[Punnisher]

You might check out the Lenovo laptop they came out with recently:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...nu-id=products

I'm debating between a black S series, or a decked out T400.

Edit: Why do they have to have white keyboards...WHY???

 

[mightyacorn]

There is also the new HP Mini 1000.

 

[bhd812]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inkmo /img/forum/go_quote.gif That sounds pretty boss. Does the Eee PC do anything like that?

Not sure as i never played with one, if hard drive size is really a need for you i would suggest going with the big 160gb. I am getting an easy 5+ hours (using xp) and for a little added cost over the lesser models (including the price of the longer battery) you really can not go wrong. still its a kool idea for anyone with a SSD.

best part is pricing is always going down fast on these Netbooks, they are cheap and make no play about it. you may or may not wanna wait till the Dual core Atom starts making its way in the pipeline, though i don't any netbooks that have this yet.

 

[Inkmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightyacorn /img/forum/go_quote.gif There is also the new HP Mini 1000.

Damn, that's really cool. At first I thought it was a little too 'designery' for my tastes, but seeing that slick looking operating system and that red chassis I think stirred some of the mystique computers held for me when I first started building them in high school.

I think the main reason I would consider this one though is that it has most of the specs that the Eee has plus a good keyboard for around the same price.

Gonna head out to Fry's this afternoon and have a peak at their floor models if I can.

 

[Inkmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhd812 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not sure as i never played with one, if hard drive size is really a need for you i would suggest going with the big 160gb. I am getting an easy 5+ hours (using xp) and for a little added cost over the lesser models (including the price of the longer battery) you really can not go wrong. still its a kool idea for anyone with a SSD. best part is pricing is always going down fast on these Netbooks, they are cheap and make no play about it. you may or may not wanna wait till the Dual core Atom starts making its way in the pipeline, though i don't any netbooks that have this yet.

Yeah, I can't hardly wait, I know.... Size isn't my number one concern. It will be nice because it will mean I could maybe have art and music on the laptop, and would have to store fewer things in google docs or whatever. Though, I imagined from the start that this would be more of a 'portable web appliance' than a full blown laptop. Considering I'm not willing to go very far over 300 bucks, I guess I'll just look around and see what the best deal is...

 

[Inkmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhd812 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Aspire one has two sd card slots but they both are not used in the same way. the card slot on the right sticks the sd card out a bit more, this slot is just a normal mutli card reader and used like so. but the slot on the left of the keyboard sticks the card in flush with the plastic AND automaticly blends it in the C: drive to enlarge your systems drive. the idea is if you have an 8gb ssd installed and slot in a 32 SDHC card then your systems memory will have 40gb of space, this is just an example.

Cool. I checked and it seems that some of the Eee PCs do that to, but it varies by model. Another interesting thing is that some of the SSD EeePCs don't even have their storage space soldered - the whole thing is removable media. Anyways, if I buy the right EeePC, I can make a 4G laptop into a 20G.

 

[Inkmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightyacorn /img/forum/go_quote.gif There is also the new HP Mini 1000.

I looked at a mini-1000 at Fry's the other day. It looked neat, but it is nothing at all like the one you showed me. It's not as cool and it costs more...

So the more I look, the more I like the idea of the SSD drive, so I'm automatically limiting the amount of space I'll have. I think something that will be key is finding out which computers have the best options with SD expansion slots. I was looking at an EeePC yesterday (I think it was a 900A) and noticed that it had the SD card slot. The sales associate I was talking with was really knowledgeable (which is increasingly rare these days, I think), but even he didn't know for sure if it blended directly to the C drive, and if so, how much memory the SD slot would actually be able to accept. I remember in the old days having cameras and stuff that would only take up to a gig regardless of size. Anyone have any ideas?

Another thing I've noticed. Asus has a version of its computer with the Atom processor and little else. The versions of the same computer that come with the Celeron tend to also have cameras, Windows XP, and sometimes, I think, more HD space on and actual HDD at the same price as the more simple computer with the Atom. Is the Atom really such hot **** that they can do that? I'm a little confused. I'm sorta leaning towards the Eee because I want to play with that Linux operating system a little, and then probably install Ubuntu later.

On that note. what do you guys know about those laptops that come with windows preinstalled? Does the package come with an install disk? I'm just wondering because none of those computers have optical drives, so how would I go about reinstalling or doing a repair installation if the necessity ever came up? Also, I need Asian language character packs on this computer. I sense it won't be too bad finding that for Linux, but I know for Windows, they won't come preinstalled, and that you need the disk to install them. Are Windows users just SOL in this regard?

 

[Kirosia]

Not sure about netbooks, but my HP laptop has a image of the OS (+ crap that it comes with) hidden on one the partitions. If something happens, you can enter the bios or something and recover it to it's original state.

I personally kind of like the Samsung, but it's not out yet and it's a bit pricey: Samsung NC10 reviewed, trumps competition with 7 hour battery life - Engadget

EDIT: As for lithium batteries, I've read you should only remove them if your computer runs really hot, since heat degrades their ability to hold a charge. (Or if you don't plan on using them for awhile) The one in mine actually stays relatively cool even when the rest of the laptop is hot.

 

[Inkmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not sure about netbooks, but my HP laptop has a image of the OS (+ crap that it comes with) hidden on one the partitions. If something happens, you can enter the bios or something and recover it to it's original state.

That's cool. I wonder if that's what they're doing on the netbooks.

Quote:

I personally kind of like the Samsung, but it's not out yet and it's a bit pricey: Samsung NC10 reviewed, trumps competition with 7 hour battery life - Engadget

I'm thinking about getting one in the next week. That looks cool, but from what I've read it's not enough to make me want to wait.

 

[Blueiz]

Just received my Acer Aspire One abut 3 days ago... with this configuration: 1GB RAM, 160GB HHD, Win XP and 6-cell battery.

After spending about three weeks researching the four readily available netbooks at the time (HP, MSI Wind, EeePC and Acer Aspire One), I decided on the Acer ($399 at Newegg)...

They are basically quite similar and it comes down to a few decisions in my mind.. I'd pay attention to these items and compare and contrast to fit your needs/wants..

HP -

Doesn't use the Atom processor (supposedly slower)
Most expensive.
Nice looking keyboard, but I found it harder to type on.

EeePC

Has 10-inch screen
Weird placement of the right shift key.
Found it harder to type on.

MSI Wind and Acer Aspire

These two are very similar to each other.
Wind has 10-inch screen.. Acer 8.9-inch screen (both have same resolution)... the 8.9-inch is really just fine!
Acer has the nicer keyboard IMO (standard layout)
Wind has the Fn key in non-standard place and the period and comma keys are downsized.

Would highly suggest the 6-cell battery over the 3-cell (about 2 hours vs 5 hours). You will be amazed at how fast 2 hours goes by!!

If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer for you.

FWTW... I am more pleased than I thought I would be! That's always nice!!

 

[Inkmo]

yeah, at the moment I have it narrowed down to the acer and the eee. I was kinda assuming I'd go to a brick and mortar here in town but maybe there are more options on the internet? It seems that there are a lot of configurations of the eee.

I think I'm leaning towards something with an SSD, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna opt for the Atom and Linux...

 

[Blueiz]

Quite a number of configurations of the Acer... look on newegg.com... they have most of them listed... also, the Acer has that HCSD slot that lets you expand your memory storage if needed.

 

[Inkmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blueiz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Quite a number of configurations of the Acer... look on newegg.com... they have most of them listed... also, the Acer has that HCSD slot that lets you expand your memory storage if needed.

Hmm.. wouldn't any SD slot effectively expand the memory? Someone was saying earlier that it blends into the C drive or something, but I haven't seen much that corroborates that elsewhere. I'll have to check out some newegg it seems.

 

[tennisets]

I like my Wind for FWIW. The keyboard is WAY nicer than the keyboards on the eee's, i think. The eee keyboard just feels kind of flimsy and springy, but the MSI feels really solid.

The touchpad on the MSI sucks though. Big letdown in that department. I wish I would have known that HP was coming out when I got the Wind, it looks nice.

 

[Inkmo]

huh....

So I was looking closer today, nearly ready to buy, when I noticed something that really cooled my enthusiasm about the eeePc. Looking at the 4g, it seems that about 3.7Gb of the 4Gb SSD space is taken up with the OS and programs. What? That doesn't seem right. I thought a computer with storage space of 4Gb would be about perfect, but this is seeming kinda cripply.

I noticed another thing that really bugged me. Looking at the specs, the SSD is 4034 megs. Looking at the storage tab in system diagnostics, there are a little over 7 gigs of space (two 3.3 gig directories and a 400 something meg directory. The first of the two 3.3s is full, the other is at 75%, and the 400mg guy is barely used. Looking at the disk utilities tool, it shows a 3800something meg storage space that is 89% used.

None of these numbers add up! Gentlemen, I reiterate: what the ****?

another thing that I have found annoying about the linux system on that machine is that I haven't found an easy way to just look at a volume and know how much space on it is being used and how much is left. I hope ubuntu is at least more straightforward.