Netbook for £200-300?

sjt269 · 17 Sep 2012 at 22:46

Hey all,

I'm looking for a light, portable laptop for travelling with. I'm aiming for between £200 and £300, and I have no particular criteria other than it must be capable and good battery life would be a plus.

There are plenty around for ~£200, though most not capable of playing HD video (this would be nice, but doesn't trouble me overly). Do they still offer a decent, snappy experience, or are they cheap but sluggish? All I'll really be doing with it is basic MS Office type stuff and video/audio playback. Must be reliable - I will likely end up using it to give presentations, and I can't have it fail on me in the middle of something important!

Thanks,
Steven

CEUOTC · 17 Sep 2012 at 23:23

sjt269 said:
Hey all,

I'm looking for a light, portable laptop for travelling with. I'm aiming for between £200 and £300, and I have no particular criteria other than it must be capable and good battery life would be a plus.

There are plenty around for ~£200, though most not capable of playing HD video (this would be nice, but doesn't trouble me overly). Do they still offer a decent, snappy experience, or are they cheap but sluggish? All I'll really be doing with it is basic MS Office type stuff and video/audio playback. Must be reliable - I will likely end up using it to give presentations, and I can't have it fail on me in the middle of something important!

Thanks,
Steven

ASUS 1025CE-PUR014S Netbook 12hr battery.

or

Lenovo IdeaPad S205 11.6-inch Laptop.

Regards.

C.

sjt269 · 18 Sep 2012 at 00:55

The Lenovo is a little pricy, it's just over £300. The Asus looks very interesting, can't find many decent reviews on it though, and one said that it can't be upgraded from 1Gb RAM to 2Gb, which is a minor shame. And also every 1025CE I find seems to be purple - some reviews show red ones, but I can't see them on sale. Looks good though.

M1k3H · 18 Sep 2012 at 02:18

i cannot stress this enough... DO NOT get a netbook.
I've had 2 so far. Thing is, the atom processors in them are SO slow. VERY slow.
I mean, it's ok for basic tasks like browsing but anything else, no, just no.

Got a dual core atom upgraded it to 2GB of ram. I've got office on it. NEVER used it. The keyboard sucks. It is so small, and cramped that you constantly press the wrong buttons. This can be helped if you do not use any other keyboard and get used to it, but again, not very good.

Unfortunately when I bought my latest netbook, tablets weren't suited for a bit of work. Now however, I'm going to buy a tablet when the time comes and use a keyboard if needed.

The good thing however, is the battery life. I get 7 hours WiFi/browsing on around 70% brightness, 5 hours of video playback (mind you 720p struggles to play, 1080 no chance) so its useful in the plane as a movie player.

CEUOTC · 18 Sep 2012 at 06:23

sjt269 said:
The Lenovo is a little pricy, it's just over £300. The Asus looks very interesting, can't find many decent reviews on it though, and one said that it can't be upgraded from 1Gb RAM to 2Gb, which is a minor shame. And also every 1025CE I find seems to be purple - some reviews show red ones, but I can't see them on sale. Looks good though.

You could try and pick up a M11xR1 or R2 second hand?

Regards.

C.

sjt269 · 18 Sep 2012 at 08:53

M1k3H said:
i cannot stress this enough... DO NOT get a netbook.
I've had 2 so far. Thing is, the atom processors in them are SO slow. VERY slow.
I mean, it's ok for basic tasks like browsing but anything else, no, just no.

I know it'll be slow compared to what I'm used to, but it won't be for daily use and the portability aspect really appeals to me for travel duties. A tablet won't really cut it for what I need - I need to be able to reply to a lot of e-mails and write/give presentations, and a keyboard is useful (if not entirely essential) for that.

It also helps that it's not strictly my money, it's my startup grant that's mine to spend as I wish on whatever equipment I choose. The money doesn't come from my pocket (and in fact, the equipment I buy technically remains the property of the university). This also poses slight issues with secondhand purchases, but sometimes means I can buy things for trade prices, so perhaps my effective budget is higher if I can find a shop with a business selling division (like OcUK - shame they no longer sell netbooks, I just spent £1k on a new work system from them).

CEUOTC · 18 Sep 2012 at 17:44

sjt269 said:
I know it'll be slow compared to what I'm used to, but it won't be for daily use and the portability aspect really appeals to me for travel duties. A tablet won't really cut it for what I need - I need to be able to reply to a lot of e-mails and write/give presentations, and a keyboard is useful (if not entirely essential) for that.

It also helps that it's not strictly my money, it's my startup grant that's mine to spend as I wish on whatever equipment I choose. The money doesn't come from my pocket (and in fact, the equipment I buy technically remains the property of the university). This also poses slight issues with secondhand purchases, but sometimes means I can buy things for trade prices, so perhaps my effective budget is higher if I can find a shop with a business selling division (like OcUK - shame they no longer sell netbooks, I just spent £1k on a new work system from them).

You could look at the dell outlet store for a XPS 13 Ultrabook, Inspiron 14z Ultrabook or Inspiron N411Z.

Regards.

C.