With their compact size and competent specs, netbooks make for ideal travel companions. As the performance of netbooks continues to improve, they have found favor with different kinds of people like business professionals who travel frequently, college students who need to take their netbooks to campus everyday, or just about anybody looking for a lighter alternative to the laptop. In fact, people have started buying netbooks merely for the purpose of travelling and not just long distance trips. It is a common sight to see people working on their netbooks in a bus or in a subway train or even in a cafe.

What to look for in a netbook?

While looking for a netbook, the criteria are markedly different from a laptop. For one, you will have to lower your expectation in terms of technical specs. After all, there is only as much as a small netbook can offer. Among other things, look for a good battery life since you will be using a netbook on the go. Additionally, check if a netbook has sufficient number of USB ports, an HDMI port, a full sized keyboard and a competitive processor.

Which are the best netbooks as of now?

Taking into account all these criteria, we have put together a list of some of the most impressive netbooks available as of now:

1. Asus Eee PC 1015PN – The Asus netbook boasts of a dual core 1.5GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive and a 10.1-inch display. The USP of this netbook is the Nvidia Ion Graphic card which translates to better video and audio performance. Hence, the netbook is good for much more than just typing e-mails while you are travelling. You can also use it to watch a movie, listen to music or play some games.

2. Acer Aspire One D270 – This netbook from Acer ships with a dual core 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive. The display size is standard i.e. 10.1 inches and the netbook has multiple USB 2.0 ports along with Blutetooth 4.1. With this model, Acer decided to focus on the core features of a netbook. Hence, even if it doesn’t have any extraordinary features, it does function well as a traditional netbook.

3. Toshiba NB 550D – This netbook from Toshiba makes the switch from Atom to AMD processor. It performs much better than an average netbook with improved graphic features. On the flip side, the memory is rather low (1GB) for the performance it delivers and the battery life isn’t that impressive either.

4. Acer Aspire One Happy 2 – The Acer Aspire One Happy 2 instantly catches your attention due to its design and vibrant colors. It operates on an Atom processor and runs on Windows 7 Starter edition. At the same time, you can also use Android 2.3.1 on this netbook. So, if you want to use the netbook to finish a quick, easy task, you can use the Android version. Alternatively, if you want to do some serious work, you can revert to the Windows OS.