Advent Vega & Laptops/Netbooks

Brumboy · 3 Mar 2011 at 17:14

I'm looking to buy a new media device. I will mainly be using it for watching films/browsing the internet/listening to music, pretty basic tasks for when I'm travelling and out the house.

My budget is around £250 (I'll go up to £300 if it's worth it) and at that price I basically have two options, to either get the Advent Vega or a refurbished netbook/laptop. Problem is I can't decide what to get.

The Advent Vega seems awesome for the price and with the modded rom I can play any video file and the battery life is very good.

But then for roughly the same price I can get a refurbished laptop with suprisingly good specs, I've narrowed it down to a few netbooks/laptops:

Netbooks:

PACKARD BELL DOT SE-710UK - £270:

Processor - Intel® Atom™ Processor N550, 1.5 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache
Memory - 1gb ddr2
Screen - 10.1 inch @ 1024 x 600 led
HDD - 250gb
With 3 usb 2.0, wifi, memory card reader, 1.3 webcam, 7.5 hours battery life, windows 7

ACER Aspire One Happy Netbook - £260 with the same specs as the packard bell but has 1gb ddr3 and has android OS built in aswell as windows 7

Laptops:

ADVENT Modena M200 - £260

Processor - dual core celeron T3300, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 Cache
Memory - 2 GB DDR3
Screen - 15.6 inch @ 1366 x 768 led
HDD - 400gb
With 3 usb 2.0, wifi, memory card reader, 1.3 webcam, 2 hours battery life, windows 7, dvd rw

HP G56-130SA - £300

Processor - dual core celeron T4500- 2.30 GHz- 800 MHz FSB- 1 MB L2 Cache
Memory - 4 GB DDR2
Screen - 15.6 inch @ 1366 x 768 led
HDD - 500gb
With 3 usb 2.0, wifi, memory card reader, 1.3 webcam, 3 hours battery life, windows 7 64 bit, dvd rw

Advent Vega seems perfect but for the same price I could get a powerful netbook or laptop. But laptops have very low battery life (around 3 hours) compared to the netbooks (7 hours) and Vega (10 - 16 hours).

I do like the hdd space of the netbooks and laptops though, but thats not a big issue. But the Vega only has 4GB memory and a 32GB card will cost me £40+ so it'll push the price to £300..

So can you give me some advice as to what would be better for me or if you know any other devices which would be better?

Thanks

DaveF · 4 Mar 2011 at 10:36

As an alternative option, Ipad 1's are now available at a hairsbreadth above £300 (or < £300 refurbished, if you can get one).

edscdk · 4 Mar 2011 at 10:39

id not touch anything branded advent

Deleted member 77746 · 4 Mar 2011 at 10:42

edscdk said:
id not touch anything branded advent

Where in the world .........

Mr Paul · 4 Mar 2011 at 11:33

The Vega is actually very good. The only downside is the screen viewing angles. Other than that it's excellent.

Brumboy · 4 Mar 2011 at 23:43

I'm going to buy a netbook rather than a tablet. These are the ones I've narrowed it down to:

HP Mini 210-2006sa - £280
Samsung NF210 - £280
Packard Bell DOT SE/R-710UK - £270
Samsung N150 - £250
Acer One Happy D255 - £227

All of them have the N550 processor, 1GB DDR3 (apart from the Packard Bell), all have 8 hours+ battery life, 250GB HDD, 3 USB 2.0 ports.

I just can't see any major differences between them so I'm stuck trying to choose one. So does anyone have any experience or information on the following netbooks?

DefiantAsh · 5 Mar 2011 at 08:20

I have the Acer Aspire One Happy, but not the bright colours, mines cherry red as i thought it was much nicer than simple black, a bit of contrast. Got mine from the brazilian rainforest for £250 and it is great, use it everyday, and has atleast 6-7 hours battery useage before i stick it on charge when i get home. Can be upgraded to 2GB DDR3 memory, which the DDR3 is quite rare in netbooks below the N550 (dual core) however for some reason, in my dxdiag, it shows (4 CPUs) so ill have to see whats what, might be hyperthreading? meh i dont really know

But yes, it is great, keyboard is easy to use and looks nice, the LED screen is nice a bright, however i have it on minimum brightness when unplugged from power supply, letting my battery last longer of course. But i would recommend the upgrade for the ram, as youtube on your home wireless network is choppy, glitchy and generally feels like its running on an extremely outdated laptop.

For the money i thought it was the best choice, however now i have realised the new Zacate/Fusion netbooks are due to hit the market soon, which is what i was loking deeply into AFTER i bought my netbook

Keep your eyes peeled, but for the money the Acer Aspire One "Happy" or D255 is great.

By the way, if you dont want the bright colours l;ike pink and white or baby blue, search for the netbook under this name i believe: Acer Aspire One D255 Dual Core or N550 and it should be the exact same price, minus the horrid colours