The netbook thread

Just had a word with my friend and she said that the volume knob has fallen off after barely a weeks usage!! Just some information for those who are planning to buy an Asus Eeepc 1005HA. I really liked the build quality though.
 
Adunaphel said:
Yes, that is one drawback of the matte finish screens. The upside however is that you do not get "death by screen glare" when you as much as think of using it outside a darkroom :p
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TBH I don't think it's that bad. When I'm outside and in full sunshine (ie almost never), I just turn up the brightness and voila.

When I'm in the shade or inside 60-70% brightness is enough and it gives me extra battery life aswell :p

to me glossy > matte anyday
 
Matte >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> glossy.

I hate how they don't make too many laptops/netbooks with matte screens anymore.
 
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Apple is going back to matte, but really since I have a glossy display the matte screens don't look so good anymore...
 
Hey all, I'm looking into getting a netbook for uni next year, to record lecture and type notes (because I tend to type quicker than I write, even if i'm still very slow and not very accurate!). First off, would any uni/college students on here recommend a netbook for uni/college? I see it as a god idea but if you guys think it is stupid I may be swayed to use my money for more important stuff.
I'm looking at 2 different netbooks at the moment-
the Toshiba NB 200 (the fully specced one with the 9hr battery and such) because of it's built-in mic and fairly solid look to its build quality
and the Acer Aspire One 751 because it has a massive screen, a full-sized keyboard and looks pretty good too. From reading this thread, i'm swayed towards the Acer more, but of course 'm going to look for one to try out.

Does anybody have any other recommendations? What I really would like in it is:
- long battery life (power points at the uni are limited and I don't want the hassle of lugging it around)
- good keyboard (I will by typing for about 2 hours at a time)
- Windows 7 (I will wait for this though, but if anybody knows of any netbooks definitely getting it that would be awesome)
- Fairly rugged (I will most likely be carting this around in the top box of my scooter, it will be protected by a case but I don't want cheap plastic crap that will scratch and dent easily)
- good warranty- I want to upgrade to a good 3 year warranty, preferably with some form of NBD on-site service- after the experience with that sort of warranty with my Dell, it's like life support for me now!

Yeah, that's about it. I've looked at Lenovo and Dell (I like both of them and I own a Dell and will be getting a Lenovo year after next for work), but they both disappointed me with lack of customisation. I know people are iffy on the Toshiba's, but it and the Acer look best for my needs. Thoughts?
 
well, the Toshiba is utter shit, and the Acer 751 isn't a netbook :p

also, Win7 ... i'd wait if you can, and use XP for now
 
NooDle said:
well, the Toshiba is utter shit, and the Acer 751 isn't a netbook :p

also, Win7 ... i'd wait if you can, and use XP for now
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The Acer is technically a netbook, albeit a mammoth one- it still has all the Atom netbook archtechure and stuff in it. I know I could probably get Core2Duo, 4 gig RAM and Vista in the same size, but that would be around 2 grand and I'm only looking to part with half that- I'm on a trainee allowance next year and I need to save money for my new work wardrobe basically (read- about 3 full suits and a ton of other stuff to go with them). I would happily settle for the 10.1" version (I think it's the updated version of yours from memory), but I would like a big keyboard.

EDIT: oh, and i refuse to use Windows XP :D. I actually chose to defer my job for a year partially because of that- the work laptop I would get would have XP on it but if I wait a year it is apparently going to be Win7. Every time I use XP I manage to break it,and if I break XP it's "Oh dammit, lose everything and reboot", whereas with Vista when i break it, it can recover. Vista is too big for a netbook though :(

Polly said:
Why you folks don't like the Toshiba? I'm wondering, because Joanna seems to love it.
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I know, I picked the Toshiba because (apart from here) I've heard nothing but good things about it- most of the reviews I've read have raved about the build quality and two of my friends have Toshiba laptops whose build quality kicks my Dell's arse from here to eternity. And I need good build quality, coz like I said, I'm most likely going to be lugging it around on a scooter because I'll get free parking at the uni then (vs. $4.40 an hour for my car, but I'll get an annual pass most likely anyway-just there is a lack of car parks)
 
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On our Toshiba laptop, the hard drive (which was made by Toshiba themselves) completely disintegrated. Even though the laptop is not abused and spends most of it's time at home, some paint on the left mouse button is already starting to chip off. Some of the trim is already slightly bent, and it runs kind of hot. Battery life is also laughable at around an hour or less (15.4" regular cheapo laptop with integrated graphics, an AMD Athlon X2 CPU, 1 GB RAM, and a 160 GB HDD).
 
Polly said:
Why you folks don't like the Toshiba? I'm wondering, because Joanna seems to love it.
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Because of this

if you want Vista, don't get a netbook! they simply don't have the memory or speed to keep up with it. And it would be pointless to buy a netbook, stuff 4GB of RAM in there, overclock the system, just to be able to run the OS...

Win7 *should* be ok though

Also, if you break winXP everytime you use it, maybe you should stick to the old classic: pen & paper
 
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NooDle said:
Because of this
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I still don't quite get it. There are quite a few reviews out there, praising the NB100 as the best of the 8,9-inchers, or on par with the Mini 9. But whatever, the NB100 is outdated right now anyway. Sure the NB200 looks a bot mediocre, but there are a lot of very mediocre netbooks out there. The NB205 still seems like quite a piece of kit to me.

Anyway, if I were looking for a netbook/ultracompact right now, I'd wait for the Ion-powered Lenovo S12. 1080p playback ootb, you know. Or just wait for the N450 netbooks alltogether.
 
Considering the whole "what's still a netbook and what isn't" issue, this article may be interesting.

To me a netbook is small (10 inch max), light, and most importantly cheap. Good battery life is a side effect of the light and small.
I don't care whether it's an Atom or whatever,and the brand name is also largely irrellevant, but the whole point is cheap easy access to the web IMO.

If you're buying that insane Sony 9 inch thing it isn't a netbook, because it's 1000? (for something that doesn't nearly have the functionality of a real netbook, but that's another story)

Those new 12" lightweight portables that are coming out, arent netbooks because they aren't small enough. Because of this their battery last much shorter.

Thing is though, usually laptops started at 15" and up, and netbooks were tiny 8 or 9 inch things. Now the "laptops" are getting smaller and the "netbooks" are getting bigger... so 12" is somewhere of a no man's land now...

I must admit that I had my doubts at first, my desktop screen has always been massive. hell, I bought a 19" CRT screen back in 1990something (back when they were expensive) and hauled it upstairs to my room, all 27 kgs of it.

But now that I have a flatscreen desktop and a netbook, I find myself using the netbook mostly, and just accessing the stuff I need on the desktop...

Especially if you just want to quickly look something up on the web, it's just so much easier to be able to do this from my backyard in my chair with a nice beer, rather than going indoor, powering everything up, waiting, search for 5 minutes, power everything down, and come back outside. The fact that batteries virtually last forever on this is an extra plus. It lasts me a whole week on a single charge (1,5-2hrs/day being used, the rest of the time in hibernate)

Now whenever I see someone with a "big" laptop, I just can't get over how impractical they are. Sure they have an optical drive, but the screen isn't THAT much bigger, it weighs THAT much more, and more importantly, Id have to recharge the thing every single day... why anyone still buys a big laptop for mobile use is beyond me...


Edit : and another thing : I'm seeing Dell advertising their new laptop as a "laptop for everyone" and it's portable and yay all that, then they proceed to tell me it's the only smallish laptop that comes with Vista and 4GB of RAM...
Erm, duh, if you didn't have Vista, you wouldn't need 4GB of ram... and if you substract the price of Vista + RAM you could have had an awesome deal on your hands (the laptop in question was I think 14" and 399?)
 
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^^ yeah, I am defnitely waiting- until at least February next year, when i quit my current job and get ready for uni.

And after close consideration and looking at further reviews (yadda yadda yadda), I'm going Acer unless Dell smartens up and offers more options between now and when I buy one. The fact that they have taken their Mini 9 and Mini 12 off the market in Oz makes me think they are doing major revisions of the line in preparation for Win7 and Ion.

And Noodle, by "break", I mean that it always seems to lock up on me- I didn't mean to do it, i swear!!!!
Although, I think it's the stupid Dept of education's fault, downgrading prefectly good (relative term, of course) Vista business Lenovo's to mangled XP images that are 4 years old and unpatched... yeah, I'll blame them.
 
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^ah yes, the macbook, all of the drawbacks of a netbook (slow, tiny screen) without any of the benifits (low price tag, 7hrs+ battery life)

Epic fail :p
 
I'm thinking of buying netbook but I'm not sure which would be right for me.
At first I was going to buy NC10 but then i noticed new n110 and n120 models and im not so sure if NC10 is best after all?

Any other suggestions?
 
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