What Netbook?

Yazi

Hello

Looking for any ideas on what netbook to buy.
Has anyone got experience of good (and bad)?

Thanks
Yazi

MarkT

This really is a price range thing Yazi, but at all costs, avoid acer as if it was the plague..

I'm hanging out for an alienware (high end Dell) As the graphics cards and processors are pretty good

blobbyh

There was a similar thread a few months ago on the MIP boards. There's a fundamental difference between a netbook and an ultra portable laptop: both might be roughly the same size and weight, but there is a world of difference between the two.

Netbooks are cheap, limited to Windows 7 Starter edition so you can't change the wallpaper, use simultaneous log-ins etc, have capped memory - usually only 1gb of RAM (barely enough to run Windows never mind any applications) - generally sluggish Intel Atom processors, and can only run one program at a time. I think they're also limited to around 250-320gb hard disks.They cannot multi-task! Fine for watching movies, surfing the net and viewing pictures but not much else. The netbook market is/was defined by Microsoft who set the OS and hardware standard and all machines have to conform to the same maximum specs. Expect to pay between £200-£300 for a netbook but they're pretty much all the same in design and performance.

Ultra-portables have no such limitations and as well as running Windows 7 Home or better, have the ability to multi-task due to their increased RAM and higher level processors. Expect to pay double the price of a netbook or more though...

I have a laptop, netbook and tablet. I still use the laptop for "proper" work and the tablet takes care of casual computing. The netbook just sits gathering dust, the industry pretty much killed off by the tablet market.

NicF

blobbyh wrote: »

I have a laptop, netbook and tablet. I still use the laptop for "proper" work and the tablet takes care of casual computing. The netbook just sits gathering dust, the industry pretty much killed off by the tablet market.

Snap. In fact we went out on the weekend to buy an extra laptop as no one in my house wants to use the netbook ever. Forget the netbook and go for a tablet or a proper laptop.

By the way, I'm posting this from the Ipad, which is a million times better than the netbook, except for not supporting flash. :glare:

Nicola

PGM

just got some more tablets for work, got the blackberry playbook and samsung tab which im using right now. Think the iPad still has the edge over them!

blobbyh

PGM wrote: »

just got some more tablets for work, got the blackberry playbook and samsung tab which im using right now. Think the iPad still has the edge over them!

Writing this from my HTC Flyer... Great little tablet and available quite cheap now!

PGM

blobbyh wrote: »

Writing this from my HTC Flyer... Great little tablet and available quite cheap now!

Just had a look at that, good reviews and a price that makes more sense. I think the Samsungs & iPads are a bit overpriced at around 500. The price should be between a phone and laptop also.

blobbyh

The Flyer is now discontinued but still currently available - I don't think it sold very well - and not sure if HTC are even gonna replace it. Single core 1.5ghz processor and 1gb of RAM makes it quite nippy... not convinced what difference having a dual core processor in a tablet (or a mobile phone) makes and we're probably only talking nano-seconds lag time anyway!