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For my daughter doing her GCSEs this year. A laptop would do too, but the mega battery life and portability swings it to a netbook for her. I'm typing this on a Samsung N150+, but things must have moved on. What's this year's latest and greatest?
I'm leaning toward an Asus 1025CE, [url= http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/asus-1025ce-pur014s-netbook-purple-12693669-pdt.html ]like this[/url] but maybe I've missed something better or maybe you have one and it's crap. Liking the instant on, HDMI, the 12hour+ battery and USB3. Am I on the right lines? Looks like adding RAM to the ASUS is a pain.
I predict it will be about 5 minutes before someone rocks up suggesting an iPad / tablet.
The last Asus netbook I had was great, right up until its mobo died just out of warranty. The same happened to the one before that too. After that I decided I really needed a bigger screen, and had the cash for a ultrabook.
My partner's got an Acer Aspire One that's a few years old and still going strong - no complaints about build quality / battery life although with only 1gb of ram + weak CPU, anything more than [i]light[/i] web browsing makes it wheeze ( flash and some html5 stuff kills it ) and it is not viable to add more.
TBH I wouldn't buy another but would get a cheapy 'proper' 15inch laptop.
How about a Chromebook of some sort? Does web, word processing, email etc. Blindingly fast. Great battery life. Seems pretty good - it's almost the advantages of a tablet but in a netbook form.
[url= http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/chrome/devices/ ]Google ChromeBook[/url]
That asus looks fine.
Still got a samsung nc10 from years back, and it's running fine. I wouldn't rule them out either as it's clear they know how to build a netbook that lasts, though don't know what the current model is.
The chromebook's a good shout. I got one for my folks last year and they've had no probs, it's been really good. Instant on and 8hrs battery too.
If mine dies I'd probablly get the chromebook, but it depends whether you (or the user) get on with google's software and apps really. It works, but it is a little different to microsoft which seems more widespread
You can get it with a 3G sim too, which is pretty useful for something which is designed for portability.
Why not get an 11.6" laptop? They are only a smidge larger than netbooks but not much more expensive and you can get them with 4 or even 6GB of ram and decent CPUs. The AMD E-450 ones are good value.
Loads available, I like the look of the lenovo ones.
I just got an Acer Aspire one 756.
At 11.1" slightly bigger than a netbook but just as light and not stuck with eth 1gb of RAm problem (upgradable to 2gb) The 756 comes with 4gb and a 500gb hard disc.
I was looking for a netbook and found thi sthe better deal at £299 from Tesco.
Lenovo ThinkPad would be at the top of my list to check out. Freind has one, but not sure which CPU etc. Fractionally larger than a true Netbook, but with real CPU, real KB, more usable screen size, etc. ...
+1 11.6" laptop I got one last year and I do all my work on it when travelling - more than enough power for my microsoft usage, fair bit of battery life for train journeys, using around the house, and playing iplayer on the telly as it has a HDMI output. 1min power on was a revelation to me. Mine is a Sony Vaio and was £400 but I am sure you can get equivalents at a better price.