Blue Chip Computers supply all leading laptop, netbook and tablet brands available in South Africa. These include HP, Acer, Dell, Apple, Sony, LG, Fujitsu Siemens, Samsung, Gigabyte, Onyx and Lenovo.
We will assist you to select the correct laptop, netbook or tablet to suit you whether it be for home, student or business. The laptops, netbooks and tablets are a lot more affordable nowadays, and with the need to be more mobile there is a lot of demand. Laptops, netbooks and tablets typically come with a 1 year warranty that typically can be extended to 3 years for a nominal fee. Below are some information on the differences between the notebook, netbook and tablet that could assist with your selection of the correct unit.
Laptops
A laptop has most of the same components as a desktop computer, including a display panel, DVD recorder/player, a keyboard, a touchpad, speakers and a microphone. Additional features are USB ports, LAN port, Wireless LAN port, VGA/HDMi output, Bluetooth, Camera and SD card reader.
Laptops use re-chargeable batteries that typically last from 4 to about 12 hours. Additional batteries are sometimes available that replace the DVD recorder so that you get extended life from the batteries.Laptops are aimed at the users who require a product to run typical office applications to high-end users for gaming, design and graphics manipulation. Laptops typically have screen sizes from 15 inch to 17 inch and often weigh more than 1.5kg.
Netbooks
Netbooks are laptops that are light-weight, economical, energy-efficient and especially suited for wireless communication and Internet access. The primary focus of Netbooks is web browsing and e-mailing. They are intended to rely on the internet for web-based applications and are targetted at users using cloud computing. They are typically less powerful and often lack a DVD recorder. The netbook screen is typically between 5 and 14 inches and the netbook weights less than 1.5kg.
Given their size and the use of more rudimentary components compared to notebooks, netbooks also generally have a smaller-capacity hard drive, slower CPU, and a less RAM. Netbooks are typically sold with light-weight operating systems such as Linux and Windows 8 Starter edition which makes them perform better.
Tablets
A tablet computer is a one-piece mobile computer, primarily operated by touchscreen. The touchscreen effectively removes the need for a keyboard and mouse which reduces the size of the device. The keyboard becomes a virtual keyboard which can be displayed on the screen or hidden when not in use. Tablets often have a connector or USB port to connect an external keyboard. Tablets that are bluetooth enabled can utilise wireless bluetooth keyboards.
The typical screen size of a tablet is from about 7 inches to 12.9 inches. Tablets are now coming out with mini USB connectors for data storage and HDMi outputs for data projectors, screens and TVs.
The most well known tablet is the iPad, however there are a number of products available from other suppliers like Acer and Onyx that can cost a lot less and start from about R3000.00. Tablets come with a variety of processors and storage capacity and typically run Windows 8 or Android operating systems with the iPad using the proprietary Apple operating system.
Tablets are ideal for mobile computing and often include word processors, 3G, GPS with street maps and other important mobile computing features. This is ideal for computing on the move without having a bulky device to worry about.
