My employer provides me with a desktop at work, so I don't have much call for a computer outside work. Just occasionally however it might be nice to have a computer at home, and moreover a computer that would be portable.
I note that netbooks are getting smaller and smaller. Are they, yet, any sort of substitute for a computer? I appreciate that they have tiny keyboards and screens, so would probably run through a proper keyboard when at home.
I would want to run Outlook, Word, Excel and eBay Turbolister.
Or do I need to wait a couple of years yet...
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Mon 8 Mar 10 at 15:14
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What's your price range? Would it stretch to a 12" laptop, or is that too big anyway?
My work machine is a Dell Vostro 1220 which has a 12" screen and is a 'proper' PC; it starts at £410 according to the Dell site. Don't know what else is out there.
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It depends what you want to do with it really; I have a 9" Acer netbook which is fine for email, watching videos, web surfing is OK although the screen is a bit small for many web sites, significant use of the scroll key is need. It is much more portable than a 'proper' laptop though, easily carried in one hand.
If I was getting one now I'd probably find something with a bit bigger screen, Windows OS and better battery life. Although the Samsung NC10 is getting on a bit now it's generally well regarded:-
tinyurl.com/yjwcz6b link to www.ebuyer.com shortened
edit: I've never tried MS Office apps. on it ( being Linux), but I does run OpenOffice 3.1 fine.
edit2: The one thing they don't do particularly well is multi-task.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 8 Mar 10 at 18:50
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IMHO they are only worth it if :
1) you expect to do only a bit of surfing, email and the odd note on the move, and you are happy with that. They don't really do photoshop!
2) you keep it cheap - say £150-£250.
After that I think you might as well buy a proper laptop and get a reasonably sized screen.
I bought one of our kids a Dell Mini 10V to take to college. For what she wants it for it really is perfect. Back at home she plugs it into a larger screen. It's excellent value for the £170 we paid for it. It does Web, mail, Word and even video chat. The model we have only has an 8GB SSD, but most files sit on a server anyway.
The thing is that it is cheap enough that one doesn't need to worry about losing or breaking it - not like the MacBooks we have!
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Mapmaker, I'd pop to PC World to take a look at netbooks to see if they do what you want. I did consider getting a Dell one that I knew could be modded to get MacOS X running on it. But I think they're a bit small.
There's a few 12 inch laptops out there that look a really good size to me and are a good compromise. An HP one springs to mind but Focus also mentions a Dell. These are proper laptops.
If I got a laptop I think it would be a MacBook Pro but they're around £900. And I'm not sure I'd want to take something so expensive away on holiday. But with an ebook reader and an iPod touch I might not bother (yet).
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My wife has an eeePC 901A which she loves. She uses it for note taking, internet surfing and Skype as it has a built in webcam and the Panasonic handsfree headset and bluetooth dongle also work with it. It's just small enough to fit in her handbag which means it's massively more portable than her laptop and the battery life is excellent. Only problem we've experienced is getting used to the foibles of the Ubuntu operating system. If portability and low price are your main goals I would highly recommend one.
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It's a toy, really. I've been hum-ing an ha-ing for about five years about buying a new computer... And as Z knows, I'm a complete skinflint.
I don't see any point in a proper laptop, too big to be properly portable. Don't see any point in getting a proper computer at home - I spend all day in front of a screen.
I don't fancy an iphone; far too fragile.
But if £170 gets something that isn't utterly useless (or indeed fairly useless) then it might be worth thinking about.
And a 12 month PAYG mobile broadband dongle.
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I use my Eee PC nearly every day for work.
It's one of the first they made in 2007 and only has a seven-inch screen.
Fine for composing a 300/400 word document, email and limited websurfing/posting on here.
The latest 10-inch ones have a keyboard which is nearly full-size.
Watch out for battery life - the better ones are eight hours or more.
PAYG mobile broadband dongles are not the value they were, since most now have a 30-day credit expiry date, making them effectively pay monthly. Budget between £10 and £15.
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"3" have 12 GB 12 months £80 - my brother recommended it.
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they also have no network coverage.
I wouldnt recommend them
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 8 Mar 10 at 18:29
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I bought a 7" Acer really cheap (£114 IIRC) last June. I only drag it out occasionally, but when I do, I am amazed how well it works. Recently added Skype to it as it has built in cam, mic & speakers. I out XP on it and Office 2003 and they work fine. I use it when away for backing up pictures to, so I don't run the risk of losing all my shots if I lose the camera (there are other ways to do this I know). And in the US where free WiFi is more prevalent you'd often find me sitting outside hotels piggybacking their connection.
There was a Dell 10V (which can take the Mac OS) online this morning for £140 incl delivery but it's gone now. I think the full price was £249. Cheap at full price, an absolute steal at anything under £200 IMO.
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Yes it was the Dell 10V (not the 10) that I considered for running MacOS X.
I got a 3 MiFi for Internet recently and coverage is only okay. The 3Gb data it came with lasts for 90 days but then I will switch it (hack) to take Vodafone. Vodafone's data tariffs do not expire after 30 days on PAYG.
I am lucky that my laptop (and therefore iPod) can use a lot of wifi hotspots without costing me anything. Work pays 20 dollar a month mind.
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...Vodafone's data tariffs do not expire after 30 days on PAYG...
Think they do since the turn of the year.
Quite a bit about this on various forums, of which this is one:
www.avforums.com/forums/isps-internet/1196886-does-vodafone-still-offer-pay-you-go-mobile-broadband-no-time-constraints.html
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>> Yes it was the Dell 10V (not the 10) that I considered for running MacOS
I forgot to mention that ours runs Mac OSX Snow Leopard. (Well it would wouldn't it!) Installing is now much easier with the latest NetbookBootMaker. For ours we had to downrate the BIOS before installing, but the now you don't have to do that either. The 8GB flash is a problem because the Mac install needs around 300MB more space. You have to alter the Mac installation to allow you to remove things like the Language Translations from the Default installation which is not normally customisable. Once it has finished installing you are left with about 2GB of space which is perfectly fine for the use of this PC.
The amazing thing is that just about everything works ok in the Mac: iChat video, bluetooth, multiple monitors, sound. The only thing that is nasty is the trackpad. They have patched this as best they can, but it is still a bit rubbish and you end up using a separate mouse.
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I have a ten year old Compaq N200 for my netbook. PII 700 and 256MB RAM running a stripped down version of Ubuntu. Only the lack of RAM lets it down and 256MB is the maximum the motherboard can support :(
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I did try playing with xubuntu on a Dell of similar vintage, but it was really really slow, I should've left the original Win2K on it. :-/
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This was Win2k too originally. I just found by the time W2K is patched up properly with firewalls and the latest version of Firefox Xubuntu is quicker. I use XCFE for the windows manager though.
As longs if you don't watch videos on it it is fine, it is all I am taking away with me.
My dell laptop is too heavy and my main PC is a desktop witha 22" monitor so I would need a removal van for that!
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Mappie, I went through much of what you are and finally settled on a Samsung NC20, which is a 12 inch netbook.
Came with xp, I have loaded Office onto it and it does perfect job for email, surfing net, skype, itunes etc. Think it is 1gb RAM, and 160GB hard disk.
Can lift it with one hand, though must try to stop doing that as it is probably stressing it!
Its small enough that I can take it in the car, I have unlimited web on my mobile phone so I can sit at my son's football training and surf the web through the inbuilt bluetooth modem. Could also do that at home I suppose but I have wireless internet in the house.
I would recommend it, but my only suggestion would maybe be to get a wireless optical mouse as sometimes the mouse pad is overly sensitive.
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Oh and for a year I tried working from a 3 mobile dongle - truly awful, poor poor reception in most areas I tried to use it.
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Bought a Samsung similar to Bobby's just before Xmas. Mainly intended for use away from home and as back up. Fine for surfing, storing photos, emailing etc. Deleted a lot of the bloatware it came with but the 12 month prepaid Office is useful.
Work PC is a desktop but I used the Samsung while working offsite yesterday. Near full sized keyboard but needed optical mouse to getbest of it.
Mine also came with a 3 Dongle and £30 credit for three months. Yesterday was first time I'd used it in anger. Actually quite impressed. Good fast connection at my mother's flat (waiting for a delivery). Adequate on the train from Northampton to London and perfect here in Central London.
The London reception saved my bacon as I'd carefully uploaded my work via my employer's secure portal which, on arrival in london had lost everbody's personal folders. Fortunately the content was not sensitive and I could email it from my hotmail account!!
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Cheapest Mini 10v is £163 on Ebay. Dang, I thought I'd they'd have dropped by now. I really fancied doing the OSX thing- I miss my old Ti Powerbook.
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Incase you are still considering a netbook, I would definitely recommend one.
I have a laptop which hardly gets used now that I've bought my netbook. The netbook is much more portable round the house and the battery life is vastly superior. I have a Asus 1000HE which has a 10" screen, decent size keyboard and I've fitted 2GB memory which is a must. Asus claims a 9.5 hour battery life but in practice it's more like 6 which is good enough for me. Surfing the net, Office and viewing videos all work well. I run Windows 7 which has been written with netbooks in mind so runs well. I wouldn't try running Vista on a netbook.
You can often find good netbook deals on www.hotukdeals.com/computers/deals/hot
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Thanks. I have just paid £170 for an NC10 - Argos catalogue return, ebay. I'll let you know how I get on.
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Having just carted my full fat Dell 6000 laptop halfway across Europe in my backpack principally 'cos my Acer Aspie One won't run Skype properly then an nice lightweight NC10 sounds like a very good idea.
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I look forward to the update. I overcame my scepticism to buy Mrs M the similar Samsung N110 for her birthday a few weeks ago.
goo.gl/3zly
It's brilliant. Much handier than a laptop for webbing and emailing, runs cooler, amazing battery life - turn the wireless off and you can use it for 8-9 hours; even with a broadband dongle plugged in and drawing power it will do 5 hours +.
It has had the RAM upped to 2MB which helps, should you find the NC10 a bit slow for what you're trying to do.
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Nicole loves her cool Asus netbook. Its quick enough for her and does what she wants,
Chattin, surfin, on-line web buying
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Seconded. With your brass of course.
And I meant 2 jiggerbytes not 2MB but you knew that.
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Just my two penny's worth....
I recently bought a Dell Mini 10. Their range is quite confusing with new mini 10s and old mini 10s - I bought one of the old ones because I could spec it with a Hi Def screen (this is now available on the new ones too).
From what I've gathered there are relatively few manufacturers of these 10 inch screens and so you will find the same resolution in most make of netbook i.e. 1024 x 600. The High Def screen is 1366 x 768 and the difference is amazing.
First of all it means you can view most web pages without horizontal scrolling. Secondly (and I hadn't really considered this when buying) it means I can connect the netbook via built in HDMI to a 42 inch plasma (useful for viewing photos) and the quality is astounding!
There is a slight drawback in that text is very small but most browsers seem to have a zoom facility so that isn't too much of an issue. As an aside I find the Dell keyboard and performance superb (although I only use it for browsing).
Anyway, whichever brand of netbook you look at pay some serious consideration to the screen resolution.
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If you want a cheap one to try out (£85 plus VAT), see:
www.pcfriend-online.co.uk/acatalog/Hardware.html
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dont forget tho it has windows CE, which is an embeded software build and therefore fairly limited.
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I'm jolly pleased with my little NC10, I must say. What a nifty piece of kit.
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Netbooks, worth it? - Focusless
