Netbook owners?

[ProudMarineDad]

Anyone on here own a netbook?

I am thinking about buying a low end computer for two reasons. One, to surf the net when I am in my recliner while playing my Xbox 360 or PS3.

Two, yeah I know I am a glutton for punishment but I love to listen to the Atlanta Braves on the radio after I go to bed. I am old school I know but unfortunately no FM affiliate carries them and the closest AM station isn't strong enough. I have a membership on MLB.com to get the audio feed so I wanted to use the netbook for this.

Any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[sagedil]

I absolutely LOVE my netbook. But did take me about a month to fully adjust to the screen size, some of my forums I use, gotta move all over.

But once I got used to it, I absolutely love it. Hate surfing the net on my desktop at home now. I watch TV on it too. Sure screen is small, but it is right by my head, so light, can sit for hours on my chest and I never feel it.

Now, I have an Acer, and can not recommend it. Quality is less than ideal. Yes, I have 160 GB hard drive, runs Windows XP. But sound crapped out after a week, have to use external sound now or earphones. Keyboad started sticking, so can't post anything without spending 5 minutes correcting. And now power cord has crapped out twice. Dell is making Netbooks now, my next one WILL be a Dell

But huge fan of the concept.

[ProudMarineDad]

Funny thing is I would be using it with headphones because my wife is not much of a Braves fan. :lol:

I wonder is Asus netbooks are any good. They are cheaper on price but not sure about the quality of them.

Also, I work for a division of IBM so I can get a decent discount on Lenevo computers so I might go that way. Just wanted some feedback from this diverse crowd so I should have known the Sage man would step up. Thanks as always. I was wondering about the Acer brand.

[sagedil]

I have heard OK things about Aseus, but I think they use flash drives Much smaller. And a bit strangely, slower running windows according to all the reviews I read before buying the Acer.

But Big boys have figured out Netbooks here to stay, so better options these days. But as a concept, I am in love.

Just waiting for third power cord to come so I can use mine again.

[sundog]

The top 8 Asus netbooks over at newegg.com all have 160 GB hard drives.

Asus is a fine brand. Been using stuff made by them for years.

But I'm seriously looking a the new netbook from Nokia.

[sagedil]

Ah, they got smart. Acer proved that was where the market would head I am assuming

Nokia?? Have a link???

[Snusophile]

Funny thing is I would be using it with headphones because my wife is not much of a Braves fan. :lol:

I wonder is Asus netbooks are any good. They are cheaper on price but not sure about the quality of them.

Also, I work for a division of IBM so I can get a decent discount on Lenevo computers so I might go that way. Just wanted some feedback from this diverse crowd so I should have known the Sage man would step up. Thanks as always. I was wondering about the Acer brand.

I can recommend Lenovo. The school I teach in uses Lenovo laptop computers in every class and boy do they take a beating. They're still working great after a few years in the hands of hundreds of high schoolers.

[ProudMarineDad]

Ah, they got smart. Acer proved that was where the market would head I am assuming

Nokia?? Have a link???

Found this one. Will look for some more.

http://www.netbookreviews.net/news/nokia-booklet/

[lxskllr]

I have the Asus Eee900 witha 16gb SSD HD. The SSD's kind of pokey, but I prefer that to a standard HD. The keyboard isn't the best either, but I mostly fixed it by putting aluminum foil under it. I may do a little more tweaking to get the couple problematic keys working better. I'm running Ubuntu-eee(now called Easy Peasy), and I'm completely happy with it. I'd buy a faster SSD, but I don't really have the money atm.

[ProudMarineDad]

I have the Asus Eee900 witha 16gb SSD HD. The SSD's kind of pokey, but I prefer that to a standard HD. The keyboard isn't the best either, but I mostly fixed it by putting aluminum foil under it. I may do a little more tweaking to get the couple problematic keys working better. I'm running Ubuntu-eee(now called Easy Peasy), and I'm completely happy with it. I'd buy a faster SSD, but I don't really have the money atm.

I had even thought about the cheapest one with the small screen because as I mentioned, it won't be used a bunch. Just mostly a $250 radio.

[lxskllr]

I had even thought about the cheapest one with the small screen because as I mentioned, it won't be used a bunch. Just mostly a $250 radio.

That works well. My daughter has the Eee700, and that was what made me want to get mine. The 9" screen is far more usable, and worth a bit of a price premium to me, but I could use the 7" also. Woot.com has had Eees for under $200. They just had a Eee900 for $170 over the weekend. Only a 4gb HD, and the ram was only 512mb, but the price is hard to beat.

[sagedil]

Ah, they got smart. Acer proved that was where the market would head I am assuming

Nokia?? Have a link???

Found this one. Will look for some more.

http://www.netbookreviews.net/news/nokia-booklet/

Very, very nice. And at about the price point I would expect to pay for my next netbook.

Thank you, I had not heard of this one yet, definitely moves to the top of my list.

[sundog]

Anybody here a slashdotter? :lol:

[chadizzy1]

i remember an old OJ simpson "DOS" joke from when that was going on.

how do you run the OJ simpson program in DOS?
type in BACKSLASH BACKSLASH ESCAPE

haahahahaha

[Ainkor]

I'd honestly hold off on buying a netbook until the holiday season at least. Being a tech whore myself, I keep pretty on top of things and there are some very cool upgrades coming. Here is a few to whet your whistle:

Better processors (some coming in early to mid 2010 though) mostly in the area of non-atom based netbooks. AMD and Intel are putting out some pretty decent ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) chips. Remember that even a Celeron processor has about twice the umph as an Atom chip at the same clock speed.

Better video cards - Keep and eye out for the ION chipset from Nvidia. It's able to do full screen HD videos and will make netbooks almost acceptable for most as a primary computing device

Any cash you spend right now on one would be wasted though, IMO.