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Netbooks - Hardware CRIMP?
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Posted by JohnK
Dec 6, 2008 at 01:40 AM
If you go down the netbook route, you do need to give it a serious test run. I considered buying one a few months ago. I didn’t try every model on the market, but those I did try all has dreadful keyboards. Fine for occasional web browsing, or updating documents in short bursts, but you couldn’t do any real work on them.
It’s not just netbooks, of course. Keyboards seem to be an afterthought on laptops in general. I tried one of the gorgeous new Macbooks recently, and the keyboard was a big disappointment. Spongy and mushy. No proper feel. At least with a desktop you get to choose your keyboard.
In the end, I used the money I had set aside for a netbook to buy a second-hand Thinkpad X31. A bit heavier (1.6kg) and larger (12”) than the netbooks, of course, but the best keyboard in laptop-land and it’s built like a tank. I can write on it all day without wishing I was at my desktop.
Posted by JJ
Dec 6, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Jan Rifkinson wrote:
>
>
>JJ wrote:
>>The best deal is to use the Microsoft Live
>>Seach/Ebay/PayPal deal and
>get 30% back… I paid ~$390!!!
>
>I searched & searched for a price even close to this
>w/o luck. EXactly how did you manage this? Thanks.
JAN:
You have to:
#1. Sign-up with MS Live Search
#2. Use the “Buy Now” option on Ebay
#3. Use PayPal for your purchase.
They keep changing the % discount… yesterday it was 20%... Today it is not on… a couple
a weeks ago it was 30%....
So you have to keep watching.
To others:
I have the Samsung NC10 and love it, but there are some limitations (as with all netbooks). The biggest is the screen is 1024x600. You can view web pages OK, you just have to use the scroller on the touch pad (very nice on the NC10)
The keyboard on the NC10 is the best I’ve tried (the the HP is very close… the others are not)
I get about 7 hours of battery life in real world use.
I use all the Office 2003 apps and they work fine on the NC10. I also use Bibble to edit photos and it also works nicely on the NC10.
So far, I’m very pleased with NC10.
-jj
Posted by Ken
Dec 7, 2008 at 04:36 AM
JJ wrote:
>To others:
>
>I have the Samsung NC10 and love
>it, but there are some limitations (as with all netbooks). The biggest is the screen is
>1024x600. You can view web pages OK, you just have to use the scroller on the touch pad
>(very nice on the NC10)
>
>The keyboard on the NC10 is the best I’ve tried (the the HP is
>very close… the others are not)
>
>I get about 7 hours of battery life in real world
>use.
>
>I use all the Office 2003 apps and they work fine on the NC10. I also use Bibble to
>edit photos and it also works nicely on the NC10.
>
>So far, I’m very pleased with
>NC10.
>
>-jj
JJ,
The screen is not an issue for me as our old 15 in. desktop monitor is 1024x768, and my laptop is 1280x768. My “darkroom” monitors are higher resolution, but I am flexible. As much as I am not a fluent touch-typist, I found many of the keyboards too small for my taste. I tried the HP Mini 1000 and thought it was acceptable, but I do not like their flat-style keys. I do not know if the NC10 if any larger than the Mini1000, but I prefer its sculpted keys. its great tohear that Office 2003 and Bibble work on the unit. I do not know if I would install Lightroom on a netbook for light duty use, but it is an option. My wife’s biggest concern is the ability to use Powerpoint and Publisher. I am not certain how comfortable the experience would be, but our old desktop is a Pentium 4 with only 512 MB, so unless she is spoiled by her PC at work, the difference would probably not be as significant as if we had a new machine with lots of RAM. Any comments on either of these two programs would be greatly appreciated.
—Ken
Posted by jaslar
Dec 8, 2008 at 02:36 AM
I bought an Acer Aspire One, $329, not including tax. I bought the one running Linux, Linpus Lite, actually. See this thread to see how to turn it into a more familiar desktop. I also give instructions for installing Freemind.
I like the netbook a lot. Great keyboard. I am also pleased to report a really wonderful Linux program, Notecase Pro, works just fine on the Acer (download the Fedora Core 8 version). Notecase Pro is a two pane outliner. But it’s being developed rapidly, and now includes a lot of time management functions. There are other options: Thunderbird and the Sunbird extension are in the repositories. Evolution—a Linux version of Outlook—is also available. I use JPilot, a sort of Linux Palm Desktop that works well enough.
I think your original notion was that the old PDA doesn’t quite cut it anymore, but you don’t want to lug around a laptop. That’s where I am, too. And so far, the Acer and Linux are working out wonderfully well for me.
Posted by JJ
Dec 8, 2008 at 02:54 PM
Ken wrote:
>JJ wrote:
>>To others:
>>
>>I have the Samsung NC10 and love
>>it, but there are some
>limitations (as with all netbooks). The biggest is the screen is
>>1024x600. You can
>view web pages OK, you just have to use the scroller on the touch pad
>>(very nice on the
>NC10)
>>
>>The keyboard on the NC10 is the best I’ve tried (the the HP is
>>very close…
>the others are not)
>>
>>I get about 7 hours of battery life in real world
>>use.
>>
>>I
>use all the Office 2003 apps and they work fine on the NC10. I also use Bibble to
>>edit
>photos and it also works nicely on the NC10.
>>
>>So far, I’m very pleased with
>
>>NC10.
>>
>>-jj
>
>JJ,
>
>The screen is not an issue for me as our old 15 in. desktop
>monitor is 1024x768, and my laptop is 1280x768. My “darkroom” monitors are higher
>resolution, but I am flexible. As much as I am not a fluent touch-typist, I found many of
>the keyboards too small for my taste. I tried the HP Mini 1000 and thought it was
>acceptable, but I do not like their flat-style keys. I do not know if the NC10 if any
>larger than the Mini1000, but I prefer its sculpted keys. its great tohear that Office
>2003 and Bibble work on the unit. I do not know if I would install Lightroom on a netbook
>for light duty use, but it is an option. My wife’s biggest concern is the ability to use
>Powerpoint and Publisher. I am not certain how comfortable the experience would be,
>but our old desktop is a Pentium 4 with only 512 MB, so unless she is spoiled by her PC at
>work, the difference would probably not be as significant as if we had a new machine
>with lots of RAM. Any comments on either of these two programs would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>—Ken
Ken,
The keys are sculpted and from what I have read, they are 93-95% as big as a regular keyboard.
I use PowerPoint on the NC10 without any problems… It just takes a few extra seconds to load the program. Once loaded, there is little difference between the NC10 & my desktop (quad core/4gb…)
I just loaded Publisher & it works fine on the nc10.
FYI… from what I’ve read, it is very easy to upgrade to 2 GB of ram, but I really don’t see the need. Also, some people have already upgraded the harddrive to 320gb 7200RPM model.
Here is link for both upgrades:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=306435&page=29
Hope this is helpful.
-jj