netbook ideas

[+castlequick]

I am looking to downgrade or maybe its upgrade from a 17in laptop to one of the newer netbooks. We will be using it for gsak and streets and trips and obviously for some internet connecting while on long trips or vacations. Anyone have some thoughts? Looking for both positive and negative experiences. Thanks

[+GeekBoy.from.Illinois]

I don't personally have a netbook, but I do own a "netbook sized notebook" (ThinkPad X60). I have spoken with several people who have netbooks, and everyone I know who has an MSI Wind loves theirs. I also know someone who's company has converted all their traveling sales force to use netbooks, and they say they have about a 30-40% failure rate on their ASUS netbooks. They seem to have either power issues, or drive failures as the cause of their problems.

[+jbar]

I have an hp mini 110. It has a 1.6gh processor, 2 gb ram, 160gb Hard drive. I installed Windows 7 ultimate on it. It runs great. I run gsak, Garmin topo 100k., You can get it with a cell card installed. I don't have the cell card, I just use the built in wifi.. It weighs less than 2 lbs, fits neatly in backpack. Works great for having multiple Pocket Queries and reloading gps in the feild.

[+bjb670]

I have an ASUS 1000he. i think a lot of the specs like processor, ram, hd etc are all pretty similar across the board with many netbooks. What led me to this particular model was the claimed 9hrs of battery life. let me tell you, it may not last 9 hours but it sure does last forever. i would say that it gets an easy 7 hours, which compared to my girlfriends macbook which gets maybe 4 it makes a huge difference.

 

It doesnt play video online very well. some websites work ok with video and some are just choppy. you have to get used to the smaller sized keyboard but it really isnt that bad.

 

I run mapsource with TOPO 2008, a few 24k topos, and a few downloaded free topos. also use cachemate and gsak without a hitch. and i upload everything to my gps and palm.

 

i mainly use mine for school, since it is so small and light its easy to carry around in my backpack and take notes on.

 

Ive never had any problems with mine, ive had it a little under a year and have been very happy.

[+delphic]

I have an acer aspire one that I love for caching. I have it dual booting Ubuntu (linux) and Mac OS 10.5. I'd don't have a cell card but I can connect it to my phone for caching without a wi-fi signal. I haven't had a single problem (knock knock).

[Ken in Regina]

As was mentioned, the common netbook brands and models are cookie-cutter. Not much to choose among them.

 

I have one of the early Acer Aspire One netbooks. This is a replacement for my full-size Acer laptop and I'm quite pleased with having the much smaller and lighter netbook without sacrificing anything else .. specs are the same, so performance is the same. Even the keyboard isn't any worse (I hate all portable keyboards).

 

If I was doing it again there are two things I would do differently. One is that I would get the 10" screen instead of the 8.9". It's exactly the same size otherwise. The other, and more important in my experience, is that I would get the six cell battery. I got the three cell and it's essentially useless on battery .. two hours max.

 

Oh yeah, one thing to think about .. a major deciding factor for me was colour. No, really!! I got a white one because it has a white keyboard with black lettering. It is w-a-y easier to see the keyboard. It makes it much more usable. A friend recently got an HP mini for his wife and she prefered the white one (also white keyboard). He has used it while setting it up for her and he is now a believer, too.

 

...ken...

[NordicMan]

I've been using an Asus N10 for over a year and it's been working great

 

One if the "big" decisions you may face when buying a netbook is whether or not to choose a "SSD" solid state disk drive. I was initially interested in getting one of those, but their capacity wasn't very great at the time, I think MAX 8/16GB? So, I decided a better choice was to go with a 160 GB "old school" spinning platter hard drive, which leaves PLENTY of room for everything!

[+pigpen4x4]

Office Max is supposed to have a 10" Acer for 149 on Black Friday.

 

May be time for me to pull the trigger as well.

 

PP4x4

[+DonB]

I am looking to downgrade or maybe its upgrade from a 17in laptop to one of the newer netbooks. We will be using it for gsak and streets and trips and obviously for some internet connecting while on long trips or vacations. Anyone have some thoughts? Looking for both positive and negative experiences. Thanks

I have an Asus with the 6 cell battery which gives up to 10 hrs run time on a charge, has bluetooth, N wireless, web cam, and more. I bought it after comparing the other brands.

[John E Cache]

There is a reliability study on Gizmodo.

 

http://gizmodo.com/5406415/laptop-reliabil...come-out-on-top

[+gpsblake]

I own netbooks. Avoid the ones with the SSD drive like the plague, they are really slow compared to a real hard drive, especially when they are writing data.

 

If the idea of the small size is what you need, netbooks are fine.

[John E Cache]

I own netbooks. Avoid the ones with the SSD drive like the plague, they are really slow compared to a real hard drive, especially when they are writing data.

 

If the idea of the small size is what you need, netbooks are fine.

The whole point of an SSD drive is that there are no mechanical moving parts to crash when you are moving around(like when you are hunting a cache, for instance). In my opinion, a hard drive is a very bad idea for field use. SSD drives are faster these days BTW.

[+embra]

I've had an ASUS 1000-HA since last Christmas. I've liked it well enough, although my wife really dislikes the placement of the right shift-key. I have two or three complaints about it though, that I think would apply to most of the older notebooks with the 1.6Ghz Atom CPU.

 

1) It was very easy for my thumb to glance off the touchpad while I was typing, resulting in the cursor jumping to random places on the screen. Most of the time I disable the touchpad, relying on a wireless USB mouse. Newer netbooks and laptops often have a little button by the touchpad to easily enable/disable.

 

2) The 10" screen isn't bad--and it's great compromise if minimal weight is the most important thing. But once a web browser takes up the top inch or two of the screen with menu bars, there's not much left for content display.

 

3) It's slow. I know that power is not supposed to be that great, and it's ok for a lot of the basic tasks. But I do find that it takes forever to get Firefox responsive to my mouse clicks, and it's not unusual to see lags in speed even after the programs are fully loaded and operating. This is particularly so when operating on battery-saving modes.

 

So it's entirely a matter of assessing your personal priorities. I'm upgrading to one the the Acer Aspire Timelines. The particular model that hits the sweet spot for portability with features for me puts a 14" screen and a 1.3GHz dual-core CPU into 4.4 pounds of laptop. It costs more ($640 or so), but feels worth it to me. Battery life will be better, too.

 

Even if you go for the netbook, I'd recommend getting one with the newer dual-core CPUs. They offer lower power consumption with greater speed. Good luck.

[+ras_oscar]

I have an acer aspire one with 120 GB hdd, 10.1 inch monitor, 6 cel battery. Works great, and I can do anything I want.

[+GrateBear]

I bought a Lenovo S10-2 back in June to replace an IBM Thinkpad. Generally, it's really good and I like it and it's very handy for traveling. The drawback is the size of the screen. Obviously, everything is smaller, plus the horizontal aspect cuts off a good portion of the screen you get on a regular size laptop. I did not buy it as my main laptop, and just today received my new Mac laptop to replace a 5 year old iBook. Have to say I was getting tired of the small netbook screen.

If it's going to be your only computer, my advice would be to not get a netbook. If that's not the case, go for it!

[+castlequick]

Thanks everyone for all your input. I think I ended up with a good deal. Went to verizon so the wife could replace her phone and ended up with a gateway netbook. 6 cell battery, 1 gig memory, 160 gig harddrive. Already have a huge laptop. Just wanted a smaller device that we can take around while caching and on vacation. Your suggestions helped a lot. Thanks!!!

[+embra]

It's never to late for an additional suggestion

 

If you ever feel that netbook is dragging, you may find it worthwhile to add some more RAM to whatever its maximum is.