Good day,

I have the small 10" ACER netbook but it is killing me.

The thing c-r-a-w-l-s. It is so slow I could do my workout
routine in the time it takes to accomplish any activity on the internet.

So, is there a decent, FAST netbook? Or is "fast" and "netbook" mutually
exclusive?

My intentions are fairly simple. Word processing, basic internet searching, and reading some email. Perhaps an occasional powerpoint presentation.

I appreciate all the input.

TIA

Search under 'ultrabook' -- they are all the rage at the moment. Similar form factor/size to netbooks, but with decent processors.

tb

I have the same computer! About 5 years old now. It too was going very slow... i upgraded to google chrome and I got all my speed back. (regular IE just kills the machine, as does Windows Live Messenger)

Also ran a suite of anti-virus and clean-up stuff (search and destroy was free, but the clean up one (recommended by an IT friend of mine) was paid for).

With a good internet connection the speed is back to normal.

Get one that is dual core and supports 4GB of RAM, then it starts to be reasonable. If money is no object, get yourself an ultrabook, and I can't believe I am saying this, a Macbook Air 11 (i am an apple hater, but damn their macbooks are good).

Goodluck hunting~!

Get a netbook, strip out the HD and replace with a SSD.

Install Linux (Mint works well on Netbooks)

Speed away.

Has it always been like this? I have an ASUS netbook with 2G RAM, and it's actually quite fast. I mostly use it for internet and the occasional work, and it performs quite well. Heck, I even have Eclipse, Tomcat, SQL Server installed and running on the thing, for the occasion that I need to do something quickly and can't get to my laptop, and it runs all these things without any problems.

Netbooks are limited by their slower processors, and their limited memory.

If you look at the ultraportable laptops you will probably find some with faster CPU's and the ability to have more memory.

Of course, you will probably pay for it in initial cost and bettery life.

For example PC World says of a Sony Viao

Sony�s VAIO SB series, as configured in our review unit (model VPCSB1BGX), offers the best overall performance of any ultraportable laptop we�ve yet tested. It�s light, thin, and a pleasure to use despite a few minor annoyances. Pity, then, that this configuration costs $2500. The base model starts at only $900 (as of August 12, 2011), but that configuration wouldn�t dominate our benchmarks as our review model does.

So if you start with a base price of three times the netbook, and add another five times the cost in upgrades, you can get a fast small computer.

The Acers with XP come loaded with a variety of bloatware that slow them down terribly.

They use the poor-quality Intel CPUs and have limited memory, so bloatware and memory-hogging OS applications slow them down.

I purchased several in 2008/2009 for various family members and locations for websurfing and very light wordprocessing, and I was diligent in removing unwanted applications most of them. However, one of them that my parents use on the road escaped the treatment.

This Christmas I happened to use that particular one, and it was horrendously slow. I spent a lot of my free time removing applications, configuring the OS apps to slim down their memory use, and running scans, defragmenting, etc. etc.

At the end of our visit, it was back up to a reasonable internet speeds.

For fast internet only surfing- the IPAD is pretty hard to beat as an overall package (this being said from a former highly sceptical person towards apple)- I was given an IPAD as a gift and it speeds along the internet faster than any other device I have.

Ditto. I still don't like Apple, but I'm loving my iPad. Then again, maybe I'm just contrarian. Either way, the iPad does work well for most of what you have listed. I've never used it for real word processing or any kind of presentations, but I do have colleagues who use those capabilities (through paid apps) and say it works quite well, although not as robust as what you'd get on a true laptop.

Performance and lack of differentiation has helped kill the netbook. They all roughly have the same specs and components - which weren't very impressive to begin with.

The hot category is the Ultrabook as someone mentioned - which is the PC answer to the Macbook Air. I think PC makers are putting all their efforts into this category.

I recently looked at Netbook prices and they really haven't come down very much - I was surprised.

The "best" netbook out there right now (which is the combo of low price and small form factor) seems to be the HP DM1Z. Ultrabooks are certainly not in the netbook category.

As for the advice of switching out the HDD for a SSD, that's the way to go if you want a low cost way to improve speed. However, I'm not sure if the HDD's on the Acer netbooks are easily accessible.

I think the macbook air 11" is one of the best ultra-portable laptop out there..

Ultra small, made in aluminum (really solid), good screen, SSD, almost as fast as a normal bigger laptop (i5 processor and 4gb of ram), no more worries about viruses and malware, 5 hours battery and ready to go from the minute you're out of the store..

It did work for me..

I've had two samsung laptops and they've been quite stellar overall. The upside is that they seem to grasp the concept that a fast processor doesn't mean that they must have a massive display.

take a look at the series 3, you can get them with a 13 inch display and an i5 processor.

I think it's very possible to get something thin, light and decent in the 1k - 1300 range. Even cheaper if you don't mind a little more weight. It doesn't have to be the fastest core i7 out there to be decent and so much better than a netbook.

Look in the Microsoft Store, since anything sold there will be optimized with good drivers and no crapware.

How about this one?

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...7200/list.true

Anyway, I doubt that's what OP had in mind. But there's other stuff there too, at different price points.

-David