I see the aging the Acer Aspire One is available at £160 these days which is damned attractive, given the weight and battery life. On the downside it seems its connectivity is buggered once you install XP. Fiddly workarounds involve installing new wireless which I imagine ups the price considerably.
Also considering the
ASUS 1000HE (ticks most boxes)
ASUS Eee PC S101 (Solidstate memory, lightweight)
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (perfect but over budget)
Sammy NC10 (well received, if a bit tired. cheap)
Samsung Pebble (light, robust naff battery life, pricey)
Dell Mini 10 (no idea, but similar ballpark I think)
Sony VIAO W11S (isolated keyboard stylee thing)
Selection criteria:-
Battery life: really think 6 cell is the way to go here. Min 6hrs is what I’m after
Ease of use: this is for my dad. He’s 65+ and all thumbs – good keyboard would be appreciated
Weight: has to be low. The Old Man’s knees are going and every gram counts
Price: as ever lower the better. Hoping for £200, willing to go up to £260-70 at a push
Robustness – anticipating rough handling. Been selling the concept as a book that can be thrown in a knapsack.
Performance: Not fussed. I’m guessing this is going to be used for email/word processing only. HDD size is also unimportant, indeed solid state flash drives are preferable despite their relative low capacity – I imagine they are more efficient to run and reduce weight and likelihood of failure.
OS is not an issue as can install XP over Linux presumably on anything out there.
My dad is clearing off to Oz (his homeland) for 6 months to visit the Oldies one last time (they’re in their 90s) and given the pain involved in retraining him on every new PC he encounters, I figured this would be a worthwhile investment. Email is his newfound choice of communication & he wants to keep a logbook while on the road. I’m also hoping this will unlock the half realised novel in him. It’s taken a lot of convincing as he sees it as an extravagant luxury and I don’t want him leaving the thing at base camp every time he shifts location, for the sake of his dodgy knees or unreliable battery endurance... anyhoo, you get the picture.
Also considering the
ASUS 1000HE (ticks most boxes)
ASUS Eee PC S101 (Solidstate memory, lightweight)
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (perfect but over budget)
Sammy NC10 (well received, if a bit tired. cheap)
Samsung Pebble (light, robust naff battery life, pricey)
Dell Mini 10 (no idea, but similar ballpark I think)
Sony VIAO W11S (isolated keyboard stylee thing)
Selection criteria:-
Battery life: really think 6 cell is the way to go here. Min 6hrs is what I’m after
Ease of use: this is for my dad. He’s 65+ and all thumbs – good keyboard would be appreciated
Weight: has to be low. The Old Man’s knees are going and every gram counts
Price: as ever lower the better. Hoping for £200, willing to go up to £260-70 at a push
Robustness – anticipating rough handling. Been selling the concept as a book that can be thrown in a knapsack.
Performance: Not fussed. I’m guessing this is going to be used for email/word processing only. HDD size is also unimportant, indeed solid state flash drives are preferable despite their relative low capacity – I imagine they are more efficient to run and reduce weight and likelihood of failure.
OS is not an issue as can install XP over Linux presumably on anything out there.
My dad is clearing off to Oz (his homeland) for 6 months to visit the Oldies one last time (they’re in their 90s) and given the pain involved in retraining him on every new PC he encounters, I figured this would be a worthwhile investment. Email is his newfound choice of communication & he wants to keep a logbook while on the road. I’m also hoping this will unlock the half realised novel in him. It’s taken a lot of convincing as he sees it as an extravagant luxury and I don’t want him leaving the thing at base camp every time he shifts location, for the sake of his dodgy knees or unreliable battery endurance... anyhoo, you get the picture.
