I’ve been bitten by the netbook craze lately. Well, aren’t we all? It’s especially tempting for serious bloggers who often find themselves blogging on the road. I don’t really fit that description but I do marvel at the prospect of having an ultra-lightweight, mini notebook tucked in my bag.

I know my husband too is looking forward to get his hands on one. He easily gets bored following us around when we’re out shopping and wish he could sit down for a cup of coffee while browsing the web. We do have a notebook, a dinosaur-class IBM R50e which easily weights thrice as heavy as the biggest netbook. It is simply a hassle to lug that weight around on a casual day out.

Though I really wish to buy a netbook these days, my husband talked me out of it and told me to hang on. He reasoned that Intel’s Atom CPU that powers top of the range netbooks these days are still pretty weak. I’m not with him on this one though, coz the CPU is perfectly up to common tasks meant for netbooks - blogging, music, watching videos (not hi-def 1080p of coz), browsing the web, emailing, internet messaging etc. Gaming and watching hi-def 1080p movies are best left to higher end desktop computers and 42′ LCD TVs don’t you think so? Therefore, CPU is not a limiting factor when buying a netbook if you know what it is build for.

Among his other reasons, I do agree with battery lifespan concerns. A netbook is all about convenience. Carrying a power plug, or looking around for a power outlet whenever you need to browse the web is not exactly convenient. How long the battery last under normal use, for me, is an important consideration when choosing a netbook. No less than 6-cell batteries.

Other miscellaneous requirements would be sufficient laptop memory, a comfortably sized keyboard and a 10 inch screen. Oh yea, there are reports that in the near future, netbooks will spot touchscreen interface. Nothing annoys me more than a mousepad so that is really one of best feature to put into netbooks/notebooks as far as I’m concern. It is one feature definitely worth waiting for.