Cheap notebooks

[Achiever51]

Update on my ASUS eee 1000h, with 2 GB ram, 80 GB HDD and 1.6 mhz Atom processor and MSFT Wdo XP.

When fully charged, I can get about 5:45 to 6 hours from the battery, even online (I do disable the Bluetooth and the camera, however.) I read lots of posts on other forums about the build quality of this netbook, but so far, (knock wood) this one seems very well built. Getting used to the keyboard was no problem except for the strange placement of the right shift key, and the 10.2" screen is fine for web surfing and most documents, etc. (even better with the MSFT clear type tuning ad on.)

Bottom line: I think it was a good $450 purchase...

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny Its got the small keyboard (the 1000 has the larger one).

I think that price reflects the "popularity" of the tiny-fingers keyboard.

But it's nice to see affordable SSDs taking off...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

For anyone who doesnt have small hands and good eyes, its definitely the 2nd or 3rd laptop and a lightweight traveler, not a primary laptop.

Might be something good to keep in the kitchen for looking up recipes and keeping a family calendar or something like that.

[Achiever51]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny For anyone who doesnt have small hands and good eyes, its definitely the 2nd or 3rd laptop and a lightweight traveler, not a primary laptop. Might be something good to keep in the kitchen for looking up recipes and keeping a family calendar or something like that.

I looked at the smaller netbooks and the screen and the keyboards were just too small for comfort. I'm a speedy touch typist and I couldn't manage with those itty bitty keys. The 10" ASUS keyboard has keys that are 95% the size of a regular keyboard, so there was no problem -- even with my really long fingers.

I agree that this won't replace my desktop computer with its 22" LCD screen and I wouldn't want to edit a huge spreadsheet on it...but it sure is convenient to have it as CFB says, right on the kitchen counter for quick lookups; and taking it to the local coffee shop or the library is just plain fun.

[dex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achiever51 I agree that this won't replace my desktop computer with its 22" LCD screen and I wouldn't want to edit a huge spreadsheet on it...but it sure is convenient to have it as CFB says, right on the kitchen counter for quick lookups; and taking it to the local coffee shop or the library is just plain fun.

I do a spread sheet on the 7" eee - you get used to it.

I'm going to wait a bit to get the next generation of the 901. I'm hoping for a bit more memory. It would be great to put iTunes on it with all my music and podcasts.
I think it is great for traveling.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Buy the Toshiba Satellite L305-S5891 15.4" Widescreen Laptop and other Laptop computers at circuitcity.com

Nice dual core 2GB/160GB/dvd writer notebook for $449 AR

Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-1211 10.2" Netbook - Black and other Laptop computers at circuitcity.com

New entrant to the small netbook fray. 1GB ram, 160GB hard drive, 10'2" screen. I havent seen one yet but supposedly they're a bit better made than the asus and msi units. $449 price isnt bad for the specs.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Acer - Aspire Laptop with Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T3200 - AS5735-4624

Acer aspire, dual core, 2gb/160gb, dvd writer, $399

[dex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-1211 10.2" Netbook - Black and other Laptop computers at circuitcity.com New entrant to the small netbook fray. 1GB ram, 160GB hard drive, 10'2" screen. I havent seen one yet but supposedly they're a bit better made than the asus and msi units. $449 price isnt bad for the specs.

Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaPad S10
That looks like a great little machine - It is compitition to the asus 901 in my mind.

What is the durability of the hard drive? Meaning - carrying it around. Those units are so light that you tend to put them in a back pack and bounce it around and put it down hard (turned off of course)

I haven't seen anything on the battery life - 3 cell?

These little machines are going to be great in a short time - I'm going to wait as long as I can to get one. I'm guessing they will get lighter - size wise they can only get marginally smaller.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I wouldnt drop or vigorously shake any machine with a running hard drive, but with the unit off...other than treating it like any other plastic and glass containing electronic item, you should be able to put it in a bag and toss it around a little bit.

For most of these batteries, I think a good rule of thumb is maybe an hour per battery cell, minus 20-30% if you keep the screen brightness turned up. Seems like most of the 3 cell units are doing 2.5-3 hours, 4 cells 3.5-4 hours and 6 cells 4-6 hours.

The big change long term will be battery life and hard drive sized SSD's. Intels new 80gb SSD just rolled out. Some newer battery setups combined with the atom cpu and some power savings schemes will start turning out 8-24 hour battery life.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Interesting interview with the head of MSI's sales dept on netbooks:

MSI: Wind Coming to Major Retailer, New Models Coming Soon

Most interesting tidbit was that linux netbooks are returned at a rate 4x that of windows versions. People hit a glitch or something they cant figure out and they just return it rather than figure it out.

Some good odds and ends about near future products.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny Interesting interview with the head of MSI's sales dept on netbooks: MSI: Wind Coming to Major Retailer, New Models Coming Soon Most interesting tidbit was that linux netbooks are returned at a rate 4x that of windows versions. People hit a glitch or something they cant figure out and they just return it rather than figure it out.

I wonder how long Microsoft will allow them to keep selling Windows XP?

I'll take the comment about the Linux laptop return rate with a grain of salt (since it came from a company selling a Windows-equipped machine). In my brief experience with Linux, the "doing things different" factor was indeed a PITA compared to Windows. But, to me as a common user, it didn't seem better or worse. And tech support (from LINUX hobbyists) seemed as good or better than the online support on similar Windows sites (and MUCH better than anything Microsoft provides.)

[slouch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem And tech support (from LINUX hobbyists) seemed as good or better than the online support on similar Windows sites (and MUCH better than anything Microsoft provides.)

Have you tried the Microsoft support forums yet?

[dex]

i have linx on the 701 eee - it works fine - i just can't add any programs to it (as simply with windows).

[Marquette]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BunsGettingFirm Thank goodness to the OLPC that we are getting all of these ultra portable netbooks for under $500.

One Laptop Per Cheapskate?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem I wonder how long Microsoft will allow them to keep selling Windows XP?

I'd imagine for quite a while, or they'll have to come out with a much slimmer vista. Way too much disk space and ram required for even vista basic.

Quote:

I'll take the comment about the Linux laptop return rate with a grain of salt (since it came from a company selling a Windows-equipped machine).

MSI sells their products with both linux and windows. The return rates were what they experienced with identical hardware platforms with both linux and windows. Sure, theres plenty of support, but a lot of netbook buyers arent heavy computer people, they just want a highly portable email/browser unit and when it starts doing funny things or they cant figure something out, its easier to take it back to the store and get something else than to mess with it.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marquette One Laptop Per Cheapskate?

OLPC stands for One Laptop Per Child not One Lapdance Per Codger. The latter can cost a lot more.