pseudoswede

I will echo some of the comments here.

At home, I have a 15.4" Asus Z96j which I absolutely love (particularly the WSXGA+ screen), but it's a PITA to lug around (weighs about 6.5 lbs., not including power brick), especially on TATL trips. Plus, battery life is pretty mediocre.

This summer, we had the 1000HE on our trip to Sweden. It was a perfect repository for storing and displaying our digital photos (Picasa 3 works great on it). Plus, it was very portable when sitting by the lake with a 3G modem and doing random web surfing. Plus, the 7-8.5 hours of battery life makes it so much easier to entertain the kids on long TATL flights (when there is a poor IFE selection)--in addition, it sits much better on economy table trays than a large laptop.

This fall, I plan on using it for note-taking in class and writing papers.

But, yes, I only use my 1000HE for web surfing, basic Office applications, and photo editing. If I need to do stuff that requires more horsepower, I'll use my Z96j or my desktop computer.

DeafFlyer

Our business was looking into getting a notebook computer, but after checking some of the larger netbooks, we may just get one of those. They have all of the features we need, except maybe a DVD/CD drive, but we have several external drives, or drives on other PCs we can use. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

timfountain

Maybe, but you missed the price element in the discussion. The R200 is nice, but it wasn't <$500 when it was introduced, which was quite a few years ago now. Also with a 1.2GHz Pentium M 735, PATA drive and DDR-1 memory, it is debatable whether the R200 would win in the speed race with a more modern netbook.

Netbooks are truly a disruptive element to the notebook market, many people are realizing that they don't need a honking screen, DVD drive equipped, Dual Core behemoth to surf the web, tap out an email and do a bit of Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

RichMSN

Costco is selling an Acer Aspire One 10.1" with Accessory Kit (6-Cell Battery, external USB Optical Drive, Wireless Mouse and Protective Case) for $379.99 this month.

Is this a good deal? What is the actual model? I can't tell from the coupon.

I am looking for a small screen netbook to travel with occasionally (on vacations mainly) and it would likely sit on the kitchen counter the rest of the time.

I'm not opposed to going smaller, but 10 inches is about as big as I want to go. I'd really like the best powered one, best screen, decent keyboard -- willing to spend a bit more for it.

ScottC

The machine on its own regularly sells for $299 - so you be the judge whether the accessories are worth $80. That said - the Costco return policy/warranty is worth something too.

sbm12

That sounds like the AOD 150, but it is hard to know for certain. And you're probably paying a touch more than necessary for the options kit, but if you want those parts anyways it isn't that bad a deal. Of course, you're going to want to upgrade the RAM to 1.5GB (and extra $20 and ~20 minutes inside the case) and that is more annoying on the Acer than other models, but at least it isn't the Dell where RAM uprgades were not possible.

RichMSN

Thanks.

Anyone know anything about the Samsung or Toshiba netbooks? I guess I'm just looking for advice. 10" only.

Eh, never mind. I'll be less lazy and do some more of my own research when I have time.

RichMSN

I bought a Toshiba NB205-N311/W. Went straight to 2GB RAM. $399 for the laptop.

Uninstalled Norton and all the bloatware that was preinstalled. Installed Thunderbird, Firefox, and Skype. Resisting the urge to put Office on it -- if I need to use Office, it's what I have other machines for.

Why did I pick it? It had the best feel, best looking screen (to me) and it got some great reviews in the last month.

Anyhow, I'll give more feedback later if I feel it warrants it.

sbm12

Why limit yourself? Office 2007 runs fine on my Acer.

ScottC

Nice looking machines, but they really don't offer anything special over other brands. The battery life on the Toshiba is good - but its about the same as on the Asus Eee 1000HA.

Dubai Stu

Hi have Office 2003 on an Asus 1000. No problem.

DeafFlyer

Newer netbooks are coming out with Vista Home Basic and 2GB memory. How do they perform compared to XP with 2 GB, and do they get free upgrades to Windows 7? I ask because I prefer Vista over XP, but not if the performance is worse.

RichMSN

I know. In the end, I flipped a coin and went with the one I liked the look of best.

I'll probably put Office on it. Came with Microsoft Works 9, so that might be enough for us since it's not a primary machine and I really can't travel with it much for work since my company's software wouldn't run well on a netbook. Right now I have it set up as a kiosk-type machine for the counter -- 4 user accounts, one for each of the people in the house. We're all on IMAP email, so I set up Thunderbird for each user and imported user bookmarks into Firefox. I've never shared a computer before, so this is kinda cool.

I avoided the Vista machines purposefully. XP SP3 runs great. Why complicate things?

Anyone run Tweetdeck or Slingplayer on a netbook?

Jimmie76

I've managed video on my EEE900 (linux) but not really used web video all that much I have used BBC Iplayer though with few if any problems after it was launched. The main use of video on it was shrunk dvd's on a memory stick or five which are very useful when travelling by train, this works flawlessly on smplayer. I don't see the need for anything bigger at the moment and If I do need to hook it up to a monitor or tv I have a small box that allows me to do that which I can bring if needed.

RichMSN

A follow up. I installed Office 2007, SlingPlayer, FeedDemon, Thunderbird, and Skype. Also Firefox, WS_FTP, ISOburner, Tweetdeck.

Went out and got the $79 USB DVD writer/player as well.

Runs great.

Right now, it's a "kiosk" machine on our countertop, but it will travel with me when I don't need our work software or when I'm on vacation.