Well folks, following on from the ipad discussion, and the fact that I have decided not to get one, I would say that my needs can be met with a mid range netbook and a Kindle.

For travelling, I need basic Microsoft Office, and also email, net and maybe youtube videos. Nothing too demanding.

I am also likely to get a Kindle, as my girlfriend has asked for one, but I think we can share rather than get 2.

I have been looking at a few reviews of netbooks on Amazon, but am a bit suspicious of the reviews, and some feel as if they have been placed. My budget is around £250, but I could go higher, say to £350 were you guys to say that there would be a very noticeable difference in quality.

So yeah, if you have any recommendations, please feel free to add them here. Is Windows 7 really bad? I have not used it.

Many thanks for any help offered.

Samsung NC10 is pretty good although a bit long in tooth now.

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-nc10-refurbished-netbook-03855212-pdt.html?srcid=867&xtor=AL-78&istCompanyId=4be69b13-f6de-4a80-8d9b-22e0185f57a7&istItemId=axtqlpi&istBid=t

Dell mini 10v

Acer Travelmate 8371 – 369 500gb 4gb 1.4kg 13″ screen

Real computer but not much bigger than netbook.

my nc10 struggles to play some online vids, it’s okay but not great.
in fact I’m doing the opposite to you….dumping the NC10 for a iPad (16gb wifi refurb for 290 squids)

If you need Office in order to work on documents especially excel/pp what have you then do yourself a favour and do not get a netbook. Apart from performance the 10″ screen and the tiny touchpads are a proper torture to use for pretty much anything. Think at least 12″+ ultraportable.

X220 from lenovo seems a winner there if it is not out of budget but there are a couple 12″ not quite netbook variety of laptops to have a look at.

Hmm – food for thought – maybe I do need an ultra light laptop after all? My Macbook pro seems to weigh in at around 2.5 kg, which can be a real drag carrying through airports etc. I shall have to factor in a budget of maybe £400, or is that too little? As I said, I don’t need mad performance, just something that does the basics well.

I went down this road last week with the OH, after an NC10 / margarita interface issue.

All netbook specs are very similar, but the thing to watch for is the CPU. There’s a relatively new processor called the N550, which is dual-core and smashes the N4– series out of the park performace wise. (I think there’s a slightly faster one imminent too, N570 or such).

Long story short, we ended up with an Acer Inspire One D255. Whatever you go for, if you get a netbook, look for the N550 chip.

Samsung N150Plus here, does all you’ve asked for, really quick boot/restart, looks good, good battery, light weight and well under budget. Rarely reach for the full laptop now.

sorry to jump in here but is a netbook good enough for the kid to do homework study on and look around the net a bit ? or do i need to get them a laptop.

just thinking of one as they are a. cheaper 😉 and b. smaller for them

cheers

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_TravelMate_Timeline_8371_667418.html

This is what I got.

Bargainstastic

I’ve got an iPad, Netbook (NC10) and a MacBook (13″).

I work mainly from home, but do frequent trips involving long train journeys. The iPad is the tool of choice for most trips now, unless I am going to a clients site that requires me doing a lot of spreadsheet stuff.

A bluetooth keyboard for the iPad makes it work for 90% of the text wrangling stuff I need to do. Its only anything with styles and footnotes that need to be done on the MacBook.

Hmm – some very good recommendations.

So far, that Acer recommended by Quirrel seems to be the best bet so far in terms of weight, price and performance. I would not really be able to afford £700, but at that price it seems good value for money. Is that right? Are there any dodgy aspects that I should be worried about? Is it a legit website?

Legit as far as I can tell, they delivered my laptop straight away, no issues at all. Dad bought another laptop from them, which when it arrived had dead pixels on the screen, he called them up and it was picked up the next day and replaced no questions asked.

Value for money I cannot praise the machine more.

truestedreviews rate it the laptop highly as well.

Cheers Quirrel

I am a bit biased against Acer as my Dad has one and the battery was just terrible. But it does seem good value for money yeah?

As I said I cannot fault it.

Even the keyboard is spot on and that is going from the luxury of a Thinkpad keyboard.

Battery wise – 6 hours+ on full charge. God knows how it does it.

The variations tend to be screens, touchpads and keyboards – all the contact points. Plus battery life – but the rest under the hood is all much of a muchness.

I’m on a Samsung N220 here, which I bought for the battery life and the decent keyboard. But the touchpad isn’t as good as my old Asus Eee 901 and the screen viewing angles aren’t either (though adequate for what I use it for – netbooks are no use for image work). I write code on mine so a prime criterion for me is the arrangement of the cursor/home/end/pgup/dn keys – they’re all bad, it’s just a case of picking the least bad.

Samsung, Asus or Toshiba would be my choice. Pick a keyboard and trackpad that you get on with and then go for the one with the best battery life.