Netbooks: the TrekBBS Opinion

[RevdKathy]

So I was in Tesco this morning, and spotted a huge display of Acer Aspire One netbooks on offer. Which means they've arrive in the mass market!

Clearly there are still new players to bring their offerings to the table, but I did a bit of research, and wondered what the knowledgeable denizens of TrekBBS though.

Among the Aspire One set, the 110 is probably not worth the effort. Lightest of the set, it boasts 8gb of flash memory. A quick investigate shows that linux linpus lite takes up nearly half of that, so your storage is, to say the least, limited. The 150 has a decent disk drive and comes in a linux version and, for an extra £50 an XP version. It seems the netbooks are providing a new home for XP, as it will run on the sort of hardware that crawls to a standstill with vista. That comes in a little heavier though, at 1.2kg.

There are plenty of others on the market. Dell, Fujitsu, even LG have produced something to fit the hand luggage/manbag niche.

So here's my needs: In the UK, I can generally carry my laptop with me if I'm away from home. I don't really need anything smaller. Not need £250-300, anyway. On the other hand, having something I could read pdf/e-book, and word docs on, and type in a useable word-processor would be really useful for the rare occasion I go overseas. I wouldn't be wanting to access the intenet overseas - I ain't rich enough for that. But in the UK, the lappie uses a t-mobile 3g dongle - and it feels kind of stupid to buy a portable device that won't connect using that!

Sources tell me that the AA1 XP will connect using the dongle (and I can pinch the drivers off the CD onto a USB flash if I have any trouble) but the linpus linux lite lacks the drivers and the facility to install such a dongle - though acer say 'soon' (as in September 08... which isn't 'soon' now!)

So.... does anyone have one of these beasties? Which is the best of the bunch? What new products might emerge before Christmas? What would you do?

 

[USS KG5]

Among the Aspire One set, the 110 is probably not worth the effort. Lightest of the set, it boasts 8gb of flash memory. A quick investigate shows that linux linpus lite takes up nearly half of that, so your storage is, to say the least, limited.

Yes but these are not comparable to proper laptops - the performance is extremely poor by even the standards of a cheap proper laptop.

They are - as you say - "Netbooks" - meant for very light use as internet browsers and for very basic office stuff. Nothing on them really requires a lot of storage except potentially multimedia - and they are not aimed at that market.

On the other hand, having something I could read pdf/e-book, and word docs on, and type in a useable word-processor would be really useful for the rare occasion I go overseas. I wouldn't be wanting to access the intenet overseas - I ain't rich enough for that. But in the UK, the lappie uses a t-mobile 3g dongle - and it feels kind of stupid to buy a portable device that won't connect using that!

Well one would imagine that the dongle suppliers have made a basic attempt to get working with linux notebooks - but id go up-range for an XP-home model and be certain if I was you.

So.... does anyone have one of these beasties? Which is the best of the bunch? What new products might emerge before Christmas? What would you do?

The Eee PC from Asus still has the market lead - and can now be had as a reasonable spec. However I'd go for a mid-range model with XP home for your purposes and you will be fine.

I'd recommend the higher-res screen if you plan to do a lot of screen reading.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I just ordered an Aspire 150L, 120gb hard drive, 1gb DDR2. It's just for use in the bedroom, browsing the net, play some music, maybe watch some iPlayer from time to time. Here's the link if you're interested.

 

[Captain Intrepid]

What would you do?

Nothing unless it was free. Everything i need to do is covered by my laptop and my iPod touch. I have the laptop if I know i'm going to be doing work and the ipod is great for the unexpected stuff.

 

[RevdKathy]

I just ordered an Aspire 150L, 120gb hard drive, 1gb DDR2. It's just for use in the bedroom, browsing the net, play some music, maybe watch some iPlayer from time to time. Here's the link if you're interested.

Can you let me know what you think of it when it arrives, please? What it's like for browsing (it has firefox) and for typing word docs. I'd also like to see how big a multi-page word doc is on it, and a pdf file. If I stick half a dozen pdf journal articles on it, will be it full? Those sorts of things.

If Acer/the dongle makers can sort out the issue of the dongle drivers, that might do what I want. I confess I am uneasy about the massive lack of storage on the 110. I see the XP version is slightly cheaper in tesco-direct.

Does anyone have the 'market leader'? they could comment on?

Is there anything else on the market that would handle word writing and pdf reading more cheaply? (I'm assuming the lappie will meet the Uk internet needs.) What about fancy mobile phone? (am due an upgrade!) I ned a keyboard - can't really type 2000 words on an alpha-numeric phone-pad!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I just ordered an Aspire 150L, 120gb hard drive, 1gb DDR2. It's just for use in the bedroom, browsing the net, play some music, maybe watch some iPlayer from time to time. Here's the link if you're interested.

Can you let me know what you think of it when it arrives, please? What it's like for browsing (it has firefox) and for typing word docs. I'd also like to see how big a multi-page word doc is on it, and a pdf file. If I stick half a dozen pdf journal articles on it, will be it full? Those sorts of things.

If Acer/the dongle makers can sort out the issue of the dongle drivers, that might do what I want. I confess I am uneasy about the massive lack of storage on the 110. I see the XP version is slightly cheaper in tesco-direct.

Does anyone have the 'market leader'? they could comment on?

Is there anything else on the market that would handle word writing and pdf reading more cheaply? (I'm assuming the lappie will meet the Uk internet needs.) What about fancy mobile phone? (am due an upgrade!) I ned a keyboard - can't really type 2000 words on an alpha-numeric phone-pad!

Sure thing, but the model I've ordered has a 120gb hard drive, so shouldn't be short on space. From a couple of reviews I've read the battery life with the supplied battery is a little on the low side ~2.5 hours. But from what I hear the keyboard is much better for typing on than the Asus models.

 

[Vinta 18]

^ My problem with the EeePC is the keyboard. The right-hand shift key is too small so you end up pressing the "up" button most of the time. I switched to Acer Aspire 1 XP home with 120GB drive and a 6-cell battery. I can do a lot of stuff on it (even Photoshop) and it has 5.5 hours on a full charge.

 

[Marc]

^ My problem with the EeePC is the keyboard. The right-hand shift key is too small so you end up pressing the "up" button most of the time. I switched to Acer Aspire 1 XP home with 120GB drive and a 6-cell battery. I can do a lot of stuff on it (even Photoshop) and it has 5.5 hours on a full charge.

I have a client doing some evals on the Aspire One vs the EeePC (mobile users on the road needing web access for contact software) so I've had a chance to look at both.

Ideally I'd like the keyboard of the Acer on the Asus because yes the Asus keyboard is a bit of pain and it's not just the shift key.

There's no ` next to the 1 so the top row is too far to the left and I kept mistyping.

To me the Asus has the better screen.

The bummer is the Asus doesn't seem to have the option of a second battery (it's removable just nothing in the options list - Acer has the battery option but they seem to be hard to find in South Australia). Supposedly the Asus battery lasts up to 7 hours but we need to have it up for closer 10 to be on the safe side.

 

[little_chris]

The MSI Wind looks to be a nice piece of kit.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1NywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

 

[constovich]

I am posting from a Acer Aspire 150 - 120Gb hdd with XP that I have split with a partition for ubuntu. I like it.

 

[RevdKathy]

Will the XP edition run all the software and hardware that any other XP kit will (eg. 3G dongle, camera, portable mouse)? because if so, that's probably what I want, I just need to wait for the price to come down a bit.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Will the XP edition run all the software and hardware that any other XP kit will (eg. 3G dongle, camera, portable mouse)? because if so, that's probably what I want, I just need to wait for the price to come down a bit.

Yeah, obviously so long as the hardware meets minimum spec. £279.99 seems to be the cheapest XP version on Play. If you happen to have a retail version of Windows XP you could always get the Linux version, and install XP on it, too.

 

[RevdKathy]

Tesco direct have it for £269.99, I think. I suspect at this point having decided that a lot of what I want won't run on linux I'm going to be chasing XP version. I might wait for the price to come down, though.

I am also tempted by the sony Xperia1 as a possible solution since I'm due a phone upgrade.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Tesco direct have it for £269.99, I think. I suspect at this point having decided that a lot of what I want won't run on linux I'm going to be chasing XP version. I might wait for the price to come down, though.

I am also tempted by the sony Xperia1 as a possible solution since I'm due a phone upgrade.

I think this phone looks pretty cool.

 

[RevdKathy]

Doesn't have enough of what I want: right now the phone upgrade is a straight choice between the c905 or the Xperia1. The latter has all the smartphone features I want, including a qwerty keyboard, while the latter has an SE 8mpix camera. Why they couldn't do a phone with both, I don't know!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Doesn't have enough of what I want: right now the phone upgrade is a straight choice between the c905 or the Xperia1. The latter has all the smartphone features I want, including a qwerty keyboard, while the latter has an SE 8mpix camera. Why they couldn't do a phone with both, I don't know!

Personally, I'd say go with the one that does the most of what you want. A stand alone digital camera is always going to be better than one built in to a phone. I know one built in to your phone is more convenient, though.

 

[RaulMacca]

The wife gave me an acer aspire with Linux and I think it's a nifty little thing and runs alot faster than it should, I dare say because Linpus is not a resource hog.

Sure it has limited memory but it does have two slots for memory cards so you can add many GB's to the memory if you want, But I have to ask with a netbook not being a primary computer just how much space does one need to save emails and documents.

For email/surfing/typing I'd give them the thumbs up, for anything else I say buy a laptop/desktop.

 

[RevdKathy]

Email/surfing/typing is what I want it for. But until it can connect over 3g, it's not a lot of use for that. Added to which my surfing tends to include the use of wimba pronto, which won't run on linux. I'd be quite happy to take the 110 if I could get it to run the 3g dongle.

 

[RaulMacca]

I have a "three" 3g dongle for my aspire and a geek for a wife, she got it up and running quickly enough.

 

[RevdKathy]

I have a "three" 3g dongle for my aspire and a geek for a wife, she got it up and running quickly enough.

That's what I want to hear!!!!

RaulMacca, please, please would you ask your good lady geek to write an idiots' guide written for someone who has never 'done' linux on connecting a t-mobile dongle to an acer aspire and send it me? Pretty pretty please. The people on the acer aspire forums and quite condescending to us novices who can gut and fillet windows, but start blubbing our lips at linux.