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Need Advice netbooks recommendations.

Discussion in 'Community Broadband & Computers' started by bryty2000, Oct 5, 2009.

  1. bryty2000

    bryty2000 New Member

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    Looking to buy a netbook but not sure which is worth my money there are too many options, don't know much about computer so I'm looking to my savvy neighbors for recommendations, I just needed to surf the net and email.
     
  2. Tech Head

    Tech Head New Member

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    I'm waiting for the Windows7 models to come out on 10/22.
     
  3. razng2grtboys

    razng2grtboys New Member

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    I was going to wait, but my wife's laptop finally died. I swore I'd never have Vista in this house, but I just bought a Dell. I made sure it came with a 'free' upgrade to Windows 7....crossing my fingers....
     
  4. Sasquatch519

    Sasquatch519 Member

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    I bought a netbook for the wife about 9 months ago. She also only does web/email stuff on it. Since size is the top priority for netbooks, the keyboards are made small, so know that they're not ideal for typing your next novel. Also, they don't really pack much power into netbooks either.

    I'd recommend waiting to see if they make netbooks with Windows 7, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, simply because netbooks might not have enough power to run it. I'd also recommend getting the highest resolution screen you can. The resolutions aren't terribly high on them, so there's often a lot of scrolling involved to read a webpage. My wife's resolution is 1024x600 on a 10.1" screen, and when bringing up google maps, you can't actually see the top and bottom of the map at the same time without scrolling. More on screens and resolutions later.

    One thing that was critical for me - does the netbook have an accessible RAM slot? I found that most do not. It's an interesting story: Microsoft wanted everyone to switch from XP to Vista, so they stopped selling XP. People/companies were unhappy because Vista sucked for a variety of reasons, so Microsoft relented and started selling XP again, but for more than Vista. They would charge downgrade fees to people buying new PCs with XP instead of Vista, and according to an article I read back then, they didn't want to sell any PC with both XP and more than 1 GB of RAM, so the average PC user would get their new PC with XP, but so little RAM that they would think XP is slow compared to Vista. This factors in here - basically all netbook will come with 1 GB of RAM, which is just too little in my opinion. Most don't allow you to upgrade the RAM because they don't have an access panel in the bottom. I found that 9 months ago, HP netbooks did. I forget the exact model we got (I think the Mini 1035?), but it looks similar to the HP Mini 110 XP on their website today. I upgraded the RAM to 2 GB before even turning it on (cost: $40) and I'm sure it saved me from having to deal with many extra complaints from the user (wife). (RAM upgrades are pretty simple, I can cover that in a different post if you want, I'm sure there's plenty of tutorials online too.) Before buying one, go to a store like Best Buy where they have them all on display and look at the bottom to see if there's a panel that allows you to swap out RAM chips.

    Back to screen resolutions - it looks like the HP Mini 110 has a 10.1" screen at 1024x600, and has an optional upgrade to 1366x768. The HP Mini 311 is larger and heavier and has an 11.6" screen with the 1366x768 resolution standard. I definitely recommend the higher resolution with whichever model you go with.

    You didn't mention anything about your budget. You can save about $100 on a netbook by getting a Linux version instead of Windows, but I wouldn't really recommend that if you aren't that computer savvy.

    I'd recommend the HP netbooks (and that's a hard thing for me to say, since I know how bad HP/Compaq PC's have sucked in the past.) If you want another brand to consider, try Asus. They make good motherboards and are kind of new entrants into the netbook market.
     
  5. SW Hokie

    SW Hokie New Member

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    We got the Toshiba netbook at Best Buy -- has 9 hours of battery life, which was great when taking on an airplane and watching movies that we downloaded from our home desktop. Also easy to use for hanging out and surfing the web when watching TV, checking emails, etc.
     
  6. exbubba

    exbubba New Member

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    We just got an ACER package from COSTCO- $300 - includes external DVD Drive, pouch, and wireless mouse. Similar battery life to Toshiba. I bet they keep XP as W 7 is too fat. Same aspects as posts above
     
  7. bryty2000

    bryty2000 New Member

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    Sasquatch519 I appreciate all the information you supplied; as always I thank you guys for your wisdom in tech dept.:)
     
  8. Tech Head

    Tech Head New Member

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