Are netbooks any good?

[JcMack]

I'm thinking of buying one that supports Win XP. All I need is internet access and ability to run office 2005. Any thoughts. I've heard both good and bad. I've tried PDA phones and they're too small. Just like Goldielocks, laptop too big, pda too small, is netbook just right? I'm allergic to apples.

 

[beemerphile]

I had a 9" Dell netbook with Atom processor and found it painfully slow and the screen still too small to be useful. Maybe the 10's and 11's are OK. I know you are allergic to Apples, but I got rid of the netbook and happily travel with a 13" MacBook Pro.

 

[JayCeeNC]

I use an Acer Aspire One I bought 1.5 years ago. Still going strong and great for traveling. It has no CD/DVD drive, though.

 

[doublesharp]

Wife has a Samsung 10" netbook that I use occasionally. Great for travel and battery life is a legitimate 6 hours. Since Apples Ipad's release I'll bet the price will come down a little more.

 

[Snubfan44]

My wife has had a netbook for a couple of years now.She loves it for it's portability, but there are a few drawbacks.
It has no optical drive , so installing programs , such as office, and the like isn't as simple as dropping in a cd.When she wants something installed , my son will copy everything on to a usb drive, and transfer it to her machine.
It also seems to have less wireless range than than my laptop, so she needs to be closer to the router to keep a good connection.Other than these minor annoyances, she has been quite happy with it.
Scott

 

[beemerphile]

I got in on the first ship of IPads. They may be quite an adequate road companion for email and such.

 

[Evil One]

I work on the road, and my laptop is a Gateway netbook.
I run openoffice instead of micro$oft products... and it works fine.
Great wireless reception, screen is large enough, processor is quick enough.
Wouldnt mind having an optical drive, but it isnt "needed".
I also payed $240 for it.


Jim

 

[cmort666]

A couple of friends have them, Acers.

1. They seem to work just fine.
2. You need to buy a USB DVD drive for ease of use.
3. I'm a touch typist and most of my use for a laptop is writing when I'm not at home. The keyboard is just too small for me.
4. The screen is quite small, too small for what I need a laptop for these days.
5. They're extremely light and handy.

I think their real advantage is as an interface to other devices. If I were going to be spending a lot of time configuring routers, firewalls, switches and the like, I'd definitely want one. Between the weight and size, it's very easy to find some place to set or prop one up, even in wiring closets and the like.

They're also good for checking email with a real email program when you're in a remote location. They're much better than phones for this.

For me, it's not currently a good solution. For somebody not needing to do a lot of typing, it's probably great.

 

[blastfact]

I use my Acer One a lot. And like it for what it is.

 

[JcMack]

From what I've read they've made some improvements on the atom. The latest seem to be to improve battery longevity. All I anticipate needing is 1-2 batt. hours max while at work. I'm going to part time (personal choice) and the place I work is going through a move to a new location. I've had enough of on site computer related, customer service to last 2 lifetimes. I want a smaller device to pull out and check e mail maybe 2-3 times a day. I don't want a desktop anymore, and my laptop is too cumbersome. I'll have free access to wifi at work. The netbook looks like the answer and I already have external cd/dvd rw drives. Also I kinda like flash drive xfers. If you don't have a similar program you should look at xplorer2 lite (free) for easy file copying.

 

[mwtdvm]

Got an HP with the change to Verizon..

It was "free" until you do the math on the line charge and etc, then it is an expensive luxury...
BUT now I have the chronograph software on it, the external ballistics calculator and the open office software. The battery life is good.

It will also be going on vacation with me as I can download the digital camera into it and can then upload them to an online storage site.

A lot smaller and lighter than the current laptop.

 

[Noah Zark]

We got our youngest an HP netbook with XP last spring to take to Sevilla, Spain for an 8-week two-course study abroad thing. The HP has a solid state hard drive and gets like 5 to 6 hrs of battery life. I loaded Firefox and Open Office onto it and bought her a couple 16 gig flash drives and she was good to go for doing papers, e-mail, and internet surfing. Then we took it back to Europe a week after she got home when we went to Germany, Luxembourg, France, Italy, and Spain for two weeks.

It's a great little machine, and FAST without the Microsoft programs, and the keyboard is 90% the size of a conventional board. Typing is not an issue.

My advice: Get a slightly larger netbook with a solid state hard drive. Regular spinning platter hard drives are just too energy-demanding for a small PC. And invest in a couple high-gig flash drives.

Noah

 

[Mod10]

Netbooks are great if you are just using it for email and internet.

If you can do without Windows, get one with Ubuntu. They run a lot quicker and are completely secure against viruses and other malware.

 

[JcMack]

I had a lot of issues with solid state drives in thin net clients a few years ago. They are a lot more stable now (I think) but costly. If I can get a couple hours out of one of these, I'll be happy. Thanks much for all replies. JIM

 

[fas111]

We have a Samsung NC10 netbook, bought it from Costco in Dec. Its a great little machine if you recgonize its limitations. Perfect for email and web surfing. Battery life is amazing. Wife and I love it.

 

[Shorty4T]

The few netbooks that I have had experience with are painfully slow. However speed of a computer depends on what you get used to, the technology industry tends to drive what the public gets used to as a whole. This is one of my pet peves working in the technology industry, how the manufacturers generally turn out slow computers and sell them at a rediculously low price helping the consumer think they are getting a deal on what they purhcased.

Just like with firearms you get what you pay for, most of the people on this forum aren't going to purchase a Taurus or Rossi when they can save a little more cash to purchase a S&W. They know the quality of the Smith will far outweight the cost of the lesser pistols. Computers are no different, you will get what you pay for...put isn't it curious what we percieve as quality in cetain products.

Personally I use a 4.5# laptop that I've now had for 4 years. It runs as fast today as it did 4 years ago. I'll put it up against any of the superstore computers today for speed. It is compatible with Windows 7 or any other operating system I choose to run, I still run Windows XP with it in spite of having multiple copies of Vista and Windows 7. I use a docking station with it when the 14.1" screen isn't large enough, the 20" desktop monitor does fine for most occasions.

Sorry to the OP for the rant, I just hate to see people purchase subpar equipment when for a few dollars more they can have a S&W so to speak. Most people puchase computers at the office superstores and this will limit the scope of what you will purchase. Just as things are with firearms there are good manufacturers and bad ones, too often people don't do enough research to find the bad ones. I guess they enjoy hours on the phone with support trying to understand poor broken English.

Cheers,
Sam