Netbook For Daughter - Which?

[jyl]

My daughter wants a notebook computer for XMas. She does need one, much of her homework requires a computer and there's often a queue to use our iMac.

I'm thinking of getting her a netbook. I figure these are light and small (her book bag is pretty full), cheap, and powerful enough for her needs which are basically just productivity apps and the web. She doesn't need to watch HD video or play high-graphics-content games, this is for schoolwork.

But I'm having trouble finding anything to choose between the various netbooks out there. There are a couple flavours of Atom processor, but they are all wimpy. There's either Intel or nVidia chipset/graphics, I'd prefer the nVidia. Either 10" or 11" screens. Otherwise, they seem very generic. I guess for $300-500, hard to be otherwise? The only "different" one I've found is the Dell netbook that has a touchscreen, but I can't say I've thought of a big reason to want a touchscreen.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

(Not getting her a MacBook because my Apple budget is waiting for the 27" iMac display bugs to be worked out, and for the mythical "tablet". Anyway she prefers Windows because that's what they have at school.)

[red-beard]

I don't have specific recommendations, but...

Look for one with more than 1GB of memory. The cheapos have only 1 GB and even XP likes more.

Get one with XP. The ones running Windows 7 will be nice, but pricy. The ones running "something else" are going to have issues, at some point. Something else is usually a customized version of Linux. The problem is Linux, it is the support of the customizations.

If she is just using it for school, and doesn't NEED to have Office 2007, I've found Open Office to work pretty darn well. It loads faster and is less ememory intensive than even Office 2003. Of course, since it is for a Student, Office 2007 is "cheap".

[porsche4life]

+1 james.....



Now if you are worried about specific brands... I always like dell... But IDK if you can still get XP from them....

[cgarr]

I just got the Acer aspire one for my 10yo for $200 on sale, it has XP 160g hd 1g ram then I got a DVD drive $40 to plug into it and loaded up all her games office 7 and music, seems to work just fine but I may upgrade the ram to 2g for 35 bucks in the future.

[legion]

For a student, I'd skip the "netbook" and just get a cheap laptop.

You can get an E-machines laptop for a similar price that is faster, and has more RAM and more storage than a netbook...and it will last a few years longer.

Netbooks are good for web surfing (but not streaming video) and typing papers. They suck with video, spreadsheets, games, or any program that requires any processing power.

Just my 2¢.

[jyl]

Looks like Win XP can't be had with over 1GB of RAM. A Microsoft licensing restriction. I'll have to add the additional RAM myself, will make sure there's room to upgrade.

Win 7 "Starter Edition" looks like a no-cost upgrade from Win XP. What is missing in "Starter Edition", anyone know? Oh, never mind - lots is missing. Like, changing your desktop image. I think a 14 y/o girl is going to be pissed if she can't have pandas all over her desktop.

The Dell netbook with touchscreen (Latitude 2100) appears to be an education-only model, not sure I can buy it, and its $550 so fairly expensive for a netbook. The only application I can think of, for a touchscreen, is Chinese character dictionary, and she has that in her iPod Touch anyway. So I'm leaning away from that model.

LeNovo has the S10 with 10" screen, Win XP Home, N270 Atom, nVidia Ion chipset/graphics, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, WLAN 11G, and 6-cell battery for $363. I can upgrade it to 2GB RAM myself. I'm kind of assuming (dangerous) that the keyboard is good, simply because its a Lenovo.

[stomachmonkey]

I just picked up a 10 inch Acer. Don't worry about the 1 GB of ram. You can get another stick for $40 just about anywhere.

Biggest differences are the screen sizes and hard drives. Some come with solid state drives in typical 4 or 16 gb capacities. Then there are the other ones with a standard 160 gb drive.

I prefer the traditional hard drive.

Don't sweat the Atom processor. They are perfectly fine for surfing, word processing, basically anything she needs for school will be no problem. Once you start getting into other processors the size and weight start getting up there and you might as well go for a traditional laptop.

Right now the MSI Wind and the Dell Mini 9 are 100% Hackintoshable.

[jyl]

Legion, I hear you on the underpowered aspect of netbooks, but size/weight is the thing. Netbooks are smaller/lighter than notebooks and she carries a ridiculous load of books already. She can't carry a "notebook" in her bag.

[jyl]

Legion, I hear you on the underpowered aspect of netbooks, but size/weight is the thing. Netbooks are smaller/lighter than notebooks and she carries a ridiculous load of books already. She can't carry a "notebook" in her bag.

Sorry for bombarding you all w/ posts on this but I realized I need to order today to get it for XMas. Doing my bit for the economy here. We're actually spending more this year on XMas, imagine that.

[legion]

I have both a netbook and a laptop, so I thought I'd share my experiences. I understand that "power" isn't the only consideration.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

Legion, I hear you on the underpowered aspect of netbooks, but size/weight is the thing. Netbooks are smaller/lighter than notebooks and she carries a ridiculous load of books already. She can't carry a "notebook" in her bag.

Sorry for bombarding you all w/ posts on this but I realized I need to order today to get it for XMas. Doing my bit for the economy here. We're actually spending more this year on XMas, imagine that.

They really are not that bad. Seriously. I installed CS4 on mine "just to see" and it runs Photochop just fine.

I'm not going to do heavy print work on it but for web graphics it'll do in a pinch.

Just make sure you spring for a 6 cell battery. These things will run for 6 hours on them.

[jyl]

The Dell mini 10 and 10v are either not user-upgradeable beyond 1GB RAM, or require a lot of disassembly to get to the DIMM slot. That's what some quick Googling says. The Dell rep (online chat) says there is no DIMM slot, the RAM is soldered on. So forget that model.

[red-beard]

John - I guess I should have been more clear. It needs to be a machine capable of more than 1GB of RAM. Many of them are fixed at 1GB and even XP isn't great with only 1GB of RAM.

[jyl]

The Acer Aspire One 11.6" has dual boot between Win XP Home and Android. Interesting. Upgradeable to 2GB RAM. Rather large too. $350-370.

[jyl]

Next decision is going to be whether to install a keystroke logging program on her netbook.

Oh - gee I am at work so guess I'd better do some - will return to this later.

Damn, it was easier when all she wanted was Barbies.

[Dave L]

you might want to consider a USB keyboard and mouse to go with the netbook as well. I like my Acer Aspire1 because of its portability but I find the keyboard is just too small if I have to type anything more than a quick email.

[Schumi]

back when I started college, I bought the best power to weight ratio laptop I could find... it weighed a featherlight 8 pounds and had a 14.1" screen. I thought I would blow the money and get the smaller one so I could carry it everywhere... to class and such.

I think I took it to class a total of 3 or 4 times over the course of 4 years. Too frickkin heavy. 8 lbs of laptop plus 8 lbs of books in a bag cantilevered off your back 4 blocks to school just doesn't work.


I'm seeing these new netbooks that have 2-4 times the ram, 4 times the hard drive space, windows 7, better wifi, better batteries.... and weigh 2 pounds. for $400. ridiculous.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Dave L

you might want to consider a USB keyboard and mouse to go with the netbook as well. I like my Acer Aspire1 because of its portability but I find the keyboard is just too small if I have to type anything more than a quick email.

Agree.

[daepp]

I just bought the HP mini 110 netbook at costco for $350. It comes with Win 7, and at the time they had the Student Office 7 for $59 - more than half off! Costco doubles the one year warranty btw

[M.D. Holloway]

I was going to get our kiddos a Netbook but opted for this...



Seems good enough for a 7 and 10 year old...