7.2. Personal: Hand-held Devices

Hand-held devices are not going to replace desktops and laptops (yet). However, many have these as secondary devices and they excel for taking to class or on trips.

Netbooks [src]

Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, and inexpensive laptop computers with a low-end processor, intended primarily for use with Internet (or cloud) applications.

The current generation of netbooks appeared in late 2007 as smaller notebooks (which is a thin laptop) optimized for low weight and low cost. The netbooks omitted certain features typical on a full-sized laptop (e.g., the optical drive), featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing power. Over the course of their evolution, netbooks have ranged in size from below 5 inch screen diagonal to 12 inch. A typical weight is 2 - 3 pounds (1 Kg). Often significantly less expensive than other laptops, by mid-2009, some wireless data carriers began to offer netbooks to users "free of charge", with an extended service contract purchase. (PCWorld article.)

In the short period since their appearance, netbooks have grown in size and features, now converging with new smaller, lighter notebooks and subnotebooks. By August 2009, when comparing a Dell netbook to a Dell notebook, CNET called netbooks "nothing more than smaller, cheaper notebooks," noting, "the specs are so similar that the average shopper would likely be confused as to why one is better than the other," and "the only conclusion is that there really is no distinction between the devices."[*] Initially offered with compact versions of Linux or the end-of-lifed Windows XP, netbooks now typically use Windows 10.

If you are looking in this category, you need to check out Chromebooks and compare to Tablets and MacBook air/Ultrabooks (discussed below).

MacBook Air & Ultrabooks [src]

The MacBook Air family is a line of Apple ultraportable Macintosh notebook computers. These devices might best be viewed as being between laptops and netbooks in terms of computing power (and typically size & weight).

In 2010, Apple released a redesigned 13.3" model, with a new lighter enclosure, higher resolution screen, higher capacity battery, and flash storage instead of a hard drive. In addition, an 11.6" model was released for the first time, offering reduced cost, weight, battery life, and performance relative to the 13.3" model, but better performance than typical netbooks.

As of 2013, all Apple MacBook Air models have solid state drives.

The Ultrabook is Intel's answer to the MacBook Air.

Tablets [src]

A tablet computer is a thin, flat mobile computer with a (usually color) touchscreen display, processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single device. Tablets often come equipped with sensors, including digital cameras, a microphone, and an accelerometer, so that images on screens are always displayed upright. The touchscreen display uses the recognition of finger or stylus gestures to replace the mouse, trackpad and keyboard used in laptops.

Tablets are typically smaller than netbooks, but larger than smartphones with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally. However much of a tablet's functionality resembles that of a modern smartphone, like having a virtual keyboard or running a dedicated 'mobile' operating system.

Traditional Tablets based on IBM-PC architecture

A tablet personal computer (tablet PC) is a portable personal computer equipped with a touchscreen as a primary input device, and running a (modified) classic desktop OS designed to be operated and owned by an individual. The term was made popular as a concept presented by Microsoft in 2000 and 2001, but tablet PCs now refer to any tablet-sized personal computer regardless of the (desktop) operating system.

Tablet personal computers are mainly x86 based and are fully functional personal computers employing a slightly modified personal computer OS (such as Windows or Ubuntu Linux) supporting their touch-screen, instead of a traditional display, mouse and keyboard. A typical tablet personal computer needs to be stylus driven, because operating the desktop based OS requires a high precision to select GUI widgets, such as the close window button.

Tablets not based on the traditional PC architecture

Since mid-2010, new tablet computers with mobile operating systems forgo the Wintel paradigm, have a different interface instead of the traditional desktop OS and have created a new type of computing device. These mobile OS tablet computer devices are normally finger driven and use multi-touch, capacitive touch screens instead of the simple resistive touchscreens of typical stylus driven systems.

First of these was the iPad with the iOS operating system. Samsung Galaxy Tab and others continue the common trend towards multi-touch and other natural user interface features, as well as flash memory solid-state storage drives, and 2-second warm-boot times; also a standard external USB keyboard can be used. Most often their OS is a Unix-like OS, such as Darwin, Linux or QNX. Some have 3G mobile telephony capabilities.

In foregoing the x86 precondition (a requisite of Windows compatibility), some tablets use a version of an ARM architecture processor for longer battery life versus battery weight, heretofore used in portable equipment (e.g., MP3 players and cell phones). Especially with the introduction of the ARM Cortex family, this architecture is now powerful enough for tasks such as Internet browsing, light production work and gaming.

Smart Phones [src]

A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone (i.e. a modern low-end phone). A smart phone combines the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile phone. Today's models typically also serve as portable media players and camera, have a high-resolution touchscreen, GPS navigation, Wi-Fi and mobile broadband access. In many cases, today's smartphone has simply replaced these disparate (older) technologies.

A smartphone runs a complete mobile operating system. Widespread examples are Apple iOS, Google Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian, Research In Motion BlackBerry OS, and embedded Linux distributions such as Maemo. Such systems can be installed on many different phone models. They can run third-party applications, using an application programming interface (API).

Growth in demand for advanced mobile devices boasting powerful processors and graphics processing units, abundant (flash) memory, high-resolution screens with multi-touch capability, and open operating systems has out paced the rest of the mobile phone market for years.

Mobile OS [src]

A mobile operating system, also known as a mobile OS, a mobile platform, or a handheld operating system, is the operating system that controls a mobile device or information appliance – similar in principle to an operating system such as Windows, Mac OS, or Linux that controls a desktop computer or laptop. However, they are currently somewhat simpler, and deal more with the wireless versions of broadband and local connectivity, mobile multimedia formats, and different input methods.

Typical examples of devices running a mobile operating system are smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers and information appliances, or what are sometimes referred to as smart devices, which may also include embedded systems, or other mobile devices and wireless devices.

SmartWatches [src]

My newest addition to personal devices isn't exactly hand-held... A smartwatch is a computerized wristwatch with functionality that goes beyond timekeeping. While early models can perform basic tasks, such as calculations, translations, and game-playing, 2010s smartwatches are effectively wearable computers. Many run mobile apps, using a mobile operating system. Some smartwatches function as portable media players, with FM radio and playback of digital audio and video files via a Bluetooth or USB headset. Some models, also called 'watch phones', feature full mobile phone capability, and can make or answer phone calls or text messages.

While internal hardware varies, most have an electronic visual display, either backlit LCD or OLED. Some use transflective or electronic paper, to consume less power. Most have a rechargeable battery and many have a touchscreen. Peripheral devices may include digital cameras, thermometers, accelerometers, altimeters, barometers, compasses, GPS receivers, tiny speakers, and SD card (that are recognized as a storage device by a computer).

Software may include digital maps, schedulers and personal organizers, calculators, and various kinds of watch faces. The watch may communicate with external devices such as sensors, wireless headsets, or a heads-up display. Like other computers, a smartwatch may collect information from internal or external sensors and it may control, or retrieve data from, other instruments or computers. It may support wireless technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. For many purposes, a "wristwatch computer" serves as a front end for a remote system such as a smartphone, communicating with the smartphone using various wireless technologies. Smartwatches are advancing, especially their design, battery capacity, and health related applications.

[*] Ogg, Erica (August 20, 2009). "Time to drop the Netbook label". CNN.