Computer Related > Netbooks	Buying / Selling
Thread Author: sooty123	Replies: 35

New Mon 27 Dec 10 20:49   Netbooks - sooty123

Not any problems with one just looking for some advice about them, I am looking to buy one maining for watch films with my external hard drive. Battery life is pretty important as I'm not always near anywhere to charge it up and would like to use it on long flights. Budget £150-200. Thanks. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 21:13   Netbooks - Zero

your budget is too low. 200-300 pounds is nearer the mark, 250-300 pounds for one with sufficient oomph to view video without stutter or sync problems. Find the one you like and post a link here and we will pass comment on it for you. Think samsung, acer or Asus, Ignore Iffy, he will tell you to buy a £900 apple. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 21:20   Netbooks - swiss tony

>> Ignore Iffy, he will tell you to buy a £900 apple. >> £900 for an apple? try Asda's, £2.00 for a bag of 6...... Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 21:26   Netbooks - sooty123

www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-n150-plus-red-07843250-pdt.html?srcid=369&xtor=AL-1 Thanks, here's one i've seen. What provides the omph to view the videos without issues? Last edited by: sooty123 on Mon 27 Dec 10 at 21:27 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 21:28   Netbooks - Zero

Should be ok, a few on here bought that Samsung and have no complaints. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 21:37   Netbooks - Zero

Re omph That one has the N450 CPU. It uses less power, and runs its memory faster. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 21:58   Netbooks - sooty123

Just read the review on cnet, normal usage the battery lasts about 10 hrs, over 5hr with the cpu at 100% which is very good. Perfect for long boring flights, looks spot on. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 22:08   Netbooks - sooty123

Anyone ever used Kikatek seem ok but they are selling @ £168 everyone else seems to be selling at £230ish, too good to be true? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 22:11   Netbooks - Zero

Never heard of them. Thats too cheap, check the spec. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 22:13   Netbooks - sooty123

No matter, they have all sold out. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 27 Dec 10 22:17   Netbooks - sooty123

Think the best bet is through currys with cashback website £217 which is pretty good. Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 00:05   Netbooks - rtj70

>> Anyone ever used Kikatek One got a PS2 connector from them via Amazon I think. They are not a computer brand. It will be rebadged something or other and not what you need. You either need something with a fast enough processor or a netbook with better than average graphic card (rare in a netbook) to help out. Your requirements are good battery life. And you are thinking of then plugging in a USB hard drive. Well there's a problem for battery life straight away. Of most laptops available, sadly something like an Apple MacBook has above average battery life by building in a proprietary large battery. But this is outside your budget. So my opinion is a decent large screen smart phone or maybe an iPad or Galaxy Tab even. Screen big enough for video etc. The iPad screen is pretty good but not widescreen. Might meet requirements better than the netbook? Galaxy Tab also has a good screen (not the IPS of the iPad) and viewing angle of a tablet is important. Outside of the budget though. Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 28 Dec 10 at 00:07 Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 09:57   Netbooks - sooty123

how much do you think the battery life would be shorted by with a usb plugged in? how long is the realistic battery life of a galaxy? Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 10:09   Netbooks - Zero

About three hours on a galaxy doing video. Honestly RTJ, that's a really ridiculous solution. A guy wants to watch video from a hard drive and you suggest a hand held device with a piddly 4 inch screen? Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 10:18   Netbooks - R.P.

Wouldn't an Archos tablet thingy do ? Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 10:51   Netbooks - Zero

apologies for my last post RTJ, I didn't read the "tab" bit properly. Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 11:51   Netbooks - rtj70

No worries Z. I did mean a smartphone as an option for use on a flight. Watching a movie on say a 4 inch screen or a bit bigger isn't as bad as some might think because you hold it close to you. On a flight you don't have that much room in economy so no 17" laptops :-) Plugging in a hard drive via USB is going to effect battery life on a netbook. The battery is not that big to begin with. Plugging in Flash based storage shouldn't have much effect though. Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 12:05   Netbooks - Zero

>> No worries Z. I did mean a smartphone as an option for use on a >> flight. Watching a movie on say a 4 inch screen or a bit bigger isn't >> as bad as some might think because you hold it close to you. Holding a tiny screen up to your face is extremely tiresome. Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 13:59   Netbooks - rtj70

I didn't mean to hold it that close. But if you think of how big a 32" screen appears to you from a distance, a 4.3" screen is not tiny. I think a decent Android tablet or iPad could suit the needs better for the OP. But cheap Android tablets are crap. They have terrible screens which lack brightness, are resistive and the battery life is awful. Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 16:44   Netbooks - sooty123

thanks rtj, i'm not sure if the memory would be big enough on a tablet type. I've quite films i'm not sure they could fit on a flash drive, would the battery life be that much better on tablet than a net book? Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 18:30   Netbooks - rtj70

Battery life is going to vary from device to device. The Apple iPad for example (which might not hold enough films for you BTW) is known to be very good. Cheaper netbooks do not have great battery life. Start using it to also power an external hard disk and expect even shorter battery life. As has been said, cheaper netbooks might struggle to play your movies. The low end Atom processors are very underpowered. What format are the films in (MP4?) and what size are they typically (1Gb per movie?). I have archived off most of my DVDs (so not HD resolution) onto my NAS and upscaled to 720p and they take around 1.2Gb on average per movie at a guess. So that's a few film on a 16Gb USB flash drive for starters. Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 28 Dec 10 at 18:31 Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 19:19   Netbooks - sooty123

my films are in mp4 at the mo i have about 100 gb of films. I see your pointabout battery life with flash drives, but i can be away for quite a while so can get through quite a few films 16gb isn't much. each films is about 700mb. It would be nice for the long flights, normally 10hours or so, but for the length of time i'm away i'd end up having to take two media devices with me. Is the biggest flash 16gb? Thanks so far you've given me something to think about. Last edited by: sooty123 on Tue 28 Dec 10 at 19:21 Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Dec 10 20:38   Netbooks - smokie

Here's a cheap enough 32Gb USB stick. www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=110303&r=GOOG&source=webgains&siteid=20363 Speeds may not be the best but it should be OK for your needs. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 29 Dec 10 08:32   Netbooks - rtj70

So if you got the 32Gb stick Smokie mentions, that's good for about 45 films? But you'll soon watch 100Gb worth ;-) Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 29 Dec 10 14:03   Netbooks - Iffy

...don't listen to Iffy, he will tell you to nuy a £900 MacBook... Not in this case, but the blue-chip solution must be an iPad: www.apple.com/uk/ipad/guided-tours/ Ten hours battery life on video. Widescreen. Decent definition. Superior portability. It does everything the OP wants, and more besides. As ever, the only thing wrong with the Apple is the price. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 29 Dec 10 15:23   Netbooks - rtj70

And he will not fit many movies on it because it does not have a memory card slot. Which is why a good Android tablet might be better. If he hangs on a bit there will be a lot more good ones to choose from. The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be joined by a 10" version soon. I have also seen some good reviews of some other Android tablets but the cheaper ones you might see in the likes of Asda, Maplin and DSG can be very poor running Android 1.6 and with poor screens etc. You need at least Android 2.2 partly because it means it will be faster hardware too. Although you can run Android on any netbook if you wanted to... but the touch interface is not easily controlled with a trackpad/mouse/keyboard. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 29 Dec 10 15:35   Netbooks - Netsur

I bought a Samsung netbook about a year ago from Currys in Duty Free. I am very happy with it. The alternative is a 13.3" screen Timeline laptop from Acer. I have the 14" screen and it has a huge battery life as well as a 250Gb hard drive and is less than 1" thick. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 29 Dec 10 16:23   Netbooks - rtj70

One reason netbooks were smaller screens was the restrictions placed on them by Intel for the processor. They would not allow them to have too big a screen and still use the Atom. The reason why there are currently no Tablets running Android 2.2 on a 10" screen is Android is restricted to screen sizes of 7" or smaller. Android 3.0 changes this as it is aimed at tablets. It's all to do with licensing. I've seen the Timeline laptops from Acer and they're not bad but not brilliant build quality. I see the HP Envy 13" has dropped in price but still well out of the price range of the OP - it's a MacBook clone basically. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 6 Jan 11 15:06   Netbooks - sooty123

Anyone know if there is much of a difference between the Atom N450 and the N455? Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 6 Jan 11 15:45   Netbooks - Zero

The N455 can use DDR3 memory, and consumes one more watt. ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42503&processor=N450&spec-codes=SLBMG ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=49491&processor=N455&spec-codes=SLBX9 Last edited by: Zero on Thu 6 Jan 11 at 15:46 Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 6 Jan 11 16:30   Netbooks - Iffy

My Samsung N150 netbook is about a year old and was one of the first to have the N450 processor. The benefit was supposed to be lower power consumption, and the battery on the Samsung does last for about eight hours. Speed-wise, I think the 450 is about the same as all the other Atoms to be found in netbooks in the £250 to £350 price range. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 6 Jan 11 16:48   Netbooks - sooty123

what size is the hd iffy, some say 160 some 250, just seen one on special offer for £237, which I think is a good price. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 6 Jan 11 17:05   Netbooks - sooty123

You say you get 8 hours out of the battery what sort of things are you doing on it? Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 6 Jan 11 17:53   Netbooks - Iffy

Looks like mine's 160GB, but I don't really do pics or films so I could manage on a tenth of that. Use is general web surfing and email. It does that quite nicely on Windows 7 basic. I've not done a scientific battery life test, eight hours is my best estimate and I think that's about what Samsung say. Netbooks are good little machines for what they do and you can't get vexed for £237 - I'm sure mine was just under £300. Your original question was about films, what I don't know is if watching those would use more power. I've not tinkered with the screen settings, but it's not the highest resolution. Samsung are regarded as a good make for netbooks, but most of the other reputable manufacturers do netbooks with very similar spec. I imagine there's not much to choose between them. Some of the newer models claim even longer battery life. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 15 Jan 11 22:33   Netbooks - ....

I took the plunge today. I wanted something to replace my iPhone and laptops after handing those back. iPhone was OK but not worth a two year contract in my view, I was leaning towards a Galaxy Tab but again didn't want locked into a two year contract which is why I started looking at Netbooks. I bought a packard bell dot SE. Came with Windows 7 Starter, DDR3, 250GB drive and an N550 dual core Atom for less than 300€. I was in two minds whether to go N475 or N550. There was no difference in price. Memory is surprisingly not an issue though I ditched Norton as soon as I got it out the box. Quite happily running at under 700MB though I will swap to 2GB RAM in the near future. Very happy with the performance. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sun 16 Jan 11 09:16   Netbooks - Iffy

There are now a few touchscreen netbooks, which fold to also work as a tablet, albeit a thick one. This link is to an Asus machine, HP and Dell have slightly different designs. crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/asus-eee-pad-slider-tablet-reveals-hidden-keyboard-in-hands-on-video-50002216/ Reply to this message | Report message