Dell's comment is odd because his company offers a variety of netbooks, including several with tiny 10-inch screens he seems to hold in disdain. It's not every day that a CEO badmouths his company's wares. Dell may be right that a mini-note can't replace a high-end laptop, but I doubt many, if any, netbook buyers assume it can. Rather, they choose a netbook because it's cheap, lightweight, easy to carry, and does everything they ask of it.

Would a $299 Dell Mini 10v outperform a $1,799 Dell Alienware M17x? Of course not. And anyone trading down from a 17-inch display and full-size keyboard to a Mini 10v would be miserable. The ergonomic and performance compromises would be too great.

But the netbook is often a step up from that other Web-browsing gizmo favored by travelers: the smartphone. Despite recent improvements in mobile interfaces, most notably the touchscreen, smartphones offer a lousy Web experience. There's too much resizing, zooming, and dragging, and many pages don't render correctly. Given a choice, I'd prefer a netbook, particularly when traveling.

It's wrong to lump all netbooks together and imply that they're junk. While some bargain systems are indeed crappy, others like the new offer some interesting innovations such as 3G broadband and 12 hours of usage time (although I'm skeptical about the battery life claim).