£350 budget for a netbook - Want to upgrade RAM to 2gb and run Windows 7

MrSix

MrSix

MrSix

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I'm after a netbook to act as an inbetweener for my iphone and desktop.
I'll mainly be using it for email, web and Office tasks on the go however as I'm a photographer I'll also use it to preview photographs (so will install lightroom) and as a vehicle to transfer the contents of a CF card to an external USB hard drive. It won't actually be used for any picture editing in anger, however it would be nice to be able to run lightroom well enough to make a few minor changes if I need to show a client photographs on location. Battery life is important however I'll have it plugged in to the mains if I'm doing any editing so it'll only be web, email and office tasks performed on the battery.

Budget is £350(ish) and I'd like to be able to upgrade to 2GB RAM and run Windows 7.
 
most netbooks are in the same ballpark when it comes to features, performance and ergonomy.

Then you have to decide between glossy screen (shaper, more reflections) or mate screen (less reflections, less sharp).

Some netbooks come with windows 7. The best bets are the Samsungs (NC10 is a bit dated), the Asus Eee PC (some come with extended battery life). Some are Ion platforms, best bet again would be the HP 311c with a performance ram upgrade (been report of not being good with cheap rams). Battery life is less, but still very good.

Personally, given your requirements, a Eee PC 1005H, or the HP for more oumph for 3D and HD playback.

The HP here will be around £350 with a good RAM upgrade (maybe overkill though), decent battery life, 3 gigs total, and good support for HD and graphics related applications. Not sure if it comes with Windows 7.

The Eee PC have been seen shipping with Windows 7, and they can also come in 11'' formats, and great battery life. The rest is pretty standard compare to other atom netbooks.
 
That's great, thanks Olivier.

Not shipping with Windows 7 isn't a huge issue as I'm buying it for my desktop PC anyway so I'll just install it on both.

Out of the two, which would you choose and why?
 
Just checking out the Compaq Mini 311c and it looks like a winner, however all of the sites I've visited are saying it only takes 1GB of RAM. Is this not true then if you can upgrade it?
 
The Asus 1005Ha is good ( the 1008 having a non removable battery) Preferably with the N280 chip 250HD and windows 7 but this combination don't appear available. Leaving mostly N280 160HD and XP for around £240 Then naturally upgrading the ram to 2GB. The Lenova is also an under valued netbook. Things wont appreciable leap forward till the graphics are addressed. They are a super tool - great for free phone calls from McDonalds wifi etc and will accommodate any written work one is likely to undertake
 
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Are the next gen of netbooks likely to be available for around £350 - 400?
I'm concerned about buying one now only to have a better replacement come out in budget in a few months.
 
The next gen of 'Netbooks', as far as I've seen, are going to be running Atom 300 based dual core chips or similar, and whilst these offer better performance than an N270/N280 - they're still not as good as a CULV Core2/Celeron chips IMO. The TDP of an Atom 280 is about 6W IIRC, and the new 300 (dual core) is about 8-9W - most of the newer CULV laptops are running chips with 10W TDP; So battery life will be comparable to a netbook. To give an example, the Acer I mentioned previously has a battery life of ~6hrs (1410 4400mah) or ~8hrs (1810TZ with 5600mah). The EEPC 1201N with Atom 330 is reported to be good for only about 5 hours.

More CULV based machines will be coming, it would be nice to see CULV matched with an ION chipset, but having said that the Intel 4500MHD isn't too bad.

Get yourself down to one of the big elecric retailers and have a go of an atom based netbook and a CULV based ultraportable.
 
Samsung NC10 with 2gb upgrade. My dad has one and is excellent for net, office, photo editing, running movies and ive even played a few games on it. battery life is excellent as is the wireless and screen. keyboard is also very good
 
Aargh...lol this is what I mean by the conflicting reviews!

The 311c does look up to scratch and I don't mind installing another couple of gigs of RAM myself however am I likely to wish I had waited when the new breed come out next year...or are they going to be more expensive than the 311c?
 
If you wait for the "new breed", then when they arrive, there will most likely be something else around the corner (as is always the case with technology). If you need one now, buy the best that is currently available.
 
Yeah that's very true...I suppose I'm just so used to wanting to get the best bang for my buck with computers and that's not so neccessary with something that will mainly be used for browsing the web.

Okay I'll go to one of the highstreet stores later and pick one up...what RAM do they take?
 
Best bang for buck would be the 311c. Cheap and Ion.

No idea about the Ferrari, but it looks like a good alternative, slightly more powerful than a atom netbook, too much bling for me though. Not sure about battery life, but should be reasonable (1/2 way between netbooks and laptops). Still, I think a atom + ion will do everything the Ferrari does, plus a little extra (hdmi output, and proper hardware HD support).

For me, the Asus UL laptop series (especially the Vt, but waiting on more reviews) look like a winning combination, but far more than your budget.
 
Okay 311c it is...now I need to know which RAM to buy to get the most out of it :)

Also, is there a difference between the 311c 1010SA and the 1020SA?
 
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