Netbooks (HP Mini 311, Tablets, etc)

[Acert93]

Last year we moved and my laptop sort of became my desktop replacement. It is a pain to remove all the cables (2 displays, USB hub, KB, Mouse, power cable) to go mobile with it. The original intent was something small and light for school work (mainly typing, note taking, etc in Word, Zotero).

I have been keeping an eye out on Netbooks and it seems they are finally hitting price/performance ranges that work for me. So I am looking for some advice.

The HP Mini 311 just came out although I think I would wait for a Windows 7 variant. If I am reading right the screen folds back for a quasi-tablet view, but no touchscreen. Nvidia Ion graphics, 1.66GHz Atom, 1GB memory, 160GB HDD, 11.6" screen 1366x768 or whatnot, keyboard is 92% as wide as a normal keyboard, ~3lbs, slightly smaller than a piece of standard printer paper, etc. 3 USB, HDMI, VGA, etc. 6 cell battery with ~ 5 hr life. A slightly wider keyboard and touchscreen would be nice but it seems quite compact and cheap at $399.

Anyone have any experience in this area of products? Recommendations? Things to stay away from?

As noted primary use would be Word, Zotero / FireFox, a Bible application. Would be taking with me to work for use at lunch and at the library, around the house, at church, etc. No games, probably no movies; possibly would use the VGA out for presentations.

 

[eastmen]

Stay away from the mini 311. It only has 1 dimm slot so you max out at 3 gigs. I'd wait a few more months as new stuff will launch for windows 7. I'm looking at the msi wind 210. The igp only has a 1250 but it has dual channel memory for the neo 1.6ghz it has . So you could put up to 8 gigs in there. The newer igps with the hd 3400s should be hitting for windows 7 also.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I have a samsung n110 for a couple of months now and I'm quite happy with it. I used it in Japan as my main pc for a month and apart from the resolution being just a tad to low to make it perfect I think it does exactly what it should be doing. More than fast enough for all your mobile stuff and the battery lasts pretty long and its not heavy.

Ofcourse you could wait untill all the new win7 models come out but to be honest I think all the extra performance would be overkill. You dont need some gaming capable IGP, 3+gb of ram or whatever. What you want if you buy a netbook, imho, is a light, long battery life system that is powerfull enough to do everyday stuff if needed. Ofcourse, if the price is at the same level as the current systems its a easy choice but given that you can already get the current 6cell battery systems with a 10'' screen for 300 euro's I doubt the new win7 models will be in that price range.