Netbook recommendations

Rutvik Dave

Choose from either Thinkpad x120e[^] (this is awesome 7 hours of battery on 6 cell, I am planning to buy this one) or Dell Vostro v130[^] (poor battery life, non-replacable battery), dont even consider netbooks they are useless,go for a ultra portable laptop. I forgot to mention HP dm1z[^], if you want added dude factor... :)

Mel Padden

OK, just to say, that I'm already using a fairly underpowered MacBook, about 6-7 years old, and power is not the reason I want a hange. it's portability I'm after. I want somehting reeeeeally nice and light, with decent build quality. Like a cross between a Kindle and a notebook. And yes, I'm willing to stretch price-wise, but the ones you've recommended there, well, they look a bit... chunky. Anything sleeker out there?

Smokie, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. www.geticeberg.com

Richard A Dalton

MacBook Air mmmmmmmmm Yes, insanely expensive. but mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm -Rd

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tpcmurray

I bought an Acer AO522 and I love it. Dual core processor that outperforms most other netbooks, and I upgraded the ram to 4GB myself. I have used the HDMI port to output 1080p MKV files to my TV, without a hitch. The screen on it is 1280 x 720 resolution, which is native 720p. When I'm putting my little girl to sleep at night, I use it to read .pdf and .lit files and its great. http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AO522-BZ897-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Diamond/dp/B004GILTB6[^]

User 4277814

I have a 2-yr old Acer Aspire One (AO751h series). It has been terrific! It is <3 lbs, has 1366 x 768 crystal clear 11.6" display, near full sized keyboard and features a dual core Atom CPU which only shows severe signs of sluggishness in photoshop (yes, it runs, but you need to be patient). They key to the success is the LCD resolution, providing a highly readable display with enough real estate. Because it does not haave an optical drive, I changed out the 160gB hard drive for a 500gB ($40 at newegg) so that I could load up DVDs. I also changed the 1gB RAM to 2gB($25 at newegg) and increased the battery from 3-cell to 6-cell ($29 on ebay) to give me a 5+ hour runtime with reasonable power savings and bringing the total weight to 3-1/4 lbs. The original unit ran XP Home. It now dual boots Win7 Pro / XP Home. A friend wanted one of these and we found that Acer owns Gateway and produces a very similar device (AMD L310 w/2gB RAM, 6-cell battery & Win7HP) as the LT3120U. He purchased it at Wal-mart on-line for $328 and is very happy with it. It looks vitrually identical. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-LU.WEW02.002/15189531[^] Mike

toolman_ed

I have a ASUS EEE PC with a dual core Atom processor and 2g RAM and I'm happy with it. An earlier reply gave it a bad review of being slow with poor resolution and for some applications, that's very true. You have to decide what you want it for. As for myself, I bought it over an IPAD/tablet. I rejected the IPAD and other "tablets" because I did not want to be dependent on someone else's WIFI or the additional upfront and monthly cost of 3G; the netbook offers a lot more flexibility with the USB and other ports and you're not susceptible unsecured networks. I bought this exclusively for travel. I wanted to surf and do simple word processing. I wanted a device that I could check my email accounts and stay connected during my travels. I didn't want to take my bulkier laptop on trips. It comes with Windows 7 Starter edition and I considered upgrading to Home Premium however, I found that I didn't have to for my purposes. I installed iTunes for entertainment and OpenOffice for my work. I can connect to the internet using WiFi, ethernet cable, a USB dongle or my Droid OS phone. Yes, the last two connect speeds are slow when compared to the others but, for me, it does what I bought it for. Cost? 400 bucks. A big selling point for me was the battery life. Its advertised for 13 hours and I've reached 11 a couple of times. But, remember, the more stuff you hook to it or run on it simultaneously, the shorter the battery life; you'll find that that is true with all netbooks/laptops. The one "feature" I didn't like was that ASUS partitioned the 250g harddrive in half (approx). I would have preferred that that not be done. I've reserved the "C" drive for installations and put all my user files on the "D" drive. This took a bit of work creating and dropping users but in the end it was worth the effort. Since my wife travels with me she was jealous from our last trip and insisted on her own - so, I bought a second one. Good luck.

Member 96

They can be excellent just buy a powerful one, don't get the cheapest one it will be noticeably slow, and get the extra memory it's totally worth it. And keep in mind that the screen is going to seem absurdly small at first so for long term usage at home you will want an external monitor.

There is no failure only feedback

firegryphon

Richard, you took the thought right out of my head before I even know to think it. If Apple had been smart enough to sent out the 4 GB ram models to Microcenter or Best Buy, I would have bought one without even thinking twice last November. I personally didn't want to have to wait so I didn't order one. Also couldn't get the microcenter 100 bucks off if I had to order.

ragnaroknrol: Yes, but comparing a rabid wolverine gnawing on your face while stabbing you with a fountain pen to Vista is likely to make the wolverine look good, so it isn't exactly that big of a compliment.

Arkham000

I suggest an 11.6" or 12.1" display (no less), resolution HD ready (1366x768 - no less), a ION video chip inside (allows you to watch films without slowing down), 2GB RAM and an Atom processor. Windows 7 home premium as O.S. (or latest Ubuntu desktop, if you prefer). Very few models have those features: look for ASUS EEPC 1201N or (better) EEPC 1215N. I own a 1201N and it's always with me. I've bought a 1215N for my daugther to be used at the college. We are very happy with both. I use it for development, too (even if it's not a space rocket, of course)

MattPenner

First of all, I have to say you have the perfect expectation of a netbook. Too many people purchase a portable unit (netbook, iPad, tablet, etc) ultimately trying to replace a desktop or more powerful laptop. Our org has purchased 100+ HP Pavilion dm1-2010nr netbooks. They have the option of a built-in Verizon broadband if you want it. I take it with me when I am at a conference or a 2-day training session that I attend once a month. It has Win7 and is surprisingly fast for general use, such as Office 2010 documents, email, web browsing, etc. The screen is a great size and crisp. I tend to make my menu bars as minimal as comfortable to maximize the work area. During a conference I typically have about 5 Word documents open at a time, Internet with 5+ tabs open at a time and email. This netbook easily handles all these tasks at one time and I can quickly alt-tab between whatever I need with no delays. With this type of usage I usually get about 6-7 hours of constant use without having to plug it in. If I were to use it less or let it go into powersave I'd probably get more, but usually I'm near a power outlet within this amount of time.

rnbergren

I have a Lenovo S10-3t that I bought about 6 month ago for just this purpose. IT is small. Slightly heavier than a ipad but sooo much more functional. I can dual boot to Ubuntu if I want. I normally run win 7, and I can run VS 2010 on the thing as well as Photoshop. It just works. Granted it isn't blazing fast. But it isn't slow and the extended battery gets me to 7 hours easy usually. http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=50EC5C1454F34E85BC30BF5AECA2576E&action=init[Check them out here!] PS If you want one go to ebay. Can pick up slightly used to new for $350 or so.

To err is human to really mess things up you need a computer.

Gates VP

I own a couple of netbooks and I use a small Dell vostro v13 at the office. So I've done some of this in a few form factors. The obvious trade-offs with netbooks are really about size vs. strength vs. cost. Netbooks will meet most of your requirements > Web browsing/shopping > Elementary word processing/office activities > Some trivial coding I've done all of these on my netbook in the last 24 hours :) But don't code on it all day, the keyboards generally suck. > nice and sleek to fit into a satchel without noticeably bulging it 10 inch netbooks will fit into a satchel comfortably. I carry mine around all of the time. > Reading PDFs of my technical books as I ride the train to and from work. This is where netbooks kind of suck. The screen is really small, particularly on the vertical. The width is just enough for modern websites, but the height is actually a little small. When it comes to reading PDFs, you only get a limited amount screen space with which to do this reading. Even in full screen it shows. At the edge of your budget, there are some 11" laptops that get much better speed and a significant real estate increase. But they may not be satchel friendly. Otherwise, most netbooks are equipped with the same Intel Atoms and the same motherboards, etc. Things to look for: - 6-cell battery - extra RAM (most ship with 1GB instead of 2GB) - do you like the keyboard/mouse (totally different comfort level) - consider a portable mouse the netbook mice tend to be poor

John Stewien

I can't do without my netbook but there are 2 Really important things: - Get one with more than 1024x600 screen resolution as that really sucks. Ideally 1366x768 or more. - Get one with at least 2GB RAM, 1GB really doesn't cut it. I can recommend getting an Acer as I've been torturing one for over 2 years and its still going strong. The 1830T is good.