Netbooks/Ultraportables?

GilesGuthrie

GilesGuthrie

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Edinburgh, UK
CMDRTheDarkLord
Yeah, so "netbook" is a trademark of Psion, so we're not allowed to call small laptops (such as the Asus Eee) netbooks any more. Nomenclature aside, does anyone have one?

I'm looking for something small, with proper internet access (not cut-down like on my smartphone), with around 120-160GB disk space. I want to use it as a device to transfer pictures to when I'm on holiday, so like an Epson Photoviewer, only more useful. When I'm at home, I want portable internet that's better than the smartphone and better than the iPod Touch.

I don't really want to buy any software for it, although I do have a spare license for Lightroom & Photoshop. So I'd be quite happy with a Linux box. I've got around £320 to spend, although I would like to spend less if possible.

Anyone got tips or experiences for me?

Edit: Any which have built in CompactFlash sockets would have an immediate advantage (as it would save me carrying round a reader). And also, choice of OS would likely come down to whether it can be setup to read Canon RAW files natively, to act as a picture browser.
 
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I have one in Blue. Awsome little thing but it won't work with some XD cards. Quite fast and Memory is expandable using a dedicated SD card slot.
Do you need a CD/DVD drive because it doesn't have one of those, although if you really need to use a drive just network a drive from your desktop PC like I did.
 
No, I don't need a cd drive. I've got Samba servers and shared areas on my desktop, plus I've got memory sticks coming out of my ears.

Samsung NC10 benchmarks well so I want to have a look at that.
 
I'm joining the ranks of potential buyer on this and was fairly settled on a Dell. However, the Samsung has a certain advantage with the Disk space. I'm a few months away from purchasing one at the moment. I've got a bit of time to review. GG, and daan, I'm interested in hearing how it all sorts out.

More input, is better.
 
A coworker has had a Eee with Linux for about a year now that he takes when he goes out of town for work and loves it so far. I don't know how much you've looked into them, but there are mods aplenty that you can do to them, too. He's told me about built-in wireless instead of a USB dongle, mounting an SD card inside the case as an additional drive, etc. Some of the mods are genius and some are a bit more... strange.
 
GilesGuthrie
Samsung NC10 benchmarks well so I want to have a look at that.
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My sister and ICT teacher have both got one of those. They think they're great 👍. I particularly like the 7.5 hour battery life, Bluetooth and the fact that it runs XP. If I had £300 to spend on a net...sorry, 'ultraportable', that's where it'd go.
 
Well this one should be good but I don't believe the netbooks support compactflash yet so you are just gonna have to get a card reader.
 
Yeah, I'll have to take the card reader with me. I'm saving the weight of a full laptop anyway.

Had a look at the NC10 today, it's very nice. The Eee PC 900 was a lovely looking thing too. Usefully smaller and cheaper than the NC10, but the NC10's battery life is appealing.
 
There is a third party battery that can be purchased for the Eee, provided you don't mind it being shipped from China (or was if Japan?) that ups the run time. Again, my co-worker bought that and loves it, as well. Somewhere in the 5 hour life and that was before they came out with the Atom processor.
 
They're pretty much all have the same specs, Processor and Ram wise, because if they go over a certain performance threshold, Microsoft won't let them sell it with XP and you'll have to run Vista, which kills the performance in a netbook. (See HP 21xx). So apart from a SSD their is not too much they can do to increase performance, this is also why every* Netbook has a 1.6Ghz Atom.

The Eee 900h is something you can't really go wrong with, decent looks and accessories, and it's got a big modding community if you're into that kind of thing. In the 10" size, it'd be a tough call between the NC10 and the Eee 1000h, I don't think you could go wrong with either of them. Also, the 10" Aspire AOD150 is really nice looking, and has better trackpad click buttons.

But if you're typing alot, the HP2140 has the best keyboard I've used on a Netbook, by far. But it has a sucky trackpad with click buttons on the side, which is just a POA to use. But if you're carrying a mouse around it's not a problem.
 
I've got an Acer Aspire One with 1GB of RAM, XP (and Ubuntu, Mac OS X...), and 160GB HDD and I love it. I really don't see why you would choose the Eee over it, the fit and finish is just so much better on the Acer. The Eee looks like a child's laptop (cheap looking, clunky plastic) in person.

Get the six-cell battery version of the Acer though. I get five hours of use from it easily (that's actually using it - wifi and all). It even handled around 3 hours of video in VLC with at least an hour of battery life remaining afterwards. My only gripe (probably applies to all netbooks) is the short trackpad and the odd mouse button placement. You get used to the buttons, but its nice to have a wireless mouse around if you're doing much of a mouse-intensive task.
 
The trackpad/mouse buttons on all Netbooks suck though. I've always had the idea that someone should make a really flat mouse that slides into the side of the Netbook like a PCMCIA card.

I haven't played around with a Vaio P, but at least someone realised that no one wants to use a 1" trackpad for more than 15 minutes.
 
Casio, I have a friend that could play Unreal 2007 with the track pad and mouse buttons...which was hard to believe at first for me.
 
Casio
The trackpad/mouse buttons on all Netbooks suck though. I've always had the idea that someone should make a really flat mouse that slides into the side of the Netbook like a PCMCIA card.

I haven't played around with a Vaio P, but at least someone realised that no one wants to use a 1" trackpad for more than 15 minutes.
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http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=141927

Even charges from the slot. Brilliant idea, but it looks like an ergonomic nightmare to me (hence how I've resisted buying one).
 
I need to have a look at the Acer. None of the stores I've been to seem to carry it for a look.

I liked the build of the Eee 901: it seemed to be well-packaged, with a minimum of flab. The Samsung was bigger, but rather like a 17" laptop, it seemed that the extra size was because of the 10" screen.

At this point I'm quite likely to go with the Samsung. I've seen it at multiple online vendors at £307, which is close enough to the budget to be fine.
 
GilesGuthrie
I need to have a look at the Acer. None of the stores I've been to seem to carry it for a look.
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Tesco seem to carry them in stock. Our local one has them out on display.

I've not had a chance to play with it yet, but I'll get a go this afternoon.
 
I had a look at one in Costco today. Nice piece of kit. Easier to type on than the Eee, but ergonomically worse than the larger Samsung. So, it's down to a choice of concentrating on the ultraportability or the usability of the thing.

I'm probably going to get the Samsung.
 

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