As I posted about several weeks ago, laptop's share in the computer market is steadily increasing. But not only are their numbers increasing, but the variety and diversity among "laptops" is increasing as well. Now you see terms like netbooks, notebooks, laptops, and tablets. What do all these mean, and what are the differences and similarities between them? Let's start with the easy ones.
Notebook - As far as I know notebook is merely another name for laptop. The two terms are used interchangeably.
Tablet - A tablet is a portable computer which is all screen and no keyboard. For example the iPad and HP's Slate are both tablets. Tablet computers should always have a touch screen and probably some form of handwriting recognition. To muddy the waters a little there are computers which can be either a tablet or a laptop. They are laptop computers (including keyboards), but optionally the screen can be turned and closed to cover the keyboard and become a tablet.
Netbook - Netbook is the newest category of portable computer. What differentiates a netbook from a notebook has been changing slightly over the years. When they were first released, a netbook always had a smaller screen (8" - 9"), an Intel Atom CPU, and at most 1 GB of RAM. What's interesting to note is the 1GB of RAM limitation which is still in affect is not a hardware restriction, it's a Microsoft restriction. Before Microsoft would license their OSes on these machines they placed a restriction of at most 1 GB of RAM. I know this was originally to justify selling XP instead of Vista, but now that Win7 is out I'm not sure why the 1 GB limit is still in affect. Anyway, those were the first generation of netbooks. But since then the line between netbook and notebook had become less clear. Netbooks screens are up to as large as 10" whereas notebooks are down to 11". Probably the determining factor is the CPU which is still Intel Atom (or Via Nano or AMD Neo). Also, as I said the 1 GB RAM limit is still there.
The proliferation of portable categories is interesting. Neither desktops nor servers has splintered like this, and I wouldn't be surprised if portable computers continue to expand both in numbers and types.
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