Netbook

Looking at getting a netbook soon, very soon. Reasoning behind this was because my wifes laptop is starting to take a crap. Its a 5-6 year old Dell with 256Megs of ram and bearly does anything we want it to do. Slow CPU and small HDD is the last of it now with a battery that bearly holds anything (1 hour max if that). Its big, its heavy and needs to be replaced.

Ideally yes a Laptop replacement would be cool but my wife is good with a netbook as well. Don't want to spend a bunch of cash but don't want to.

Been looking at the lower priced ones right around 300-350 on Newegg and at Bestbuy. Course newegg get a better deal on them. Question is what brand is really good?

I mean in the price range it seems like the Asus, MSI, Acer though I don't know which brand is ok/good.

asus all the way.

depending when you buy it, the 1201PN would be my first choice. It is supposed to be coming out this month, but you never know.

I'll be honest with you. Asus does make a very nice netbook, but with netbooks size does matter. The smaller it is, the harder it is to type on. You can go either Celeron M processor or 1.6 Atom.

I'd recommend picking up a used one off of classifieds or craigslist where they can be had regularly between 150 and 200 dollars and typically the person has either upgraded the HDD or the Ram.

If you do buy new, get the 2GB RAM up front and a 320 or bigger HDD. The SSDs are just not ripe enough, so unless you plan to buy a 100GB SSD, you will be in the same boat as the small old laptop drive. There is no resale value for the 1GB, so its not like you can upgrade to 2 and sell your 1GB stick.

HP/Compaq makes a decent Netbook, its not as robust as an Asus, but I think women will find the HP just fine. I had a 9 Inch Asus 910 which was great, but like I said, the keyboard was too small and I don't even have large hands. I currently use the Compaq Mini 1001NR upgraded to 2GB Ram and 320 HDD running Windows 7 and I use it every day at work tethered to my G1. No complaints here. I know some people don't like HP, but here is one thing they didn't do wrong.

If your buying new I would go with either an 11" or 12" but pay very close attention to the weight. Since all netbooks have pretty close to the same specs, it all comes down to keyboard/screensize/battery and weight. To me being able to carry a netbook that is as light as a hardback book is great. Anything over 2.5lbs I would write off as too heavy because you also carry the charger (you don't have to). When I go to the dog park, I take my netbook and carry it like a book and no other stuff.

White_Pawn said:

asus all the way.

depending when you buy it, the 1201PN would be my first choice. It is supposed to be coming out this month, but you never know.

Click to expand...

1201N is way out of my price range so I'd guess the PN would be as well. Though I've been leaning on this one....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220677

Though if I could even get a laptop in a similar price range say roughly $50 that might be something to consider as well.

I don't think you will find a laptop in a similar price range. Maybe closer to 400, but not under 300 and it be worth a crap. You would be better off spending the extra 50 on the netbook. With your rig, I think you can afford to buy wifey a nice 1201N, you just gonna need to work some overtime.

I just finished doing a great amount of research into netbooks. My wants and needs for this device where quite simple. Read e-books, run open office, internet and e-mail, watch Netflix, listen to music and some various other non-demanding tasks. I wanted to spend no more than $350 on the device and wished to have something future proof. I recently gave my 5-year old gateway laptop to my mother that I took excellent care of, and I wanted a device that could last that long if need be. Being I already had a main desktop computer that I would use at home for heavy tasks and the majority of school work, I decided to opt for a cheap netbook to fill the extreme portability I wanted.

I decided on an ASUS Eee PC 1001P PU17. I choose this model over the PC 1005p due to price and not needing the extra battery or 802.11n wireless and not wanting a glossy finish, and over the 1001p-MU17 because of 90 more gigs of harddrive and bluetooth. ASUS seems to make very robust netbooks, they are well accepted for quality and price. Given how similar all netbooks are the choice was very easy. They also have a leg up on efficiency, people are reporting 8 solid works hours on one charge.

http://bestnetbookreviewz.com/tag/1001p-pu17/

Good little review, plus you can get it in PINK for her or white like I did

I'll let you know when I get it and what I think. I ordered it today and should receive it by Thursday.

Brutal-Force said:

I don't think you will find a laptop in a similar price range. Maybe closer to 400, but not under 300 and it be worth a crap. You would be better off spending the extra 50 on the netbook. With your rig, I think you can afford to buy wifey a nice 1201N, you just gonna need to work some overtime.

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Thats what I was thinking with the laptop. Its not that I wouldn't spend the money, but she doesn't want to spend that type of money so im not forcing her to especially considering its just a web/mail/doc platform. Besides that if I'd be spending closer to $500 for the netbook I might as very well be getting a laptop.

Mr. $T$ said:

I just finished doing a great amount of research into netbooks. My wants and needs for this device where quite simple. Read e-books, run open office, internet and e-mail, watch Netflix, listen to music and some various other non-demanding tasks. I wanted to spend no more than $350 on the device and wished to have something future proof. I recently gave my 5-year old gateway laptop to my mother that I took excellent care of, and I wanted a device that could last that long if need be. Being I already had a main desktop computer that I would use at home for heavy tasks and the majority of school work, I decided to opt for a cheap netbook to fill the extreme portability I wanted.

I decided on an ASUS Eee PC 1001P PU17. I choose this model over the PC 1005p due to price and not needing the extra battery or 802.11n wireless and not wanting a glossy finish, and over the 1001p-MU17 because of 90 more gigs of harddrive and bluetooth. ASUS seems to make very robust netbooks, they are well accepted for quality and price. Given how similar all netbooks are the choice was very easy. They also have a leg up on efficiency, people are reporting 8 solid works hours on one charge.

http://bestnetbookreviewz.com/tag/1001p-pu17/

Good little review, plus you can get it in PINK for her or white like I did

I'll let you know when I get it and what I think. I ordered it today and should receive it by Thursday.

Click to expand...

Seems like exactly what I'd be using it for. Thanks yeah would love to hear how you like yours. I know a ram upgrade is what people think of doing right away but not sure if that would be nessisary.

Meh, hopefully I don't need it. On my main machine I only go over 1gb if I get into an intense program or multitask. Both which I doubt I'll do on this little machine. The reason I settled on a netbook over a cheap laptop is the ability to just toss it in my backpack and not charge it until the end of the day. It's lighter and smaller then my A&P book just as an example.

Newegg is running another deal on a cheap acer laptop. $360 shipped, not fast but it does have full blown Win7 and a nice big screen. I considered it, but in the end I decided on the ASUS for the reasons cited above.

if you can try and get one with the CULV cpu's... any of them will kick the crap out of any atom. That being said, i still love my Mini 9... 1.6ghz atom N270 GMA950 gfx, 2gb of ram with a stripped win 7 pro, i get 4 hrs of bat life and its PEFECT for taking notes / chatting and browsing the web in class. Its so light and portable.

Might i suggest the dell 11z?
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/inspiron-11z/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-11z&s=dhs&cs=19

the SU4100 is a dual core model... the 743 is essientally a single core version of the SU4100.... even tho the 743 is clocked at 1.3ghz... its about 50+% faster than a 1.6ghz atom... OH and not to mention you get a better gfx chip, bigger screen and resolution, for the same price as a netbook.

I needed to get moving last summer, so I sold my desktop and bought a netbook. After a few days looking into what different manufacturers were offering, I settled for the MSI Wind U100. The model I got has an Atom N270 @1.6Ghz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Windows XP and (most important to me) Bluetooth. It does pretty much anything I want except HD movies and gaming. I paid 350-400$ maybe, but that was last year it's much cheaper now. You can get a Wind for under 300$.

Cheers!

i got an HP Mini 210 myself.
it's the 3 cell battery version but i only get about 3 hours on it.
mine was $400 AUD, which is about the price of Asus, Acer etc offerings with similar specs.

how i view it is, in the lower price range, just pick whichever laptop you think has the best design/looks the best. they've all got 1.6-1.66ghz atoms, 1gb ram, 160gb-250gb HDD.

if you want 7-8 hours + of battery life look for a 6 cell version.
and i reckon they look fairly cool. they're also very slimline.
my Mum has an Asus 1005P which is good, but it's got a huuuge butt ( the 6 cell battery just makes the whole thing kind of thick).
but if you're not as fussed about thinness and the design of the netbook as me...

Man so many choices. I know I've been playing around with Dell and HP's to see about upgrades on them and possibly the higher res display without going overkill right away. Tossing around idea's still of course though still leaning on netbook idea.

Oh with the Eee PC, and having just a single button for the mouse on the keypad, is that an issue typically for peeps? No right click?

There is a right click on those Eee Pcs, it just looks like one button, but there are two different clicks. I have a Asus 1005Ha netbook, I get about 10 hours of battery life.

Yep it's a rocking button, I really like the look of HP's also. They seem like great units too.

<--- Netbook junky. I have bought 6 in the past 2 years or so. 3 of them were under $300. You really shouldn't have to spend any more than $300 for a good netbook, as long as you shop around.

Acer Aspire One isn't bad. Bing cashback is at 10% at Office Depot, bringing the price down to $269.99. Speakers and a small touchpad are my two biggest issues with the AAO.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/814914/Acer-Aspire-One-AO532h-2588-101/

HP also occasionally has good deals on its HP Mini 210. It's currently going for $279.99, even cheaper if you can get a HPA/APP discount. I've heard negative reviews about the touchpad, though. But chiclet keyboard and design is really nice.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...dexp/hhoslp/psg/notebooks/Mini/mini210_series

If you want to wait for the perfect deal, keep your eyes on slickdeals.net. You can add deal alerts there, too. Use keywords "atom n450" or "atom n470".

My latest netbook purchase was an ASUS Eee PC T101MT. Just arrived today .

diggingforgold said:

<--- Netbook junky. I have bought 6 in the past 2 years or so. 3 of them were under $300. You really shouldn't have to spend any more than $300 for a good netbook, as long as you shop around.

Acer Aspire One isn't bad. Bing cashback is at 10% at Office Depot, bringing the price down to $269.99. Speakers and a small touchpad are my two biggest issues with the AAO.
http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/814914/Acer-Aspire-One-AO532h-2588-101/

HP also occasionally has good deals on its HP Mini 210. It's currently going for $279.99, even cheaper if you can get a HPA/APP discount. I've heard negative reviews about the touchpad, though. But chiclet keyboard and design is really nice.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...dexp/hhoslp/psg/notebooks/Mini/mini210_series

If you want to wait for the perfect deal, keep your eyes on slickdeals.net. You can add deal alerts there, too. Use keywords "atom n450" or "atom n470".

My latest netbook purchase was an ASUS Eee PC T101MT. Just arrived today .

Click to expand...

Ah yes thanks for mentioning HP again found what I was looking at earlier. The 10.1" screen with the higher resolution for a reasonable price even including the Broadcom HD card!

Though question is XP or Win7 going to be better for the system?

win 7.... feels so much snappier even with areo on my n270 atom with its gma 950

Well that settles that

Now just to see what the wife wants to settle with. Higher resolution or not. Me I would but thats me

If higher res, its the HP 210HD w/ Win7 & Broadcom card (unless i can find that I can get the card later easily and just add it in)

If not probably head up with the Dell mini 10 (1012). Think I can pick that up locally easily, though sales tax :/ Have to look around and see if I can get it else where that will avoid that

Got the little bugger today and I'm typing on campus with it right this minute. Over all it doesn't feel cheap, feels like a well made unit. I like the keyboard, I have nice big man paws and have really no problem typing on it in the least bit. I loaded FF and some other programs before class. Win7 with FF open and a couple tabs eat up 700mb of my 1gb off the bat, I'm a little concerned with that. Especially when I try some 720p videos when I get home. Although unless I really try to load it up with programs I don't think I'll pass it. Battery seems to last like the reviews state. It is just as fast if not faster as my 5 year old gateway powered by a 1.3 tualatin celeron. I'm sure it would feel much faster with XP or whatever flavor linux distro you like. Feels much more capable then I originally thought.

Yeah on on a Acer Aspire one, one of the older 9 inch ones. It does everything I need, you can even cox it into playing HD video if you do things just right. It does all I need and is pretty snappy surprisingly. It had 1 GB of ram, XP, the 270 atom and a 160 GB hd.