Cheapest netbooks discussion

espresso

chocolatepennyfarthing wrote: »

Seems much cheaper at Argos.

Yes Argos are hoping that you will fall for the cheaper price, however their model is fitted with a three cell battery, giving much less operation time.

chocolatepennyfarthing

Ah thank you for pointing that out, are Amazon the cheapest then?

bargain_bagger

I have a desktop PC at home (I know very little about laptops/notebooks/netbooks!) but I'm thinking about a buying a netbook for portable surfing round the house and for taking on trains etc.
When I'm out and about I'd use it for checking emails/ebay and so on and on trains/bus/planes I'd mainly want to watch videos/listen to music. Therefore long battery life is probably the most important feature for me. (I originally thought an iphone was going to be the answer to my dreams but on research it looks like its battery wouldnt cope with my demands).

I'm keen on these two netbooks:

Asus 1005HA 10-inch Netbook (Atom N270 1.6 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, up to 8.5 Hours Battery Life, Windows 7 Starter, White)


and

Asus EeePC 1005HA Seashell 10-inch Netbook (Intel Atom N280 1.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, Windows XP, up to 10 Hours Battery Life, White)

I also plan to buy the extra 2GB RAM that amazon suggests as this would presumably make it faster.

But.. I don't know much about ram/netbooks. Would this add to the inbuilt 1gb, making 3gb, or would it replace it?
Again... I have no clue: Would this extra RAM have any effect on the battery life?

My major concern with these Asus netbooks is that they appear to have glossy screens.
I'm thinking it would make alot more sense to have a matte screen as this would surely make viewing easier when im out and about.
I'm also unsure about the fact that the netbooks dont seem to have optical drive, but presumably I can get stuff off dvds if i connect teh netbook to my PC via usb?? But would this work with Lovefilm discs for example??

Thanks for any advice..

pseeker_2

my grlfrined's going to buy a smallish laptop so i had a glance on the market - this is for guidance only>

things to keep in mind> priorities

* battery - you usually pay extra for longer battery life. think how important is that (and IF you're going to use wifi on the go, it will eat the batteries faster than the "max" time adveritsed)

* screen - not size but resolution matters! especially if you browse a lot for work. Try it first! you can find the infamous "9in" limitation too much - as most web pages (sic!) these days wont fit the typical 800×480, so you will have to scroll and scroll...

* screen in daylight > where applicable, check

* keyboard. if you use it a lot, try it. I am still surprised how werid does a keyboard feel on some normal notebooks these days!

* OS limits & storage - applications. if it comes with linux, or windows, there are some apps that won't run on a netbook. and some come with limited storage [though i'd prefer to have few gigis of SOLID memory rather than 50gig of harddrive]. you can always plug in your memstick/external hdd - just make sure you've got at least two usb ports!

*noise & heating - usually not important, but may for some. these devices are better than what you were getting couple of years back but they need to cool somehow too

* performance > especially if you neeeed video online and similar > test it. these things have more smartphone-like processors rather than laptop ones, most of the time you should be ok, but better....




it's not exhaustive, just that you have to start somewhere :-)

NOTE> think about the emerging low-voltage (CULV) class of laptops (think apple air), they are potentially netbook killers, as they might end up being priced at similar prices -while they give you LONG battery life and FULL power of a laptop... watch it

hope this helps rather than confuses...

Donnie

chocolatepennyfarthing wrote: »

Ah thank you for pointing that out, are Amazon the cheapest then?

Argos does have the six cell battery NC10 on it's Returns website for around £240.

pseeker_2

there's no netbook with a dvd(yet)- the dvd mechanics is too big and expensive

screen - it's not as bad as you might think- TRY IT. glossy screens have better contrast ratio than matt, the only possible problem would be if you were say walking under an open sky on a sunny day while watching a midnight horror movie...

dvds- yes and no, you should be able to copy it using some freeware for personal use, though even then you are breaching a copyright i believe.
watch out for storage space, some netbooks have a solid mem only! and video eats it away fast
note sometimes dvds come with embedded protection which makes it often impossible to copy [that's got nothing to do with lovefilm but with the title's distributor]

RAM upgrade - should be possible with most netbooks (unless they are maxed already)- ask the retailer!

ram upgrade ALWAYS makes sense, when priced reasonably (eases up constraints for OS and saves hdd life)

pandora205

Donnie wrote: »

Argos does have the six cell battery NC10 on it's Returns website for around £240.

do you have a link please? thanks

Donnie

pandora205 wrote: »

do you have a link please? thanks

Black version sold out. Only 2 white six cell Samsung NC10's available at £253.

Tontodollydog

Can anyone recommend a very cheap netbook for my daughter to play games on internet? Older sister has laptop and she plagues the life out of her to use it. It would be kept at home so doesn't need much battery life. Looking to spend as little as possible.

Thanks for any advice

Amanda

bargain_bagger

pseeker wrote: »

...glossy screens have better contrast ratio than matt, the only possible problem would be if you were say walking under an open sky on a sunny day while watching a midnight horror movie...

lol. I'm thinking more... sitting on a train trying to watch stuff with the sun streaming in and the light ever-changing. Have tried this before with a wee mp4 player and you really have to get it in the right position to avoid reflections on a sunny day e.g. hiding it in the shadows under the table!

pseeker wrote: »

dvds- yes and no, you should be able to copy it using some freeware for personal use, though even then you are breaching a copyright i believe.

If im gonna have trouble transferring dvds then i at least want to be able to watch bbc iplayer etc. Do you think the processor is fast enough for this? What about for watching live TV like on itv.com?

pseeker wrote: »

watch out for storage space, some netbooks have a solid mem only! and video eats it away fast

I plan to mostly download videos from iplayer etc then delete them after I've watched them.
What's the difference between solid state mem and HDD..? the netbooks i'm looking at have hdd i think.