Maplin's 7" 'Net Book' £139.99

[Goldberg]

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...25532&source=1

OK, not great! But for the kids for Xmas or even my Mum (as I think i'll get her one) it's a very good price.

Product Features

• Whilst there may be hugely powerful laptops out there - you could be paying way over the odds for a lot of functionality that you will never benefit from. This lightweight, low-cost laptop does exactly as it says. There are very few if any laptops that match the minibook mini laptop for value; it''s the perfect micro laptop for surfing the web and undertaking word processing tasks on the move - or even if you just want to save space.
• Small on price and very small on size - ultra compact and just 650g!
• Ideal for web surfing, email, word processing and spreadsheets
• A perfect travel or business companion with built in Wi-Fi technology...be truly mobile
• 7-inch TFT widescreen screen and stylish piano black finish casing
• Easy to use Linux operating system
• 3 x USB 2.0 ports
• Stereo speakers and built-in microphone
• Touch mouse pad
• Email and Office (word processor and spreadsheet program)
• PDF viewer
• SD / SDHC Card reader
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet port
• 2GB SSD (soild state disk) shock proof storage
• Expand the storage with USB or SD Flash Memory (not external hard drives)
• Supports up to 4GB SD cards and 4GB USB sticks
• Multi-theme display (child or adult mode)
• DDR2 128MB memory
• AC adaptor / charger
• Complete with Xip office applications
• 12 month warranty

[evilsatan]

Careful with some products like this from Maplin, some are very poor quality as they import in bulk from some Chinese factories and it seems they don't get samples to check quality first. Some great products but some very shoddy ones too.

[Goldberg]

I agree with both comments, but for something the kids may throw about or for my mum to check her emails or Facebook (yes really ) I think it's a steal

[maltloaf]

saw one in my local maplin last week looks like a lovely unit, metallic look to it, couldnt find much info on it (cpu etc) tho.

I'll stick with my eee for now, got it running just how i like it

malty

[pumpman]

im pretty sure it a VIA cpu in this, edit i'm wrong after googling it has an XBurst 400MHz CPU non x86 , bit more info here http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...stery-minibook

price might sound ok but id be inclined to go with the msi or eee

[Goldberg]

Everyday the MSI for me, that's what I have (well the Advent 4211 but same thing).

I've convinced myself though that this is my Mums Xmas present now She does not need power for uploading Photos and checking webmail/logging into Facebook.

[maltloaf]

yer sounds pretty limited - would be a pain to get any x86 stuff to run without major faffing, plus you're going to want to install more memory (if thats even possible)

On my budget im happy with my £100 4g eeepc 701. 1GB ram, overclock to 1.1GHz and a trimmed down windows XP (by myself) and it runs very very well indeed. I'd love to try one of the linux distros on it but am having trouble working out which is the best to go for (there are about 20 !) as it needs to boot/run from the SD card until I know I'm 100% happy with it.

[maltloaf]

Everyday the MSI for me, that's what I have (well the Advent 4211 but same thing).

aye the msi wind is nice. My brother has a 8.9" advent one which is lovely and i noticed theyve cut the base model price down to £179 which makes it great value. If I had the dosh spare this is the one I think I'd go for.

[tombott]

yer sounds pretty limited - would be a pain to get any x86 stuff to run without major faffing, plus you're going to want to install more memory (if thats even possible)

On my budget im happy with my £100 4g eeepc 701. 1GB ram, overclock to 1.1GHz and a trimmed down windows XP (by myself) and it runs very very well indeed. I'd love to try one of the linux distros on it but am having trouble working out which is the best to go for (there are about 20 !) as it needs to boot/run from the SD card until I know I'm 100% happy with it.

Am running Ubuntu-eee on mine (the 1000 model), and it works a treat.
I know Fear345 has installed it on his 700 model.

Instructions on installing to and SD card can be found here

[maltloaf]

Am running Ubuntu-eee on mine (the 1000 model), and it works a treat.
I know Fear345 has installed it on his 700 model.

Instructions on installing to and SD card can be found here

thanks tom i'll have a go at this this afternoon i think

[GTI]

You can have an Asus EEE 701 for the same money (linux version). You have two years warranty, plenty of backup (helpline, drivers, community etc..) and a 4GB HD + women like the white glossy finish and dinky looks.

[tombott]

thanks tom i'll have a go at this this afternoon i think

Its based on 8.04 at the moment, the 8.10 version should be out in the next few days.
The 8.10 version incorporates 3G support into the NetworkManager Applet (am sure I remember you saying you use 3G adapter for the net ).

[maltloaf]

Its based on 8.04 at the moment, the 8.10 version should be out in the next few days.
The 8.10 version incorporates 3G support into the NetworkManager Applet (am sure I remember you saying you use 3G adapter for the net ).

yes i do although the missus tends to use that on her laptop. I connect to the net via a bluetooth dial up networking connection through my phone mostly, although I can set the phone to act as a wireless access point so theres usually a way round any problems.

[pumpman]

did anyone see this http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=148886

[Goldberg]

did anyone see this http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=148886

Over $2000+ to do! WTF!!

[trueblue924]

i recently got an acer aspire one in white for an extra 40 quid got an 8gig ssd hard rive two memory card slots so you can increase the hard drive size and alos read from memory cards at the same time 9 inch screen webcam microphone the works has 500mb ram installed xp on it by usb stick really easy to do runs pretty well great bit of kit in my opion they are better then the cheap version of the eee pc

[cobra111]

These are selling at a low price for a couple of weeks then suposed to be going up to the price 700 Eee.