Recommend a netbook

[benyl]

So everyone offers one of these now.

What is the best value out there right now? Asus? Dell? HP?

Email, Office and surfing. No games or anything. Has to have a good wifi antenna. Those are my criteria. Anyone done any research?

[06civic]

I thought Acer Aspire was a good price for what you get compared with all the other ones.

[eblend]

Dell one is nice, and lots of hacks (build in gps ect)

[sputnik]

The Dell Mini 9 Ubuntu is getting some good reviews.

[Recca168]

I picked up an aspire one a couple of weeks ago for $420.

its on for $409 right now at memx http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX22036(ME).aspx

it has a hdd instead of a small solid state drive which i think is a big bonus.

[benyl]

so many options...

[eblend]

Originally posted by Recca168
I picked up an aspire one a couple of weeks ago for $420.

its on for $409 right now at memx http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX22036(ME).aspx

it has a hdd instead of a small solid state drive which i think is a big bonus.

Whose idea was it to put mouse button on the side of the trackpad? so retarded

[Recca168]

Originally posted by eblend


Whose idea was it to put mouse button on the side of the trackpad? so retarded

yes... it is.... i either plug in a mouse or tap the touch pad to click...

[aych]

I vote for the MSI wind. basically all netbook performance wise is similar. I'd go with a regular hd rather than a ssd. but what wins it is the matte screen, usable anywhere, just what you wnat from a netbook.

[Altezza]

My brother has the Asus eeepc, and the Acer Aspire One. I played with both when I was at his place over the holidays. Him and I preferred the eeepc since it had the larger screen, and it had a 6-cell battery. His wife prefers the Aspire One for it's small size and portability.

[CaptainReboot]

I have the EEE PC 1000 with the 10" screen and I love it. The extra screen size over the 8.9 definately helps. I compared them side by side at the store.

I'm using it right now with WiFi. Battery is 6 cell.

I looked into all of the brands listed above.

The HP had the best keyboard, but I read somewhere it gets hot really easily and for the price, it was a bit too expensive.

The Acer has a crappy touchpad, which was mentioned before with the click buttons on the side of the pad. There are times when I just have it on my lap where I can't use a mouse and that would just annoy me. That was it for me.

I didn't like the Dell keyboard, it looked squished. Then I looked more closely at it and it doesn't have any function keys. I use F5 a lot to refresh things, and some other short cuts Ctrl-F4, F11, etc, so that didn't work out for me. I don't know if they have changed the keyboard or not since I last looked back in September.

Not sure if things changed with the MSI Wind, but for the longest time, they only had a 3 cell battery. I wanted a 6, since I travel with mine and wanted to use it on the plane for more than 3 hours so I could watch a movie or something.

So I ended up with the EEE and it's been great. It has XP on it and it pretty fast for what I need it to do (email, surfing, movies)

[benyl]

What is the most robust?

[CaptainReboot]

I took at look at Dell again and the Mini 9 has no function keys, and the Mini 12 does, but it's a 12", which is getting up there in size.

[CaptainReboot]

I'd definately get a 6 cell battery for sure. I've never played around enough with all of the other ones to say that my EEE would out perform them, but the other ones just had problems with their design that I just didn't like.

IBM has the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, but I don't think it's available in Canada.

[dragonone]

have u heard anything about windows 7 on any of the netbooks?

i vote 1000H as well. it's that or the wind but 6 cell is a minimum. if you're willing to take a plug in with you it defeats the whole purpose of having a netbook.

the new hp has nice reviews, but i'm guessing it costs a lot more

[eblend]

Originally posted by CaptainReboot
I took at look at Dell again and the Mini 9 has no function keys, and the Mini 12 does, but it's a 12", which is getting up there in size.


Dell announced today that they will be releasing the mini10, hopefully it has function keys and from what they said, a build in TV tuner! I am gonna buy one when it comes out!

[eblend]

just read more on the mini 10, will also include build in GPS, without the hacking involved with mini9, and from the looks of it, function keys included

[jav_]

i got myself the asus n10j..almost the same stats as the eee 1000h except this little thing has a better video card and hdmi-out...can play 1080p movies and still plays a lot of recent games

[stealth]

Anyone else with a EEE PC? I been thinking of getting the EEE PC 1000 HE or whatever the most recent one is with N280.

Are these netbooks pretty good? I have a Toshiba Laptop that I am getting tired of carrying around. I just want something small that I can carry in one hand or in my back pack easily.

[GoChris]

I have a mini 10v. It's pretty good :dunno:

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by stealth
Anyone else with a EEE PC? I been thinking of getting the EEE PC 1000 HE or whatever the most recent one is with N280.

Are these netbooks pretty good? I have a Toshiba Laptop that I am getting tired of carrying around. I just want something small that I can carry in one hand or in my back pack easily.

None of them will do 1080p video. Barely 720p with CoreAVC.

They will not play HD flash video either, nor the latest games.

But for everything else, it's adequate.

I would check out eeePC 1005HA, 6cell battery last quite long.

I have a 9" AspireOne when they were under $300. It doubled as portable storage for my HD video and photos when I was in Europe.

[WhippWhapp]

Originally posted by dragonone
have u heard anything about windows 7 on any of the netbooks?

i vote 1000H as well. it's that or the wind but 6 cell is a minimum. if you're willing to take a plug in with you it defeats the whole purpose of having a netbook.

the new hp has nice reviews, but i'm guessing it costs a lot more

Win7 runs nicely on my aspire one, I have a 2gig SD card in one of the slots dedicated to readyboost.

[CivicDXR]

I've used a whole bunch of them, and my top two have to be the HP and the Dell... the other ones seemed a little to flimsy to me...

and if all you're using it for is surfing, email, and office stuff, installed the moblin beta and run it off a USB drive to decide if you want it as your primary OS, because I love it, its nice and fast even when booted and used on a USB stick...

http://moblin.org/

Jolicloud is another one that I'm gonna start to play with real quickly here:
http://www.jolicloud.com/

So many netbook choices, and along with that, so many OS choices...

[eblend]

I ended up buying a Toshiba NB200, getting rave reviews, I love it, so light and battery last like 9 hours...dope

[blinkme_210]

My vote goes to EEE PC 1000. Nice sized screen & keyboard, wireless N card, Bluetooth, 6 cell battery, all for $450 @ Memory Express. I try to carry that on my business trips if I can, because I can just VPN into my office desktop and get the data I need.

[beecue]

Are these actually worth getting compared to a cheaper laptop? I heard they are really slow at loading programs. There is a pink Acer in the Bestbuy flyer that my sister wants but there was a Emachines laptop for $350 which I can't seem to find on the Futureshop website right now that I thought would be better.

[D'z Nutz]

Do you guys know of any netbooks with built in compact flash slots in them? A quick search seems to indicate there's not a whole lot, if any, and I would have to resort to a pc card adapter...

And are most of netbooks memory expandable?

[HiSpec]

Originally posted by Xtrema


None of them will do 1080p video. Barely 720p with CoreAVC.

They will not play HD flash video either, nor the latest games.

But for everything else, it's adequate.


I heard the Nvidia chipset will play HD content. Correct me if I am wrong. :D

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by HiSpec


I heard the Nvidia chipset will play HD content. Correct me if I am wrong. :D

Has Ion netbook hit the market yet? Still you need their own codec to use the chipset feature. FFDShow and CoreAVC strictly use CPU and Ion won't help.


Originally posted by D'z Nutz
And are most of netbooks memory expandable? [/B]

Most likely 1.5 to 2GB max. And most likely have to ditch whatever you got from the factory.

[Red@8]

Originally posted by eblend
I ended up buying a Toshiba NB200, getting rave reviews, I love it, so light and battery last like 9 hours...dope

About to get one of these myself.

[googe]

Dell Mini 9 does so have function keys. I have one right here. Got it for memorial day + employee purchase plan deal for $185. Rip-off not to buy :D

I upgraded the ram to 2gb though, but that was only like $15 (not through dell).

I dont like the Eee or the MSI Wind. They feel super cheap like toys.

You guys know the screen resolution is less than 720p right? Chasing one that plays HD doesn't make a lot of sense. It'll have to scale it down to SD to fit on the screen :)

Heard good things about the samsung, I would have gone for that but $185 was too good to refuse. No way in hell that battery is gonna last 9hrs though. Maybe on a blank screen screensaver. It's probably better than the Dell.

If you wait a bit, the new generation of netbook processors is coming out (update to the Atom N270 or whatever), so depending how much you care or how patient you are, that might not be a bad idea.


Most are memory upgradeable but have 1 DIMM, so you effectively top out at 2GB. Takes a regular laptop so-dimm.

The SSD HD is upgradeable, but there are a few different sizes. The shitty thing about the dell mini is that without a dremel, you can only fit a half-mini pci-E SSD, which is always going to be more expensive. Most others seem to be able to fit a full mini pci-E.

The dell mini also has the option for the 3G onboard card. You can't add it later because it's integrated, so get that from the start if you want it.

Edit: one cool thing about the mini9 is that it's the only one where all of the hardware on it is 100% compatible with OSX out of the box. You don't even need to use one of the hacked osx isos, you can use a retail osx install dvd and install mac osx right on it.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/osx-netbook-compatib.html

[D'z Nutz]

So I just came back from Best Buy to get an idea of what was out there.

The guy at the Microstore at the U of C really seemed to like the HPs because of the keyboard when I went this afternoon. I was never too fond of HPs to begin with, but that was years ago so maybe things have changed so that was the first one I looked at, the Mini 10.1". Yeah, the keyboard's okay, but not really that much different from any of the other netbooks. The deal breaker was the touchpad, specifically the placement of the buttons: one on each side of the touchpad. It just didn't make sense and I kept missing the buttons!

Next I looked at the Toshiba NB200. I've always liked Toshibas so when I went to check it out, I already had a bias towards it. But after playing around with the keyboard, it just seemed more cluttered than it needed to be. Plus the enter key was so slim, I kept missing it and hitting the ] key instead. The touchpad buttons were better placed than the HP that's for sure.

I also had a quick look at the Samsung netbook. How quick? A glance at the price tag. Next!

Finally there was the Dell Mini 10v. First thing I noticed was the keyboard was more simplified than the HP or the Toshiba. The HP and the Toshiba really seemed to have too much keys for some reason. I didn't place them side to side to see what the differences were (because they were all chained down), but that was an immediate impression. The touchpad wasn't too uncomfortable to use either. Not perfect, but then again they never are. Size wise, the Dell is thinner and narrower than the HP and Toshiba and comes in between them in terms of depth. The Dell's finish seems a bit cheaper than the other two too, but I can live with that.

I've only been looking at netbooks for a couple days, but I already had in mind a few brands I was wanting to look at. I had it set in my mind I was gonna go with the Toshiba, but the Dell was one I was open to. After playing around with the display models, I think I'm gonna go with the Dell. I really wanted a netbook with a PC card slot, but I guess for the amount of money I want to spend, I'll have to let that pass. If I'm reading the Dell website right, it doesn't look like the Mini 10 is RAM expandable either...

One question: most, if not all, of these netbooks are running WinXP at the moment. What's the likelihood they'll come with Windows 7 in the upcoming months? Think it'll be worth waiting for if it does?

Edit: looks like the Mini 10v can be memory upgradeable if you're willing to open it up
http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-10-guides/9209-ram-upgrade-video.html

[GoChris]

you can put 2gb of ram in the mini 10v. and I have win 7 RC running on mine now, works good.

you have to swap the ram yourself. microsoft has a limit that a netbook cannot be sold with windows xp with more than 1gb ram.

[blinkme_210]

You might wanna hold off on buying a netbook for another month or so. Apple just set a iPod event for September 9th, where hopefully they'll announce their Apple netbook/tablet.

If that doesn't happen, I'm going to pick up a Sony Vaio P from Japan with a 2.0Ghz Intel Atom Z550 CPU, 128GB SSD, 2GB RAM, & XP.

But that too is getting an upgrade soon. So if you can hold out, Intel's gonna be releasing the next gen of netbook CPU's soon.

[blitz]

Anyone seen a 1366x768 10.1" screen in person yet? I think Dell's the only one offering it in Canada so far.

[psycoticclown]

I saw some sick netbooks in Hong Kong. One of the Asus ones had full touchscreen so you can use it as a tablet. And it was 9" too. I need to go buy one now haha.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by blinkme_210
You might wanna hold off on buying a netbook for another month or so. Apple just set a iPod event for September 9th, where hopefully they'll announce their Apple netbook/tablet.


Too expensive, too late and it doesn't run OSX. It's basically a giant Ipod Touch.

[spike98]

I purchased a HP 110 1030CA a week ago. After reading this thread i decided i wanted a netbook ha ha. I also have some car goodies on the way that i would require some portable computing.

I looked at the Dell Mini 10v and the Acer One while i was there. I chose the HP because of the keyboard and price point. My budget was $350 and i pricematched the HP with www.compu2000.com @ $329.00 with free shipping.

After a week my impressions are very good. The unit feels solid and the keyboard is a dream. I am still adapting to the smaller overall keyboard but its getting better every day. The screen is nice and vibrant with no glare.

The overall layout of the ports and such are well placed. The whole SD is inserted into the slot! It really burns me when they stick out. The trackpad isnt a huge downer. I rarely ever use the buttons. Its always tap to click.

Battery life is better than i expected but still not the greatest. I get about 2.25 hours of usable time out of it. Thats websurfing for the whole time. A spare or upgraded battery will be needed if you are leaving the house or office.

I installed windows 7 after about 3 days and it runs WAY better than XP. I do plan on installing a 2GB stick of ram however. It will be better for multitasking and when i dual boot 7 with OS Leapord. I might even install a WIFI/Bluetooth/GPS mini pci-e card later too.

OS leapord will work great with this netbook as well. The only thing that doesnt function (from my research) is the ethernet port. But i dont expect it to be long before someone figures it out. The HP Mini 1000 is supposed to work 100%

Overall i am quite pleased and at under $350 i really cant complain. The netbook feels like a tank and does everything i need it too. I suggest it!

[stealth]

So anyone know what is better the 1005HA or 1008HA?

[D'z Nutz]

So I've been pretty set on going with the Dell Mini 10v but I've held off cause I'm waiting for the new CPUs to come out. I decided to screw waiting and was about to place my order, but it looks like Dell's actually updating the website at this moment right now.

The N280 (1.66GHz/667MHz FSB/512K cache) processor is now available for the 10v (was N270 1.60GHz/533MHz FSB/512K cache).

The Z530 (1.6GHz/533MHz FSB/512K Cache) processor is now available for the 10 (was Z520 1.33GHz/533MHz FSB/512K cache).

I think I'm gonna hold off until after the weekend cause some options disappear, then reappear (and then disappear again), but I'm guessing this might be the update some of you have been referring to.

[eybc]

http://eeepc.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Picture-12.png

I was going to purchase a 1005HA Eee pc a couple of days ago but after some research I think I'll wait for the 1201N. I'm thinking a 12" screen, Nvida Ion, 2GB, and Windows 7 will be nice to have.

[Godfuader]

Just got the 10V yesterday. Great little netbook, especially the keyboard. The only negative is the touch pad.


Originally posted by GoChris
you can put 2gb of ram in the mini 10v. and I have win 7 RC running on mine now, works good.

you have to swap the ram yourself. microsoft has a limit that a netbook cannot be sold with windows xp with more than 1gb ram.

How do you bump up the ram?

[beyondpinoy]

i just got the Acer netbook one (D250), good book, keyboard is a little small for my hands, but its fine for my girlfriend (which she will use mostly) and i only got the 3cell batt, i would rather get the 6cell for batt life.. but it isn't bad at all!

[kaput]

.

[stealth]

I just got the 1005HA-P. I think if you are going to a 12 inch, you might as well just get a regular laptop.

I will use mine for travelling, and while at work for my own personal non company stuff.

[interlude]

just ordered one of these today.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=40780&vpn=LU.S850Y.012&manufacture=Acer

something to use around the house and when im travelling.

[spike98]

Originally posted by kaput
What do you guys use these for? I was looking at them the other day and it would be great for traveling but I couldn't figure out what else for.

-VAG-COM and SPS+ Software for the Jetta (main reason i baught it! It fits in the glove box)

-Personal Computing at work

-Traveling and Photo storage on the road

-VNC to work while out and about


They are very capible little doo dads that will run anything except graphic intense games and HD movies (that is changing)

[Mitsu3000gt]

I've been looking for some way to get all of my losless audio files to play over my good stereo (rather than computer speakers)...could I connect this sort of thing to my home theater? Or am i better off getting a PS3 or lap top?

I also have VAG-COM so it would be useful in other ways as well.

I'm not really familiar with netbooks at all but they seem appealing.

[Mar]

The Computer Rack had a 7 inch for $180. Regardless of features, that's almost too good to pass up.