Advice for the clueless

lisaloo1977

Have posted in the designated notebook thread as well.

Hi,

Hope that some of you smart people can help me? I need a netbook/laptop and i need to buy it within the next week before we leave for a round the world trip. :j

The things that we require from it are in no particular order.

Needs to be small and lightweight, its going in a backpack.
It needs to have reasonable battery life and it has to be wireless.
Ideally would like 2/3GB ram (no idea what that means, but the other half says we need it)
We are going to use it for excel spreadsheets, internet and photos. Would be
nice if we could put a few films on for our son, for the long flights!!

We have looked at the Packard Bell dot M/U 11.6" its coming in at £360 from PCworld, thats without quidco.

Others that we have seen are the Acer 1810 and the Toshiba T110-107 but these are more expensive.

We are not restricting our search to any of the above though and if anyone has any better options we will gladly look at them.

Any advice appreciated as we are going round in circles, both being clueless.

Would really like one that would be useful when we get home and not just on our travels, so willing to pay more than just the basic ones available.

Thanks in advance. :T

John_Gray

Very briefly. A netbook
* has 1 GB of memory as standard. You could replace it with a 2 GB memory card at extra cost...
* does not have an in-built DVD/CD player
* has a standard resolution of 1024x600, and thus tiny characters

Have a look at http://www.netbookace.com/netbook-buying-guide/, but beware that it is a year old.

penrhyn

Best Netbook according to 'those who know' was the Samsung NC10, now superceeded by the N140. Comes with either XP or Windows 7 starter.
Only comes with 1Gb RAM so you need to buy a 2Gb Card to speed it up.
No optical drive in common with most netbooks.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-10-1-inch-Netbook-Processor-Battery/dp/B002SSTVBQ/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1262630526&sr=8-8

lisaloo1977

Thanks for the responses.

Its nice to know im not the only div in our house, will tell him about the 1Gb Ram when he gets in. He did say we wouldnt be able to put a cd or dvd in it, as we wouldnt have the ability. I just figured i could download things for our little boy. I guess thats were the Ram thing comes in???

Sorry i am really being thick i know, I am going to go read the guide now.

I know it sounds bad, but i would happily buy the Samsung NC10 if you think it would do the job. As you have likely worked out i know nothing about this sort of stuff, im more a shoe girl!!!

I have searched the forum for info, i didnt want to just be lazy and ask here. I just really don't know what any of it means.

Donnie

MSI X410 Black 14" screen

MSI X410 White 14" screen

£315

They have the four cell batteries(as opposed to eight) and weigh 1.5kgs.

Samsung NC10 £250 10.1" screen

Donnie

For a closer look at the MSI X410

totalsolutions

Samsung NC10 up to the N140 and N220... Catchup here https://www.sammynetbook.com

lisaloo1977

Ive read all the replys, but quickly wanted to ask what this one is like??

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/technology/computing_and_gaming/119051278_sony_vaio_w11s1_10_1gb160gb_white_netbook.html?network_id=cj&source=cj&affiliate_id=1546795#infobox

Dave101t

for 300 quid you can get near double the spec of that link, try pcworld.
also, if he is telling you it must be this, that and your not sure, tell the lazy sod to buy it himself!

kwikbreaks

One final downer...

Most current netbooks are built around the Intel Atom processor with onboard Intel 950 graphics - this combination may struggle with some video - I tried mine sometime before Christmas when somebody asked - it will play xvid/divx but couldn't cope with BBC iPlayer downloads (not that they'd be much use to you as I think they only have a one week lifetime). I haven't tried playing dvds with a usb drive.

cake21

kwikbreaks wrote: »

One final downer...

Most current netbooks are built around the Intel Atom processor with onboard Intel 950 graphics - this combination may struggle with some video - I tried mine sometime before Christmas when somebody asked - it will play xvid/divx but couldn't cope with BBC iPlayer downloads (not that they'd be much use to you as I think they only have a one week lifetime). I haven't tried playing dvds with a usb drive.

BBC iplayer downloads are available to view for several weeks but have a one week lifetime from the first viewing. However it's not guaranteed you'll be able to watch downloaded programmes outside the UK, but you should be ok if you make sure you're not connected to the internet at the time you're watching the download.