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Still Eyeing NetBooks

September 16th, 2008

I’m still contemplating getting a “netbook” or ultraportable PC. I thought I’d share with you this recent ComputerWorld article that checked out four of these netbooks (Acer Aspire, eeePC, HP Mini Note, Sylvania G).

Their conclusion: The Acer Aspire One – a good balance of size, weight, price and performance. Coincidentally, I played a bit with the cheaper Acer at our local Circuit City. It was around $350 and came with something called Linpus Linux Lite, which runs Firefox and OpenOffice (which would be fine for writing). This SSD model has a 1.6 GHz Atom, 8GB solid state storage, 512 MB RAM). A slightly more expensive model runs XP and has specs more similar to a traditional laptop (1.6 GHz Atom, 120GB HD, 1 GB RAM).

The keyboard felt a bit small but was usable. One thing that felt odd were the trackpad buttons which are located on either side of the trackpad as opposed to beneath it as on the MacBook. But all in all, it was rather intriguing, and I’m fairly close to picking one up.

Now I’m a bit distracted, contemplating custom tweaks to bend it to my will. Drool.

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  • Mike
    You might have already covered this, but...MacBook Air? Still too wide?
  • Too expensive :)
  • Mike
    Ha, that too. :)
  • I think the main detractor of the MBA is the price. Well, it is for me. heheh I wouldn't go for the Eee PC 1000H either. If you'd like, try to compare the 901 model to the Aspire One. If you're going Linux, Amazon has one with a 20GB SSD. http://is.gd/2IDn

    Since you're getting one soon-ish (if not already! :) ), I picked up an Eee PC 901 with XP. Wanted to give a week of testing before I said anything. You've test driven the Aspire so you know the keyboard. The default BIOS on the 901 has a quirk with the LCD brightness. Once you alter it, it doesn't go back to 100%, but updating it to the 1501 revision fixes it. Since I got the XP one, it's the 12GB I linked on your other post. The drive is actually two drives; a 4GB C: and an 8GB D:. I'm not sure about the Linux 20GB model. Aside from those, I really like it. Crazy portable, lightens my carry load to work. Isn't hard to work with for browsing net, writing email or IM'ing. I also get about 5 hours with it.

    The Aspire One is also good but I didn't like the mouse button layout and my Best Buy didn't have the color I wanted. >_>
  • Wow, sweet that you got an Eee PC - I've also been considering that model.
    Are you gonna post a review on your website / blog :) ?

    Now I'm getting down to the nitty gritty of price and specs. Seems like the
    Eee PC has the potential to install OS X and I haven't seen any good info on
    the Acer yet. The Acer mouse buttons as you note are pretty annoying. I also
    saw some complaints about fan noise on the non-SSD model and wireless
    connectivity problems. Now I'm just shifting between Linux or XP, but at
    this rate, based on my usual decision making process, I'll probably go with
    the cheapest option.
  • Yes, I will probably be writing up my thoughts about the Eee PC at the end of the week. I'm going to be working on it throughout the week and see how I feel about it. Most of the things I did this past weekend was customize it. Didn't really put it in its place yet. :P
  • MOin
    Acer is going good with netbooks these days and i was watching one of their ads on t.v yesterday there mini laptop was looking so nice and if you are able to get one for 350$ i think its fair price.
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