Netbooks - What do I look for?

paulofessex

DCFC79 wrote: »

Currys or pc world is a god idea so then you can get a feel for it in terms of size and weight

If you can find some, take some salesman repellent spray with you. Visited both these stores this morning and was pounced upon as soon as we entered the store, we didn't even get a chance to look at anything first :mad:

snowqueen555

They are all similar inside with only minor differences (unless you buy the higher end ION Processors etc), but the keyboard layouts differ, I preferred my eee 1000h I boguht two years ago (£350) to the one I have now (Zoostorm from argos for £199.99). It was a much sturdier build with better webcam features, in built readers and bluetooth etc.

I would not buy from pc world or currys,. They are pricey and the people don't know what they are talking about.

tronator

paulofessex wrote: »

If you can find some, take some salesman repellent spray with you. Visited both these stores this morning and was pounced upon as soon as we entered the store, we didn't even get a chance to look at anything first :mad:

When I enter a shop I put my headphones on and switch on my MP3 player. Don't look the salesmen in the eyes and ignore them. Helps most of the times

poppy10_2

DCFC79 wrote: »

Currys or pc world is a god idea so then you can get a feel for it in terms of size and weight

Good idea to look in Currys so you can get a feel for the device, but never buy from them or PC world - they are hideously overpriced and have awful aftersales service.

Almost all netbooks have the same basic configuration these days - Atom processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM. Main things to look for are the physical design, the battery life and the operating system. 2GB RAM is a must to run Windows 7 smoothly, but it's usually cheaper to buy an extra gig of RAM separately for £20-£30 rather than looking for one of the rare and expensive netbooks that comes with 2GB RAM.