"On the left is the Asus 1000 with a 10-inch screen; on the right, an Acer Aspire One with an 8.9-inch screen. Clearly, the difference between small and really small is significant.
"Oh, and a possible third key comparison: the battery. The joy of these units is their toss-'em-in-your-bag portability, and a 6-cell battery marches a whole lot further than a 3-cell.
"Although $399 is a popular benchmark, cost varies based on the usual options like hard drive and RAM. As netbooks have evolved from hobbyist's novelty to must-own unit for professional/student, they’re just a ghost of their former selves. The lowly 7-inch Asus kicked off the trend in '07, but now Dell and HP let you lather on the luxuries. Have credit card, will travel. So you can spend up to $700 on a mini, enough to buy a nice full-size notebook.
"Or, you can stay true to the netbook ethic and buy cheap. One way to do this is to choose Linux rather than Windows XP. Finding the Linux option might take a tad more shopping, but it's out there, and you'll shave a nice piece of coin off the total price. (Here's a discussion of Windows XP vs. Linux on the netbook.)"
