Advice on new netbook

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rudirautenbach

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Hi all,

I need a new netbook, and was hoping to find some advice here. It will basically be used for internet, email and the occassional word or excel document. The following pointers (in order of importance) is what I am considering when choosing:

1. Price
2. OS - Must have Windows 7 (no Linux derivative please)
3. Must have storage space of at least 60Gb after the OS is installed.
3. Reasonable speed
4. Must be able to run Office 2007 standard.

Now I know Windows 7 only hits the shelves officially on the 22nd of October (or sometime around then), so would it be worth waiting until then?

My wife has an Acer AspireOne A110 (with the 8Gb SSD and 512Mb RAM) and it is not what I am looking for, it is just too slow and lacks storage space etc. Perhaps another Acer model could be considered, although I am open to suggestions.

It is important to hear about personal experiences from fellows here, especially wrt customer service from brands, reliability, and where to buy.

My budget is as little as possible :D but I am willing to pay a little more for something that would make me happy.

Cheers rudi
 
Well, not really any netbooks even come with Vista, so 7 would have to be purchased separately. I can really vouch for the Samsung NC10. It is pure awesome. Else, wait for the bigger and better NC12 to hit SA.
 
Rather get a 13inch or 15inch laptop. It doesn't sound like a netbook would satisfy you.
 
You are all probably right with guessing that I will not be entirely satisfied with a netbook. I do however have an HP 6730b notebook, it belongs to the company and weights about a ton, and I cannot take that on the plane with me whilst travelling.

I just need something that can run the lightest version of Windows 7, with a barebones Office 2007 installation. The storage is actually not that important, come to think of it, as I could store my documents etc. on a memory stick.

I have tested Windows 7 Ultimate (which I trimmed down using Vlite) on an Acer Aspire 8Gb SSD netbook (my wife's) and must say that with 512Mb of RAM and the SSD it is just too light to run windows 7 satisfactorily. We are back on Linux with that one, but I honestly prefer the Microsoft OS's over Linux, so my (new) netbook needs to have WIndows 7.

What about the Aspire One with the 160Gb HDD and 1Gb RAM, has anyone tried Windows 7 on that?

Cheers Rudi
 
If battery life is an important factor, remember to ask what battery cell type is included. Some 3 cell battery based netbooks have a very short few hour battery life whilst the 6 cell variants have much longer battery life.

The Samsung NC12 would be a nice buy. The NC10 was a very good model.
 
You could buy the Samsung NC10 (from us :) ) or the Lenovo Ideapad S10e and get Windows Vista Home Premium seperate with a free Windows 7 upgrade coupon, and we could do it all for +- R4600.00.

Not sure why you'd want to run Windows 7 on a netbook anyway!?

Rather go for a new slimline 13" - checkout the new Lenovo U350's we've gotten in recently.
 
I must say, a netbook can run Windows 7 surprisingly well. I got my dad a Acer Aspire one with 120gb HDD and 1 gig RAM - Win 7 is totally usable.

Although the screen is quite small - this is the only drawback IMO
 
I've played with several netbooks and can vouch for Asus - battery life is good. Check out www.nivo.co.za - they have a huge selection of netbooks. Get something with minimum 9" screen. Anything smaller is going to be an annoyance.

You're not going to get a cheap netbook with Windows 7.
 
I don't think a netbook will cut it for you. They all essentially have the same hardware resources so Win7 is not going to run that well on them.

There will be a Win7 netbook edition in future but no idea how well that performs. Another option is to look at a Atom 330 based netbook if such a thing is even available but then again it will use more power and drain the battery faster. A better option might be looking at ULV cpu based machines.

Acer Aspire 1810T is apparently very powerful
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4717428

Also consider ultrmobile laptops.
 
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I'm happy with Windows 7 RC on my mum's netbook being the Sammy NC10, it's the Ultimate SKU and seems to seems speedy enough.
The Windows 7 for netbooks is called Starter but honestly that is such a featureless SKU, best bet is just getting Home Premium or even the regretful Home Basic.
 
rudirautenbach said:
Hi all,

I need a new netbook, and was hoping to find some advice here. It will basically be used for internet, email and the occassional word or excel document. The following pointers (in order of importance) is what I am considering when choosing:

1. Price
2. OS - Must have Windows 7 (no Linux derivative please)
3. Must have storage space of at least 60Gb after the OS is installed.
3. Reasonable speed
Click to expand...

Interesting info about Micro$oft

By late 2008, netbooks had begun to take market share away from laptops. In contrast to earlier, largely failed attempts to establish mini computers as a new class of mainstream personal computing devices built around comparatively expensive platforms requiring proprietary software applications or imposing severe usability limitations, the recent success of netbooks can also be attributed to the fact that PC technology has now matured enough to allow truly cost optimized implementations with enough performance to suit the needs of a majority of PC users. This is illustrated by the fact that typical system performance of a netbook is on the level of a mainstream PC in 2001, at around one quarter of the cost. While this performance level suffices for most of the user needs, it caused an increased interest in resource-efficient applications such as Google's Chrome, and forced Microsoft to extend availability of Windows XP in order to secure market share. It is estimated that almost thirty times more netbooks were sold in 2008 (11.4 million, 70% of which were in Europe) than in 2007 (400,000). For 2009, sales are expected to jump to 35 million, rising to an estimated 139 million in 2013. This trend is reinforced by the rise of web-based applications as well as mobile networking and, according to Wired Magazine, netbooks are evolving into "super-portable laptops for professionals".

Microsoft and Intel have tried to "cement" netbooks in the low end of the market to protect mainstream notebook PC sales, because they get lower margins on low-cost models. The companies have limited the specifications of netbooks, but despite this original equipment manufacturers have announced higher-end netbooks models as of March 2009.
 
OK, so after reading quite a few reviews, it appears that the Samsung NC10 is just about the best choice available at the moment.

Would most of you concur with this, and any ideas where I can find the best price around town (Jhb)?

Oh and thanks to pug306 who highlighted the issue with machines sold with smaller (3 cell) battery from Dion/Game. Much appreciated!

Looking forward to some e-pinions!
 
rudirautenbach said:
OK, so after reading quite a few reviews, it appears that the Samsung NC10 is just about the best choice available at the moment.

Would most of you concur with this, and any ideas where I can find the best price around town (Jhb)?

Oh and thanks to pug306 who highlighted the issue with machines sold with smaller (3 cell) battery from Dion/Game. Much appreciated!

Looking forward to some e-pinions!
Click to expand...

Get hold of Itai at Digital Addiction (he's on the forum) - I got my NC10 from him a few weeks ago. You'll get excellent service and the best price. And a first class netbook.
 
rudirautenbach said:
Thanks dude, just checked their website, its going for R3699. Will need to check if it has the 6-cell battery though.
Click to expand...

Itai knows the drill with the battery, he made sure that mine was the correct spec. You will probably find that the NC10 is only available locally in white with the 6 cell battery.
 
Netbooks are very nice - if they have the power. My 1.86 GHz Atom powered one with 64GB SSD is pretty fast - I'm using one of the free OSS versions of OpenOffice - not the standard vanilla one - but one of the Novell ones. I recommend a Toshiba SSD when they come out - they're only shipping to OEMs at the moment.
 
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