Netbooks

[Heavencloud]

I'm looking into buying a netbook for college and I'm not really 100% sure which one I want to get. I just need something for word processing and internet pretty much. Anyone have much experience with these?

Here's the one I've been looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115590

Any advice would be much appreciated! $250-350 price range is what I'm looking to spend.

[_chuchu]

get a dell laptop instead

[Cyn]

The prices on those things these days is pretty impressive. But I'm not sure that it's possible to be holding a netbook and look rugged and manly at the same time.

[Cephius]

Netbooks aren't good for much more than word processing and checking e-mail. It'll struggle with any kind of video rendering, I'd get a real laptop for school were I you.

[Heavencloud]

Well it would go in my backpack lol... The reason I want one is I only need it for a few different things and I don't want to have to lug around a big laptop.

[Meyor]

I got a Dell Mini 9 last year a few months after they came out. I can honestly say that I love the thing. I did the simple upgrades, 2GB Ram, and Memory Upgrade. I got it originally to take to Europe on a 2 week trip so we would have something super portable to use while we traveled to make reservations, look up maps, etc.

I use it for everything but gaming at this point. We take it on all our trips now, its just so small and easy to travel with. I use it at home as a portable internet radio (speakers suck but are usable), use my Slingbox on it with no problem, and lay my lazy ass in bed and Ebay shit I don't need. I don't do much business work on it, only have Open Office installed on it, but it is nice to have in case you need to open or work on that kind of document when your traveling/being lazy.

I have zero experience with any other netbooks, I considered getting the wife a Dell Mini 10v for Christmas this year but went a different rout with her gifts. I have just had such good luck with Dell stuff the last two years or so that they have made a steady customer of me.

I can say that the keyboard takes some getting used to, if you are going to type a super long email or word document I would still go to the desktop, but for tinkering around/editing documents and sending normal emails it is not that big of a deal. The mouse touch pad is very nice on mine, has scroll up/down and left/right along the edges and works just as well as any other laptop I have used.

I run XP on my netbook, but if you are a Mac guy I have heard that it is really easy to convert to whatever OS you want to use.

I can honestly say that the only regret I have about my netbook is that I didn't get one sooner.

Mine is a Dell Mini 9, 2GB Ram, 32GB SSHD, XP SP2.

[Minions]

I'll put in my 2 cents for a eeepc. By far (as far as I've seen), their netbooks tend to have the highest battery life around, and are extremely light. I purchased the 1005HA, and I really can't say I have a single complaint about it. I used my friends Dell Mini, which is pretty similar overall, but went with this in the end due to the battery life. I easily get 8~ hours of use each charge, with all the power settings on it will seem like it will last you a few days between charges. The eeepc stuff they have you install really works wonders, it automatically changes your settings depending on the circumstances. When you run something (such as a game for instance) it changes from power saver -> high performance. Same for when plugged in, or not plugged in. It does however use a standard hard drive, but I have not had to really wait for anything regardless. I currently run win7 on it, and it runs perfectly with no problems really.

This is the laptop I purchased.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...F8&me=&seller=

[Chicomagiko]

Nvidia Ion netbooks are the fucking shit. I'd say if you you really need one right fucking now, to go with an Ion chipset but if you can wait, hold out til the Ion 2 comes out or better yet save up and get a laptop.

[kyamei]

I'd get one of the dualcore CULV netbooks. They are about $50 over your budget, but I think its worth it. Those SU2300 Celerons are said to be something like 3 times faster than an Atom.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=&srchInDesc=

I just picked up the Gateway EC1435u and threw an SSD in. Runs soooo much smoother than my old Eee 1002HA.

The Ion netbooks have better graphics, but don't come in CULV flavors, so its a toss up there.

[shukudai]

Chiming in, I got one of those Acer netbooks last year, installed XP on it, things are quiet, takes a bit to get used to the smaller keyboard, and if you don't use the wifi functionality, you'll get good usage out of them.

That said, you're going to need to have 2 gigs RAM min to get decent speed for multi tasking (simple Open Office / Trillian / Browser with a few tabs open) if you don't want it slow.

I used it mainly for class, things are super light and portable, but I ended up upgrading to a plain old full on laptop, because I wanted more from it in the future. There are decently light laptops with plenty of power if you're not gaming/rendering things, in the 450-550$ range, that you can get a lot more out of.

[Meyor]

The battery life on dell mini 9 is not the greatest. You will not get the 8 hours that the eeepc guy gets. So if that is important to you, you may want to go that route or get an extra battery.

[Vuitton]

I love my netbook. It is an MSi Wind with a 160gb hard drive and 1gb of ram. I manually upgraded the ram to 2g and the wifi card to an intel card. It came with XP but I put Ubuntu on it. The battery life is impressive as I get about 6 hours of straight use out of it (6-cell battery).

It boots up in about 15 seconds. Everything runs smoothly. I use Open Office for my word processing since it is Ubuntu. Firefox runs perfectly, and I have no problems surfing the net. No slowdowns or speed problems. Installed ZSNES and that runs perfectly fine.

Perfect for surfing the net at work and school, typing up word documents, editing power points, ect. If you just need something cheap and powerful for basic needs such as these then a netbook is totally worth it.

They're only like $200 bucks as well, so fuck its a great deal for the utility it provides.

[Buttons]

I love my Netbook. I usually use it at University and have not regretted buying it once. Have an Asus 1005 HA-H and the battery lasts over 10 hours, it's amazing. Upgraded to 2GB ram myself, really easy on the model.

Posted about it on my blog a few months ago.
http://buttons-tarutaru.blogspot.com...-netbooks.html

[Isiolia]

I used it mainly for class, things are super light and portable, but I ended up upgrading to a plain old full on laptop, because I wanted more from it in the future. There are decently light laptops with plenty of power if you're not gaming/rendering things, in the 450-550$ range, that you can get a lot more out of.

Netbooks are really intended as second machines. IMO, they're a great complement to a solid desktop. Most users don't tend to need a whole lot more when they're actually using a laptop outside of their home.

[thestalkmore]

Really interested in a netbook. I have an HP laptop right now that is having serious issues. Strongly considering getting a netbook if it poops out.

[RandomJoe]

I purchased this... http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-AS...8676132&sr=8-4

Acer Aspire 1410, model 2497 and i'm very impressed. It runs fast, can do decent video, and has great battery life.

I don't think this technically a Netbook, but it has an 11.6" screen, a Celeron processor, and 2 GB ram. It looks and smells like a cheap notebook but has a netbook price. I really like mine

[Electro]

I love my Netbook. I usually use it at University and have not regretted buying it once. Have an Asus 1005 HA-H and the battery lasts over 10 hours, it's amazing. Upgraded to 2GB ram myself, really easy on the model.

Posted about it on my blog a few months ago.
http://buttons-tarutaru.blogspot.com...-netbooks.html

I've been looking for that model and have not been able to find it. All I've been seeing lately is the 10.1 1.6ghz version. not the 1.66 .

Where is the memory located? Under the keyboard?

Found it and ordered it. $369 is what it cost. Also comes with a $50 mail in rebate.

[Buttons]

I've been looking for that model and have not been able to find it. All I've been seeing lately is the 10.1 1.6ghz version. not the 1.66 .

Where is the memory located? Under the keyboard?

Found it and ordered it. $369 is what it cost. Also comes with a $50 mail in rebate.

Memory is in a seperate flap on the bottom. One screw loose and it opens up and you click out the ram. No messy taking out the keyboard like on the 1008 for example. Took me like 2 minutes to put in the 2GB Ram. ^^