Going to need my own netbook/laptop for when I undertake my APC to become RICS accredited. It will essentially be used for typing up my daily diary and showing how I have met the required competencies. Therefore will only be used with word, excel and powerpoint (for my critical analysis). Needs to be transportable, hence the ‘small’ requirement. Any recommendations? Budget is limited to £250.

Chromebook. Quick, light & simple. Run Google apps in offline mode and any files you create/modify are uploaded to your google drive as soon as you get internet access.

Less than £200 for an Acer c720.

Yup , if I was in your position and had regular internet access a Chromebook would be where my money would go.

Depends on features/ how stylish you want to be etc.
I inherited my daughters Acer Aspire One D255 6 months ago, thinking it’d be fine for occasional use, but it is now my main computer. I usually use it running Ubuntu, but it can dual boot to Windows if required. Do all my office work on it as well as internet etc.
£75 upwards will get you a good 2nd hand one.

Can they run word, excel etc? The templates I have to use are word etc. also don’t have continuous internet access.

A bit like alanl, I had two Acer Aspire One’s as my “London” computer. They were ace, running W7 or XP then later on Ubunut and a Chromium OS. Ive worn both out over the last 5 or 6 years and binned them last year. At the same time I moved over to a 99% Google Docs environment even though my work is primarily the financial modelling of property. And it’s worked.

I now have a pair of Chromebooks that I share with Mrs S (but because of the way Chromebooks work we can use either) and all of my work is done in the cloud with offline functionality where necessary.

More to the point though, why are you doing a daily diary? Why not just invent an entire year’s worth 24hours before submitting your APC like wot the rest of us have done? 🙂

Stoner MA MSc MRICS

Ive got an Asus T100 10 inch convertible. Battery life is over 10 hours, converts to a tablet which is handy if you’re on the go and comes with full MS office.

Little over budget at 300 but its great.

Cheers for the help. Just seen some refurb netbooks on eBay such as Asus X101, would this suit my requirements?