larrytucaz
Senior member
I have used laptops before, and also a netbook, a MSI Wind U100 (10", 1024x600, Windows 7, 2G RAM, 200G HD). I currently am expecting a Dell Inspiron 8600 to arrive.
That said, the idea of having a cheap 7" netbook for "everyday" tempts me. I hardly carried my MSI Wind with me (maybe fear of theft-damage etc, especially since it cost $200?) and decided for "longer" computing (say, using at a hotel's Wi-Fi while on a trip) a full-blown laptop, with its larger display, suited me better than a netbook anyway. However, for stowing in a backpack as an "always with me" mini-PC, I wonder if something like a 7" netbook on the cheap may be the answer.
I keep seeing the model below, very often, it has 2G of "NAND Fast Flash" storage, expandable with an SD card, 7" 800x480 display, and Windows CE. I realize, obviously, something like this will be no match for even the MSI Wind I had, let alone the laptop, but for "everyday-beater-always with me"--and with me having a laptop on-hand for when I want a more full-blown PC experience staying at hotel etc--I'm wondering if something like this could work. Especially with it having (apparently) "solid-state" storage (no moving-parts hard drive), being cheaper, and me having a "better" laptop, I might feel more "at ease" taking it with me everyday in ways I didn't with my MSI Wind.
I would mainly use it to check my GMail, browse Yahoo! site, Craigslist and other "minimallist" sites, maybe a LITTLE YouTube here & there, some Facebook etc. I would like to be able to do a little typing in a word processor on occasion, or pull up a spreadsheet (maybe even just Google Docs?) for personal finance.
I also visit pbase.com (a photo-hosting site somewhat like "Flickr") and would LIKE to be able to, say, dump some images (say, 300-500 megabytes worth?) on there and "resize" them for uploading to pbase. To that end, I would LIKE to be able to utilize a "image resizer" and ZIP capability for that. I realize storage would be "tight" for that, this may end up being reserved for the full-blown laptop. For what it's worth, even with my MSI Wind having a 200G hard drive, at the MOST I once "parked" only 1.5G of photos on there at once during a trip before moving to the home's 500G hard drive. In other words, I came nowhere near utilizing that 200G's capacity, I was "thrifty" that way & would certainly be the same with any 7" netbook I'd consider.
My questions are:
(1) First-off, I've seen this particular model before several times, but no one EVER states what the brand-model is. What is it? Reviews? Are batteries easily swapped? I assume battery life would tpically be, say, 2 hours or so?
(2) Regarding Windows CE--I realize I probably can't put the same software on it that I do my XP & 7 machines, but what word-processing, spreadsheet and web browser software is available for it? Web-sites?
(3) With web browsing software, would shrinking the text-size help it SOMEWHAT better mimic, say, how it would look viewed on a 1024x768 display? (I realize, if that's the case, the result would be possibly quite tough on the eyes.) Or is someone apt to do a lot of "pan & scan" with this kind of display?
Thanks for any general advice.
Link to the model: http://cgi.ebay.com/2GB-7-Mini-Netbook-Toy-Computer-WIFI-Windows-CE-6-0-/320559485209
That said, the idea of having a cheap 7" netbook for "everyday" tempts me. I hardly carried my MSI Wind with me (maybe fear of theft-damage etc, especially since it cost $200?) and decided for "longer" computing (say, using at a hotel's Wi-Fi while on a trip) a full-blown laptop, with its larger display, suited me better than a netbook anyway. However, for stowing in a backpack as an "always with me" mini-PC, I wonder if something like a 7" netbook on the cheap may be the answer.
I keep seeing the model below, very often, it has 2G of "NAND Fast Flash" storage, expandable with an SD card, 7" 800x480 display, and Windows CE. I realize, obviously, something like this will be no match for even the MSI Wind I had, let alone the laptop, but for "everyday-beater-always with me"--and with me having a laptop on-hand for when I want a more full-blown PC experience staying at hotel etc--I'm wondering if something like this could work. Especially with it having (apparently) "solid-state" storage (no moving-parts hard drive), being cheaper, and me having a "better" laptop, I might feel more "at ease" taking it with me everyday in ways I didn't with my MSI Wind.
I would mainly use it to check my GMail, browse Yahoo! site, Craigslist and other "minimallist" sites, maybe a LITTLE YouTube here & there, some Facebook etc. I would like to be able to do a little typing in a word processor on occasion, or pull up a spreadsheet (maybe even just Google Docs?) for personal finance.
I also visit pbase.com (a photo-hosting site somewhat like "Flickr") and would LIKE to be able to, say, dump some images (say, 300-500 megabytes worth?) on there and "resize" them for uploading to pbase. To that end, I would LIKE to be able to utilize a "image resizer" and ZIP capability for that. I realize storage would be "tight" for that, this may end up being reserved for the full-blown laptop. For what it's worth, even with my MSI Wind having a 200G hard drive, at the MOST I once "parked" only 1.5G of photos on there at once during a trip before moving to the home's 500G hard drive. In other words, I came nowhere near utilizing that 200G's capacity, I was "thrifty" that way & would certainly be the same with any 7" netbook I'd consider.
My questions are:
(1) First-off, I've seen this particular model before several times, but no one EVER states what the brand-model is. What is it? Reviews? Are batteries easily swapped? I assume battery life would tpically be, say, 2 hours or so?
(2) Regarding Windows CE--I realize I probably can't put the same software on it that I do my XP & 7 machines, but what word-processing, spreadsheet and web browser software is available for it? Web-sites?
(3) With web browsing software, would shrinking the text-size help it SOMEWHAT better mimic, say, how it would look viewed on a 1024x768 display? (I realize, if that's the case, the result would be possibly quite tough on the eyes.) Or is someone apt to do a lot of "pan & scan" with this kind of display?
Thanks for any general advice.
Link to the model: http://cgi.ebay.com/2GB-7-Mini-Netbook-Toy-Computer-WIFI-Windows-CE-6-0-/320559485209
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