Netbook performance

NotAGolf · 26 Dec 2011 at 21:40

I've recently been using my desktop less and less since moving into my new place and am thinking about getting a netbook as I spend most of my time in the living room these days!

I've been looking at the cheaper options around the £200 mark. Maybe the ASUS 1015PX. They all seem to have roughly the same spec, atom n450 or thereabouts with 1gb ram.

I will be using the netbook for what it's been designed to do; web browsing, youtube, downloading and a bit of word processing/spreadsheet work.

My only concern is the performance side of things as I'm used to a decently powered desktop. Now I'm obviously not expecting to play games on it, (well maybe flash ones!), but is it pretty smooth when it comes to the tasks listed above or is it quite noticeable that you're running a naff spec? I don't want to load up a flash heavy website and it to struggle as I think that would wind me up very quickly.

I like the idea of a netbook over a laptop pretty much solely on the size and the price. I'd prefer to have a nice small, quiet, light netbook on my lap rather than a louder more chunkier laptop.

Anyone been in a similar situation and 'downgraded' to something smaller? Any thoughts?

NotAGolf · 27 Dec 2011 at 11:25

Hmm, not particularly positive.

I don't want to worry about having to upgrade bits (SSD, extra ram etc) as soon as I get it. Nor do I want to spend time faffing with linux. I wouldn't mind dumping on a standard ubuntu distro.

I didn't really consider the screen resolution either. Dropping from 1920x1080 down to 1024x600 would be quite a shock!

Maybe I'll look for a look for a laptop instead, perhaps one with a 13" screen rather than 15/17. Looks to be a fair bit more expensive to go down the laptop route though... Any suggestions?

NotAGolf · 28 Dec 2011 at 10:33

Thanks knuckles and jonifen. Just had a quick read up of that laptop and flick through the thread linked.

Quite impressive. Seems to have the speed and resolution advantage over the notebooks, but is only a touch bigger and for only a few quid more looks to be a lot more powerful. I might have to go instore and have a play with one.

Anything else worth looking at along the lines of that HP?

NotAGolf · 1 Jan 2012 at 21:59

Thanks for the advice guys.

I plumped for the HP dm1 in the end. I got it for £300 with £30 cashback so effectively cost me £270.

I've had it for a couple of days now an have been very impressed. In normal activities I can barely notice a difference in performance between this and my desktop! It's small and light, the battery is lasting 7ish hours which is pretty good as it's been pretty much installing stuff, downloading and copying/moving files around all this time.

I went to look at it in a purple store to compare it before I bought it and have to say that in terms of looks and feel the dm1 is superior to anything else I saw, and 1366x768 is a pretty hefty difference to the 1024x600 screens. There's no way I could read off a 1024x600 screen for any length of time.

The only disappointment I have at this time is the speakers. Unless speakers in other laptop at this range are really god awful, I don't know why they're pushing the 'beats audio' label as imo it sucks!