can get carried away with it sometimes.
•Lately, I've been wishing that my BB's screen was larger like the iPhone or BB Storm.
•Wish that I had a bluetooth keyboard to use in class. Wait a minute! I have one from my old LifeDrive!!! Maybe it'll work?
•I wish the screen would change orientation when I change the angle like my Canon Powershot does : )
•I wish some of the keyboard shortcuts were more intuitive like my previous Moto (Motorola) Q was.
I think that's it so far but doesn't the Pros definitely outweigh the Cons in quality?
After taking a look at my BB Pros, I noticed that a Netbook would only match the blogging + journalling part that I already do off of my BB. I definitely wouldn't take it shopping. Like why would I waste a bag for the netbook when I would need it to put my purchases in??
And yes, I would use a netbook for surfing the Internet and emails but it wouldn't be instant like how I can just wip out my BB and check my emails while standing in line.
And for my BB Cons, the netbook would only satisfy my issue that I started to have about my BB's screen size.
So I guess the verdict is, just get a BB Storm or another smartphone wth a similar screen size. And since I already have a bluetooth keyboard I should try to sync it with my BB + bring it to school.
I'd also like to hear from you guys + gals about which one would you prefer to use on a portable and daily basis.
Til next post, take care and have a Happy New Year : )
P.S: Just Google "Netbooks vs. Smartphones and you'll find a bunch of pages discussing the topic.