Netbook opinions?

[pzkpfw]

Picking up some on-the-side work and need a new computer for my non 9-to-5 work stuff.

As it won't be my "main" machine, or at least, simply doesn't need heavy processing power - my main concern is portability - so I've started leaning towards the "netbook" end of the market. It's mostly "consulting" - so mostly just need to read documents and such. (Prefer 10" screen or better).

(Proper "powerful" laptops - but little ones with 12-13" screens - are freakin' expensive.)

Has anyone here used one (a netbook)? Got one? Have a recommendation?

[Of course, for just a few hundred more I can get a low-end 15.4" screen "normal" laptop (with much more power and better specs) - but that gets a bit big and heavy for what I want (and it's hard to avoid temptation like adding better video etc.. that adds more $$). Overall, the Dell Vostro 13" models seem a good alternative to the netbooks - and reasonably small; I like the Lenovo SL series too - due to the stick pointer - but they are relatively much more expensive.]

Overall, the machine I'm currently lusting after is the 2Gb HD screen version of the HP Mini 2140. (Main issue here is that the resellers all seem confused about the specifications... and the HP site does not clear things up much).

(The Toshiba NB100 gets some bad reviews, but I happen to like the look of it - and it's gotten much cheaper lately.)

Any comments or suggestions? Do you have a netbook you hate/love? Do you use it for "business" or for surfing KB in the bath?

[Dave Lobster]

My brother has an Asus EEE. 10" screen. Handy size to fit in your daysac, etc.
Long battery life. He got it in the UK for less than £300. I don't think you can get them here (yet).
He's impressed enough with his that he doesn't use his real PC any more. HD plugged into his router, so you don't even end up with a heap of cables everywhere.

[Manxman]

My brother has an Asus EEE. 10" screen. Handy size to fit in your daysac, etc.
Long battery life. He got it in the UK for less than £300. I don't think you can get them here (yet).
He's impressed enough with his that he doesn't use his real PC any more. HD plugged into his router, so you don't even end up with a heap of cables everywhere.

Yup you can get these in NZ: DSE, Harvey Norman, Noel Leemings, TradeMe, etc.

Start at around the $500 mark.

Was thinking of getting one for Christmas, but the lack of CD player is the big let down with Netbooks (otherwise they'd be physically bigger of course). Horses for courses.

[Dave Lobster]

Just low spec 900 models here. Not the 1000.

[Warr]

Last machine I bought was out of the HP tx 1000 range. Vista of course, sadly vista wouldnt handle some communication software I needed to run.
Thats when I found out there was no compatable drivers for XP.
I did find a forum of people who were trying but I ended up with reduced power management and screen functions :)
I will ditch XP sometime in the future and all will be fine :)

[magicfairy]

I have dell inspiron 910 netbook (using it in bed now) $699
1 gig ram , windows xp. 16 gig solid state drive, 3 usb ports, ethernet , wireless, webcam. took it all round sth island on the bike. 1.5 hours to charge battery and about 3 hours battery time. had it for 4 months. the first week I got it the screen played up intermttently, dell sent a technician to my house free of charge the next day and replaced all screen components, been faultless ever since. Never misses a beat.

I love it , and use it all the time. I have installed office and balrog has installed gps software so he can plug in his gps and map routes etc when we are away. the wireless is great, always seems to connect first time and stay connected.
only downside is a small keyboard, you have to be a little careful typing

I have a work laptop with Vista, 4 gig ram , all the bells and whistles and quite frankly Id rather use the dell
16 gig disk isnt much but being solid state no problems shaking it around. and I just plug in usb drives if i need to.
so for basic web surfing, mail, basic word processing etc it is perfect. But not a gaming machine or heavy duty apps.

[xwhatsit]

The EeePC has the most appalling keyboard ever. Reminiscent of an old Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Very useful though, boots in a flash. If you ever need to look something up... just grab it, hit the power button.

[mooks]

Just low spec 900 models here. Not the 1000.

The 1000h is definitely here - bought one from Ascent
http://ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=368709

Had the 900 previously but gave that to my nephew for his first lappie.
The 900 I found too cramped for typing at a reasonable clip. And the solid state drive was too small.

I did some upgrades to the 1000h and am very happy with it now. Upped the RAM to 2gig and the HDD to 320gig for multiple OS booting.
I have also replaced the wifi card as the one that ships with the machine didn't really cut it on the wifi N network I run at home.

The battery that ships with it will last me about 6 hours using wifi and with the screen on medium 'brightness'. But longer lasting units are available on ebay at a reasonable cost.

Even without the mods, the 1000h is a great little machine for the price. :woohoo:

My one complaint would be the glossy finish on it - it attracts fingerprints like you wouldn't believe.

cheers
S

[Dave Lobster]

The 1000h is definitely here - bought one from Ascent
http://ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=368709


Feck, that's not cheap.

[Dargor]

Ive got a eee 900. 20gb solid state storage. Its good for what it is, small, cheap, quiet.

[pzkpfw]

Thanks for all opinions so far.

magicfairy: how much of that 16Gb is free out-of-the box? (i.e. after XP is put on it). I liked the look of that Dell - but "only" 16GB and the reviews on the keyboard put me off. (The Dell site is now advertising 3G broadband via Vodaphone - but the links are broken.)

mooks: at that price it's hard to justify the comparable HP... http://ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=373573 (though I think they've stuffed the specs and that one is really 1024x576, and the one that's 1366x768 (which is what I "want") is a few hundred again: http://ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=373574).

[mooks]

Thanks for all opinions so far.

mooks: at that price it's hard to justify the comparable HP... http://ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=373573 (though I think they've stuffed the specs and that one is really 1024x576, and the one that's 1366x768 (which is what I "want") is a few hundred again: http://ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=373574).

Yeah - that's fair - ascent isn't always the cheapest, but their service is second to none.
I looked hard at the HP - but the battery life really limits the machine and because I needed extra life - I went with the asus. The larger the screen the harder on power, unfortunately.
I considered a few of them before I plonked down my hard earned, but I don't feel fiscally aggrieved with what I have now, by any means.

The nice thing for me was that the mods I had done to the original 900 were usable in the 1000h - ram and wifi card upgrade without the extra cost.
The toshiba was overpriced and wasn't made well enough for my liking, the dell has the battery problem and any upgrades are difficult.

I wanted the x200 ibm -truth be told - as I use a T61p for my workhorse laptop and like the IBMs a lot. However, the cost was too much for me given my goal was a portable beastie to use for email and light document work when I meet with clients.

Good luck in your search :woohoo:

[James Deuce]

The few hundred is worth the service you'll get from Ascent. HP suck balls.

I alway knew you turn in a wearable computer type of geek.

I'm very proud of you.

[pzkpfw]

The few hundred is worth the service you'll get from Ascent. HP suck balls.

I alway knew you turn in a wearable computer type of geek.

I'm very proud of you.

Motorcycles and computers? Is there no end to your wisdom?

...and how did you know I was really looking at this one? http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/vtmini/nz/en/index.html?jumpid=in_r10518_nz/en/hho/psg/hho_prim_hpcom_bann/vtmini

[James Deuce]

I'd buy that, that's cool. Vivienne Tam is hot.

[Road Guardian]

Currently on Kiwibiker with an Asus 1000H myself, excellent net book, I can never say I have really wanted a CD drive, I have a big TV for watching movies, and I download my music (Legally thank you very much). Size is just perfect, and its great for travelling.

And I get a lot of comments about its size, so small, hey its not the size, its how you use it!!! :innocent:

[mooks]

[QUOTE=pzkpfw;1923408]Thanks for all opinions so far.

magicfairy: how much of that 16Gb is free out-of-the box? (i.e. after XP is put on it). I liked the look of that Dell - but "only" 16GB and the reviews on the keyboard put me off. (The Dell site is now advertising 3G broadband via Vodaphone - but the links are broken.)

fyi - you can nlite an xp install down to less than 2gig for the solid state machines. My 900 had the 4gig ssd as the main drive with the 20 gig ssd. I moved all files etc to the 20gig and kept the os very small - the most it grew to was 2.1gig (including the monster install of a couple of office apps)

Have a look here:
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:nlitexp

[RC1]

Vivienne Tam is hot.

if shes hot im the fucken queen

[magicfairy]

[QUOTE=pzkpfw;1923408]Thanks for all opinions so far.

magicfairy: how much of that 16Gb is free out-of-the box? (i.e. after XP is put on it). I liked the look of that Dell - but "only" 16GB and the reviews on the keyboard put me off. (The Dell site is now advertising 3G broadband via Vodaphone - but the links are broken.)



the whole drive comes compressed (NTFS) and I think when I got it it had about 12-13 gig still free. But I uncompressed the working directories like windows, not sure it made much difference to performance, and didn't make much difference to space either.

They come with an SD card reader and I have heard of some people putting a 16SD card in to increase storage, but I want that free for the camera when on holiday.

Storage isn't an issue for me as we have home computers with heaps of storage so I just connect wirelessly when I want to play movies etc, or copy to a flash drive. In fact it is better as I dont end up duplicating files all over the place.

My main use for it is super portable internet access, email and takes up bugger all space when motorbike touring.

It didn't come with a carry bag, but I got one for $20 off Trade-me, just a neophrene sleeve.
One of the criticisms you will read about is no F11 key for full screen IE. But the latest bios update maps Fn +Z to F11, which works fine. Also fixes some battery life reporting issues.

I picked Dell because I have good experiences with them in the past, like the look of it and it is all we buy at work (100 plus desktops and servers)
I think the service is still better than if I went back to Dick Smith and complained to a pimply 17 year old.

[scracha]

I'm not a fan of Acer aspires or their desktop but their "one" range of netbooks are much better put together than their other stuff. Plus the Acer 3 year warranty is way cheaper than anything else out there (probably cos it doesn't include courier pickup but there you go). They've just brought out a 10" model too if you think the 9" ones are too small. Unless you're a linux hippy I'd stick to the ones with the traditional hard drives and XP.

http://www.notebookcity.co.nz/product/acer-aspire-one-atom-n270-1gb-120gb-89-xph-blue

If you don't need grunt then choose the ones with intel atom over the celeron as the battery life is much better.

[imdying]

I've a couple of Aspire Ones... nice enough, do the job etc etc. Gig of RAM and a 160GB HDD, not sure I'd really benefit from much more... lets face it, they're just throwaway toys. Beautifully light... so easy to take anywhere.

[xwhatsit]

I'd buy that, that's cool. Vivienne Tam is hot.
Well, I suppose being an old fart, your sense of what's good looking is slightly warped.

Still, if I could push away the mental image of her looking like my ex's mum, maybe we could get along.

You have to try out all the keyboards before buying something. Being brought up with several IBM Model Ms, I find it hard to adapt, and it's no good if you're mostly using it just to ssh into other boxes if you can't type fast.

[Manxman]

The EeePC has the most appalling keyboard ever. Reminiscent of an old Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Very useful though, boots in a flash. If you ever need to look something up... just grab it, hit the power button.

And what, might I ask, was wrong with the ZX Spectrum??? One of the best machines ever built, with a keyboard to match.

P/T over.

Actually, my only claim to fame was nearly winning a Porsche car on Gyron...:zzzz: Sooooo close.

[xwhatsit]

And what, might I ask, was wrong with the ZX Spectrum??? One of the best machines ever built, with a keyboard to match.

P/T over.

Actually, my only claim to fame was nearly winning a Porsche car on Gyron...:zzzz: Sooooo close.
Actually I was a C64 lad. Not quite old enough to have a Spectrum, but I played with a mates one.

Now the C64 had a nice keyboard. How about making a netbook out of one of those?

[SPman]

I have a dell inspiron 910 netbook
Is that the same as the Dell mini 9 sold over here in Aus? - for $549.

[Slicksta]

If you can hold off for a bit the new amd neo will be out soonish same with the Nvida ion.. they will make net books much faster both having decent GFX the intel chipset the atom uses is rubbish in comparison

[scracha]

If you can hold off for a bit the new amd neo will be out soonish same with the Nvida ion.. they will make net books much faster both having decent GFX the intel chipset the atom uses is rubbish in comparison

Aye, but the killer apps for the past 15 years have been web browsing and email. My 80286 managed that quite nicely so I'm sure an Intel Atom is enough for the average netbook user.

[magicfairy]

Is that the same as the Dell mini 9 sold over here in Aus? - for $549.

Yep, I think they are all shipped out of Singapore. Mine came within 4 days of ordering online.

[pzkpfw]

From what I've read it's caused confusion. Some place called Tescos in the UK started selling Dell Mini 10's but shipped people Mini 9's instead. Had to do a lot of refunds.

Apparently the 910 model number was part of the confusion.

The Mini 10 isn't out yet. (Not here, anyway...)