Be Excellent To Each Other

I've spent the last few days looking at netbooks, and it seems that they are all about compromise. At first I wanted one with a higher resolution screen, and perhaps something resembling decent graphics hardware, but I've decided to go for the more sensibly priced/higher battery life ones, since really I intend to be using it on the go mostly.

I like the sound of the Samsung NB30, which is the one they designed to withstand being knocked around a bit more than the others (and I am kinda clumsy).

Or for a bit less, there is the same hardware in a more grownup shell, the N150.

Whatever I get, I'll be upgrading to 2gb of ram and sticking win7 on it, maybe an SSD later down the line when they are cheaper.

Anyone had any experiance with these models or other Samsungs, or got any other recommendations for me to consider?

There is no such thing as a netbook with decent graphics hardware.

Custom PC did a fantastic article recently bringing up something that had been going around.. Basically computer manus said that within three years the netbook would kill off the desktop. No way Jose. Netbooks use terrible graphics systems. Whilst they sell well to people who want a quick browse and some Facebook it ends there really.

Unless of course you have £700 and want to get an Alienware M11X. Those things are quite powerful but cost a pretty penny.

It only took 3 minutes for JC to mention alienware...

Yes because they are pretty much the only company who make a netbook worthy of gaming. Tis a shame, because if they had more competition I am pretty sure they wouldn't get away with charging £700 for it, but yeah, no competition.

TBH the only thing that Alienware make now that I would even remotely consider is their laptops. The desktops have been proven to be junk (unless you just want to get it out of the box and don't mind it going a bit slow).

I just meant something that would play vaguely modern 3D games, I looked at a couple of ION and ATI based ones, but they all seemed to sacrifice a lot of battery life in exchange for that. As well as costing more, when I really just need something for web/office and then some old point and click games maybe.

I can't see where Lewie has mentioned anything about gaming.

He's got a 360 for that, anyway.

What sort of flag is that, Myp?

There's occasionally some bargains to be had on the Dell outlet store here:

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/Seco ... l=en&s=dfh

Come with Win 7 those too.

We have a wee Samsung netbook. Dunno what model it is, it's one of the ones with red along the edge. It's alright, does the job well enough if the job is general surfing. pain in the ass for looking at pictures and things online though since you often have to scroll up and down to view the whole picture. i don't know if that's because the webpages aren't set up for netbooks or something like that? Anyway, it's great for having a quick look at something when you're sitting in bed or the kitchen or something but I often find myself moving from the couch and relocating to the PC when I want to be online for more than 10 minutes because the screen size does my head in. The only real benefit to a netbook over a standard laptop is portability.
If you are decided on a netbook then I have no complaints about the Samsung-ours has been dropped a few times and also gets wandered across by a 10kg puppy and it has suffered no ill effects.

That first Samsung you linked to seems ideal for your needs, Lewie. Personally I'd not upgrade to Windows 7, although I admit I don't know how well these netbooks can run it. I would imagine it would run the point-and-clicks you want to play too. I notice that it does 1024x600 which is why my Samsung N130 does. It probably comes with the same screen-switching software to fudge it into 1024x768, but you wouldn't want to run it at that for too long as it's a bit hard on the eyes.

Most netbooks run Win7 quite easily

Netbooks aren't for playing games, and due to their small screens, they're not really suited to high screen resolutions, either. It sounds like you need a laptop to me.

But I have no need for a disc drive at all, and I don't really want to play games on it very much at all.

Edit: or at least, it is the lowest priority.

Get a small laptop then

I got the samsung netbook (N510) running with the nvidia ion graphics thing.

It's ok for running basic games, battery lasts about 6 hours and has survived several attacks by my 20 month old daughter.

I bunged 2 gig of memory of it, and left it running XP home.

you can stream HD graphics off youtube/sky/bbc whatever and you get decent (but not perfect) playback of HD videos too.

The default screen res (and physical size) is slightly better than most netbooks too

Malc

Some small Dell laptops don't have drive in (they come with a USB one) but they are pretty spendy.

However, if games aren't a priority, then a netbook will be fine.

It'll still let you play games (assuming you install them via Steam or something), but don't expect it to play them well.

We have the N150 Samsung netbook.

I find it very tricky to use. The touchpad is _tiny_ and practically unusable - making an external mouse (with tiny receiver or bluetooth) a must for even day to day use.
I also find that the performance of the netbook isn't really good enough for even web use.

12" notebooks are almost as portable than 10" netbooks, but usually more usable. But less "cute"

Indeed. From my (limited) experience with netbooks no amount of comparing tech specs matters when the most important thing to check is what the keyboard and trackpad are like. It's really, really worth trawling around currys/pcworld to find a good keyboard and trackpad as they vary masively.



Hell yes. I love my new MacBook, but I still mourn the loss of the 12" iBook/Powerbook. The power of a proper laptop* but so very, very convient to carry around. And leagues and leagues ahead in usasbility. Of course you are also paying laptop prices...

That said it might be worth considering a 1.3Ghz (PPC) 2Gb Ram, 80Gb iBook 2nd hand for the same price (or less?) than a netbook...

* got a PhD out of one for Noras sake.

I have one of these to use as a netbook (with Ubuntu installed): http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/notebooks ... s=28&s=dfb
You don't seem to be able to buy them any more in the UK, but it is very, very good.

Heh, that's the exact same laptop I have for work. It's certainly nice and portable, but not in the same way a netbook is. Dell themselves make smaller, yet just as usable, laptops as one of the sales guys that sits behind me successfully convinced our IT department that he needed something smaller because of all the travelling he does to customer sites.

I bet myself a beer you'd be the first to ask, Kernow boy.

It's the St Wites' Cross, flag of Dorset.