Page 1 of So, these mini laptops then...

I know there is a thread on here about the new type of smaller laptops on here, but i couldn`t find it.
My first impression on this type of PC was not very positive, the only one i had seen in the flesh had a 7in screen, & it looked horrible.

I was in a high st electrical retailer looking for something else, when i noticed an ACER AOA150-BB.
Very nice looking bit of kit, but £300 its the same kind of money you would pay for a full size, basic spec laptop.
I did like the screen, the weight, (or lack of) but what has put me off, is the stated battery life of 3 hours.

Today i noticed a Samsung NC10 listed on Play.coms website
it quotes a battery life as 6 Cell Lithium ion - Up to 8 Hours
I am really tempted to buy one of these.

Its main use would be web browsing using a 3 mobile dongle when out & about, also i would like to connect to my sky wireless broadband at home, & playing back ripped video files.
Would the movie file playback drain the battery quickly? If its on the hard drive, or in the card reader on a memory card, its not like a laptop powering a disc drive. :/

I would prefer to use windows as an OS.
I wound also rather have a hard drive- i know this increases the weight, but some of the solid state drives seem too small to me, like the Dell which i like the look of, but its only got a 16GB hard drive.
Is there anything else those of you who have these machines would recommend looking at also? anything to avoid?
Thanks :)

EDIT
just found that thread i couldn`t find- no wonder, as its called These any good? ;)

EDIT 2
forgot to ask, what anti virus are you using, the one on my laptop takes up a lot of hard drive space

This item was edited on Monday, 13th October 2008, 22:35

still loving mine, & use it every day, in fact most of my browsing is done on it, & i also use it to manage my iphone/itunes stuff (handy cos i take it to work with me)

basicaly, if a normal laptop isn`t portable enough for whatever reason, then a netbook is ideal, heres what i personaly look fo as a minimum.

the new intel Atom cpu (now common in new gen netbooks)
hard drive, rather than sd/flash (personal preference as i need it for media storage)
wifi built in (most have it)
3g modem built in (rare, but usefull)
good size screen (mine has a 10" but an 8" with the same res isn`t bad)
above 1mega pixel webcam (common on most)
check the size of the keyboard, some of the smaller 7" & 8" have scrunched up keyboards...

i have the pc world 4211 MSI wind clone, but there are a few with identical spec etc :) like the asus Eee 9xxx

Similar thread here.
http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=292&Thread=739206&Type=1
I`m really happy with my MSI Wind.

also, i use AVG as my anti virus, & looking at the link to the sammy at play, that looks very nice, very very similar to the MSI Wind/Advent 4211, but with much better battery life (if it`s even close to the promised 8hrs thats amazing)

thanks guys, i think i`ll wait for the Samsung
Quote:
basicaly, if a normal laptop isn`t portable enough for whatever reason, then a netbook is ideal
thats the very reason i want one. I really like my laptop, but its too heavy to carry around.

Upsy daisy...

I`m in the market for one of these mini laptop bad-boys (do people still say `bad-boys`?)

It`s still looking to me that the Samsung NC10 is top of the pile but are there any new machines coming out in the near future that I should also be looking at? Hanks.

---

there is a rumour that Samsung will update the NC10 with 3g & Vista, but as the current model is selling so well, I can`t see that happening for awhile.

I`ve spent ages trying to order a blue NC10, it was driving me up the wall!

QVC sold 10,000 units last night according to another forum I was just reading.
Hard to believe, as they were charging way over the top p+p, £35!
total came to £332.72

I ordered one from Dixons for under £300. The blue is now OFS again, the black is in stock & the white is an extra £10 :/

John Lewis are selling it for £322, but getting stock & colour of choice was an issue, but they give a extra one year warranty

This was a lot cheaper from Play.com a few weeks ago, but just before the VAT went down, most retailers seemed to raise the price.

I`m sure the price will go down after Christmas, but I was sick of looking for one & wanted mine now :D

The MSI wind is now cheaper than the Advent if you buy from Novatech.

Waiting on two Acer Aspire Ones (Pink & Blue) for the kids Christmas presents.




I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

OK now officially confused between the models of netbooks

New one into the mix Advent 4490 at £229 (rebadged MSI Wind U90 or the 8.9" version of the U100).

Mobile Intel® Atom™ Processor N270 Single Core
(1.6Ghz, 533MHz FSB, 512KB cache)
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition
1GB DDR2 memory
120GB SATA HDD
Integrated Intel GM945 graphics (upto 64MB)
8.9" TFT display (1024x600)
Bluetooth
Integrated Webcam
Wireless enabled

(PC World & Currys says 120 & describes it as having 160).

Quote:
The advent 4490 is the perfect portable computer. it has an 8.9" screen and still has a 1GB memory and 160GB Hard Drive! more than enough for internet surfing or work documents.

* Intel Atom N270Processor - Energy efficient
* Operating Systems - Windows(R) XP Home
* Memory & storage - 1GB Memory & 120 GB HDD
* Portable - 8.9"Widescreen Display & 1.12KG
* Extras - Bluetooth connectivity & webcam





I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Sunday, 7th December 2008, 16:25

I swear by my Asus EEE 901 with 12Gb internal SSD storage and Windows XP Home. I bought it a few weeks ago to upgrade from an Asus EEE Surf 2G with Linux I`d bought at the beginning of the year (before they brought out the XP models). I couldn`t live without it as a go-anywhere writing machine. I`ve loaded Word (2002!) on it as a word proc and I have all my work files on a 1Gb Kingston SD card it shares with a PDA for instant notetaking. I keep a backup on a USB flash dongle which can synchronise with other machines.

It has plenty of battery time per charge for really getting into writing something, much better than my full-size laptop (which is turning into a backup machine as I work most on the Asus). Working with it on my lap (with a mini-mouse attached as the trackpad is a little oversensitive), it`s perfect for day-to-day work anywhere I choose to perch. The full-size laptop can be awfully unwieldy at times, but the Asus genuinely is a laptop.

I saw the Samsung NC10 on QVC just before they finished the other day, so I missed the offer even if I`d been in the market - £297 with 3 easy payments of about £75. They only had it in black. I`m another who`d go for the blue option, if only to be able to sing that old Neil Diamond song - "Samsung Blue - everybody knows one."

J Mark Oates