Buy a netbook?

bryanb

The laptop is getting on for 6 years old now, it is a 32 bit Win 98 Toshiba.
I'm thinking of buying a netbook to supplement it (Wife is more into net surfing than ever).
Our usage is mainly net surfing, email, skype, occasional DVD when in France, a bit of photoshop, and banking.
Will the average netbook fulfil all these uses as easily as the old laptop?
Thanks for any advice, and for any recommendations on choice of netbook.
We could afford a new laptop if neccessary.

pogofish

It will be fine for browsing, email etc, I've no idea about Skype, although my fairly pedestrian netbook manages video and streaming fairly well. However, a netbook will not run Photoshop adequately, nor have I ever seen one with a DVD/CD drive.

There are some far less demanding free applications that do the job of Photoshop surprisingly well and will run on a much lower spec machine - Faststone Viewer and Hornil Stylepix (free version) are two of my favourites but there are other good alternatives advised by others here.

For what you want, a smaller format laptop would be a far better choice.

dispossessed

I'm slightly curious as to how a 6 year old laptop came to be running Windows 98 ? In 2006 Windows XP would have been more common. Interesting.......

However a netbook should prove adequate for the usage you descibe except that their will almost certainly be no optical drive (DVD) included due to limited space.

Standalone DVD players are cheap enough (£30) if this proves an issue as are standalone external USB DVD drives.

There are some very good deals available on Netbooks from the Argos and Tesco eBay outlet shops. I paid £105 for my Acer Aspire One.

NiftyDigits

Full model number of the Toshiba machine?

lovethymini

I used to have a Toshiba laptop (purchased 2007), and I now have an Acer Aspire One netbook. I'm very pleased with it!
I generally use it for more or less the same as what you do, it has more memory and power than our old desktop, and it come with a built-in webcam, handy for Skype. I personally prefer the size of the netbook and somehow it feels stronger than a larger laptop.

closed

For dvd's you need something with a dvd drive - ie laptop.

if your laptop is really xp or vista, it can probably be speeded up if that's your reason for buying

BigRonW

GIven your description of what you plan to use the machine for, my throught is that you might be better off with a tablet. Tablets perform the list of jobs you gave pretty well, and for £10 - £15 can be "converted" to a "laptab" (an expression I've just made up!) by adding a combined external keyboard and faux-leather case. (These generic cases come in a wide range of colours, too!)

Downside would be "occaisional DVD when in France"... although most tablets happily play the data from DVDs if the DVD has been "ripped" on a computer prior to vewing. My own 7" tablet has a couple of dozen DVD films stored in its 32 Gigabyte MicroSD card. It also has a "mini HDMI" out port, meaning that I can play back either on the tablet's 7" screen, or through whatever size "HD Ready" TV screen is available. A brand new tablet would (or could) cost a LOT less than a laptop - potentially in the region of a hundred quid. I own a worrying number of computers, including both a netbook and a couple of tablets. The Netbook gets used very little (mainly by my wife on holiday, because it's lightweight)

GetRealBabe

dispossessed wrote: »

I'm slightly curious as to how a 6 year old laptop came to be running Windows 98 ? In 2006 Windows XP would have been more common. Interesting.......

Hi

A bit off topic but bought my laptop in 2007 and it was running Vista, now Windows 7.

I have a Samsung NC10 netbook but only use it when I'm out or travelling. The 10" screen is ok for word processing/email and surfing. For watching DVDs/Photoshop I prefer my 15" laptop or desktop pc.

bryanb

dispossessed wrote: »

I'm slightly curious as to how a 6 year old laptop came to be running Windows 98 ? In 2006 Windows XP would have been more common. Interesting.....

Sorry folks, it's XP. Slip of the brain I guess! I did have 98 for many years though.

NiftyDigits

bryanb wrote: »

Sorry folks, it's XP. Slip of the brain I guess! I did have 98 for many years though.

Post #4??????

bryanb

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Post #4??????

Thanks but I'm not asking advice regarding the old Toshiba.