Today i went to the store and had a play with the following:
Samsung NC10 - Initially i didn't like this at all, but after a while it grew on me. The screen size is nice, the keyboard is a good size thought the keys didn't really dip very much. It seems quick and responsive and the touch pad was good.
Dell Mini 9 - what can i say. My first impressions of this were excellent. The screen was bright and glossy - the NC10 next to it looked like an old cheap TFT in comprison. The touch pad was the best of all the notebooks and netbooks i played with. The machine was snappy and booted up very quickly thanks to the SSD. The keyboard felt nice, but it was smaller than the NC10 and the layout was not nearly as good.
Advent 4213 - Closed, this looked very nice, open it was still ok but nowhere near as solid as the dell. The screen was nice and the keyboard ok. The machine was just as quick as the others, though the touchpad was not in the same league as the Samsung and Dell.
Eee 901 - I was not as impressed with this as i thought i might be - really there was nothing wrong with it, but it just didn't do it for me. The screen was nice, though i prefered the 10" one despite being the same resolution. The machine was responsive and the touch pad good. I even found the keyboard better then reviews has suggested. Build quality was good, it looked like it could take a little absue and seemed to be on par with the Samsung.
Overall though I just found the glossy screen and build quality of the dell mini 9 far better than any of the others on display. If only they had produced a slightly better keyboard.
I did also try the HP something or other, however it was password locked. It did look very nice and felt sturdy. THe brushed alumin lid was a nice effect and the keyboard was a very good size. Unfortunately I couldn't really test anything else.
