Netbook shopping

[open17]

Shopping for a netbook. So far the new Gateway LT series looks nice, but I"m not seeing it available

with a 250 hard drive and Windows XP home. I'm a little spooked about Windows 7---we got bit hard with Vista.

The whole netbook thing is new territory to me---so I'm very open to suggestions!

Price range: under $400

OS: I'm kind of partial to XP. It does need to run EzWinScore!

L-O-N-G battery life is a plus---

Latest and greatest Wi-Fi

Beyond that I'm totally undecided.

[gotm4]

I got a Samsung N130 at Best Buy just before Christmas with Windows 7 starter and a 160GB harddrive and 1GB RAM. I upgrated to Windows 7 Professional and upgraded the RAM to 2GB from Crucial.com.

I really like Windows 7 it runs well and thus far works will all my stuff.

The computer was $300

[open17]

I got a Samsung N130 at Best Buy just before Christmas with Windows 7 starter and a 160GB harddrive and 1GB RAM. I upgrated to Windows 7 Professional and upgraded the RAM to 2GB from Crucial.com.

I really like Windows 7 it runs well and thus far works will all my stuff.

The computer was $300

How much for the upgrades? I'm used to "doubling my investment" on AR's, 1911's 10/22's and even Glocks--

there are a LOT of accessories out there.

But tossing another $200 or so at a $300 puter doesn't do much for me.

[Bob Hostetter]

I bought my daughter a Toshiba 305 (?) a couple of month ago and she loves it. It came with Windows 7 and no problems so far. The Toshiba came with a 9 hour battery.

[Chris Keen]

I got an ASUS EEE-PC netbook from Amazon.com that runs Windows XP for about $420. That was a little more than a similar model at Best Buy, but I did my research, and found the Best Buy model was a special model made by Asus specifically for Best Buy. It came with less mem, less hard-drive, etc., etc.

So I got 2 gigs of memory, 160gb HD, Windows XP, and an extended 9 hour battery all for $420. When I bought this there were more netbooks with Windows Vista, than there were Windows 7, so I opted to go with XP until I could try out Windows 7 somewhere else (work laptops) and make my decision.

EDIT: Oh yeah, it has wireless networking of course, like the store model .... but this model came with built-in Bluetooth so you dont need to tie up 1 of your USB ports with a Bluetooth adapter.

And now that I bought an HTC Eris Droid phone from Verizon I can tether my phone to my netbook and get internet access almost anywhere. I sure wish I had that at the damn match-hotel in Las Vegas at last years Nationals.

Edited January 17, 2010 by Chris Keen

[AWLAZS]

I got an ASUS EEE-PC netbook from Amazon.com that runs Windows XP for about $420. That was a little more than a similar model at Best Buy, but I did my research, and found the Best Buy model was a special model made by Asus specifically for Best Buy. It came with less mem, less hard-drive, etc., etc.

So I got 2 gigs of memory, 160gb HD, Windows XP, and an extended 9 hour battery all for $420. When I bought this there were more netbooks with Windows Vista, than there were Windows 7, so I opted to go with XP until I could try out Windows 7 somewhere else (work laptops) and make my decision.

EDIT: Oh yeah, it has wireless networking of course, like the store model .... but this model came with built-in Bluetooth so you dont need to tie up 1 of your USB ports with a Bluetooth adapter.

And now that I bought an HTC Eris Droid phone from Verizon I can tether my phone to my netbook and get internet access almost anywhere. I sure wish I had that at the damn match-hotel in Las Vegas at last years Nationals.

You did spend a lot of time at the coffee shop

[wgnoyes]

I bought my daughter a Toshiba 305 (?) a couple of month ago and she loves it. It came with Windows 7 and no problems so far. The Toshiba came with a 9 hour battery.

Absolutely agree on the Toshibas! The NB305's look like the next upgrade from the NB205, of which I manage a fleet of 20 of them and we like them a lot. The difference between the N310 ($349) and N410 ($399) model is the 410 has bluetooth and the 310 doesn't, and it's no big loss. But the 410 also has a chicklets-style keyboard where as the 310 has a normal keyboard. You can get used to the chicklets, but to me for $50 less you get a better keyboard.

[bignickmetro]

I have both a MSI Wind U120 and an ASUS EEE 1201.

All netbooks are basically the same hardware config (Atom+GMA). The only thing you have to worry about really is screen size and quality and KB layout. Dont get one with less than 2GB of RAM or upgrade it yourself. Pick whatever storage options suit you. The EEE is really nice LED backlight, flush mount 6cell gives you 8 hours of battery with WiFi on. I prefer matte vs glossy, good luck finding a nice matte screen. Think OCZ makes the only one.

[Dave Gundry]

I tried one of the 10" Gateway's available from Best Buy. The biggest fault: EZWS did not fit on the screen vertically - meaning you would have to scroll for every shooter... Not going to happen. Returned that one and bought an ASUS 1201T - 12", 2 Gigs, AMD processor and graphics, 250GB, wireless N, etc... Blows the doors off the Intel based 10" netbooks. Much better screen size, much better performance, better graphics (it can actually stream video decently on low quality), full size keyboard, the list goes on. This is the absolute bare minimum I would go for in a laptop/netbook.

One of the big advantages of this model is no OS. I had an extra 7 license I could use, so I didn't have to settle for the Starter BS - and there's no way I'm going back to XP. But, if you don't have an extra OS laying around, factor in another $100 for a system builder/OEM version of Windows 7. It does add up to a much more expensive package, but in my eyes, you're saving the few hundred bucks you'd be throwing away on a lesser, woefully inadequate netbook.

Don't expect to find any 12" netbooks in stores - Microsoft is not happy about the manufacturers making them - something about taking some market share away from real laptops or some BS. Which I can understand - I see no purpose for a low end laptop given this system.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Dave Gundry

[Graham Smith]

Just the opinion of an old Luddite here but...

A netbook is not really a NETbook unless it has some kind of WiMax capability. And different carriers use different technology which can mean that your netbook can only be used with one carrier. And to use that, you need a subscription to a mobile data plan which is going to run $60+ a month for limited access. This is why you can (or could at one time) get a free netbook just for signing a 2 year contract.

Now, if you're only going to use the computer with regular old WiFi, then spend a couple more bucks and get a notebook with a screen you can actually see without a magnifying glass.

[wgnoyes]

I tried one of the 10" Gateway's available from Best Buy. The biggest fault: EZWS did not fit on the screen vertically - meaning you would have to scroll for every shooter... Not going to happen. Returned that one and bought a 12", ...

I've scored a match on my Toshiba 10.1" and it did fine. You have to adjust the zoom slides a bit and it does work, but there are some compromises to be sure.

12 inches. 13 years, that was the then quite large screen size of an IBM Thinkpad 385D fullsize laptop. This beast was 2 inches thick owing to a built-in cdrom, 2 pcmcia slots, a floppy drive also built in, no network adapter, no such thing as wireless yet, cost over $2000, and was considered really hot stuff at the time. Now we stick 12 inch screens into little $400 throwaway computers!