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Which Netbook to get?

J

JoeFahey

Platinum Member
Sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum for this.

So I decided my Lenovo T61p is too heavy and bulky for bike touring. I would like to get a netbook. I am doing research on my own, but I have always found general advice from others on here to be quite valuable.

Profile of needs:
-Battery life is most important (bike touring has fewer option for charging)
-Small (to fit in bike panniers (bags), I think ~10" screen)...this is somewhat flexible
-Lightweight (although most will be roughly the same weight I think)
-Less than $500 and around $400 would be nice (somewhat flexible)
-Need to be able to use Itunes for podcasts (I also use Media Monkey)
-Suitable for email, blog, web surfing, downloads of podcasts and audiobooks, uploading of photos/videos for blog/email, using Ipod Nano
 
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I just got a thin Tohiba Portege at Amazon. I like it.
Netbooks are not the best choice right now, low cost ultrabooks are a better deal for the money.
 
shortylickens said:
I just got a thin Tohiba Portege at Amazon. I like it.
Netbooks are not the best choice right now, low cost ultrabooks are a better deal for the money.
Click to expand...

^ This.

Most of the 10.1in netbooks are Atom N2600 powered with 1GB of RAM, a 250-320GB 4200-5400rpm hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter. An unpleasant user experience. Better spend a little more money for a real machine.
 
Bateluer said:
^ This.

Most of the 10.1in netbooks are Atom N2600 powered with 1GB of RAM, a 250-320GB 4200-5400rpm hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter. An unpleasant user experience. Better spend a little more money for a real machine.
Click to expand...

But this is mostly for bike touring and mabye some minor use at home. Won't a netbook with those stats still be able to meet my basic needs? (web browsing, blog entries, uploading pics/videos, using Itunes?
 
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JoeFahey said:
Will upgrading from 2GB RAM to 4GB RAM significantly reduce battery life?
Click to expand...

You won't make any different in battery life, but I doubt you'll see any performance boost from it. I'm not sure how the C-60 compares to the newest Atoms, but neither are really fast enough to gain any benefit from 4GB of RAM. The Radeon 6290 GPU paired with the C-60 should be far better than all the GPUs paired with the Atoms though.
 
I don't have much to add but that notebook might possibly have the worst keyboard ever and I mean ever.
I had an Acer netbook just like that one with the same keyboard and I wanted to do harm to whoever design that keyboard
 
722 will give you 6 hours of battery life. Keyboard does kinda suck but not at all unusable. Definitely better with an SSD, the 722 with a ~$100 SSD should fit in your budget. Should do everything you plan to do with it within the boundaries of Win7.

If you do get one, check the cpu load at idle once you get it running. Mine was running 12% doing nothing, had to reinstall the wireless LAN driver to get the cpu to settle down.
 
Oyeve said:
Did you even read his needs???
Click to expand...

-Need to be able to use Itunes for podcasts (I also use Media Monkey)
-Suitable for email, blog, web surfing, downloads of podcasts and audiobooks, uploading of photos/videos for blog/email, using Ipod Nano
Click to expand...

Minus that part about iTunes, a TF Pad does meet his requirements. And there's plenty of other apps for podcasts, so I don't see that being an impasse.
 
Yah I knew it might not be quite what he was looking for, but given that battery life is the number one priority I thought it might be worth suggesting.
 
My father has an Acer 722 that I upgraded to 4b of ram and it's decent for what it is. I wouldn't pay $315 for it though. That is getting too close to ultrabook territory once you include the cost of RAM and /or an SSD and I've seen them on slickdeals for $200-$250. At those prices it's a good deal.
 
Got my wife the HP Pavilion dm1-4010 (11.6"); dropped another 4GB of RAM in it and replaced the pokey 5400rpm drive with an SSD, and she loves it. Takes it everywhere, and it does everything she needs. Not a work machine, but for online use it has proven to be well worth the $$.
 
Bought an Acer Eee PC at the end of the year, last year. Upgraded it to 2gigs of ram and threw in a SSD and I couldnt be happier. Great performance for the little things I do (web/emai/research/word processing) and it gets upwards of 7+ hours of battery life. Keyboard is kinda small but you get used to it.
 
someone posted an 11 inch dell i3 at newegg a few months ago for 329 that would be way better than a netbook. atom is just plain horrible
 
I wouldn't get an atom based machine at any price if its running Win7. Tablets, ultra books, and laptops are what you should be looking for.
 
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