Me? Seeking Advice? Netbooks...

[staffsMike]

If your concerned about the keyboard, i'm getting the sammy for christmas, i tried writing about 3 paragraphs on it in currys (the store assistant did look a little concerned how long i was going to keep going) and its very nice to use, the dell 9" is ok (friend has that one) but i didn't like the Acer one. It's a little cramped for my liking, guess it depends on how big your hands are but the Sammy is nice.

Yeah I know it's cramped, I had a go in PC world. Typing on it should be reasonably limited though which is why I'm still considering it.

The sammy is the best for me hands down, but it's whether it justifies the extra £100 in my particular case which is the problem, especially as i don't need XP. If the sammy was linux and ~£250 I wouldn't still be thinking...

[Pob255]

well j1975 is selling his nc10 on ebay, you "may" be able to get it cheap
http://forums.hexus.net/small-form-f...ml#post1580324

[staffsMike]

I about to pull the trigger on a White (eugh).. Acer (EUGH) .. with 1GB of RAM and a 120GB HDD for £199.99.

simply can't justify the extra on the sammy. Although it appears the acer might be noisey which I do mind about I've downloaded fan control stuff for it.. so I guess its ok.

[zzzxtreme]

my lenovo s10 with 1GB can play wmv 1080p, mkv 720p (using core avc) with only around 40% Cpu, runs delphi 2009, vs 2008 fine.

so all these new generation netbooks are OK!

[staffsMike]

I didn't buy it (yet).

Now I'm looking at this instead
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152652

Completely opposite direction I know but with it's X4500HD and HDMI out I figure this fits what I was saying before about having a purpose post requirement at school.

If someone could go and buy this it would save me thinking about it, I missed the few that bigpockets had as well while umming and ahhhing
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HP-NC2400-DUAL...3A1|240%3A1318

So it's

The Acer one from above (cheapest)
The nc2400 (offering less than asking) (best compromise)
Or the lenovo (useful after)

I hate buying things lol

[PeterStoba]

HP used to do a very nice tablet for about £600, cannot remember the model number off hand.

HP TX2130ea, fantastic, i own one and love it.

[arthurleung]

Well, as a Dell Mini-9 owner, I find the keyboard to be alright to use (haven't used other netbooks though), and have an amazingly accurate touchpad (in contrast to the one on my 1525, which wobbles)

Screen is great, very bright and very wide viewing angle.
Battery is 4 cells so last about 3.5~4 hours. To be honest my 1525 with T8300 could hit 5.5 hours on a 6 cell (or 7.5~8 hours with screen off), so Atom is actually not as great about power usage as Intel claimed.

It is also one of the very few netbooks that is fanless, although you'll probably hear the high frequency noise common to laptops.

The transformer is light and TINY and you can just carry it around.

However, the sleep power drain is quite high and it drain 2% of power per hour of sleep (I left it on sleep for 40 hours and found it is at 18% when I turned it on again.)

And 3 USB ports on the side which is great.

[staffsMike]

I've tried the Dell for a bit longer today. It was fine having been typing on the acer for a while, quite simiar. But the MSI and Sammy are much better in this respect.

I still can't decide though, I've got to the point where I don't care anymore lol

Almost.. so almost bought this today
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-35074

And I think it is what i will buy if I get a netbook.

[arthurleung]

I've tried the Dell for a bit longer today. It was fine having been typing on the acer for a while, quite simiar. But the MSI and Sammy are much better in this respect.

I still can't decide though, I've got to the point where I don't care anymore lol

Almost.. so almost bought this today
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-35074

And I think it is what i will buy if I get a netbook.

That netbook looked so ugly compared to the Dell. I'd admit the Dell one got 1/10 the storage and only Ubuntu though.

I think currently Dell is doing the Mini9 for £212 after 6% quidco.

[staffsMike]

It looks better in person than on the net and I was resolved to buy it on the net.. so the slightly less ugly looks were a welcome suprise for me lol

[dbh]

Yo Mike this might be slightly over your budget but its still within reason.

Check out the Asus N10J. It's an Atom based netbook but has a Geforce 9300 in it. So it can handle 1080p movies and the likes alright! Some peeps have even played fallout 3 on it lol. Google shows it goes for about 400ish. That's if you want the portability other for same cash get a more beefy machine I guess.

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...86&modelmenu=1

http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=B147635

[looney]

ps the advent netbook u linked is uspposed to be crapish, i would recommend the msi wind u100 or advent 4211, both around the 250 mark and are very well specced.

[staffsMike]

ps the advent netbook u linked is uspposed to be crapish, i would recommend the msi wind u100 or advent 4211, both around the 250 mark and are very well specced.

Based on what?

It's the same notebook as the MSI and advent 4211 with a smaller screen..

the other advent 8.9" is rubbish, is that what you mean?

[looney]

Based on what?

It's the same notebook as the MSI and advent 4211 with a smaller screen..

the other advent 8.9" is rubbish, is that what you mean?

Unless ive got the wrong model (which i dont think i have) that one is based on the u90, i remember researching on one of the advents based on the u90 and didnt get good comments.

edit: sorry i think it was the 4212

[staffsMike]

Well the u90 isn't bad by any means it gets bad reviews based on it's price and o/s as far as i recall.

The 4212 is like I mentioned the other advent which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

I used it the other day in PC World and was quite happy with it overall.

[Grey M@a]

I have the Samsung NC10 right in front of me which I am typing this on. I have had the majority of netbooks come my way through work and I still swear by the Samsung for the keyboard Stick a 2gb mem stick in there and away you go. Great little lappy for what I bought it for, bought an external samsung dvd burner for it and I must say I am using it for 99% of what I do now putting the new gaming shuttle to waste, there is £900 wasted for the amount of pc gaming I seem to be doing atm.

Out of all the current netbooks I would easily say the NC10 over the rest of them for feel, quality, battery life, screen quality and keyboard. If you want I could take a few piccies and upload them if you want to see one up close without seeing the flashy marketing pics. I flattened mine and got rid of the standard xp home and all the crapware on it and stuck XP Pro on with a few tools from the Samsung disc for the likes of the touchpad with the gestures and the keyboard software to get the Fn keys working but other than that this thing flies.

Obviously at the end of the day it is a netbook but I am finding myself now hooking this thing up to the TFT and working in 1280x1024 and using it like a normal machine and its more than capable. So far I have been converting dvd's to divx and xvid files for on the go, general browsing and office work and coding in vs.net with a bit of dreamweaver and its a dream when you are at a desk with a tft to hook into. Although as you can imagine working on vs.net and dreamweaver and photoshop on the little 10.2" screen with a res of 1024x600 leaves little to be desired.

Any questions you want to ask or pictures of it, just give me a shout and I will be happy to answer them