Thinking of getting a netbook

~D~

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As per title really.

I've been looking around for quite a while and I've made up a potential shortlist. Can anyone advise me as to the significant pros and cons of the ones I have listed?

Basically all I want one for is easy portability so I can have it knocking about in my bag all the time without it weighing me down like my current 2.5kg laptop does. I'll be using it for doing work and writing notes, so I'll be putting MS Office / OpenOffice on there and all of my work (and maybe pictures), but I wont be doing anything very taxing - maybe watching the odd film.

One of my choices is a 10.2" screen but I am wondering if this ventures out of the 'ultraportable' area, although I am not sure if I will find a 8.9" too small as I have never used one.

My shortlist is:
Dell Inspiron Mini 9
Samsung NC10
Toshiba NB100

For all of those that notice the Eee and ONE missing, I didn't like the looks and battery life respectively.

Thanks :-)
 
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Well I'd go for the Dell mini 9. I use a 24" tft at home and my other laptop is a 15.4 1680x1050, and the 8.9" screen on my aspire one is perfectly fine.

Dell is:
* lighter - granted due to the 4 cell, but that would be enough for me, buy another 4 cell if you need more.
* completely fanless.
* by far the most upgradable netbook there is.
* cheaper than the other 2.
 
The Dell is £299 (the 16Gb drive version), the Samsung is £300 and the Toshiba is likely to be around the same (with the 512mb option starting at £260), so I think price wont be a differentiating factor here.

I've just read that the 8.9" and 10.2" screens have the same resolution, so does that make the size difference pointless (in regards to screen only)

How easier is it to type 'fast-ish' on the keyboards of each size category?

How long would a 4-cell last on basic usage? (writing documents, web surfing etc).

Looks-wise I much prefer the Toshiba, but it has a 8.9" screen (and is 990g with a reported 4hour battery life) but also has speakers on either side of the keyboard. Wouldn't that make the keyboard awfully small? (smaller than the Eee 901?)

Here's a pic to show you what I mean:
http://laptoping.com/wp-content/toshiba_qosmio_g40.jpg
 
Well I'd take a 16gb SSD over a hdd any day, unless you need the storage. In fact I'd get an 8gb one from tesco and save myself £50

4 cell will get you about 3:30 hours.

As for the tosh I'm surprised, I read it was a 6 cell, no way in hell its 990g on a 6 cell. Do they do a 3 and and 6 cell option? As 990g is about bang on 3 cell netbook weight, and if so there is no way you would get anywhere near 4 hours out of that... and it's the reason you discounted the aspire one.

EDIT: I can't find tosh battery specs anywhere, most sites suggest it will have a 3 and 6 cell option. But I guess it must be a 4 cell for tosh to state 4 hour batt life, also there doesn't even seem to be a common weight, 1.05kg seems to be most popular. The fact there are no solid specs suggests to me its going to be a little while before you can even buy one.

And I have no idea what you are talking about with regards to speakers? The pic you posted doesn't even look remotely like the tosh http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/15/toshiba-satellite-nb100-netbook-gets-spotted-critiqued/
 
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ah, sorry, that was just me being a bit stupid there. The actual NB100 doesn't look anything special, I think that takes it out of the equation for me.

It's now between the 10.2" Samsung, with a bigger keyboard, and purportedly 8hours of battery life with it's 6-cell battery, but it weighs in at 1.3kg

Or the 8.9" Dell, which is 3.5hr battery life, but has a flash drive and weighs in at 1kg
 
Also the dell has no 'F' keys, may or may not be an issue for you.

And sammy batt life will be about 5 hours.
 
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How do you find typing on your AA1 due to the keyboard size?

I've tried an Eee 701 ages ago and I found it quite hard. I know an AA1 would be a bit bigger, but is it frustrating/limiting till you get used to it?
 
Typing on the AA1 is pretty good I havent really had to adjust my style at all. But it is 89% full size, the sammy keyboard doesnt go to the edges and thus isn't that much better at 93%.

I'm afraid I dont know the dell keyboard size I would imagine its not significantly different to the sammy tbh with you.

In contrast the 700's keyboards were a lot smaller, around 80% I think.

You sure an asus is out of the question? Sounds more suited to you than the sammy, a 1000 would be a good choice I think, you can get a config to match what you want (ssd or hdd), with a 6 cell, wireless N, and a 95% sized keyboard.
 
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If the size difference between the keyboard is only 2% between the Asus and the Samsung, I'd go for the latter, since both use high-capacity 6-cell batteries and I much prefer the look of the Samsung.

The down side is the mechanical hard drive but I'm not sure that would adversely affect my experience much.

It's pretty much even between the Dell and Samsung at the moment, so I'll guess I'll just wait for a few more reviews to come out of the Samsung.

Thanks for the help!
 
I have an AA1 with 120gb drive (the ssd in the aspire is too slow to consider) and I find the constant noise annoying, but then I do like to lie in bed with it on my chest etc.

As soon as the mini 9 is out in numbers and the prices have dropped a bit (probably when the mini 12 appears) I'm getting one, as its fanless and ssd it has absolutely no moving parts, being completely silent would be a big plus to me. And as I said for upgradability it cannot be beaten.
 
Yea, you make good points. Technically the Dell is the better option (apart from on battery life), but for some reason I like the Samsung a lot.

What I'd wish from the Dell is a little more than 16Gb storage.

By the way, I've heard that the US Mini 9 is customisable, is there any plans to make the UK version customisable also? I checked it out and the default choices cannot be changed
 
May I ask why you didn't go for a Asus Eee either?

It seems to tick all the boxes and has greater SSD storage (20Gb) plus around 7hrs battery life, which is twice that of the Dell.
 
I am completely happy with my Acer One (White, 120GB HD 1.5GB Ram Running XP SP3)

It looks good, Very quiet, Cheap, Comfortable to use and i can and do take it out and about with me on a daily basis in a rucksack which gets chucked about a bit and i have no problems with hard drive crashing or anything.

I feel i have the best netbook currently available, If something better comes out i'll buy it simple as! but you can keep your Dells etc. mines better!
 
as far as i can tell, the Aspire One has the best keyboard out of all the 8.9" netbooks.

10" ones, i have no idea though...
 
I'd only consider the One when they ship with 6-cell batteries - of which the time is unknown from what I've read. A couple of hours of battery life isn't enough for me.

Just been looking around and those MLC SSDs that the Mini 9 uses are damned expensive - so that's removes the option of upgrading the storage (for now).

A few people have told me that Samsung aren't at all highly regarded in the laptop-world. Why is this? And do you think any issues they've had with their laptop would affect their upcoming netbook?
 
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I'd only consider the One when they ship with 6-cell batteries - of which the time is unknown from what I've read. A couple of hours of battery life isn't enough for me.
Click to expand...

The eee 901 has a 6 cell battery. I get 6-7 hours out of mine,

~D~ said:
Just been looking around and those MLC SSDs that the Mini 9 uses are damned expensive - so that's removes the option of upgrading the storage (for now).
Click to expand...

All these cheap netbooks are almost disposable. By the time you get around to "upgrade" then another version will be out, better than you will have upgraded to and cheaper. Then you will be binning the old one. So dont even think or bother about upgrades, IMO.
 
gone for the Samsung NC10 after having an eee 701 from launch i will really be lloking forward to the almost full size keyboard! I never did get used to the kb on that 701, every thing else was ok, the slightly higher res screen will be a bonus though.

Just hope the reviews turn up good, or i will be wishing i went for the dell?
 
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