Opinions on little laptops please

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I have been looking at the small laptops in Tesco today and I quite like them. At the moment I have a widescreen HP Compaq laptop which I got as a present from my OH last Christmas. I've never really been happy with it & would much prefer a smaller machine. Could anyone offer their opinion on these little machines

5bellies_2

the_devil_made_me_do_it wrote: »

I have been looking at the small laptops in Tesco today and I quite like them. At the moment I have a widescreen HP Compaq laptop which I got as a present from my OH last Christmas. I've never really been happy with it & would much prefer a smaller machine. Could anyone offer their opinion on these little machines

What exactly do you want a laptop to do?

If you're planning on DVD burning - forget it. If you want to surf the web in bed, fine. If you want to play Assassins Creed - forget it. If you want to play Solitare - fine.

Tojo_Ralph

In the same vein, I am looking to buy a couple of folk small laptops/netbooks which will only be used to surf the net and email. I've looked at the Acer Aspire One but would like more battery life (I believe a six cell version is in the offing?) but beyond that, I'm lost..... So any suggestions?

totalsolutions

Samsung NC10
Asus make several (EeePC1000H)

5bellies_2

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

In the same vein, I am looking to buy a couple of folk small laptops/netbooks which will only be used to surf the net and email. I've looked at the Acer Aspire One but would like more battery life (I believe a six cell version is in the offing?) but beyond that, I'm lost..... So any suggestions?

What length of battery life are you looking at?

There are batteries already on ebay for both the Acer One and the Asus EEE that claim 3-4 times the power of a standard battery.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I only use the Compaq for surfing and emailing.. oh I can sometimes hammer Microsoft word

Certainly ain't gonna be playing any games on it.

TheFlyingGerbil

My advice would be to see one running as the writing on them is very small and I struggled to read the screen.

5bellies_2

TheFlyingGerbil wrote: »

My advice would be to see one running as the writing on them is very small and I struggled to read the screen.

I originially had a 7" Asus EEE, where the screen was far too small. It was readable, like a paperback book in text size, but the screen needed to be scrolled in all directions for most websites because it just couldn't display the needed resolution.

I then had an Acer One, which had the bigger and - therefore - happier 8.9" screen but was pig slow on XP. I am now with a 8.9" Asus EEE on XP that is happiness all round. Cost £130 secondhand on Ebay.

MattLFC

I wanted one, but the only one that really impressed me (other than the MSI Wind) was the Samsung NC10 - I very nearly bought one a few weeks back!!

However, in the end, I decided that I wanted my new laptop to not only be portable, but to replace my existing one all round.

I could not achieve this with any netbook due to the very slow Intel Atom, no DVD-RW, tiny screen size, pathetic screen res etc...

So in the end, instead of opting for the 10" NC10, I bought a 12" 1.7Kg ultra-portable laptop, which features a Core2Duo T5550 w Centrino (3x more powerful than the Atom), 2GB DDRII RAM, DVD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive, and an impressive 1280x800 12.1" screen, for practically the same price I was going to buy an NC10 (£300).

The only downside to it compared to the NC10, was a slightly bigger chassis (not a problem for me), lower battery life at 3 hours with it being a proper processor (not really a problem, but would have liked more) and it has Windows Vista installed (annoying at times, but perfectly usable).

If you want to replace a system, then a netbook really wont do. Personally, I like to have just one single system to do everything with, I don't like the idea of a "travel system" and a "home system" as I can't be bothered with syncing emails for business etc...

So you need to think carefully what your needs are, before you purchase a netbook. They can be fun, but they can also (as my missus warned me) just be a novelty with no real shelf life.

Fifer

I had a 7" Asus Eee 701 too, but felt a bigger screen would be better so bought an Asus Eee 901 8.9" when it came out. It's fantastic and as a nonus, battery life is about 6 or 7 hours.

I really must put the 701 on Ebay.

Leopard

If you really needed to, you could get by with one of these plus an external monitor. But it wouldn't be enjoyable.

They're no substitute for a powerful laptop with a decent-sized screen.

But they (well, some of them) are great as an additional device. That's what they're designed for.

You need to appreciate what they're good at doing and what it's pointless to try doing on them.

It's essential to compare a selection of them and try them out before buying one. You need to be happy with the keyboard, the size of the screen, the size of what appears on the screen and the battery life. It will otherwise end up unused or in the bin.

Children, with their smaller fingers and sharper eyesight, can use the little ones but most adults find anything with less than a 10" screen frustrating.

After trying out a number of them, I bought an MSI Wind with 6-cell battery (which was not an available option, then, with an Advent 4211) and I've been very happy with it.

If you own Macs, you can hack a Wind (or an Advent 4211) to run OS 10.5.4 and then it really becomes useful; it will synch automatically, wirelessly and seamlessly with all your other Macs and totally integrate itself into your system. I love mine. I use it every day; it's light, compact and fine for simple tasks like email, blogging, eBaying, simple surfing and keeping my diary and contacts up to date. Even for MSEing on a train! You can work on a Word document with them but the screen size rules out doing anything useful with an Excel spreadsheet.

Bottom line: try before you buy and be realistic about what you can and can't do with them. If you pick the right one, you'll find it really useful.

If I liked Windows :eek: I'd buy the Samsung NC10. If you want to Mac-hack one it's (currently) best to buy a Wind or an Advent 4211.