What was so wrong with netbooks, anyway?

[JeremyCT]

I'm continuing my schooling this fall in a very challenging program. I frequently use my phone as a study tool to look up information that I don't have handy. Saves time, but it's cumbersome. So I started looking around for a netbook, only to find that hardly anyone make anything in that category anymore. All the review sites are celebrating the death of the netbook as ultrabooks as so much sexier and more capable.

I won't argue that for a moment, but there's a problem. 1-2 years ago I could pick up a small, portable, light machine that was perfectly capable of handling web browsing, e-mail, editing papers, and watching an occasional movie for $200-300, $400-500 for a "nice one". Fast forward to today and these "ultrabooks" start at about $500-600 and go up from there. For my usage scenario, this is an utter waste. Over-powered for my needs and over-expensive for my budget.

***** *****, moan moan, I know. But in all seriousness, what's out there for me these days? I checked the used market and most stuff available seems to be C2D class stuff (or older) for prices that seem out of whack for I'd be getting.

Wants:

Good battery life. 4-5 hours as a minimum so I don't have to carry a power brick.

Compact. Roughly textbook size (12-13 inch screen). 4lbs or less.

No optical drive needed. Prefer a keyboard with normal sized keys.

What's taken the place of the netbook on the "small, inexpensive, and portable with good battery life" front? From a performance standpoint, I bought an Acer Aspire 5251 a few years back on an Amazon deal for $250. Power is adequate for me even with a single core AMD V120, but it's heavy and the battery lasts less than 3 hours on a charge, so I don't carry it around unless I absolutely know I'll need it.

Any suggestions for what might suit my needs in the current market?

 

[wagex]

the amd apu laptops seem like they would prettmuch fit the bill
heres neweggs netbook selection on the left side you can prettymuch taylor it how you want
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=772&name=Netbooks

 

[JeremyCT]

I really like the AMD APU powered stuff, too bad it doesn't compete cost-wise with Intel. For some insane reason most of the ones I've seen come with fairly small batteries, too.

 

[hafa]

Have you given any thought to the surfeit of low-cost Android tablets on the market? Seems to me that they've filled the netbook niche...

 

[ssjwizard]

The tablet is crazy handy except when you need a keyboard, but I have a leather keyboard portfolio style case for my GTab($200, dual core) that I picked up off of amazon for aorund $20.

 

[txus.palacios]

A tablet would be great for you, I think.

 

[JeremyCT]

Have you given any thought to the surfeit of low-cost Android tablets on the market? Seems to me that they've filled the netbook niche...

The lack of a real keyboard kills it, unfortunately. The Microsoft Surface has my attention, but we'll see how well it gets executed. If I can't find anything I like over the summer I might wait and see how that pans out.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Dell 14R-N4110: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200471 ...$399 refurb. My wife and I recently got one of these and love it. It's light, fast and can even play Civ V.

The fan spins up so it's audible occasionally (keeping the laptop nice and cool), so if absolute silence is required, this one isn't for you. It's not loud by any stretch, but it is noticeable. Aside from that, I've got no complaints at all. Battery lasts between 3.5 and 5 hours (depending on what you're doing) with things like browsing, office tasks, watching youtube videos, etc.

It's not netbook size, but 14" is a better screen IMHO. It's big enough so you're not straining to see and allows for a nice, full size keyboard.

The only bad thing is the HDD location - you have to take the whole darn thing apart to replace the HDD. That's fine by me for the price; I knew that going into it.

Anyway, it's a great laptop for the money.

 

[hafa]

The lack of a real keyboard kills it, unfortunately. The Microsoft Surface has my attention, but we'll see how well it gets executed. If I can't find anything I like over the summer I might wait and see how that pans out.

Granted, you would have to carry one more item, but there are a wealth of compact wireless keyboards available for Android tabs.

I'm looking forward to reading reviews after the release of the surface as well. The launch event looked promising.

 

[aya90]

Sager w110er is the best netbook and you can play ultra games on it

 

[Neuromancer]

Looks like those leather keyboard portfolios mentioned turn any tablet into a netbook.

I have to believe that if you are using a phone right now, that a tablet would be a HUGE step up.

 

[txus.palacios]

@aya90, but prepare to drop a grand, I guess, and battery life for them won't be so long if you can play Ultra games on them.

 

[blueswitch]

I just spent 9 months traveling Asia and bought a netbook before I went. Picked up an Acer aspire 10" with a AMD C50..thats a dual core 1ghz with a integrated radeon APU. I bumped the RAM to 4GB and put windows 7 64bit on it and I was super happy with. I never would have trusted the limited capabilities of a tablet when I was abroad, I knew with a netbook I could basically do anything as long as it didn;t require hardcore processing. Skype, photos, website editing, even could run some steam games (starwars empire at war, Braid) and Photoshop CS2. It worked perfectly....I'm kind of sad to hear netbooks dying because I feel with AMD's fusion setup and better resolutions (1280x720) netbooks have finally "gotten there" to be very useful. This one even has HDMI out and I showed my family all my photo's through that which my main laptop does not have. I saw a lot of travelers using 10" netbooks but that might be the last real group who's using them now. I found for $300 I got ALOT of bang for my buck.

 

[marketpantry]

i dont see a purpose in getting a netbook anymore. you can find cheap laptops for under 400 nowadays that have much more power. if anything, id get a tablet that could have a keyboard connected to it for the ultimate in portability.

 

[JeremyCT]

you can find cheap laptops for under 400 nowadays that have much more power.

It's not so much the power that I pine for. The form factor and battery life was what made them so uniquely useful from my perspective. The ones that were just large enough for a keyboard with full sized keys (13" I think) and really great battery life for $400 or less are what I miss.

You can still get good laptops for relatively short money (not as short as netbooks, but there are decent values around), but the screen size has grown and that makes them a lot less portable. Most laptops now have 15.6" screens, which is a great size in general, but the whole package is larger than a book and it starts getting heavier.

 

[marketpantry]

It's not so much the power that I pine for. The form factor and battery life was what made them so uniquely useful from my perspective. The ones that were just large enough for a keyboard with full sized keys (13" I think) and really great battery life for $400 or less are what I miss.

You can still get good laptops for relatively short money (not as short as netbooks, but there are decent values around), but the screen size has grown and that makes them a lot less portable. Most laptops now have 15.6" screens, which is a great size in general, but the whole package is larger than a book and it starts getting heavier.

seriously look into tablets. there are apps that will allow you to create, edit, and do just about anything else with microsoft software and photoshop.

 

[txus.palacios]

Nononononononono. No. Just. No.

A netbook with Linux is 24/7 times more useful than anything "App".
And I am a lover of Android. But you just can't beat Arch Linux. Not to mention that when you need to debug something in a network, "Apps" can't beat Linux.
And the keyboard and form factor, I think like JeremyCT. They're pretty nice.

 

[Neuromancer]

Isn't android linux?

Ie when you "root" what you are doing is adding admin level capability to the software? So you could add any application you wanted as long as it runs on the cpu/chipset the tablet was designed on? (ARM usually I believe?)

I am asking because that was my understanding but I do not own a smartphone/tablet or netbook. I have a couple of desktops, and when im not home I generally dont use a computer (or there is one whereever I am going).

 

[hajalie24]

Maybe you should get a asus transformer tablet, the TF300 might be a good fit, or the older tf101. It should be relatively cheap, and you can do most things on android. For what you can't, you can either remote desktop or install linux.

 

[txus.palacios]

@Neuromancer

Yes, but you need to find ARM-compatible stuff. Android is based on Linux. But it's like comparing (in some sort) Windows 7 and WP7.