Comments on: Netbooks – Who's Using Them?

By: William Truby

William Truby — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:38:48 +0000

I was wondering if you could make up a list of the best prices for the smaller note books and what they come stock with.I am planning on buying one but I just can't seem to decide on which one to even start to look at.

Sincerely yours
Lord Walking Bear

By: SuicidalRobotChicken

SuicidalRobotChicken — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:34:47 +0000

I bought an Acer Aspire One (ZG5, A0A150, 8.9" screen, 3 cell battery) a few weeks ago at trusy old Wal-Mart ($299), and overall, I'm definitely a satisfied customer with it. Only reason I am not one-hundred percent happy with it is there's a known glitch with the Atheros wireless card the Aspire uses, where the wireless will just cut-out completely and not even reaappear in Network Connections, nor in Device Manager; only solution being a hard reboot (power down completely, then manually reboot, don't use the 'restart' function). This is the only well-known and widespread problem with the Aspire One- use your favorite search engine and search 'wireless problem Acer Aspire' and you'll see just how widespread it really is.

Other than that, I am really satisfied. I've used Photoshop, Movie Maker, and play multi-tables of online poker all at once on this netbook without issues or slowdowns.

I've owned a Compaq laptop, a Gateway laptop (both bought brand new), and the Compaq lasted a little over a year, and the Gateway lasted about a year and a half before the motherboards on both failed, so I no longer see the reasoning behind spending another $1000 every year to 2 on a new laptop, so even if the life expectancy isn't that long, at only $300 at least I'm not out an arm and a leg.

Only other complaint would be the unusual mouse design (left click is LITERALLY on the left side of the mouse, right click is literally on the right); however, this netbook came with an external USB mouse that I use whenever possible, and although it feels really cheap and flimsy, it gets the job done effortlessly, and the way I'm used to it being.

Overall, an A rating on the Acer One; and whoever sees it always says something to the effect of, "That's Bad-Ass!"…

By: Jim Bailie

Jim Bailie — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:01:57 +0000

I also just bought a ASUS Eeee pc900hd, WOW ! finally a "real" small PC, i have had almost every small model built by everyone, starting with the Toshiba Libretto series back in the 90's , but this newest run made by ASUS and ACCUS makes portable a real deal ! its not a fad, its the way to go if you travel a lot. if you have been thinking about it, now is the time !

By: Eleanore Avery

Eleanore Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:28:54 +0000

I just bought an Asus Eeee PC 900HD. Since I am now shooting with a Canon 5D Mark II camera (that can record HD Video clips), I was at a loss for downloading in the field…My trusty Epson P-7000 portable storage cannot playback 5D video, and neither can similiar others.
I finally looked at 160G NetBooks that solved my problem without adding much weight….perfect for this particular use. I also bought a mini external hard drive for double backup. Keeping cables and chargers to a minimum is a headache in the African bush, but I think the netbook will work great. I was also amazed that all I did was input wireless code and I was on the Internet!

By: Ian McKee

Ian McKee — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:48:30 +0000

I just bought the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE and upped the RAM to 2G and I'm delighted with it. I plan to use it primarily as my GPS with MS Streets & Trips. My wife and I travel six months a year in our RV. I suspect this may replace my laptop and my desktop pretty quickly. I will also use Photoshop CS2 and several fractal generation programs. Wish me luck!

By: Dan Griffith

Dan Griffith — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:06:28 +0000

I have an ASUS Eee PC since beginning of December 2008 and absolutely love it. I hooked up an external DVD player and installed full Office 2007 and it runs fine. My wife did not think she would like it but after carrying around her 17" laptop once that weighs over 9lbs, she fell head-over-heels for my 2+ lb netbook. It has 1 GB Ram and 120 GB HD w/ Intel Celeron processor. This system will play movies from external source, surf the net, check email, Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Access, and much more; will it run as fast as a 3.6 processor w/3+ GB DDR3? No, but will you slide that system in a portable DVD sleeve and carry it w/a book or toss in a regular backpack? You can with this netbook and it is reliable. BUY ASUS NETBOOK, you will not be disappointed.

By: Faustino

Faustino — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:50:19 +0000

Very interesting, my wife who's 59 and travels a lot has been looking at netbooks, decided on 8.9-inch, we were leaning to an Asus 900HA but have seen a similarly-specced Aspire for $A450, very competitive and I've read that it has a better keyboard. At 66, I'll stick with my 22-inch widescreen, definitely not portable.

By: Tom Johnston

Tom Johnston — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:59:37 +0000

I bought a Dell Mini-9 back about November 2008, and I'm very happy with it.

I have a desktop that is in need of work, so I don't currently use it, and use a Dell 1405 mainly at home. I am an active Union Steward and thought I'd use the 1405 more often, but despite being relatively compact it's still a pain to take around, especially for prolonged meetings.

The Mini-9 is great..it fits in all my various bags and even with power supply and mouse is very compact and light.

I use it mainly to pull up reference .pdf documents and occasionally take note..the smaller keyboard isn't easier, but for note taking it's fine.

Now, I can carry along a portable scanner and I just scan in docs with that so I'm slowly getting away from paper!

Plus in a meeting…it's a small profile in front of me so there isn't such a "barrier" between myself and others.

For what it's worth I pushed it to 2 GB RAM, and put in a 32GB SSD, besides the 16 GB SD card in the slot.

As a plus, I do some digital SLR photography and the Mini is great to view work. I have Photoshop Elements on it and can work with pics anywhere!

There are limitations, but they are easily worked around and with.

By: Felipe Munoz

Felipe Munoz — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:30:02 +0000

I have had my Acer Aspire One netbook for close to 2 months now. It came with Windows XP but I changed it to Windows 7 Beta Build 7068 and its been really good so far. It has basically replaced my desktop at home, since it's a little slower than the netbook. Its great to carry everywhere, lightweight, and is good for the everyday things i wantt o do with it.

By: Terry Lambeth

Terry Lambeth — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:08:25 +0000

I am retired and like to travel. I have a desktop, laptop and Samsung NC10. The NC10 goes traveling because it is so portable and enjoyable to use. The battery holds a long charge, the 10" screen and 93% keyboard are big enough, it boots quickly, it has as much memory as my laptop, and it fits in a small satchel. The wonderful screen resolution allows me to show off my photographs.