Thinking of getting a netbook

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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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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
 
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
 
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?
 
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!
 
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'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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