Want to get a netbook. Any ideas as to the best one? Dual core?

[KDOG]

I am going to sell off my 6 month old Dell Inspiron 15.6" behemoth since I don't use it for anything but the internet anyway.

Don't know where to start as far as the best netbooks. Are there any dual core netbooks? I of course would like to get the most bang for the buck. Any suggestions?

 

[ultimatebob]

Amusingly, "netbook" computers are pretty lousy for surfing the web. The screen resolution on the screens is normally too low, causing a ton of unnecessary scrolling.

That said, I like the Acer Aspire One models with the slightly larger screen and full size keyboard.

Some netbooks to have dual core atom processors, but they honestly aren't much faster than the single core models.

 

[KDOG]

I was just on HPs' website looking at the ION platform based models with DDR3 memory, up to 3GB which is cool. Look pretty good!

 

[cbrsurfr]

Definitely check them out in a brick and mortar store. I jumped on the netbook bandwagon back in January and I think that was the first and last month I used it. This was a Dell Mini 9 in red. It was kind of neat at first, but I was quickly longing for a real laptop. I could surf OK on it, but as soon as I wanted to order anything or do research I would go back to a regular laptop.

 

[CurseTheSky]

As others have said, make sure to try before you buy. I almost jumped on the bandwagon early on, but I saw on in a B&M store (Staples or Best Buy, I think) and couldn't believe just how tiny it was. Far too tiny to be practical for me.

There are also the "CULV" line of laptops that are groing in popularity, like the ASUS UL series and Acer Timeline. They essentially bridge the gap between notebooks and netbooks in performance, price, and generally size. You can pick up a 11.6-14.1" CULV laptop for anywhere between $450 and $850ish. Check out the ASUS UL20A or UL30A if you want something with a bigger screen and keyboard and a bit more performance, but still want to keep the price down a bit and prefer something thin and light.

 

[JWade]

Best netbook I have used so far is the latitude 2100. it is built extremely strong. It is what I am using over here in Iraq. I got the extended battrey for it, and it can run 5.5 to 6 hours on it. Only complaint I have about it is i think the touchpad buttons are louder than I am used to, but thats it. One I would love to try and test out is the HP DM3 1030US, dual core amd neo, 4gb ram, better screen resolution than the standard netbook. 13" also. at 3200 graphics too. if it would get 4.5+ hours of battery life, that would easily become my new favorite.

 

[Skott]

The better netbooks will have the new nVidia ION graphics I'm thinking. They are just now hitting the market so look for them. Right now choices are limited but the selection will grow once we get past the holidays and the manufacturers start ramping up production.

If you want near netbook size but slightly better performance overall look at the Acer 1810T and the 1810Tz. They have 11.6" monitors and the 4500MHD graphics chipset. The T model has a better cpu though. A SU7300 as opposed to SU4100 or less the Tz model has.

 

[Farfrumhumpn]

IBM X200. Faster than any Netbook and barely bigger. Of course, at close to $1,000 it is a bit pricier

Bang for the buck check out the Asus N10

The Fujitsu LifeBook P3010 is also a very nice offering with the new AMD neo processor though it's single-core but boats the HD3200 IGP at arround $550.

 

[Schadenfreude]

These aren't "netbooks" in a sense, but the size and peformance gains - in comparison to a netbook - would be huge;

Dell Vostro V13 - one word; sexy - and currently the lowest settings would make it competitive price-point wise, against other netbooks.

Asus UL30VT - this has a discreet GPU on top of the sleek design (IMO), but also costs more than 2x the Dell.