Netbooks
 

I usually haul a MacBook around these days - great piece of kit but a tad on the heavy side.
I was looking at a MSI Wind U123 yesterday which seemed ideal with 10 inch screen, 8 hours battery (claimed), wifi N etc etc.
Just need net browsing, email and MS Office when on the move and thought it might fit the bill. I have always had problems with Windows laptops hooking up with wifi networks and suspend/resume which both work great on the MacBook. Also like the Sony one but hopeless battery life.
Anyone have any advice?

We have a number of threads in the Travel Technology forum on netbooks. I have a Samsung with a 6 hour battery I'm very happy with. Make sure you get something with a longer battery. Here's one thread there with 375 posts:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ok-travel.html

OK, thanks for that.
I did search the BA forum but I've never seen the Travel Tech Forum - off there now....

I can highly recommend the Toshiba NB205 - it has a similar keyboard to the Mac and has a fantastic battery life - I have had nearly 9 hours out of it. In fact when I travel I never have to recharge it until I get to my hotel.

Regards
AKS120

If it's small size and long battery life you're after you should take a look at the new Nokia Booklet - I don't have one but did have a short session with one recently and was quite impressed. 12 hours battery and 19.9mm thick.
I'm thinking about getting one of these.

Just to add to this, like you I own a MBP and yes rather heavy and large me to lug on holiday.

So I bought a Asus EEE901 (I think they may have been superseded by a 1000 series) weights under 1kg, cheap .. was around £280 .. cheap enough for it to be nicked.

A bit more than a netbook but since it has an Atom processor, I can mention Vaio X, I think. I've just bought one and I really like it. It weighs around 700g, has a 11.1" screen, and the battery life seems decent. Comes with Windows 7, not Vista (but it also comes with an XP disc).

Samsung N110 is great. I got it in the States for about $350 from Amazon.

Cheers,
Rick

Agreeing with Rick...
 

Samsung Netbooks are superb.

You can't go wrong with the NC10 (frst offering that set the benchmark), the N110 or the latest N140 (which now comes with a massive 250gb storage).

Netbooks in general are brilliant devices, provided you don't ask too much of them.

GD

Me too. I've been waiting ages for something like this. Highly recommended. ^

Further OT
 

Can I take advantage of the obvious experience contributing here? I just bought an Archos internet media tablet with 250GB HD and am already thinking of sending it back.I considered a netbook but as I'm retired(so don't need all the work related stuff) and have desktop and old laptop I thought I'd replace my IPOD with the ArchosA netbook is bigger than my Archos so less "mobile" but a bit cheaper and with more functioality.
So the questions:
1 am I right in thinking NO netbook has a headphone socket?
2 and None of them have CD rom drive?

Since my beloved iMac is not terribly portable I bought an Acer Aspire One to use for basic internet functions whilst travelling.

Mine has a Linux OS :-: and an Atom processor ^ but the battery life isn't quite as promised; none the less I can live with it. Cheap as chips when I bought it last year; I added an external mouse as I dislike touchpad mice and was given this as a present from a clever friend.

I'm real happy with my Dell Mini 9 I purchased at the DF LHR T5. With the built in 3G modem, I have internet wherever I go and it is easy to upgrade

1 Most netbooks that I've seen have headphone sockets and most have
microphone sockets too (handy for Skype) my EEE900 certainly does.

2 Nope but if you are wanting to watch DVD's on the move can I reccomend Handbrake and if necessary DVDshrink . DVDshrink is handy for removing copy protection (which Handbrake may not do) and copying DVDs to the hard drive where you can set Handbrake on it to convert to MP4 etc. Then store the resultant smaller files on a USB flash drive(s) and watch whenever wherever, uses far less power than an optical drive and far less likely to exceed the power supply onboard.

If not USB optical drives are available but they will eat into your batterytime if watching films.

I personally use DVDshrink and just watch the shrunk DVD files.