Netbooks

[crockers]

Has anyone any experience of these? Are they any good or are they pretty cruddy?

Hands on feedback much appreciated

Thanks

 

[timskemp]

I've used the original EEE and the Aspire One - personally I'd say go for it, they're good for mobile email and web browsing however I'd go for an Aspire with hard disk and windows then it'll do everything a full size laptop can do.

 

[columb]

Well,
I'm using notebooks since (can't remember)... but my first notebook was black and white and with 486 processor! I remember upgrading it to 486DX (with math cooprocesor) and actually instaling Win95 later on.
I had problems with Linux due to memory shortages.

Anyway, now I have few laptops and I'm changing them regularly. I would recommend Dell and Acer.

First of all you must decide if you want to replace desktop PC or just have portable laptop. That is most important question.

Any questions please let me know!
Cheers
Chris

 

[crockers]

Well,
I'm using notebooks since (can't remember)... but my first notebook was black and white and with 486 processor! I remember upgrading it to 486DX (with math cooprocesor) and actually instaling Win95 later on.
I had problems with Linux due to memory shortages.

Anyway, now I have few laptops and I'm changing them regularly. I would recommend Dell and Acer.

First of all you must decide if you want to replace desktop PC or just have portable laptop. That is most important question.

Any questions please let me know!
Cheers
Chris

Hi

Thanks but I was more interested in the cheap netbooks rather than a laptop / notebook...

around £250...mark

 

[Dryce]

Has anyone any experience of these? Are they any good or are they pretty cruddy?

Hands on feedback much appreciated

If size alone is your criteria then they look good.

Price wise they're not far off proper laptops.

Battery life is not great on some models.

Keyboard size is a problem for some on the 7 and 8.9" screen Eee.

A friend has the 10" Eee version. Nice little machine but he's found he can't play DVDs on the move (no optical drive). And he still has to haul a power supply. So it's not turned out to be as useful as he thought.

I would be inclined to wait. Why? Well I think that better battery life and inbuilt 3G are worth waiting for to make these devices much more useful.

 

[Sp!ke]

Agree with Dryce. For very little more you can now buy a proper notebook with all the bells and whistles and a decent screen.

I've played with an EeePC for a couple of hours and decided against it as it was just too limiting without any real financial gain.

I also cant live with a single mouse button.

 

[gaz_l]

I have an eee900 - 9" screen, 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD & linux. I think it's a great piece of kit, but it's not for everyone.

It's ideal for what I want it for, small and lightweight, boots quickly (45 secs, even with the full desktop enabled), all the wireless gubbins works a treat, and the screen is big enough to be useable, and bright enough to read in sunlight, just.

It's not all ham and plaques, though. The battery life on this model isn't great (2 hours away from the mains, if you're lucky), and the keyboard isn't that nice to type on if you have fat fingers like me. The whole build quality of the eee is also a little Fisher-Price, but then again I wasn't expecting too much for the money.

There's a load of competing models that've come out since I bought the eee, and reading the reviews they all seem to compromise in one area or another, but that's kind of the nature of the beast. No one's yet made a netbook that can be all things to all men, fit comfortably in one hand and come in at under £300. But I'm sure they're still working on it..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Mark300SL]

I have been using one of These for about 3-4 years now
In car tuning, long distance flights for movies etc, great for Ebooks, and actually useful as a PC in my line of work for router reconfiguration

I keep a directory of completed "tunes" on the HDD for everyone I tune for - but I also write them a copy to a cheap 8mb or 64mb memory stick which they keep. (I got an Ebay job lot on 8mb and 64mb mem sticks ages ago)

I got the U3 S/H via my Japanese car contact, Battery life is incredibly good considering it still uses the original 2 batteries supplied with it
Keyboard still catches me out occasionally, and failing to take the long life battery on a trip can be embarassing

 

[lil.smartie]

The Acer looks much more sleek than the EEEPC which just reminded me of a Nintendo DS pumped up!

I don't know if it's the size or price which is the main factor but I'm using a 13" Sony SZ that was bought as an 'open box' from PCWB.co.uk (pc world business) for about £400! It's an older model and XP not Vista but no probs at all and it does everything I need it to weighs less than 2kgs and is the one I use to cart about when I need to! They do get some good deals but not seen a net book on there yet, worth a look though!

Kate

 

[whizzkid11]

The new HP Elitebooks are really good - high performance and lightweight... The older models should be available at pretty good prices.

The 2710 is also good.

 

[E's Are Good]

Wor lass has just recently got an ASUS Eee 900 to use on the way to and from work (and probs lunchtimes in Costa ) She loves it! I suppose it depends on what you wanted it for really?

She got hers 'free' from the Carphone Warehouse (not entirely sure about the shop, but it was definitely 'free') with a mobile broadband dongle thingy contract £13 a month (there goes the free bit ) was thinking about getting one myself, flogging the netbook and keeping the mobile broadband for my existing 'car' laptop . . Worth a punt?

 

[Thmsshaun]

I've just got an Acer One. 8.9" Screen job with 8Gb SSD. No idea at all why I bought it but it seems pretty good and more than happy with the Linux Installation. If you want mobile internet on the move then I don't really think you can go wrong with one of these. For the price too they are a real bargain.