Netbooks

[Vrecknidj]

I am thinking about getting a netbook. I want something that maximizes usefulness and minimizes cost.

Tell me what to buy.

 

[The Gopher]

Well can you survive with windows starter? Someone bought for me a Emachines netbook for $199 au (Au is higher that the American dollar by about 2c) and it works for what I need but I only have had it for 1 week. So I don't know that much about it

 

[Cogwulf]

I'm on a year old asus 1005ha right now. It was £250 new.
It's quite a capable machine, and newer models have better processors. The power still doesn't compare to a regular PC though. They struggle with HD videos, mine can play some 720p videos and not others, but some new ones have hardware decoding to help with this.
If you try and run anything demanding, or several things at once it may seem a bit slow and sluggish.
Battery life on mine is over 9 hours

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

Alienware m11x

 

[Reluctantly]

Alienware m11x

Oh man, those things are actually out and at a competitive price. I thought that was going to be one of those things that are talked about, but never end up getting produced. Seven hours estimated battery life is amazing on that. And the GPU is very decent for a mainstream GPU. God if those things had a USB3.0 or esata port for backing up data, I don't know why anyone would purchase anything else.

 

[nonperson]

I have owned an NC10 since they first became available. I run Mint8 on it. And I have upgraded it to 2Gbs. It is well built , the Atom processor is OK, and I don't find the keyboard too small. I am very fond of it. But would I buy another netnook? No. Why? 10inch screen isn't big enough. I will never buy a laptop again with a screen under 13inch. (When I buy new laptop later in the year I will probably get a 17" )

 

[Cogwulf]

The 10-inch screen is horrible sometimes, but anything bigger would make it useless for what I bought it for, which is taking notes in lectures.

 

[nonperson]

The 10-inch screen is horrible sometimes, but anything bigger would make it useless for what I bought it for, which is taking notes in lectures.

I tried that once didn't work for me; but that is the reason why I bought it. Here not many students take their laptops to lectures; well for study reasons anyway. In the US it appears laptops in lectures are nearly universal.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

The timeline X series has some pretty decent models with good gpus are at reasonable price.

I think you can pick up a i5, amd 5650, 13" timeline X for $900. I forgot the model number, though I would buy this over a m11x.

 

[Vrecknidj]

The screen size might be an issue -- I'm glad that's been brought up. My current laptop (a work laptop) has a 15" screen and it's nice. I have another laptop, that's painfully slow and has literally no battery life (only works when plugged in), with a 17" monitor and that's crazy.

But, I really just need something for documents, email, and stuff like this. So, 13" is probably sufficient.

Dave

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

I will find the model number and weblink for you.

Edit:

It is the the 'timelinex 3820TG'.

 

[walfin]

I'm not sure if you have computers from Zyrex (http://www.zyrex.com) in the States. They're very cheap.

You could also consider something from viliv (http://www.myviliv.com). Very small.

Kohjinsha produces the smallest netbook with a DVD drive (SX series).

 

[Vrecknidj]

I will find the model number and weblink for you.

Edit:

It is the the 'timelinex 3820TG'.

Out of my current price range. Sadly. Looks like a good machine.

Dave

 

[menaceh2k]

Forget everything you thought you knew. Asus EEE PC.

11hr battery life (oh you want more than that)

250 gig hard-rive (yes gigs)
1 gig memory
dual core atom processor
blue-tooth


packed in a lightweight 10inches netbook...


all hail moore's law
____________________________________________________________________

I got mine last year for 350, if they still make it, it should cost a lot less. make sure you get the one that has 11hr. Apparently there are new models out with better specs. I'm jealous.


http://www.zdnet.com/reviews/filter/laptops?categoryId=3121&filter=1101502_17294757|100021_10446692

 

[Cogwulf]

Forget everything you thought you knew. Asus EEE PC.

11hr battery life (oh you want more than that)

250 gig hard-rive (yes gigs)
1 gig memory
dual core atom processor
blue-tooth


packed in a lightweight 10inches netbook...

Just a few months after I bought mine, the dual core netbooks started appearing. I've been wishing I left it just a little longer before getting one

 

[Cavallier]

Forget everything you thought you knew. Asus EEE PC.

11hr battery life (oh you want more than that)

250 gig hard-rive (yes gigs)
1 gig memory
dual core atom processor
blue-tooth


packed in a lightweight 10inches netbook...

Hmmm...It's difficult to trust since Asus is the lemon of the computer world. I'll have to see if their product reviews have gotten better.

I saw a Toshiba the other day with 300 GB HDD with everything else being the same for about $400. My lappy is crapping out (it's sturdy but it's also 6 years old) and I've already got a nice enough gaming/media computer for more intense computing. It's time for me to get a netbook I think. I've looked at tablets of various sorts but what's the point when most don't output to a printer, output to a tv, or even output to an external hard drive. That's like building a beautiful body and then chopping all it's limbs off. Serviceable but not exactly handy. The netbook is conveniently portable and actually has a HDD worth using.

Now I just need to save up the monies.

Edit: From what I've found you'll need to decide if you want 3G/4G wireless service or not. That alone will be an extra $100. Personally I don't need that since I'll be going from one free internet cafe to the next or just at home. I only need the basic wifi setup.

 

[menaceh2k]

That's a fair assessment of Asus, but they are trying to rebrand themselves. Almost like how vizio is trying to move from cheap hd tv to high-end ones. I say if it has 10 plus hr battery life go for it. That's the main factor i look for in my devices. But I think Asus is trying to make the netbook their niche market. They totaly stepped up last year, when everyone else was releaseing inferior netbooks. I had a dell netbook from a few years back with just 20 gig hardrive and other horrible specs. If what you are telling me it true then other companies are finding value in releasing products with those specs at that price range.

There is about to be an explosion in tablet pc's this year, and a majority of them with the Android 3.0 honeycomb edition, designed specifically for tablets. There were over 20 new ones featured in this years C.E.S. I see tablets more as a media device than the netbook killer that many thought it would be. I think they are in a class of thier own, there are about to take things to a whole new level. One thing i do hate about my netbook is using it while i am walking, it just looks silly. Tablets are going to be especially useful once the mobile companies stop trying to attach them to their crappy expensive tierd services. Imagine if you could only connect to att/sprint/or tmobile's internet with your laptop. it would be a bad bad sad world.

I would go with wirelss instead of inbeded 3g/4g in laptops, netbooks or tablets because a protable hotspot device works better. I use CLEAR's mobile myspot internet and i can connect up to 8 devices or friends when i am on the go. I even use it as my home internet. its the cellphone to home router's land line. So i dont think anyone should waste the extra money paying for inbeded 3g/4g.

Its about to be a very very interesting year

 

[myexplodingcat]

Forget everything you thought you knew. Asus EEE PC.

11hr battery life (oh you want more than that)

250 gig hard-rive (yes gigs)
1 gig memory
dual core atom processor
blue-tooth


packed in a lightweight 10inches netbook...


all hail moore's law
____________________________________________________________________

I got mine last year for 350, if they still make it, it should cost a lot less. make sure you get the one that has 11hr. Apparently there are new models out with better specs. I'm jealous.


http://www.zdnet.com/reviews/filter/laptops?categoryId=3121&filter=1101502_17294757|100021_10446692

I got my Eee PC seven months ago. They're less than the size of your average high school textbook and a heck of a lot less heavy.

Use Windows XP, though--Windows 7 is annoying and asks permission for everything, not to mention a few other glitches that don't detract from the use of the computer too badly but are aggravating. Especially if you try to do anything advanced with them or run older video games. However, the system is really good about saving your place if your cat accidentally mashes the OFF button.

Off the operating system, though, the actual computer isn't bad. It's affordable, even if the screen is pretty small. The small screen makes me want to strangle the website owners who program their sign-in screen or confirmation of action screens to hover in what they think is the middle of the screen but runs through the bottom (even if you move the taskbar), but otherwise has few disadvantages. The speakers that come with it are horrible and fizzly (this is why the demo music has the "roar of the ocean" in the background and the computer is in the "seashell style" line). This is easily remedied by buying speakers or using headphones/earbuds.

It's, like, a $300 computer, though, and it goes on the Internet, plays music, and runs Microsoft Word. It's portable, cheap, and it's my computer, which means that it's not occupied by a little brother who wants to play Osmos all the time. That's what I care.

I WOULD like to find the file on here that holds the demo mode function that goes off every five minutes and delete it forever, and someday I'll have the patience to do that (preferably after asking my computer tech brother whether I'm not deleting some weird file that runs the whole computer, but it'll probably run the program when clicked on).

Off that, it runs very smoothly and videos and graphics are excellent. The reaction time (like when typing... how fast words appear) is very good, even when I have three different Internet tabs open, a Microsoft Word document or two, and am playing music. It's a decent computer for multitasking. And--remember--it's a computer, and you can make it do just about anything. In my opinion, the computer's good points outweigh the bad, especially if you just want it for basic use. But if you wanted to do something complicated or run programs that require the higher resolutions, then wouldn't you be buying a laptop and not looking at notebooks?

Also, on a new computer, make sure you have AVG Free downloaded as virus protection. I personally scan my computer once a month (completely unnecessary, but I'm paranoid, and it runs fast anyway).

As for running fast, it's like...

...normal notebook:
:hopliti06:

...Eee PC


Though it does feel strange to compare a computer's running speed to fighting efficiency, I had to do that.

Also, as always, the battery is in relation to screen brightness and programs in use (such as internet).

Anyway. Your decision, obviously. Here's a detailed review if anyone should want it.

 

[descendant]

I'm using Acer Aspire one D260 which runs on Intel Atom N455, 1GB DDR3 memory, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 starter and 6-cell Li-ion battery that lasts about 9 hours if I only use it for word processing and net surfing
I'm pretty satisfied with it and it can even run Adobe Photoshop CS2 much better than my friend's Sony VAIO laptop that uses Intel iCore3
but still I prefer using my notebook than using the netbook
I hate small screen! The netbook are just for supplementary use such as when going to classes or hanging out at the malls

anyway there are newer models in the market with higher specs and cheaper price
maybe you should go for notebooks instead of netbooks if you want to maximize usefulness

 

[RubberDucky451]

I bought an ASUS EEE 1001ha then installed Ubuntu on my other partition. I can dual boot win7 or Ubuntu on startup. Ubuntu runs excellent and is much faster and less of a hassle than win7.

http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook

 

[menaceh2k]

[I can dual boot win7 or Ubuntu on startup. Ubuntu runs excellent and is much faster and less of a hassle than win7.

http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook[/QUOTE]


what do you mean by dual boot?

are you somehow able to switch from win to ubuntu without restarting or are you referring to having the option to choose from win7 or ubuntu on startup.

if the former, can you tell me how?

 

[RubberDucky451]

I'm allowed to choose which OS to boot at startup with GRUB. Ubuntu will do pretty much anything you need to do. If not, there's always WINE