Saturday, August 15, 2009

netbooks: advice wanted

aug 15th, 2009

i am thinking of buying a netbook. any recommendations? i was keen on the solid state disks, but they seem to have gone away, along with linux. now it's 160 gb hard drives and XP or vista, sigh.

and isn't an external dvd drive an essential purchase?

in reality, can these replace a laptop? i do mostly web surfing and some occasional word processing, spreadsheets and slides. can these be done well with non-microsoft stuff like either google docs or openoffice? i am not going to buy ms office with this thing. my main complaint with my 12" laptop is that it is getting increasingly painful to lug it around.

and is 2gb memory necessary?

is bluetooth? i would like to sync with my smartphone.

what problems have you faced? with the little keyboard and the little screen? and the weak CPU?

is the asus still the best, or are dells and hps and acers doing just fine?

or should i just wait until android or chrome-based machines come out?

are the old asus eee 910 series with solid state disk (16 gb) a good bet still?

9 comments:

tat_tvam_asi said...

Anandtech recently compared the two best netbooks on the market and ASUS 1000HE was ahead.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3600


If you want to run linux, it is possible to run it from an Expresscard SSD or even from a flash drive or SD card! Just change the boot order in the BIOS. All you need is UNetbootin utility.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820191056

tat_tvam_asi said...

Most netbook users do not complain about the performance or keyboard; but screen is definitely a problem.

You can always add the additional RAM, but try without it for a while.

People have a distorted view on CPU speeds; in reality, the processor is sitting idle or waiting for memory or peripherals most of the time and the additonal speed will go waste (worse, it will generate heat and waste battery life). This is why Atom makes so much sense for most regular users.

ASUS 1000HE has a different chipset that supports 667MHz FSB versus 533MHz on most Atom based netbooks. The performance increase is more noticeable than with a faster CPU.

I hope I didn't sound like an ASUS salesman :)

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Anonymous said...

I won't comment on cramped keyboard or screen size since it is a question of getting adjusted. However
netbooks are mostly atom processors and it is not good enuf for watching high quality videos (HDD). this is assuming that you watch high quality videos on your laptop.
Some of the netbooks in US have 6 hr battery life.

Anonymous said...

I would not get a netbook. The screen is too small. I would rather get a solid state laptop with about 64gb hard drive. Actually, I am thinking of getting a thin client computer that uses low power and is solid state and is also cheap.

something like:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Compaq-GY231AA-t5735-Thin-Client-Network-Computer_W0QQitemZ250465798156QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCOMP_EN_Workstations?hash=item3a50ecc80c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I generally do not prefer laptops. I want my next computer to have solid drives and be completely noiseless. I will wait till thanksgiving for getting the super deals.

Apple will be bringing out a netbook that will be esentially a larger I-pod touch.

DarkStorm said...

Rajeev,

External DVD drive is almost an essential purchase if you are going to install software that can be installed only via CD or DVD or you are going to reinstall the OS.

Netbooks are good at what it's name suggests - connecting to the net. I dont think the small screen would be good for wordprocessing and spreadsheets. I have not used openoffice or GoogleDocs so I cant say about those.

Memory - the more the better (well, mostly)

If your smartphone has USB connectivity, then you may use that. Bluetooth wont be that important in such a case.


http://hothardware.com/Articles/Netbook-and-Notebook-Buyers-Guide/?page=1

One very good review.

nizhal yoddha said...

thanks for all the suggestions. i also got some other pointers to review sites. will let you know what i decide.

ideally, i want a netbook that's basically a smartphone (i'll hook up to via a cellular modem anyway) with a bigger screen and better keyboard. always on, low battery consumption, easy to use, rugged. i'll probably have to wait until a chrome/android os netbook comes out that has a solid state drive.

meanwhile, i may just bow something right now as i am sick of lugging my 12" dell around. the weight is what bothers me. my best laptop was a toshiba portege i had years ago that was small and light (but black-and-white and small screen).

darkstorm, hibernating, were you?

tat_tvam_asi said...

Today's update from Anandtech. Battery life went up from 9.5 hours to 10.5 hours

ASUS Eee PC 1005HA: Refining the Netbook

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3622

tat_tvam_asi said...

Nokia's first ARM-based smartbook expected mid-2010.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43769/97/


Pixel Qi may be the future of mobile screens - power-saving, higher resolution and day light viewing - exciting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XCJdD_gR8M