Looking at getting a Netbook down the budget end ie £200 to £250. Samsung NC10 or N110 seem to be recommended, but what's the difference between those or with a N130 which seems to be cheaper? Anything else I should look at instead – eg Dell Mini, Compaq, Asus etc.? Old topic I know, but wondering what latest advice is.

Oh, and for standard browsing, photo viewing, playing old-fashioned low spec games etc. whilst I'm away. Already have a laptop, want something lighter with better battery life.

I was looking at these recently, for Mrs Druidhs birthday pressie, and decided to get a MSI X410 14" laptop instead. A bit more than your budget, but massively more capable. I just couldn't "get" the Netbook vibe.

It's for travelling, hence weight and battery life more important than power – I'm more looking at upgrading from a PDA rather than down from a laptop. Though I thought I already said that!

My GF just got a N130 and my dad just got a N210. There are obvious technical differences, but for internet and (not huge) photos then I dunno what the practical differences would be. One's got Windows 7, the other XP. Not spent enough time with 7 yet to know the betterness of it. To a 'puter simpleton like me they both do the job fine and dandy and that's all I can tell. I was told by people who know and care about these things that the Dell uns aren't as good – though I'm sure I wouldn't be able to tell any difference.

I've got a N110 that I've had for about a year. Great for battery life, about 8 hours. Good for weight, not too heavy.
I'd recommend it.

Found specs for the Dells, and battery life is puny so that rules them out. Indeed battery life does seem to be one of the big differences, and the reason the Samsung looks so good.

the nc10 and n110 are essentially the same, though i think there's a diference in the touch pad, small keyboard difference, and most importantly the battery spec. believe the n110 comes with the ( claimed ) 9 hour battery as standard. the nc10's spec varies in this regard, so watch out if you're trying to save a few quid by getting the older machine.
i have the n110, am using it now. lovely bit of kit – very pleased with it. came with xp, no problems with it at all. the screen is wonderful. i was very suprised at how much nicer pics look on it compared to the old lappy. it runs quake live very happily too ( though i guess it should! ). can't comment on the other models.
technically though these are quite old. should have thought the nvidia chipset stuff was starting to come through now? probably much better suited to gaming and likely a decent step in performance i would have thought?

I was looking at those but then also looked into the toshiba nb200 range as somewhere in my research they seemed to come out better?

Got my sister the NC140, she's very happy with this. Make sure that you get the 6 cell battery rather than the 3 cell. This will (predicatably) last twice as long.

have the HP mini 110 go machine replaced my stolen NC10 think the Hp just wins it as it has a fast hp web browser that does not require win7 to boot up so can be online in about 8secs

Hmm – now see there's a new N150 with the latest Atom 450 processor. Too much choice with too little difference between them (from what i can see the benefit of the Atom 450 is marginal, but not really sure).