Something I planned to do, but never got around to it, was to start doing virtual reviews of all the netbooks that are out there. I don't want to review other types of laptops (notebooks and other weird laptop configurations, like the kind with swivel displays) because they're supposed to be desktop computer replacements. Not only that, but there's just way too many of them. There are more than enough netbooks to keep me busy until they're no longer sold as such.

Virtual Reviews as Opposed to Hands-On Reviews

One of the problems with living away from a big city, especially here in the Philippines, is the inability to get my hands on a large assortment of anything. Going to Manila or any of the other large cities on a regular basis would get very expensive very quickly and that isn't good considering my limited, fixed budget.

I know what to look for in a netbook and I think everyone considering purchasing one should know as well. I can virtually examine the specifications of just about any netbook and suggest whether a person should buy it or pass on it.

Netbook Ratings

The only problem I really have is that I don't have a large review site where commenters will find a particular review and give their own opinions. At least, not yet.

Setting up a ratings scale, even if it's only my own, should be pretty straight forward, right? It's something I need to map out over the next day or two, but there are some things I already think I should be looking for, in no particular order:

• Display Size
• Minimum Resolution
• Installed Memory Size
• Drive Storage Capacity
• Processor Type
• Processor Speed
• Installed Operating System
• Price

I plan to put the ratings scale at the bottom of each review and where I rate a particular netbook, but I'm not sure how I'll display it. It's something I have to think about.

Not Only Netbook Reviews

No, I won't be turning this into a review-only blog. I find any kind of review to be tedious and boring after I've done a few. I plan to space them out by days, if not by articles about something else in between the reviews.

The only way to remain objective is to do every review as if it's the first one and that simply can't be done if I do them back to back, day after day. Anyway… I won't write another preparatory article like this when I start doing them. I'll just start.

Update 2010-02-10:

After a great deal of thought, I've decided that I can't rate netbooks. I can't rate them against each other because they're shipped with too many different configurations. One netbook model, for example, may be shipped with either an Intel Atom N270 or N280 CPU. It could have an 8 GB solid state drive or a 160 GB hard disk drive installed. There are too many variables to consider.

The best thing I can do is write about netbooks as they're introduced to the market, or as I'm requested to do so. I think I'll use "netbooks" as the keyword for searching Google News.

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