Netbook Vs Ultra Light for traveling

BenEadir

Hi all,

I have a big old Dell D620 which I dock and use as my desktop machine and undock and drag around the place. I'm getting tired of both the machine and dragging it around and am thinking of leaving it docked as my desktop and somehow connecting back to it via logmein or something similar on a small portable laptop when I'm on the road.

I therefore have two questions:-

1. In practical terms how can I get access to all my docs, email etc on the road without having to dupicate everything?

2. What is the best small/light machine to purchase for doing that? My initial research indicates that either http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/MSI_Wind_U100_Ultra_Portable_Laptop_in_Black_U100-220UK-BK120A/version.asp or http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Asus_Eee_PC_S101_Dark_Grey_Netbook_Laptop_EPCS101-BLK007X/version.asp look like the right machines but they are very different and I'm not sure whether or not I can or would need to load a full version of MS Office on the chosen machine for giving presentations, working on Spreadsheets etc?

Any and all help/suggestions very welcome.

Regards,

Ben

Alanstrainor

The eee 1000h is one to consider. The eee above is way over priced for what it is. The eee has a considerably better battery life than the msi wind. I have the advent 4211 which is a rebadged msi wind and its great, but the battery life is only 2 and a half hours tops.

BenEadir

What about the new Dell Mini 9? See http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/10/13/Dell-Inspiron-Mini-9-Netbook-on-Vodafone/p1

Looks the business to me!!

cojomo2

without a doubt u want the samsung nc10...has the same spec as the asus 1000h and is cheaper, lihter and more compact.

i also have (or had, it got stolen last week) a rebadged msi wind (advent 4211)...great machine, had ms office and all on it, it was perfect for net surfing and creating documents etc..but it really let me down on battery laife..which is why im now going to buy a samsung nc10..basically same machine with over twice the battery life, and pretty much the same price.

cojomo2

BenEadir wrote: »

What about the new Dell Mini 9? See http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/10/13/Dell-Inspiron-Mini-9-Netbook-on-Vodafone/p1

Looks the business to me!!

not a bad laptop if u are ok with a 8.9 inch screen but is overpriced for thre spec you get when compared to the likes of the acer aspire one

not good value in my opinion

id go with a 10'' screen, i think it makes a big difference, u will also get a bigger keyboard and if u go for the likes of the samsung nc10 or asus eepc1000h you will get about double the battery life..and all for the same price (samsung nc10 )

bnt

I agree with the eeePC 1000, though I went for the model without the H that has solid state drives. The disk is smaller, not quite as fast and costs more per GB, but is shockproof and runs cool. It's small, but not too small.

Brian

Office 2003 works perfectly on my 1000H.

Alanstrainor

Office 07 runs perfectly on my advent 4211/msi wind.

Cormic

I was in a similar situation and ended up buying a second hand Dell Latitude D420. It is the business. I am very happy. It has the extended battery and lasts for ages which is important for me.

I use Syncplicity to sync up all my docs. They offer syncing between two computers with up to 2GB storage for free. It works a treat too.

bnt

Never heard of Syncplicity before: it seems to compare well with Dropbox, which I'm using, except that Dropbox already does Windows, Mac and Linux. I especially like how these services also offer multiple backups of each files, so that you can restore from an old version if you want to, even if you delete the original.

vibe666

i did a lot of research into netbooks and all the most recent reviews put the samsung nc10 on top so i got one for the missus for xmas and couldn't be happier. battery life on it is better than any other netbook by miles and every component is top of it's class, with the exception of the trackpad which is a little small (that's not just me saying it, check out all the online reviews saying th same).

I fixed that with a bluetooth based laptop mini-mouse though, although 90% of the time the trackpad is fine once you are used to it.

the keyboard is excellent though, and took no getting used to at all after a d600 keyboard on our previous laptop.

seriously, I can't recommend it enough, it's pretty much perfect and there's already a couple of threads in the laptop forum here saying the same thing. samsung were late to the netbook game but they certainly learnt from the competition.

i wiped xp off it and have vista ultimate (sp1) on it now and even with only 1gb of ram it flies along fine with a vista experience score of 2.7. i might upgrade it to 2gb, but i'm not sure i'll even need to tbh.

oh, and another vote here for dropbox for syncing files. i have my docs synced between an xp laptop, the vista netbook and a linux desktop all working flawlessly in the background. it does photo galleries etc. as well and for a free 1gb of storage it can't really be beaten imho.

watch the video for a little presentation of what you can do with it.

BenEadir

Hi Vibe,

Great recommendation for the nc10, it looks like a well built and slick machine. One key question though, does it have 3G HSDPA connectivity like the Dell NetBook? For me that level of connnectivity is what makes any netbook truly a "mobile netbook". A netbook which relies solely on Wi-fi connectivity in the middle of Roscommon (or wherever) isn't very mobile and therefore isn't much use is it? It's like those old "Rabbit" mobile phones from 20 years ago which were "mobile" provided you were within 200 yards of a base station. Looked good on paper if you lived in a tiny area of London which had the base stations. Step out of that area and your "mobile" phone turned into an expensive and very heavy digital clock!!

Would like to hear your thoughts on this particular issue.

Regards,

Ben

CHW

BenEadir wrote: »

One key question though, does it have 3G HSDPA connectivity like the Dell NetBook?

This aspect is also whats making me hold off getting a Netbook yet, although, is the Dell 3G locked to a specific network?

BenEadir

My understanding is that if you buy from direct from Dell you it is "unlocked" so you can use whatever network you prefer but Vodafone are going to be selling subsidised versions of the same Dell netbook soon which of course will tie you into their service for at least 12 months.

In fact, scratch that, just did a quick search and Vodafone are already offering the Dell for €299, see https://www.vodafone.ie/df/shop/DirectViewBuy.shtml?handsetselected=100227&offerSelected=devices&action=view

Brian

I think the MSI U120 will have HSDPA, and it's certainly a better netbook than the Dell.
http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-the-msi-wind-u120

vibe666

you'll have to wait till February if you want an nc10 with hsdpa on it, but they are coming if you can hold off for a month or so.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=5DS4

they're a bit of a premium though, not sure if it would be worth paying that much more for it, although I don't know how much a usb dongle would be. still, that's over a month away anyway, so the price may come down and I'm sure there will be subsidised subscription based models available in carphone warehouse etc. before long after launch. I believe they're about to launch them in Germany now for 45€ plus a 40€ monthly subscription.

personally, I have a Nokia n95 anyway so if I had a need I'd just stick on the nokia software suite and use the phone as an hsdpa modem via bluetooth rather than paying such a premium for a separate one on the nc10 itself.

PH4T

vibe666 wrote: »

personally, I have a Nokia n95 anyway so if I had a need I'd just stick on the nokia software suite and use the phone as an hsdpa modem via bluetooth rather than paying such a premium for a separate one on the nc10 itself.

I have a Nokia N95 (vodafone) and Asus Eee PC 901.

Vodafone told me you couldn't use the phone as an hsdpa modem via bluetooth and I'd have to buy one of their mobile broadband dongle things.

Is it hard to set this up?

vibe666

not at all, just use the Nokia software suite.

I'm with o2 but it shouldn't make a difference, they'll never know you're not just using it on the n95 itself.

actually had a need for it at the weekend and the broadband was down at home and the g/f (well, fiancé ) was itching to get online to investigate possible wedding venues. worked a treat, no issues at all (until I get the bill). you might want to make sure you have a data bundle on your phone though or it will get very pricey very quickly.

just install the Nokia suite on your netbook, pair it with your phone via bluetooth and it will install the necessary drivers. then just hit the 'connect to the internet' button in the software suite and once it's connected surf as normal.

in the event that Vodafone have gone out of their way to disable this feature (not sure about this, but stranger things have happened) you can change the product code with a bit of software (google for it, can't remember the name off the top of my head) and 'update' your firmware to the latest generic EU firmware to overwrite any carrier specific settings (if you really want to).

bnt

BenEadir wrote: »

1. In practical terms how can I get access to all my docs, email etc on the road without having to dupicate everything?

I know I'm a bit late, but I'd like to address this point a bit. There's nothing wrong with duplicating everything, since that gives you redundancy, and a backup in case something goes wrong. If it's the hassle of doing that that concerns you, install something like Dropbox, which synchronizes a specific subset of files to a server on the internet and to any number of other computers, as long as they're logged in with internet access. You can also restore files via the website, if they've been deleted or overwritten by mistake.

I would not want to trust my work to a single copy on e.g. Google Docs: what if they become unavailable, even temporarily? It does happen. :mad:

vibe666

+1 for dropbox.

have it syncing an xp machine at work, a vista netbook and a linux desktop all at once without problems and even if all of them exploded symultaneously I can still get to them online (as well as all their previous file revisions).

also just found out that opera now has built in automatic bookmark (and other personal settings) feature now too, so that's another part of thesyncing equation taken care of too.