Please help me choose a netbook!

mapleleaf1010

I'm thinking about buying a netbook for myself, but I'm a bit lost at the moment.

I'd like to use the netbook mainly for internet, e-mail and some Microsoft Office products. No need for gaming at all.

I've had a look at Acer Aspire One Slimline BA01 and Asus Eee PC 701, both from the Carphone Warehouse. The Asus is cheap (£159) but has very short battery life and you cannot see the entire screen. I'd rather pay a bit more than that and get something of better quality.

I like the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 and 10v, but would need to buy Microsoft Office separately.

Any advice please?

zzzLazyDaisy

I have the Samsung N10. It is amazing although I initially bought it for travelling with, I now use it for all internet use. My larger and much more expensive laptop is only used for document work and photo manipulation now.

-TangleFoot-

Netbooks with more substantial battery life include the Eee PC 1000HE and the Samsung NC10, either of which can be had for around £300. The Samsung N110 and N120 exhibit similar longevity to the Asus, though they're also more expensive by some £50-£70. If your budget can't stretch that far, you still have a variety of alternatives to choose from.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Compaq Mini 702EA @ ~£230
• Lenovo IdeaPad S9e @ ~£200
• Lenovo IdeaPad S10e @ ~£280 (No longer stocked by Ebuyer, but still available directly from the manufacturer)

Oh, and a warning from someone who owns one: avoid the Eee 900. It may have a larger screen, but aside from that it's no better than the 701.

spinybif_2

Computer shopper have a review of 21 netbooks

best buy MSi wind U100 £295

budget Buy Advent 4211c £260

Not exactly money saving but worth £4.99 to read the full article ( or just flick through in WH Smith)

tightandproud

You're in luck because I've been doing some thorough research in the past few weeks and have just bought what I think is the best netbook on the market.

My conclusion after weeks of looking at reviews of various models is that the EEE PC 900HA. It is a small 8.92 inch screen model and has pretty much the same stock standard specs as all the £300 netbooks on the market at the moment(Atom N270 processor, 1gig ram, 160 Gig HDD, etc) but without the price tag, and the best thing about it is the 5 hour battery, although this is with screen at 40% brightness and wifi turned off.. but I guess everyone else' battery life is measured the same way.

It is the best model for me because I wanted something quite portable without sacrificing processing power or storage. This has everything the big boys have except the screen is 1 inch smaller, which I find hardly noticeable. What is noticeable is the difference in physical dimensions between a 10" netbook and a 9" one. I much prefer the smaller and lighter.

My netbook even came with MS Works installed (which is basically a lightweight version of Office)

ASUS also provides an international warranty with service centres everywhere so it is the ideal travel laptop.

I honestly have not read a bad review about it, and I have read many!

The only problem with this model is that it is not available in the UK, I was lucky enough because a friend from the States came to visit last week so was able to bring me one :j and it'd only cost me £165 all up! You can buy it from ebay US sellers who are willing to ship to the UK for around £200 total. You will be gambling with additional custom charges though.

You can get the 900A (rather than 900HA) here in the UK but they don't have the 160G hard drive, instead you get a much smaller capacity (and some say slower) solid state drive (SSD)

Your alternate solution would the Lenovo ideapad s9e, it looks a worthy contender and has pretty much the same specs are the 900HA except with half the battery life. Good news is that it is available locally from around £200.

If you have big hands then I do recommend getting a 10 inch model because the 9" netbooks have small keyboards which will take getting used to. The MSI Wind U100 has been a crowd favourite for a while and prices have just dropped to £250 shipped.

Here is a great review of the Top 10 netnooks http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49297248-2,00.htm

I also found Youtube to be a surprisingly good source of product reviews, just search on the product model and someone somewhere would've posted a video review on it. I love the interweb

Hope this helps

John_Gray

Make sure you see a netbook actually working, and preferably play with it for ten minutes. Then you can determine if you are happy with the very low screen resolution and the tiny character size (default, of course). I find both of these are far too restrictive...

-TangleFoot-

tightandproud wrote: »

...the best thing about it is the 5 hour battery, although this is with screen at 40% brightness and wifi turned off.

But without WiFi, the average netbook is only slightly more functional than a breezeblock. Battery life doesn't mean a thing if you can't use your netbook to, y'know, browse the 'net.

Rich44_2

it's just a way of measuring battery life is all

totalsolutions

The NC10 or NC20 are fine and highly rated by the mags. PC World and PCPro. I have the NC20. No brainer really.

Try the forum www.sammynetbook.com for advice / reviews and owner assistance.
I deleted XP <urgh> and installed Windows 7 right away, sweet.

isofa

Another vote for the Samsungs NC10/20 fantastic machines, and a lot more functional than a breezeblock... High quality. The Dell Mini is very poor IMO

They've just released a newer model but it's more expensive.

mapleleaf1010

Thanks to all who've replied. I'll have a look at the netbooks suggested.