Laptop or netbook

200yrolecrank

Hi folks,
Just looking for a bit of feedback on a route to take with a new purchase.
I currently have an acer laptop but find it a bit bulky to lugg around and had been leaning towards either a 10.i inch screen netbook,the acer aspire one 722 11.6 inch or maybe a 13.3 inch.
I know there are compromises with processors regarding the smaller I go but its general use will be for net browsing,take to work with me,trips away etc or just to use in the house when the missus is on the laptop.
I never use the computer for games,not my thing but would watch a few iplayers etc.This has probably been done to death but with the market always changing I want present models or slightly older.
A good friend advised me to wait until April as he reckons its a good time to buy as most go on sale that time.
Budget is 300- 350 and I will probably be using amazon or a european counterpart.

yoyo

Moved to laptops

Torqay

The downside of the 10 inch netbooks is their limitation to 1 GB RAM, combined with Windows 7, although the Starter edition, this is precious little and makes them rather unsuitable for serious workload (unless you up-, err, downgrade to Windows XP).

The 12-inchers are not subjected to this Microsoft-imposed limitation and they sell for less than 400 Euro with 3 or 4 GB RAM at the moment.

freestyla

Agree with Torgay "The 12-inchers are not subjected to this Microsoft-imposed limitation and they sell for less than 400 Euro with 3 or 4 GB RAM at the moment."

Also I think netbooks were hit for some time and they will die soon :P

The only netbook advantage is light weight compared to laptops but it's been said many times already that most people would rather carry 1kg more and tear off less hair with faster laptops over netbook.
Ok some models have much better battery life than similar priced laptops but again that's thanks to slow hardware.

If don't need so much computing power, would rather go for a tablet then- more convenient to carry around.
Good Android tablets are below 200eur if budget is too tight for an iPad.

Alanstrainor

Torqay wrote: »

The downside of the 10 inch netbooks is their limitation to 1 GB RAM, combined with Windows 7, although the Starter edition, this is precious little and makes them rather unsuitable for serious workload (unless you up-, err, downgrade to Windows XP).

The 12-inchers are not subjected to this Microsoft-imposed limitation and they sell for less than 400 Euro with 3 or 4 GB RAM at the moment.

I wonder when this bizarre 1GB limit will end. It's ridiculous when most smartphones have 1GB or more these days and netbooks are limited to bloody 1GB.

Torqay

Alanstrainor wrote: »

It's ridiculous when most smartphones have 1GB or more these days and netbooks are limited to bloody 1GB.

Most smartphones don't run Windows.

Netbooks can easily upgraded to 2 GB but doing so, will get them close to the price range of their bigger 12" brothers, so it's rather pointless.

I bought mine over 4 years ago, the grand daddy if you will, an Eee 701 4G, which I think is still the coolest netbook of them all (apart from the few 900 series models with the same form factor and 9" screen, but only if they featured the same fast SLC-type SSD). Upgraded to 2 GB RAM, battery still in good shape, it still beats even the fastest laptops in a boot race.

Also have two 1005HA (freebies due to various defects), one with a broken display acts as a rocksolid 24/7 server (2003) for almost 2 yrs now, the other one I have fixed and although it does have the bigger display, nicer keyboard and of course the much better battery life (plus the spare from the other one), I still like the 701 much better because it's only half the size and much easier to carry with me, the mobile-phone-charger style PSU with its 3m cord is another bonus.

Alanstrainor

Torqay wrote: »

Most smartphones don't run Windows.

Exactly.

johneire31

This time last year I bought a netbook, because I decided it was quicker to cycle around the city and the weight is a dramatic reduction.

I got a samsung n150, it had a claimed 10hours battery which actually was a fairly decent 7 - 8 which I was happy with. I upped it straight away to 2 GB memory, I also took Windows 7 starter off it and I put XP on it, this made it very zippy to use. I use it for all kinds of stuff, with a professional MS office on it and there is no problems with it. It is well able to a handle anything I put it too. I am extremely happy with it and it was not what I thought it was going to be.

You can do work on it, for some reason I can't do work on the Ipad. I can check stuff, play with stuff, but I just can't type or do speadsheets on it, so the netbook very much has a place in society for me at least, and their a bit more robust also.

j

sebastianlieken

I'm really not getting this "1Gb of RAM limitiation" thing...

My Samsung NC110 netbook arived last night, alongside which I also ordered a 2Gb stick of RAM.... the cost.... a tenner. hardly breaking the bank there...

Torqay

sebastianlieken wrote: »

I'm really not getting this "1Gb of RAM limitiation" thing...

Microsoft also had a HDD size limitation imposed on netbooks, first they were capped at 80 GB, then 160GB until it was lifted.

Intel had the memory limited physically, capped at 2 GB, so you can't fit 4 or 8 GB modules into a netbook, not sure whether or not this is still the case. Would be sort of an overkill anyway.

Alanstrainor

sebastianlieken wrote: »

I'm really not getting this "1Gb of RAM limitiation" thing...

My Samsung NC110 netbook arived last night, alongside which I also ordered a 2Gb stick of RAM.... the cost.... a tenner. hardly breaking the bank there...

Yeah, RAM is cheap, it's just that most people don't want the hassle of upgrading RAM. But you're right, it's easy.

johneire31

When you get the memory upped and your not doing it yourself, then whoever is doing it will more often than not give you something off the new memory,as your 1GB stick in your system is worth something, if they don't take it with you and put it on Advert.ie.

j