Anyone use a Netbook

Thinking about picking up a netbook computer for my wife... She's starting an RN program in January, so I like the idea of the small computer (10") because she could stick it in her bag w/books and it wouldn't feel like she's carrying 8 extra pounds of b.s.

But I'm a little confused as to a netbook's capability. She'll basically need email access, possibly word and excel, and internet access.. No need for cd drive, etc. Top it off, these netbooks are about $300, which is nice... considering I was going to buy her a Macbook Air, which would run me about $1200 more:down:

Any opinions and facts on these things?

 

I have an Asus netbook and love it. Have the external drive to load programs on it then its good to go. I got the larger hard drive to make sure I wouldn't run out of memory. It works great. For what you're describing, it would be just the ticket for her.

And yeah, I'd love the Air also, but not for the price until I win the lottery or become independently wealthy.

 

Perfect for her then...that's exactly what they are designed to do.

I currently like the MSI U135 for it near full size keyboard. The specs are all pretty close to the same. Most of the newer models will have Win7 Starter on them which is also perfectly suited for what she'll do with it daily.

Take your time browsing...if she isn't going to a ton of music a things on it I go for the SSD for durability and power consumption benifits. If she needs more space then opt for the traditional hard drive.

 

So you wouldn't run out of storage...not memory.

 

Do you have nothing better to do today then check my posts, dammit! You're still pissed about me bitching about Verizon's phones, aren't you?

 

Nope...but I like you too much to let you sound like every other idiot on the web when they talk about computing hardware.

 

Nah, I'm quite the idiot when I'm not concentrating. Trust me, I'll be the first to admit it.

And you're right, the MSI is a great machine, also. I've been hearing more people having issues with Dell's lately, so I would shy away from them, personally.

HP has some nice netbooks, but they tend to cost more. Not sure you'll get the money's worth back from them. There is one HP that apparently has essentially an HD display, but believe that's getting to be a good bit more than $500.

I've abused the Asus pretty good, including dropping it couple times and it still works fine, including doing jobsite visits with me.

Had something I've never seen before with the Asus, also. One drop actually damaged a portion of the LCD screen crystals. Not a huge amount, but I knew it was there. Over time, the area cleared up completely. I've never seen that happen before.

 

Venom... Is MSI the netbook brand? I'm a prov. novice when it comes to computer lingo, use small words for me

Oh.. Is SSD seperate storage drive? And what's a good minimum spec on these machines, she does little music etc... Just mainly email and possibly some school work

 

HP on the surface build some nice stuff...They were one of the first with the larger keyboard on the 10 inch models. However after seeing some recent reliability studies they seem to suffer one of the higest failure rates...oddly enough Acer led the pack in reliability. Who would have thought that when you look back to their products from 5 years ago.

 

MSI is a name brand...http://www.msi.com/

The U135 is a model number...

SSD = Solid State Drive = no moving parts and less power consumption. Some testing has proven in some cases the SSD are a little slower than a conventional rotating magnetic disk.

Also just as a general note...stay away from anything smaller than 10 inches. The new 11 inch models are very nice at their current resolutions.

 

is the intel atom the way to go.... and is 1gig memory about the norm for these machines, just doing a basic search on Bestbuy.com and they all seem to be about the same in different shells.

Also can you load microsoft office onto these units, what about itunes, firefox? I see some have windows xp, some windows 7 others with their own operating system.... Any pros/cons there

 

I got wifey the Dell job.
Awesome, and I don't have to wait my turn to get my pr0n fix.

 

I've got Office, iTunes, Google Chrome, all of that on mine. I would recommend Windows 7 especially on that machine, in my honest opinion. It runs everything I've got all day long, including my architecture program for doing jobsite measurements. It can't do heavy 3-D modeling or anything, but for the level you're talking about, should run anything you throw at it.

 

Oh, and I would definitely recommend the Atom chip.

 

If your price point is under $500 this would be my pick.

It's technically not a Netbook but it's the best feature set for the price point.

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=8&id=152

Then this...

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=87&id=166

 

Also, this Gateway wouldn't be a bad pick, either.

Gateway - Netbook with Intel® Atom™ Processor - Cherry Red
Model: LT2030U

$349 Best Buy, 250gb hard drive, 10.1" screen.

 

Whats the story on Asus... they're top selling netbooks on a lot of sites, including amazon.com

 

They've been making them longer than anyone else. The 7" EeePC was the original.

 

Correct, and before they were making netbooks, they were already deep into the computer industry making motherboards. They've been around quite awhile and are dependable and reputable.

 

is "Windows 7 starter" really windows... Or is it some gimic/trial where I'll have to pay for the real windows 7 at a later time... Seems a lot of these units come w/Windows 7 starter