Netbook suggestions?

EndersShadow

So I asked my wife what she wanted for her birthday.... she looks at me (on our nice HP laptop) and says "my own laptop".... so being the nice husband I am, realize that our potential budget for a laptop wont get her a decent one. I then think about "how" I use the laptop and realize I hog it most of the time.... for this forum and others.....

So I decided I would give her the gift of buying my own little netbook myself so I can use it as often as I want for the basic stuff (see how that works ). That said I am putting a 100-200 limit on myself and prefer under 150 for a netbook. I am totally fine with used as thats what I am going to have to get at this point. While tablets are nice, since I will be doing LOTS of typing I would prefer a physical keyboard rather than an onscreen one on a tablet.

So I need some suggestion on models to look at on ebay, CL, etc. Here is a list of what I need in the unit:

1. Play HD video (YouTube)
2. Browse web
3. Windows 7 capable (I have a extra copy of Win 7, so if its Win 8 or XP I can just reformat it)
4. "Somewhat" decent processor. I dont need a i5, but if one comes with it great. I anticipate lots of suggestions for Atom, Turino and other lower Ghz processor.
5. Decent keyboard, dont need a number pad or any spiffy stuff.
6. Good battery life if possible
7. Somewhat decent looking. I dont want a dog of a netbook here, but I dont need it to be Apple quality either.
8. Dont care about HDD space, will be upgrading it to a SSD if it doesnt have one already.
9. Screen size of 10-13 inches. I dont want anything HUGE, I also dont want something thats not much bigger than a phone either

So suggest away.

cnh

Most netbooks do not come with higher end processors like i-cores (3,5,7). That's why they're netbooks. Sounds like what you want is a 12" laptop with at least an i-3 and 4 gigs of RAM.

Something like this:

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/sony-vaio-sve11113fxw-11-6-led-notebook-amd-e-series-e2-1800-1-70-ghz/232423092.html?listingId=294631137

might serve your purpose?

I believe the same is true of Chromebooks which may be faster since they're not running all that Windows baggage that slower netbook processors have a little hiccup with?

That said. Acer and Asus used to be the kings of that market. I run an older ACER that has been "bullet proof". 11.6" screen and 8-9 hours of battery life. Does the job, even with that slow Atom processor in there and can do HD video but could use some more memory there. You'd want to have at least 2 gigs of RAM if not more in these.

cnh

EndersShadow

cnh wrote: »

Most netbooks do not come with higher end processors like i-cores (3,5,7). That's why they're netbooks. Sounds like what you want is a 12" laptop with at least an i-3 and 4 gigs of RAM.

Yeah, that was more of a pipe dream, being an IT guy I know that wasnt probably an option, but like I said used is an option, but those type CPU's are normally in laptops with bigger screens than I would like. I am totally fine with a Atom processor which is what most netbooks have

cnh wrote: »

That said. Acer and Asus used to be the kings of that market. I run an older ACER that has been "bullet proof". 11.6" screen and 8-9 hours of battery life. Does the job, even with that slow Atom processor in there and can do HD video but could use some more memory there. You'd want to have at least 2 gigs of RAM if not more in these.

cnh

Yeah, I am seeing lots of ASUS EeePc's and Acer Aspire and Aspire Ones, along with Dell Mini 10's. I am somewhat familiar with those models but looking for suggestions on potential other specific models if possible. I also would upgrade to 2 gig of RAM along with a decent SSD to optimize it the best one can with a netbook

Irrenhaus

I have an Acer Aspire One 722 for more than a year now and like it a lot small, light, can play HD, good battery life, easy to travel with, it has an AMD CPU but it also has a good GUP integrated on the CPU nice performance.

It cost me only $299.00

Cheers

EndersShadow

Eh the RTs are too pricey but it's a potential option at the right price. I am old school and want s physical keyboard so a true tablet is out of the question. I will probably end up with one of the acer or Asus

EndersShadow

I found a Acer Aspire One 10" netbook for 175 locally on CL, think its probably a decent price on one since I can see it beforehand. Looks brand new

EndersShadow

DSkip wrote: »

Have you seen the transformers? They are basically a convertible tablet, even includes charging and USB through the base. Not trying to convince you, but want you to know all your options.

Haven't, popping onto google now. But am I going to find one for under 200, and do they have a dedicated keyboard?

EndersShadow

Well I thought I would wrap this thread up in its entirety.

Our laptop needed a new battery (100 bucks) and was having some issues related to power. So my wife decided to just find a laptop for herself for the purpose of school work only since we didnt know if our laptop was gonna make it. I told her I though I knew what it was but what do I KNOW , I just do IT for a living :biggrin:. Didnt need to be super fast, have a big hard drive, but needed to just work .

She just let me know she ordered this puppy off eBay. In addition we just went ahead and ordered a new battery for our existing HP laptop which was 120 bucks shipped. In the interim I found that the powercord for our laptop was bad (as I suspected), thankfully I had an extra or two or three since this is the second one to go bad.

So for 290 bucks we now will have 2 working laptops. I plan on upgrading my laptop and desktop to solid state drives. Once that happens I will take the existing laptop HDD (620 gig SATA II 2.5") but an enclosure for it and then sell/give away my current external drive, a 320 gig SATA I 3.5" hard drive. The desktop 640 gig HDD will simply become additional storage on top of the other 640 gig and 1 TB hard drives in there already.

I still would love something small like a Surface RT tablet, but unless I find it for a steal of a deal it will have to wait till one of these babies dies.

jbooker82

Our HP Pavilion DV7 took a crap on us about 2 weeks ago. It always ran hot and would dang near bake your left leg. It quit booting up unless you would power it on for an hr or two. Once it got hot you could restart it a couple times and it would boot. I seen online that HP had a class action law suit against them for this issue. We got 4 years out of it but a lot of people weren't as lucky.

I ended up going overkill with an Asus G75VW. It has windows 8 and has taken some time to get use to.

Kex

EndersShadow wrote: »

... I still would love something small like a Surface RT tablet, but unless I find it for a steal of a deal it will have to wait till one of these babies dies.

This deal is on newegg.com today only, but it does not include the available dock/keyboard. The dock has its own battery doubling the claimed battery life to to 16 hours.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313610&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=404255&SID=330338_desktop

. Lenovo refurbished 11.6" W8 IdeaTab
. 64GB SSD
. 2GB DDR2
. MicroSD card reader
. Claims 8 hour battery life
. $230 after rebate

It was available direct from Lenovo just over a week ago, with a coupon, and the keyboard dock was included for $350.

cnh

jbooker82 wrote: »

Our HP Pavilion DV7 took a crap on us about 2 weeks ago. It always ran hot and would dang near bake your left leg. It quit booting up unless you would power it on for an hr or two. Once it got hot you could restart it a couple times and it would boot. I seen online that HP had a class action law suit against them for this issue. We got 4 years out of it but a lot of people weren't as lucky.

I ended up going overkill with an Asus G75VW. It has windows 8 and has taken some time to get use to.

Windows 8? Lots of fun. I have it on my Lenovo, and for the most part, I don't pay attention to it. Have migrated EVERYTHING I need to the DESKTOP folder and disabled as much as I am able to of all the AUTO track pad take you to "Asia" in a quick swipe when you didn't mean to go "there" actions. Really, do I look like some kind of "finger savant" with superhuman touch reflexes?

W8 is really designed for TOUCH SCREEN users. And when you don't have that, you're just swiping yourself onto all kinds of aps you don't need.

Hook up a wireless mouse, disengage most of the "automated" trackpad/mouse features. Migrate everything you need to your Desktop or task bar and you'll NEVER have to bother with Windows 8 again. Because 7 is under it!

Microsoft comes up with an operating system geared for CELL PHONE/SMART PHONE users so as to FORCE PC/CELL/TABLET convergence! Too bad that all of "us" don't have the same OS on all those devices!

You have to corner all those markets "before" you put out an OS that addresses convergence. That's easier for Apple than MS. Apple has led people down "their" path very "consciously", and MS has always be "reactive"! And LATE to the party!

Glad you solved your problem Ender. I have an old "institutional" Dell Lat D610 that (had one body change--due to screen failure) but is still running. I only use that for back up (XP on that). And the Lenovo for daily use.

cnh