I’m looking to buy a netbook for my wife since her laptop died. Has anyone used any lately? Any pointers? I want it to be as cheap as possible haha. It’ll only be used to surf the web and maybe type up a word document or two.
I’ve been thinking about:
Toshiba mini NB505 -$350
HP Mini -$298
Acer Aspire -$280
Compaq -$200
I’m leaning towards the HP or Compaq.
i feel like any of them would suffice if that’s all it’s used for.
HP and compaq = same company.
I really think the HPs are the best bet, Acers suck, toshiba is alright, but the support pages are as good as HP.
Still not a fan of netbooks though.
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What’s the old laptop? Fixable at all?
Yah just wondering if anyone has actually used one or if one is technologically better. Should I justify spending $100 more on the HP over the Compaq?
Old laptop is an HP dv6911us that is about 5 years old. It lost the sound card ~6 months ago and as of yesterday won’t boot up. Its overheated many times before so about a year ago I drilled a bunch of vent holes and it cured it but I think its time is finally over haha.
Depends on the specs. Keep in mind they are under-powered to cut costs. Good on battery life and not much else.
Oh I forgot, most come with Windows 7 Starter (which only comes in the 32bit version). This limits you to 4GB and in starter, a lot of features are cut out. You can’t even change the fucking wallpaper. It’s such a dumb version on M$'s part. Looks like the HP Mini210 can run Home Premium but you’re still stuck with a shitty Atom processor and 2GB max for RAM. This will be fine for her, but just keep in mind the sacrifices that are made for size and price.
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Even this is slightly more than the netbooks and has a ton more options.
Thanks for the link… I was looking at those too actually but she isn’t going to use this for anything at all really, thats why I might cheap out.
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How about this deal? Seems pretty solid for $325. Might pick this up on my lunch…
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0378314
Don’t limit yourself to just netbooks. If you’re willing to go used you can get an actual laptop for about the same price.
I bought this for $400 on eBay: http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=VPCX111KX/B
14hrs of battery life, Full Windows 7, 1/2" thin.
I’m sure there are other brands & models out there that meet your price range.
For what she needs it for, that’s a good deal. You can upgrade it later to 8GB of RAM probably on the cheap, and boost the Hard drive to a 7200RPM drive or even a SSD. LOTTTTTT better than the netbook.
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Above would probably still be a netbook despite being called a notebook. 11.1" screen is netbook country. Don’t see the processor specs other than it’s a Intel. Also from experience, Sony’s customer supports eats dicks. The things I like about the one Onyx posted was the SSD (although only 64GB is kinda lame), 1Gb ethernet. It’s also 14hrs of battery life with the extended battery, which I’m assuming is extra.
Not looking used…need some support if things go south. I think my best bet is the laptop link I posted above.
1ghz Intel Atom. The specs suck because it was new in 2009. Extended battery came with all of the laptops when they were sold. And Sony support has been great to me, they have a direct phone line without any menus. :tup:
But I’m just using that as an example.
The only experience I’d had with them was trying to get instructions on how to remove the hard drive. I’m more than capable of removing one, but it was a student’s laptop and to do so required the keyboard being taken out. They don’t give out take-apart guides, so we contacted their support. They kept telling me to send it in to them and it was out of warranty. After telling them a few times I deal with laptops for a living, they abruptly ended our online chat.
On HPs side, I’ve only had a problem once with them. I support around 600+ laptops and desktops from HP as well as their servers, printers, monitors, etc. A department purchased an all-in-one printer, that even though it was purchased through their business side, was considered a consumer model. After making like 3 or 4 phone calls, being hung up on, them requesting I use a credit card for collateral , I got pissed off told them to elevate my call to someone who could help me. I spent about 4 hours total phone time before being moved to the highest tier which was based out of Canada. The guy expedited shipping, required no credit card, and apologized for the inconvenience.
I bought an ASUS with a 12" screen last year, nice little unit. It has a real processor too not that ATOM thing. It was $300 shipped from new egg…
Make sure you can use a netbook before just ordering it…
I suggest going to best buy or using someone elses a lot of times the keyboards suck and the screens suck…
I ended up ditching all that BS and getting a 13inch macbook air
yep, I ditched my netbook for a used macbook. Definitely not looking back.
IMO, netbooks were great when they were under $200 and running stripped down linux with basically just web browsers on them. When you want to run a full blown OS, they start to suck.