We need to get a small format ultra-portable laptop so we can work when away from home. Will be to do stuff like minimal word processing, web surfing, running powerpoints and occasionally acting as a bridge between camera and external hard drive. So power not critical really.

Budget of £300 or preferably less.

What do you recommend? I have no idea where to start looking.

Also – will it be much cheaper/better if we use linux rather than windows? I am familiar with both, but wife never used windows or openoffice etc. so have to weigh that up too…

the ones i have used are all much of a muchness. haven’t used a linux one (have had linux laptop) so can’t comment on that.

Gadget show liked the Samsung one!

Samsung

I recently got an Acer Aspire One for my SO as she is working in London a lot so wants something to work on the train and in her London flat.

Its was £180, runs WinXP, keyboard is a decent size (some are a lot smaller than others, so you can get hand cramp), 1GB RAM, 160GB hard disk, and wireless blah, blah, blah. I wouldn’t bother with the solid state disk as the access speeds aren’t great, so you need to put some money back to buy a fast SD card.

I got Windows rather than Linux, as the drivers are optimized for Netbooks to spin everything down to get max life out of the battery (hers lasts around 3 hours or so), also her work uses OWA for external mail access, which works well with IE, and OK(ish) will Mozilla. When Ubuntu gets a bit better for Netbooks I might upgrade it if I can be arsed.

If you want to spend more eePC are worth a look, as are a number of others, but they are much more £ than the Acer.

Worth reading this:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49297248-6,00.htm

I have the samsung NC10, it gets the best reviews but may be a bit too much for what you want to use it for. It has all the toys – wifi, bluetooth, card reader, 3x USB ports and 120gb harddisc.

The keyboard is also very good on it.

Personally I was not convinced the Samsung is £120 better than the Acer, and for £300+ I would definately have a look at the eee pc, especially considering its bigger screen and battery life.

sorry to hi-jack

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ot-fs-lenovo-s9e-idea-pad-net-book

is this the kind of thing? don’t know if it does PowerPoint though

Thanks all for info – come good places to start…

charliemort – it could be, but I need to discuss with better half (who is abroad til next week). Also, it may need to be bought through her work, but if not I will get back to you…

Cheers,
STS.

Samsung NC10 has been top of the pile in reviews for most of the last year, but new model just out, N110, has even longer battery life (9.5hrs?), glossy screen and improved trackpad/buttons. NC10 should drop a little in price now though.

Get the Advent 4211. It’s a re-badged MSI Wind and will cost you around £200. it can be overclocked to 1.8Mhz and works a treat. Both my colleague and I have one and they’ve been wicked. We’re dual booting windos and linux, running VMWare server, playing Footie Manager etc.. Make sure that you get at least a 10″ screen othewise it’s frustrating to work on and also the keyboard won’t be big enough to type efficiently, make the keys go all the way to the edge of the casing.

Anyway, that’s my opinion….happy shopping.

Another vote for a 4211 here, happy with mine, which is possibly running an OS not mentioned above…

NC10 from eBuyer is pretty cheap now and has excellent battery life.

By the back end of the year there will be HD capable netbooks out that use less power (integrated graphics and processor chip from Intel is due – I forget the name. nVidia have a similar chip out too).

Or Asus eeepc 1000HE the new winner at 306.31 incl VAT.

Ebuyer

😆

D’oh! I think the Asus eeepc 1000HE does not come with Bluetooth if that is what you must have. 😥

Samsung NC10 is still very nice though.

I’ve got an NC10 and love it, however is only ever used for surfing the web so a cheap Acer Linux one would probably do the job.