Originally Posted by
notsosmart
Question is, what to look for? I don't want to spend too much, but I know I want the broadband capability. What's the hardware that does that? Is it a wifi card like 801.11n, or is it something else?
All have at some kind of wifi; I'm not sure if any have 802.11n, and I doubt any still have only 802.11b, but the speed difference for portable surfing is going to be unimportant and virtually all 802.11g hotspots will still do b.
A few of Netbooks have mobile broadband (as well as wifi) through a cell provider - something even more common in some places outside the US where they are starting to sell subsidized by mobile phone companies - and you can get a USB stick for that from the cell provider. This requires an account, and for the ones with internal mobile broadband (often called "WWAN") your internal card will be specific to AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon (I don't know if T-mobile offers one.)
Originally Posted by
Orlando Vic
Battery life is an important factor. I don't know if every netbook comes with a built in web cam, but it is very nice to have when using Skype.
Many do, many don't.
Originally Posted by
Sammythebarber
The best netbook out there right now is the Toshiba N280. You can buy it for $350 at Microcenter or the fancier design for $399.
Highly subjective. The Toshibas are worth trying, but some peope (myself included) hate the keyboards. In general, the keyboards are the biggest differentiators between machines, and there is no substitute for trying a bunch for yourself.
9 Hour battery life, 280 processor (faster than the standard Atom 270)
,
Speed difference between the N270 (1.60ghz) and N280 (1.66ghz) is negligible. The better battery life of ones based on the N280 is the bigger difference between the two.
Originally Posted by
dingo
I'm going on a week with my ASUS 1005 and love it. I'm trying to figure out what some of the pre-installed junk is and whether it is safe to uninstall it,
My usual advice is to nuke everything and start from a clean install... then add in only those apps absolutely needed.
Originally Posted by
Kgmm77
Basically, there is no perfect netbook that will suit everyone.
Yup, although there is less variation in them then in full size notebooks, IMO.
Originally Posted by
Janus
-Keyboard size, screen size, and mouse type (pad, stick, both): Consider how much time you will be spending using the device at one sitting, and ensure that you are comfortable using the device for that amount of time.
Ergonomics are very important with a notebook or netbook, to be sure, but the questions are a bit different:
- good luck finding a stick or a combo stick/tranpad on a netbooks
- good luck even finding a normal "buttons on the bottom" trackpad on some of them many
- it's arguable what the line between a netbook and notebook; the 7" Eee is gone, 8.9" netbooks pretty much gone, and a lot of people are arguing the new 11.6/12" ones are really small notebooks.
- keyboard shape and quality varies a great deal more than on full size notebooks (IMO, at least)
- screen resolution is less variable, although there are a few 10" ones that have higher resolution.
-Windows 7: (As mentioned previously) General Availability is set for October 22nd. Most vendors "should" have most/all of the new models on store shelves on that date pre-loaded with Windows 7. Though it might be a month or two before the last remaining Vista PCs are gone. That being said, many vendors are offering free upgrades to Windows 7 on computers purchased now (check first before buying!).
Dell excludes the "low cost" installs of WinXP from the free upgrade program; other manufacturers may as well.
-Data network: Some parts of the world are better serviced by certain providers than others. Plus, your current cell phone provider might provide some sort of incentive if you get additional service for your netbook.
Originally Posted by
DenverBrian
I use (probably someone inacurately remembered) a bit of the declaration, actually: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Originally Posted by
cordelli
Pay attention as already mentioned to the amout of memory they come with or can be added, make sure it fits your needs.
Originally Posted by
RobertS975
Except that almost all currently available netbooks use the Windows XP OS, not Vista. And the upgrade to W7, if it is indeed even offered to netbooks using XP, requires a complete clean install and thus requires a reinstallation of all programs. Going from XP to the newer W7 will be a much more involved project.
Upgrading XP to Vista was a bad business, and Vista to Win7 as well. It's a MUCH better idea to do a clean install, and manufacturers still install too much crapware.
As I have already said, all things being equal, I would wait for the new Windows 7 netbooks. And I don't know for certain, but I am willing to wager that these new netbooks will come from the factory with at least 2GB of RAM, maybe even more!
Until the new chipsets come out, 2gb is the limit.
That said, Win7 runs much better than Vista on 1gb of memory, and that is with a Pro edition - there may be some tuning in some of the lower-end SKUs to make it run better on Netbooks.