Netbooks?

aster99

Was thinking about buying a netbook. What are theadvantages or disadvantages of one?
Maybe someone who already owns one could give a few pointers on what to look out for when buying?
I'll just need it for surfing the web, maybe a bit of word.

richieg

They are great and handy if you are traveling and just want something for email, web and other things like that.
I have a macbook and bought an advent 4211 for when I travel with work.
Its nice and light and you barely know you are carrying it. It has a built in webcam so I can video call home while I am away over skype.
I have google chrome running on it which is very fast and I do all my email through gmail so no problems there

It really depends what situations you will be in to use it

Alanstrainor

aster99 wrote: »

Was thinking about buying a netbook. What are theadvantages or disadvantages of one?
Maybe someone who already owns one could give a few pointers on what to look out for when buying?
I'll just need it for surfing the web, maybe a bit of word.

The samsung nc10 is definitely one to check out. I have the advent 4211 and love it, it's only flaw is the battery life but for my needs its more than adequate. I suppose you have to decide on what size you want, for me the 10.2" machines are the best compromise as they aren't too small, and yet small enough to pop into a bag and be pretty much unnoticeable.

AlmightyCushion

I'm with Alan here. 10.2" netbooks are the sweet spot. Anything smaller would iritate me and anything bigger would be pointless are I could just get a real laptop that would be more powerful and only slightly heavier.

aster99

And what about something like hard drive size, what is enough? Maybe for using i-tunes, some photos..etc..

What would ye recommend spending??

drunkmonkey

how about the OS on a netbook, does it make any difference, XP versus Linux?

bnt

drunkmonkey wrote: »

how about the OS on a netbook, does it make any difference, XP versus Linux?

Well, yes. I have an eee PC 1000 with solid state drives, and it's much happier with Linux than XP. The amount of disk access that XP was doing, for no apparent reason, had a horrible effect on performance. Even without any swapfile, and after I stopped or removed a lot of unnecessary services. So I put Ubuntu on there, and I like how it starts up quickly and waits, not hitting the disk like XP does. I wsa regularly filling the 1GB RAM I had under XP, but have barely used half of that under Linux.

The other point is applications: if you must have certain Windows applications, you might be able to get them working under Wine, but that's not really suitable for games or major Windows apps like Microsoft Office.

jimmycrackcorm

drunkmonkey wrote: »

how about the OS on a netbook, does it make any difference, XP versus Linux?

Linux can be an unbelievable pain to install some software. For a non-tech user Windows is easier by far.

partyatmygaff

Install windows 7 beta, all the prettiness and extra features of Vista(I beta tested longhorn all the way so havent used windows xp since ages except on some old laptops).

Or if you really want linux(Why would anyone do that to themselves?) install ubuntu, by far the best distro nowadays.

ninty9er

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The samsung nc10 is definitely one to check out. I have the advent 4211 and love it, it's only flaw is the battery life but for my needs its more than adequate. I suppose you have to decide on what size you want, for me the 10.2" machines are the best compromise as they aren't too small, and yet small enough to pop into a bag and be pretty much unnoticeable.

I have the 4211 too. Find it great and the battery life was the only problem. However I sourced a 9 cell battery on eBay for €55 and that's got a life of 6 hours +

There was a small issue with the wireless hardware, however uninstalling and reinstalling fixes that after a few cycles.

AlmightyCushion

Link to that 4211 battery please. I might be interested. Also, any chance you could upload a picture of it compared to the one that comes with it. Just want to see how much bigger it is (that's what she said ).

ninty9er

http://cgi.ebay.ie/FOR-LAPTOP-Advent-4211-EXTENDED-BATTERY-7200mAh-Black_W0QQitemZ370156968655QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_LaptopAccess_RL?hash=item370156968655&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1301|66:4|65:12|39:1|240:1318

It's about 2 1/2 times as thick as the original

Nothingcompares

I have a Samsung NC10 "netbook". Some of the advantages and disadvantages in my opinion are:

The key trade off is between size and portability versus performance.

Advantages

Small Size (roughly equivalent to a leaving cert maths text book)
very light (can be carried with out much extra effort in school bag)
Ultra portable (pick it up with one hand and move it around office/house/building)
Long battery life (5 hours and up, good for traveling on plane/train, not constrained by power cord)
Price (<400 euro)

Disadvantages

Small keyboard (need to get used to it, difficult to write 10000 word essay on )
Small screen (watching movies)
Limited resolution (if you use graphics or design software or like to have multiple things visible on the screen reconsider)
Screen is not at eye level (encourages bad posture)
Usually no cd drive (need to get external or avoid using cds/dvds)
Less processing power, memory, no graphics card (multi tasking, game playing, less performance).

I think the netbooks are a great supplement to your Desktop PC. If you want to watch tv in the sitting room but continue your gtalk chat you can do so. Or if you want to bring something to lectures/college you can do so easily with a netbook as opposed to a larger laptop. The Desktop is more suited to all the work stuff or gaming stuff. But they obviously take up a lot of space and aren't portable.

If you only use the laptop an hour a day to check email and stuff like that maybe the netbooks are for you. if you sit a a computer for 8 hours a day go with a Desktop.

portomar

hi guys, am considering a netbook myself, cheers for all the info here, its been a hekp. quick question, im thinking of buying a netbook, which will obviously be sans-dvd drive. can i connect an external to watch movies on?? i know this is inevitably gonna lead to the laptop v netbook question, but if anyone knows a reason this wouldnt work (transfer speed with usb 2.0 for example?) its be cool to know

cheers

AlmightyCushion

Watching a dvd off an external dvd drive would work fine.

Lobelia Overhill

I bought an Acer in Dunnes last year, not that I needed it, but I wanted something lighter than my other lappity toppity box, only problem is it's got Linux and I can't stand OpenOffice, if I could put Word on it I'd be delighted!

budhabob

found this to be an informative thread. I'm also looking at getting a netbook, mainly i see the advantages being the battery life and size/weight. I was in particular looking at the samsung nc10 as this seems to be the best out there, however i've heard that a newer model has been released. Does anyone know the model number of the new one, or whether its much better etc?

Gummy Panda

I finally got an NC10 today and love it. Great little system. Ideal for sitting in bed and browsing the net.

Webcam is pretty good as well. Not mad about the mouse tracker.

Alanstrainor

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Not mad about the mouse tracker.

Aye, that's one problem that i've noticed on my Dad's machine, get's a bit frustrating...but he just uses a usb wireless mouse, logitech nano i think.

Gummy Panda

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Aye, that's one problem that i've noticed on my Dad's machine, get's a bit frustrating...but he just uses a usb wireless mouse, logitech nano i think.

I'm using it mainly in bed and away from a desk so I'll just have to get use to the tracker.

Though i can forgive it for the tracker due to the amazing battery life. Used it for hours last night and its still going strong. Great piece of kit.