Netbook or laptop...how do you define the difference?

Since it is said there's no such thing as a stupid question, here's a question.....where do you draw the line between laptop and netbook? Is it screen size, is it whether or not it has a CD/DVD drive?

I had always associated the term with the 10.1" screen portables, until I bought one with a lovely 12.1" 1,366x768 screen.....but I've seen models with that size screen classified as "thin-and-light" laptops.....so what gives? Is it all just a matter of opinion?
(I know in the grand scheme of things this question isn't that important, hence my posting it here in Chillout)

mickey megabyte said:

the lo-power atom cpu is important i think, giving oodles of battery life...

the real question is "what's the difference between a laptop and a notebook?"

A notebook has paper with blue lines in it and you use a pen to write on it, a laptop is a small portable computer.. sorry had to say it.

As for the start of this thread I the netbooks are great if you have a long bus ride into work every day due to the small size and long battery life.

i guess the presence of an optical drive (and mickey megabyte's point of the intel atom processor) are really the only things that define them nowadays (other than the screen size, but as you mention a 12.1" netbook (i guess), that would make Steve Jobs very unhappy about his whole 'the new MacBook Air is NOT a netbook. we see no point' )

yeah, that's a good point about the hard drive. most nowadays are 160GB, but one of my friend's was an early adopter and got one with an 8GB hard drive (i don't think it was an SSD, doubt it, but can't remember). and yeah, also true with the RAM unfortunately. sure, 2GB of RAM on a high end netbook is fine for some, but I want to see one with something better than an atom, but then they start edging towards the notebook side of things :/

I bought a tablet instead of a netbook or ultraportable. I just can't personally justify 2 laptops. But a tablet also has a lot of perks a netbook/ultraportable doesn't. :)
I define a laptop as a more powerful system that you use for productivity and creating things as a workhorse system. I netbook is more for just internet and listening to music.

good point
admittedly I do have two almost identical HP ZV5000 laptops (2005), but I only bought the second as it was something I already trusted but needed to be a bit better (CPU and graphics).
yeah, I have to agree, only about 1% of my possible scenarios for needing an ultra-portable device that my laptop nor Windows Mobile phone can cope with, I need a netbook for. All the rest could easily be filled with a tablet or nothing

Well, for perspective's sake...here are the specs of my netbook/laptop.


ASUS Eee PC 1215P
Intel Atom N550 dual-core(1.50GHz) Processor(it is an Atom, but dual -core and hyper-threading)
12.1" WXGA (1366x768) LED Display, Intel GMA 3150 graphics
1GB DDR3 Memory, 250GB Hard Drive (5,400 RPM but it scored a 5.8 WEI), High-speed 802.11n, 6-Cell Battery (47 W/h) for up to 8 Hours of Battery Life, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1

Supposedly I can upgrade the 1GB to a 2GB stick but that is it....but I added a 4GB Class 10 SDHC card for Readyboost use and it does help. I don't play games with it but it plays 720p videos nicely and the screen looks very nice. There is no optical drive.

I don't need it to be powerful.....anything heavy duty I would do on the desktop anyways.