Netbook? - Which one?

[hoopy1888]

Hi folks...in the market for a netbook mobile. Wondering if anyone has any good (or bad) stories about them. Storage space is not the priority, but stability and webcam is. Seen loads but cant make me mind up.
Cheers
Hoopy

[satansoft]

Hi mate I just bought the Acer Aspire One 120gb HD Atom 1.6 CPU Card Reader, Webcam its very sweet. Bought the 512mb Linux version for 189 quid from play.com, another 10 quid for a gig of ram to take it to 1.5 gig and it runs XP sweet as a nut. . Runs all the stuff as XP would, and plays divx downloads excellent.

Theres loads of Tutorials on youtube how to install XP from a USB stick, and how to add memory. Its got plenty of users already, so lots of useful forum activity.

I love everything about it except the mouse buttons, they are either side of the glidepad, and not very intuitive to use, but I use it with a mini usb mouse anyway, so its not a deal killer. . .

The speakers arent over loud, but what do you expect from a netbook, I can watch a film on it fine in a quiet room, but any sort of noise and its best to revert to the headphones. . but sound is crystal clear.

[hoopy1888]

Hi Mate, I got a Asus eeepc 901. 20Gb Solid state, 1Gb RAM, and running linux. The bootup time is about 6 secs. And every video and audio file i've thrown at it works a treat. I even have it streaming my dreambox content upstairs in bed. I actually got a refund from Dell as a laptop i got 2 years ago started shocking me. SO I was able to buy this for nearly a quarter of the refund I got. Granted its 20Gb as opposed to the 120Gb I had, but I have desktops for all that meaty powerful stuff, and this is now so portable that I am taking it everywhere and doing work (and play) when i feel like it. It definately opens up loads more avenues. I would say its the first truly mobile computing option. I've had PDA's and PMP's (archos etc) but this does it all in an accessible package.
Fast, easy to use, will get more people turned on to linux, light.... totally impressed, and that is hard to do to me!

[krazylegz]

asda have a canny acer one in for about ?215 with a 120gb HDD i think lol

ASDA direct | Blue Acer Aspire One Netbook S050A | Laptops & Handhelds (http://direct.asda.com/Blue-Acer-Aspire-One-Netbook-S050A/000582902,default,pd.html)

[billy_boy786]

just got an Asus eee 1000h... 10.2" screen, 2gb ram, 160gb hdd, atom 1.6 cpu, 6 cell battery (lasts 4 hrs EASILY!).. its surpassed all my expectations.. definatly capable.. the reason i went for this one was for the large keyboard (95% of normall), multi touch functionality (which is very usefull on such a small thing) and wireless n draft (which i wanted).. it also has bluetooth which i didnt know when i bought it.. stole it for just under ?300 with the 2gb ram which is extreamly easy to install.. highly recommend it

[Neil]

I am tempted to buy a Samsung NC10 but need to find one to play with first as I am worried it will be too slow to be usable. I only want it for surfing, Office 2003 and other bits and pieces. It would be nice it if could run Visual Studio but I think that is asking a bit much.

[Jaffa]

I am tempted to buy a Samsung NC10 but need to find one to play with first as I am worried it will be too slow to be usable. I only want it for surfing, Office 2003 and other bits and pieces. It would be nice it if could run Visual Studio but I think that is asking a bit much.

2 of my m8s got the NC10 from PCworld for ?299, they have it at ?329 in the shop but it is in their Christmas broucher on page 21 or 22 and he showed them it and they honoured the price. They both love it and say it is pretty fast, wheter it would run Visual studio is another thing, but they use it for word etc and surfing, watching iplayer, they both said battery life is brilliant.

[Neil]

The battery life is one of the important things for me.

[Knockoff_Nigel]

I am in the market for a notebook aswell and seen the Acer one advertised for 189 in ASDA, but I was a bit wqeary of the 512mb of ram. Would that be plenty for a unit this size and would XP be ok with that amount or would it be better looking for a unit with more RAM?

Thanx
:barscarf:

[Jaffa]

I am in the market for a notebook aswell and seen the Acer one advertised for 189 in ASDA, but I was a bit wqeary of the 512mb of ram. Would that be plenty for a unit this size and would XP be ok with that amount or would it be better looking for a unit with more RAM?

Thanx
:barscarf:

I know Amazon have the Acer aspire one for ?170 with Linux on it, but they also have the 1gb version for ?215.

[Neil]

I know Amazon have the Acer aspire one for ?170 with Linux on it, but they also have the 1gb version for ?215.


You can get 2Gb to fit them for under ?20. Might be worth buying the 512 one and checking what you can swap it out for before spending and extra ?45 for 1 Gb. I think most of these netbooks (if not all) only have 1 slot to save space.

[peacock70]

I owned the Acer for about two months then one day I went to switch on and just a green power light. Took it back to tesco and they asked me if I wanted a refund straight away, so they must have had a few back with the same fault. I was happy with it while it was working and it ran osx lepard no problem.

I replaced it with the NC10 and all I can say is glad the acer had a fault. Six hours battery life easy, the acer barely lasted two. Now I have a ten inch screen, I wouldn't want a nine inch again, too much eye strain on the nine and some horizontal scrolling was necessary to view most web pages. The keyboard was good on the acer but the samsung blows it away as the height and size of the keys are better. The only thing I could knock is the track pad which is slightly to small, but you do get used to it. I paid ?248 for the Acer and ?293 for the Sammy. I wouldn't pay over ?300 for a netbook as there are proper laptops for that type of money but the Sammy was worth the extra cost over the Acer and it came with an xp home licence.

[Jaffa]

My m8 gave me his NC10 to try out today at work, had it all day and it was great, I cant fault it. Takes a while to adjust from lappy to netbook due to size but if I was buying one it would be that, I wouldnt hesitate at all. I have tried Asus, Acer, Advent (theres an A thing going there I think..lol) and now NC10 and it just kicks the ass of the others.

[Neil]

Will you stop telling me how good they are, she will kill me if I turn up with one :D