5 Essential Accessories for Netbooks
By its nature, a netbook should be compact and lightweight. We willingly sacrifice a certain degree of functionality for the convenience of portability because, for most people, a netbook is not their primary computer.
Netbooks work best as a highly mobile secondary device and as such shouldn’t be encumbered by bulky accessories. In most cases, users are content with Internet and email access, and don’t need additional amenities like a widescreen monitor.
Technological advances have successfully married convenience to simplicity so sacrifices to the overall experience are limited.
For those netbook users who want to bring along a little of the desktop computing experience without giving up mobility, here are the top 5 essential accessories for netbooks:
Memory Upgrade – Netbooks generally come with only about 1 GB of memory. As most anyone knows, that isn’t much when running today’s technology, even if you’re not a gamer. For less than $40, purchase a 2 GB memory upgrade to boost the machine’s performance. The difference will be immediately noticeable.
Speakers – While certainly speakers wouldn’t be appropriate in a café setting, I can think of numerous occasions where netbook speakers would come in extremely handy. Advances made over recent years have taken once-bulky speaker technology and rendered it completely compact, so there really is no reason not to have a set.
Mini-hub – Most netbooks come with only three USB ports. A mini-hub can add an additional four USB ports to the netbook’s capacity. But even if you don’t need that many ports, a portable hub can assist where some netbooks have spacing problems that prevent all of the internal ports from being used at the same time and thus limiting connectivity.
Wireless Mouse – For all the convenience and computability of netbooks, one drawback is the track pad that is used instead of mouse-type devices desktop computers rely on. A wireless mouse adds an ergonomic element as well that can help prevent repetitive stress injuries.
External Hard Drive – If you use your netbook while mobile and need to transfer data to other devices or a desktop machine, an external drive is a good option. It also comes in handy for backing up data to prevent unexpected losses.
Of course, there are many more accessories available for netbooks. How many of those items improve the experience without taking away from mobility is up to individual. But it’s nice to know there are products available to enrich the experience.
