Netbooks recommendations

DiddyDave

DiddyDave

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My daughter is going to Uni soon :) & :'(

And having had a netbook from college for a year on free loan she thinks they are the dog's danglies as they...

a) are easier to carry than a laptop
b) use the internet
c) run any Office suite fine for school and presumably Uni work just fine (Word, Powerpoint etc.)
d) she can download her camera photos to it to view and then export to back-up drives

She has two external 1tb harddrives for constant back-ups so space as such isn't a problem

Tescos right now has a 1gb ram 160gb harddrive model in for £129 locally (a £50 reduction apparently) it's not even hosted online for some reason :shrug: or I'd give you a link

So without all the usual "You need to spend £1,000 on an ipad" type nonsense :D is this likely to be good enough to run the internet and Office 2003 - and hence a bargain??? :shrug:

We DO NOT NEED bells & whistles here, just a basic cheap machine (did you spot the emphasis on cheap ;))

Thanks for any guidance :thumbs:

DD
 
I can't guide you on brands and models as my netbook is the one that Virgin offer for free.

That said, whatever one you go for, make sure it has a decent battery life.
After that they are all pretty much the same e.g. RAM, chipset, HDD space etc etc.
 
Things to note on netbooks:

- You really need at least 2gigs of ram. Windows will run with less but it feels much better with 2 (even XP).
- The cheaper netbooks come with the N series Atom processors which use more power than the Z series processors. If battery life is important then look for one with Z series processor.
- On the other hand if you need a little more power then the N series has dual core options and that will provide you with about double the power at the expense of battery power.
- If it is portability that is important and you don't need much storage, then maybe even consider the Asus T91 which can be had on ebay for around £240 refurbished (sometimes). This is a convertible netbook that features a touch screen, so you have have a tablet and a notebook in one (it also has a Z series processor so you get about 4 - 5 hours real world battery life).
- Finally if you do get one that has a hard drive, consider spending the extra to put a SSD into it (about £100 for 32 gigs). It will help with battery life, and also make it feel a lot faster to use.
 
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Thanks guys

All the cheaper netbooks have 1gb of ram - £240 is out of range for her tbh :(

Battery life also not too important as out & about time will be much less than this, or a socket will be easily within reach

She thinks her school one had only 1gb ram and she was happy with what that could do - but looking online to the computer numpty they seem to differ by sod all as the price steady & quickly increases - is this one worth a punt I wonder???

DD
 
I've got a Samsung NC10, which, although it's a bit long in the tooth now, I'm very fond of it.:thumbs:
I upgraded to 2 Gb which only cost about £17.

Good Battery life
Runs OpenOffice with no problems
Built in camera
Built in SD card reader

Small.

Mines got XP on, I don't think I'd get the Linux versions they all look a bit weird.


Edit:

I've just Googled this and the prices seem to be all over the place -anything from just over £200 up to £300 !

Maybe different specs ?

Don't know how netbooks get on with W7.
 
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I have the entry level Dell Mini 10 netbook and I've been very pleased with it. XP home, 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 6 cell battery. It runs MS Office, Photoshop Elements with ACR (need to temporarily adjust screen resolution to install or open) well enough when on the move, obviously not as good as being at a destop or bigger laptop, but far more portable.
 
Thanks guys - shameless plug is ok - but I can buy it reclaim the VAT and offset against tax if bought new :) so no thanks

Mini 10 is still well over £200 while the one at Tescos is £129

A couple of years ago a mate of mine bought a laptop from Aldi for sod all money - oh how we laughed - yet it had good enough spec for his needs and is still running (my PC World more expensive model died months ago)

I think I'll go take a look again tomorrow and if it's still there buy it, just to see - thanks for your comments guys - if we do buy it and it runs ok we'll let you know :)

DD
 
Whatever you get, I'd recommend OpenOffice, otherwise you can spend nearly as much on the Office package as the machine.
 
john-oh said:
Whatever you get, I'd recommend OpenOffice, otherwise you can spend nearly as much on the Office package as the machine.
Click to expand...

Open Office is a free download right?

I do have old original Office 2003 disks somewhere I could use

DD
 
Don't know if its been mentioned above - and sorry if it has - but an option to look into is buy one with 1Gb of RAM and then purchase an extra gig and install it yourself / get competent IT savvy mate to do it..........????

Just a thought.
 
Hi Dave

I would recommend an Advent netbook - mine is still running well after 18 months and was very cheap. As for Ram - mine is more than ok with 1GB, it was a bit overwhelmed at first but I disabled a few bits n bobs in XP, got rid of IE etc and it flies. Google 'speed up xp' and there is a really easy to follow guide on this.

This netbook easily runs XP, LR3 and even CS4 so it can't be that bad! I would also recommend you don't bother with Office, its very hungry on resources. Get Open Office instead (its free) :thumbs:
 
I'm posting from my samsung NC10 atm though i think it has been discontinued (and the replace is about £300, the same i paid for my nc10, but possibly more than you need spend)
So i can only really recommend the brand and talk about what they are like to use. It feels well put together and there is a nice keyboard, i would try and get one with a keyboard that pretty much fills the base, mine has about 4mm free each side (and a 10" screen to give an idea of size), it is advertised as something like 94% the size of a full size one.

I'm not sure i'd like one as my only computer, but probably only because i'm into gaming and having a fast computer. The 10" ones are probably fine for the use you described and i've just posted some photos which i editted in PS CS3 so even that will run if you are patient with it. Battery wise i get almost all 7 hours as advertised if its light use, with a few windows open, music and wi-fi on the go, that drops to about 5 which is still pretty good.
I also just use 1Gb of ram, i think sometimes people forget that when XP was about 2Gb was largely considered a waste of money even for gaming so i don't think you should worry about 1 vs 2.

::edit:: i forgot to add that as joxby says, avoid windows 7 starter as you are limited to running no more than 3 applications at a time (i think it is 3) and i'm fairly sure that would annoy the heck out of me.
 
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Another shout for the NC10

I dunno what is gonna compete with £129, I would be slightly careful about the spec, wouldn't want to end up with something not fit for purpose.
Can't find it online but maybe there is some OS shinanigins going on, there was a time when it was possible to buy netbooks running Linux, or maybe they are running the cut down version of Win 7 where you can't run more than one thing at a time.
There is also a fair chance I might be talking *******s too.
 
The NC10 is i am pretty sure discontinued but there have been a few knocking around at Argos etc. Great keyboard, also has a matt screen, so much better for serious work but not so good for photos. The NC10 set a benchmark in a nicely built machine, very capable although it struggles with big RAW files if you try and do any photowork on it (even with 2gb ram) but of course they aren't built for that. IMHO Samsungs and Toshibas set a good standard in netbooks, Acer are of course always the cheapies. If you go to a PC World which brand always seem to have the missing keys? Acer.

XP and Office 2003 would run fine on a netbook, as does a full version of Win 7.
 
regarding office i'd spend the £30ish that it costs for the student edition to save any bother with file types/compatibility
 
alexkidd said:
regarding office i'd spend the £30ish that it costs for the student edition to save any bother with file types/compatibility
Click to expand...

Ya pays ya money and takes your choice :shrug:

I run MS Office 2003 and OpenOffice 3 (don't ask) and usually use OpenOffice.
 
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