Well I finally have a job interview, but it is back in London, and Mrs P is still going to stay here in Ireland for the foreseeable (her job is still secure over here). So if I get the job I would need/like a netbook for video Skype and probably work related stuff in airports, but something light and cheap as it will be carried to and from Ireland regularly and probably take a bit of a hammering. Anyone have any good recomendations?

Not cheap, but I’m very immpressed wth my Samsung N10. Particularly for video skype.

Mrs M has just bought a Samsung NC10. £320 at John Lewis, cheaper online via PC world.
Good keyboard & screen, literally half the size of my work laptop, prob all you ever need. It has a good battery life

I’ve got an Asus EEE 70(something). I use it alot at home if all I’m doing is looking at t’internet or checking email. It’s good for Skype as it’s got a built in webcam just above the screen. It’s not got a massive HD, only 4Gb, but it’s solid state so I’ve no worries about taking anywhere with me and it getting shaken around. I think the newer ones have larger HDs and screens (mine’s only a 7″ screen). Less than £200 now. Bargain.

I’ve got the Acer Aspire one, upgraded the memory and after a bit of messing with XP and Ubuntu finally restored to the original Linpus OS.

Does a good job and boots up quick etc so is useful when you just need to check mail/quick surf etc.
With a bit of fiddling got it working with my USB dongle so picks up tinternet all over the place.
It was £199.

The newly released Samsung N110 is the daddy. >8 hours battery life, decent screen, and great keyboard. 160gb HD, windows xp, and decent webcam built in. Quite expensive for a netbook(about £30 more expensive than the NC10), but definitely the best by far.

Shameless Ad

I’m selling my iBook G4 apple Mac. 12″ screen, huge battery life, OSX, carry case etc. Wipes the floor with netbooks in terms of real performance and you’ll never have to bugger about with it since it works first time everytime out of the bag. Runs office, photoshop Skype and the rest.

£350

If your interested I can send over a few pics.

Cheers

I’m selling my iBook G4 apple Mac. 12″ screen, huge battery life, OSX, carry case etc. Wipes the floor with netbooks in terms of real performance

It weighs over twice as much, though…

It weighs over twice as much, though…

Computers designed for adults will do.

Computers designed for adults will do.

???

It weighs over twice as much, though…

Those G4 Macbooks are incredibly heavy. One of my mates has a 12″ one, it weighs about twice as much as my Dell 14″ laptop (which ‘wipes the floor with the G4 in terms of real performance’ as the guy above said).

£350 for one of those relics is insane. Do people really pay that much for a years out of date, famously unreliable Mac from the days before Apple realised that the G4 was a dead end?

Joe

Computers designed for adults will do.

An adult being defined as somebody more interested in style than performance?

If you think a G4 laptop is heavy then you must be a Vegetarian. A 14″ Dell is lighter, but then again rather than Ali and Polycarbonate like the Mac it’s actually made of the cheapest possible plastics and has the battery life to match.

Anyway, i’m pretty sure the original question was what netbook? The correct answer is currently the Samsung NC Series, i’m pretty sure the NC10 is due to be upgraded soon so keep a look out for one in the clearance sales. If you can hold on, wait for the new revision of netbooks built on the nVidia Ion hardware. It’s the form factor of a netbook but the performance of a notebook.

Best of both worlds – Samsung NC10 running XP and Mac OS X.
Wipes the floor with a G4 iMac in terms of price, performance & weight. 🙂

I work on the basis that as these things get better and more highly specced the difference between them and a traditional laptop becomes blurred.

My view is that i expect a limited set of functions and its use is limited to that.

Given my expectations I would opt for the cheapest device that allows that and I saw in Borders last night a model for circa £130. Very limited it may be but for a small list of functions, the ability to carry in a small bag and how upset I would be if it broke or got nicked then I think these are excellent.

Just got myself an Acer Aspire one from Dabs, they’re selling refurb units for £120 with the SSD, so fairly bash proof. Very happy with it and about half the price of other options. Using it for web and picture collecting on group holidays. Have added extra storage with a SDHC card in the expansion slot. Linux is fine to use. Has wifi built in and think, it has a slot for a sim card, will have to check when the GF gets back from working away later as she has had it all week

timber, how is it to use …been looking at these

Wozza – Member

Shameless Ad

I’m selling my iBook G4 apple Mac. 12″ screen, huge battery life, OSX, carry case etc…..£350

Not being funny, but that’s a hell of a lot, for at least a 3/4 year-old laptop, based on outdated architecture, with limited compatibility with many current applications. I’ve been looking at getting a Mac lappy, and for that sort of money, I’d expect an Intel-based MacBook as minimum, unless you’re including a decent genuine software bundle with it (Adobe CS, Final Cut Pro, etc.).

Good luck with flogging it, but I can’t help thinking you’d struggle to sell it at that price. Even at half that, I still think you’d have problems. For eg.; a mate of mine recently sold a similar vintage 15″ Powerbook G4, a much better specced model, for £200.

Not wishing to piss on your chips, just trying to be realistic.

I’d still rather have that than any Windoze thing though. I’m hoping Apple come out with a net-booky type thing in the next few months, tbh, although the new Macbook Pro 13″ looks very, very lovely…

voodoo – it’s a computer, does all the basic things that most people expect of it, web surfing, file moving, typing stuff – Linux based OS isn’t a million miles from Windows, so if you can work that it is fine. Mine came with open office.

Key board doesn’t seem too small, went for one this size (8.9) as will display photos in a normal 6×4 size, dad has a 7″ screen asus and that is a bit small. Finish feels solid.

Fine as a second toy, but would be limited as main computer due to lack of dvd and space although they could be added as peripherals. Would recommend a linux based OS system as it’s simplicity keeps it quick, windows will make it slow as they are basic compared to a laptop spec’.

SIM card slot yes, behind the battery, but not tried it as don’t have relevant SIM

You could get a 2nd hand macbook for that much. & you could upgrade it to snow leopard.
I love my 12″ ibook, using it now. But yeah, it’s getting old. The GF is playing Sims on our new 13′ macbook. Lighter & not as creaky as the old girl. But I can’t get rid of it, as it was my first computer

V impressed with my Samsung NC10, thrown in the rucksack and biked to work every day.
Performance fine for the cash, plenty of storage, brilliant battery life, built in camera – but I think it’s now out of production so might have to search for one.

I’m using an EEPC 900, which is excellent, but if I was spending my money again it would be one of those Samsungs. Nice kit indeed, and only £300ish. Either that or an EEEPC901 if I could find one mucho cheapo.

You can get 5% off computers at Dixons. enter 5COMP at checkout

brings the new N110 down to £332ish which is a good price

NC10 here too – but I’ve upgraded mine to 2 gig of RAM and stuck biking stickers on it…..

Very impressed, does all I need and more. Wouldn’t want anything faster, or wouldn’t need a bigger screen TBH.

DrP

I’ve got an HP Mini 2140
XP Pro, 2GB RAM, 80GB SSD – lovely wee thing, boots fast, works better than my 4yr old T42 and when taken to work and attached to a nice screen and keyboard etc is absolutely spot on. Great for working on a plane as nice and small.

I support the NC10 crowd. Had one for six months and been very impressed. I got mine from Staples for just under GBP300 and not seen them cheaper anywhere else. You can also double the RAM for about GBP15 from Amazon.

One irritation – some of the keys do not work as marked on the keyboard: @ and ” are reversed for example, and there is no GBP sign. I guess it is configured for a US keyboard. Anyone know how to change it?

p

One irritation – some of the keys do not work as marked on the keyboard: @ and ” are reversed for example, and there is no GBP sign. I guess it is configured for a US keyboard. Anyone know how to change it?

Assuming Windows, Control Panel -> Regional Settings -> Languages & click on “Details”.

To the OP: when you choose your netbook it’s worth checking how many power cells it has, you should get one with 6 (not 4!)

Sorted! Thanks Mogrim

Glad to hear it worked, PJ.

The wife has the HP Mini. Brilliant wee bit of kit for Music, Interweb, Skype (built in cam), pictures and general stuff. Great keyboard on them and they feel super sturdy too.

The 6 cell battery thing is a good call – looking for something which will run for 5hrs+ if possible, but from all this no-one seems to have a rubbish netbook!

Will have a look at the Samsungs later this week

Cheers

I’ve got a 4 cell Medion (don’t know if you can get them in the UK), it’s perfect for what I wanted which was something small I can comfortably use on the sofa, living room table, sitting in the garden etc. I’m rarely that far from a power point. My boss has the same computer – he’s usually out of the office and travels a fair bit, his only complaint is the battery life.

If you’re planning on using it a lot at home (and have the space) a spare keyboard / mouse / big monitor would be worth thinking about.

Dell mini 9 if you can find one (just been discontinued for some bizarre reason). Light, cheap, 9 inch screen, SSD, built in webcam, built in BT and very easy to instal Macintosh OS X on.

Best of both worlds, little netbook, great OS.

See here:My Dell Mini for details

If you want a Netbook then go for one, but a normal laptop will be fine for travelling if thats what you actually want. I average 3 flights a week and have never in 12 years had a problem caused being knocked around by travel. PC’s are bigger and heavier, but you can get Dells etc for £400 with Vista, DVD drive etc

If you want a Netbook then go for one, but a normal laptop will be fine for travelling if thats what you actually want. I average 3 flights a week and have never in 12 years had a problem caused being knocked around by travel. PC’s are bigger and heavier, but you can get Dells etc for £400 with Vista, DVD drive etc

Its about the weight and battery life though isn’t it? I’ve replaced my 13″ macbook for a Samsung NC10 and its perfect for 99% of the things I need it for. The low weight means that my briefcase / courier bag is much lighter and long battery life (almost 6 hours) means that for most days out I don’t even need to take the power brick.

The only thing I don’t like it for is working on large spreadsheets – which I guess could be important for some of the accountancy types on here.

I’ve got an Advent 4211 (PC world refurb for £200) and while it’s a great little netbook (OSX runs a treat, if a little fiddley to setup) the battery life on the 3 Cell is around 2 hours.

It’s only a 3 cell battery though, so I would definately 2nd the need for at least 6 cell.

PC Pro has a review of some this month (August issue), seems the Samsung N110 comes out top (new version of the NC10).

The wife got an eee901 when they came out. It’s great but the downside with them is the available storage because of the solid state drives. I constantly have to free up space on the primary partition which can’t be increased. The keyboard is also too small for any kind of real use beyond occasional browsing. The NC110 is a far better proposition. I had a tinker with one a couple of months ago when a colleague got one. The bigger keyboard makes a huge difference.

I’m interested in these as well, whats the difference between the Atom Z520 in the Dell Mini 10 and the Atom N270 in the Samsung N110? Both seem same speed and cache?

Cheers

The NC10 is better than the N110 imo, mainly because it has a matt screen so it can be used for what its designed for i.e. working outside

The only thing thats missing from the Samsung range is an internal 3g modem

The Atom 270 is the equivalent of a pentium chip and the Z520 a celeron (for netbooks)