The NetBook Buy Thread

[gkarris]

Interestingly enough, Dell now has 12" NetBooks (or are they laptops?) with the Atom and the new (?) Intel GMA500:

http://www.dell.com/content/product...inspiron-12?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=hmpgwn2&s=dhs

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-500-GMA-500.12614.0.html

It keeps getting more and more crowded AND confusing...

 

[descartes]

I think sony has one in the works and the samsung one is getting good reviews.

 

[gkarris]

I think sony has one in the works and the samsung one is getting good reviews.

The Sony one, I would imagine, would be a more expensive one, but have a much nicer screen and discreet graphics, as Sony always tout how their machines are multimedia capable, maybe be able to play 1080p, like the upcoming Eee PC Atom desktop.

Aren't the Samsungs getting good reviews because they have discreet graphics?

 

[Semiopaque]

Just got the Asus N10J in for my girlfriend today. I've been doing updates and such getting it set-up so far, but will be trying to run some Blu-Rays through it in the next week or so to test it out.

So far, it's pretty nice. The screen is a bit odd, it really should have been bigger, but other than that it runs pretty nicely. I think she'll be very happy with it.

 

[ravenvii]

I got mine, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, with the eBay cashback thingy, for $292. A killer deal!

Well, I didn't exactly pay for it, and therefore have to wait for the 25th to actually get it, so I'm just waiting patiently

I'm mainly going to use it for law school exams and as a secondary computer to my iMac, so it'll do nicely!

I picked the Lenovo IdeaPad because I think it has the best design of all the netbooks, and has the best features next to the Acer Aspire One and the Samsung NC10. The Samsung NC10 is a bit too pricey (and on eBay they all seem to come with some wireless broadband adapter thingy or something that I don't want). And the Aspire One only has a 8.9" screen.

 

[Santa Rosa]

Went for an Acer Aspire One for the other halves parents. It's just for simple web surfing and that's about it I think. It's a nice enough design, good keyboard for a netbook and the Linux Linpus Lite installed is easy on the system and has a small footprint. Read quite a few positive reviews on it (apart from the battery) so hopefully they will like it!

Can it play SD iTunes content? Not a clue

 

[StuBeck]

It should be able to play SD itunes fine. We play 720P on similar hardware with atom processors. I'm looking at the aspire one too.

 

[gkarris]

It should be able to play SD itunes fine. We play 720P on similar hardware with atom processors. I'm looking at the aspire one too.

How does it do that? The one I tested with a video that was far from 720p was nothing but choppy, had lines, and missed frames...

 

[StuBeck]

Might be the RAM, I'm not sure. Our systems have single core Atoms with 2 gigs of ram, but an X3100 instead of the 950. I just bought a samsung nc10 and will test it out and let you know if I have the same problem.

 

[Kebabselector]

I was tempted to get an Acer Aspire One for my photography (for Christmas), in place of my MacBook. However I tried uFraw and The Gimp on Ubuntu, think I'll pass this time round.

 

[descartes]

The Sony one, I would imagine, would be a more expensive one, but have a much nicer screen and discreet graphics, as Sony always tout how their machines are multimedia capable, maybe be able to play 1080p, like the upcoming Eee PC Atom desktop.

Aren't the Samsungs getting good reviews because they have discreet graphics?

and killer battery life. ~7hours

 

[ViM]

which netbook is most compatible as a hackintosh?

 

[gkarris]

Might be the RAM, I'm not sure. Our systems have single core Atoms with 2 gigs of ram, but an X3100 instead of the 950. I just bought a samsung nc10 and will test it out and let you know if I have the same problem.

That explains it... the one at the store's a 950...

which netbook is most compatible as a hackintosh?

MSI Wind and Dell Mini I hear...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/03/dell-mini-9-hacked-to-run-os-x/

 

[Neutral Gamer]

Samsung NC10

Just thought I'd say that I bought the black version of the Samsung NC10 on Saturday for my parents and I think it's absolutely brilliant! The battery life is what persuaded me in the end and I haven't been disappointed at all. I'm getting similar life to my Sony VAIO TZ - I'd say around 6.5 hours average with WiFi on and screen brightness half way.

It's nearly as portable as my VAIO albeit thicker and not as elegant looking. The trackpad height is a bit short for my liking but the keyboard is great. The screen's not bad either with pretty even brightness, although to be honest with you I'm a glossy fan and the VAIO's screen is quite simply amazing and thinner to boot along with a higher resolution.

But let's not beat about the bush here, this thing cost me £299 which was more than a £1000 cheaper than the VAIO, which to me is exceptional value for money. In fact I'm thinking of buying quite a few of these to give out as Christmas presents. For the same price I could've bought a cheap ass 15.4" laptop with better specs but with no doubt a worse screen, awful battery life and less portability. I'm glad I made this choice.

Boot time in Windows XP seems pretty fast to me and multitasking is no problem either - the 1GB of RAM is more than adequate for the kind of things you'd be using this laptop for. I also love the fact that it doesn't burn my lap like other laptops and even when the fan turns on, it's pretty quiet.

All in all I'd highly recommend it, especially for the amazing battery life and excellent keyboard.

Cheers.

 

[Neutral Gamer]

In case anyone's still deciding and didn't decide to bite the bullet over Christmas here's a nice little supertest of netbooks that was just published:

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...tbook-supertest-which-one-is-the-best--507801

Looks like the Samsung NC10 comes out on top and having used it for the last month I can heartily recommend it. Great screen, keyboard, battery life (changing the screen brightness makes a massive difference) and price in my opinion.

 

[gkarris]

In case anyone's still deciding and didn't decide to bite the bullet over Christmas here's a nice little supertest of netbooks that was just published:

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobil...tbook-supertest-which-one-is-the-best--507801

Looks like the Samsung NC10 comes out on top and having used it for the last month I can heartily recommend it. Great screen, keyboard, battery life (changing the screen brightness makes a massive difference) and price in my opinion.

Thanks for the review link. The only thing is that I don't know where they get the fact that these decode HD. Maybe the new Dell Mini 12 with the new GMA500 - but that review said it drops frames in 720p.

I don't know how the Samsung with GMA950 does it at all, considering the tests I did in the store earlier...

 

[Neutral Gamer]

Thanks for the review link. The only thing is that I don't know where they get the fact that these decode HD. Maybe the new Dell Mini 12 with the new GMA500 - but that review said it drops frames in 720p.

I don't know how the Samsung with GMA950 does it at all, considering the tests I did in the store earlier...

I just tried out some 720p trailers from the apple.com/trailers site and I have to agree with you mate: netbooks weren't designed to watch HD videos on! Although the quality looked impressive, when there was large amounts of camera movement you could clearly see the screen tearing, i.e. vertical sync issues. And the movement itself, although acceptable, was no way as smooth as on a TV or normal computer.

But let's be honest most people are gonna be using these for office realted tasks, web browsing, programming etc. If you want to do more demanding tasks then a MacBook would probably be the best compromise on portability, performance, price and design.

 

[danny_w]

I just scored an Acer Aspire One (160GB hdd/1GB mem) with Windows XP from CL today, and have been playing with it most of the evening. I'm actually quite surprised at how responsive it is; I don't think my full size laptop at work does this well (granted, it's an older Gateway). I don't expect it will run multiple apps well at all, but it does fine with just one app open. Even Acrobat Reader opened faster than I expected, and it is notoriously slow. I might eventually try to install OS X, but I doubt it, at least not for quite some time.

 

[Neutral Gamer]

I just scored an Acer Aspire One (160GB hdd/1GB mem) with Windows XP from CL today, and have been playing with it most of the evening. I'm actually quite surprised at how responsive it is; I don't think my full size laptop at work does this well (granted, it's an older Gateway). I don't expect it will run multiple apps well at all, but it does fine with just one app open. Even Acrobat Reader opened faster than I expected, and it is notoriously slow. I might eventually try to install OS X, but I doubt it, at least not for quite some time.

As long as you're not using them for highly processor intensive tasks netbooks are suprisingly well performing. You shouldn't have any problems with multi-tasking either. I've got 1GB of RAM on my NC10 with Windows XP and I regularly have multiple apps open with no problem and plenty of memory left over when checking the Task Manager.

In fact as I'm writing this I have Internet Explorer with 5 tabs open, Napster streaming an album, OpenOffice Writer, Visual C# with a large project and finally WordPad all running. Processor load is very low and I've still got over 500MB of memory free!

 

[gkarris]

You have to remember, though. By the holidays later this year, these NetBooks should have an even later Intel Graphics chipset or the nVidia Ion, which plays 1080p no problem... not to mention Windows 7...

Should be interesting. I guess the question is - is the small screen good enough? I see people with 8" screens at the coffee shop, squinting...

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I would recommend the Lenovo S10. Outstanding netbook. Samsung one looks a bit weird, EEE is/feels cheap as heck, Acer has poor battery, HP has a sucky processor and whimpier graphics card. The S10 has the best build quality out of all netbooks thus far.

 

[danny_w]

I would recommend the Lenovo S10. Outstanding netbook. Samsung one looks a bit weird, EEE is/feels cheap as heck, Acer has poor battery, HP has a sucky processor and whimpier graphics card. The S10 has the best build quality out of all netbooks thus far.

The S10 does look/feel really nice, but the battery life is the worst of the bunch according to the reviews. Anyway, I just bought a used Acer yesterday and am perfectly happy with it, esp. for only $220 (8.9"/120GB/1GB/Windows XP).

 

[gkarris]

Wooo hooo!

Great thing I didn't get a NetBook. Work is replacing my clunky old 14.1" square 3+ year old laptop!

They are even letting me choose a sub-note!

We just started getting the newest Dells in, and I'm getting the E4200, 12.1".

Seems like it has a 1.2 GHz ULV Core 2 Duo, but it has the new x4500MHD graphics that will play 1080p!

My cheap-o Acer that I ended up getting (mentioned in this thread) has only the x4500M graphics (for 720p).

Will post my findings when I play the test videos I used when NetBook shopping.

Glad I got the laptop instead - since work is getting me a sub-note...

 

[gkarris]

^^^ UPDATE

Just got my order info for my new work laptop. I guess my company's going with the E4300 (13" laptop) for portability. The E4200 (12") only have SSD drives which skyrockets the price...

Interestingly enough, Dell's E4300 series is about the same price as the Aluminum MacBooks...

So much for Dell's being "cheaper"...

 

[Shoesy]

I have a lovely acer aspire one. It is white and nice, even if I can't make it sleep. Nite nite!