Under £300. What do i need to look out for? Any advice (or horror stories) welcome

I got an acer one for 150quid new last year (no OS) and it’s been perfect. Use it for general internet at home and for travelling and giving talks from at work. It’s good for doing a couple of hours work on but nothing more – I refine talks on it but I wouldn’t like to write one from scratch using it (I guess this is obvious – they’re not designed for long hours work).

I expected it to be cheap and cheerful with plenty to find fault with, but it’s actually been exceptionally good. One problem I’ve had is that it can drop the wireless signal occasionally. This only happens infrequently with mine, but apparently a lot of people have had problems with it. It’s a known issue so maybe the new models have sorted it – I guess it’s maybe one to avoid if you’re doing a ton of travelling and always connecting to different networks.

One other design feature I don’t like is buttons to the side of the tracker pad instead of underneath – can’t imagine anyone would prefer this? Overall, though, it’s exceptional for the price.

thanks

I’ve got a Sony vaio p series here, that any good to you?

wife has a Dell inspiron mini

works great but the casing cracked on folding mechanism, common fault seemingly, Dell said we must have dropped it!!! Grrrrrrrr

still works ok but lid closes funny, just needs a new case

Some random musings…

Had a Samsung NC10 for about 18 months, it’s been well travelled, and still looks/performs as new. Had to get the screen fixed under warranty, and took about a week. It’s currently being used as a desktop with a keyboard/mouse/monitor. I have upgraded to 2GB RAM but sometimes use it for FEA, compiling code and other things it’s not meant for and it copes ok.

Girlfriend has an HP (I think) and the battery sticks out the back, making it awkward to transport. Not something you can see when they are in the shop with the battery not in it.

Generally they are all the same hardware so go for the one with the trackpad/keyboard you like the best and best battery life.

As much as I love Linux, I would suggest getting a Windows specced one, you can always add Linux later but it’s ££ to go the other way.

When/if mine dies I will replace it with the N220, or equivalent Samsung then. 10 hours claimed battery, and it looks good in terms of usability. It is £320 though 🙁

Check Daily Deals on eBay. I managed to get a new Acer AO531 for my OH mum, 10″ screen, usual Atom, 1GB ram etc (specs are almost the same on different brands) but it had the larger battery so manages to get almost the claimed 7 hours battery life out of it. However downside is Youtube is watchable in 320 maybe 480p resolution, HD is a no go, framerate on divx movies is sometimes low, apart from that probably best £160 I spent recently 🙂 You can check Asus ones as somtimes they have even longer battery life (up to 11 hours) and a built in SIM car slot so You can use You mobile data allowance. There is a lot of choice on eBay now and all seem to be very similar/identical in specification. I would personally choose one with the longest battery life, 1GB ram if runs XP or 2GB for Vista, I would buy a Netbook on Vista as it will be slower than on XP.

IMHO check eBay, no need to spend more than £200, that will get You a brand new HP/Dell/Toshiba/Acer/Asus/MSI that will be almost identical spec just different design, at £300 You can probably find a nice 13.3″ laptop that will be quicker than a netbook and almost as mobile.

There are indeed some good deals on ebay. Last years models from the likes of Argos, at about 40 quid less than retail (£180 versus £220 approx). You’ll get them with XP as well, not W7 SubBasic like the newer models have.

Colin

I have a recent Acer Aspire One and an older Eeepc 1000H. I prefer the Acer. I’ve also used a Samsung NC10 and that is a nice machine. I’ve replaced Windows XP with Ubuntu on both – a personal choice that makes the best use of the available power.

I had the viao in the classifieds, do a search if you like, the screen is as clear a resolution as my iPhone 4 imho

OH has an NC-10, loves it to bits. I dropped 2Gb of RAM in it and it flies.

I have an NC10 for skype and tinterweb browsing, bought 2nd hand last year for about 200 notes, and can’t fault it. Obviously not the fastest thing in the world, but upped the ram to 2GB and it runs everything I want including occasional HD video editing.

Cheers, Rich

I bought an Acer Aspire one, about 18months ago. Atom, 1GB RAM, 160GB hardrive. Its the XP version and its very slow almost too slow to use on some things. I am thinking it might be better to add another 1GB of memory to it.

Also the battery died after about a year.

Bazzer

MSI Wind U135 and it’s brilliant. Runs full windows 7 with no problems although I’m considering XP to get all my games to run on it though.
I get a good 2 hours from it on internet with a dongle and watching movies at the same time. Does me for my daily commute. Be lost without it now.

I bought a 9″ Asus eeePC 901 a few months ago ‘refurbed’ from eBay, but essentially brand new. It’s GREAT! I wanted an SSD drive for robustness as it’s likely to do a lot of travelling around, and it’s got a 16Gb one. Has all the usual – 3 USB, Atom 1.6Ghz processor, VGA out, network, wireles… but it also has a sim card slot so you don’t need a USB dongle for mobile broadband. Also has 6hr+ battery life (as proved at Geneva airport recently whilst the French had another tantrum)…

Cost £110. super happy with it.

As I sit here typing this on an I pad it just serves as a reminder that the most important thing you need in a net book your going to travel with and use in conditions that are not ideal is a matt screen. I’ve got a very nice view here across Prague from the congress centre but this screen is going to give me a headache if I sit here too long with it. I saw a nice looking Sony at the airport with a 1.86 N470 processor and a matt screen that was £300.

Compaq 311c – http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=189898

Has an Nvidia graphics chip which helps out with games / video. Can display 1080p HD video no probs. Memory expandable too. Very pleased with mine.

it also has a sim card slot

Well that’s interesting. I’ve had one for about 18 months and had no idea. As it turns out my 3G dongle crashes with Ubuntu so I’ve never been able to use it. Maybe now I can.

Did you have to do a load of hacking as per here,
http://www.jkkmobile.com/2008/09/how-to-internal-3g-hsdpa-on-asus-eee-pc.html
or is there some easier route?

I have a samsung NC10 and my girlfriend has an Asus Eeepc both are really good, I have had mine a little over a year and it has been faultless.

Bez no – just removed the battery and the SIM card slot was already there 🙂

Oh. Lucky you then – mine doesn’t have one.