Which Netbook??

[L4dderon]

Hi All

I am after a netbook that is capable of playing video and possibly a few games, needs to have decent battery life, and must be portable but also have enough power to perform web surfing, email, photo editing, etc..

Can anybody reccomend a good netbook which will cover all of the above?? Anybody got a really good netbook or have any advice on what I should be going for. It also has to be able to run Windows 7 (not the starter edition).

Cheers

[broona]

Slightly bigger than a netbook, but far better - http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/bro.../buy/ASUS-UL30

[B B Leo]

I had the samsung nc110 which was pretty good and battery life. But the atom processor won't play games to well!

[Lou_smorals]

Hi
I have the old Samsung NC10 and its great, but the atom is always going to struggle with photo editing and games m8.
best wishes
LS

[DejaVu]

Netbook is exactly what it says on the tin. A Notebook purely for surfing the Net. Atom's great for smaller forms, but not very good at Gaming etc.

Micro Laptop's on the other hand are something else! They run well, but get VERY hot. This is because the full size processor (usually Dual Core) emits too much heat in such a small space.

Not really much point buying any such things for games. Only thing I would suggest is the Acer Timeline series. Small, slimline Laptops with superb battery lives and excellent spec's!

[DJ OD]

I have a Lenovo ideapad s9e netbook, and I love it. I'm not a gamer so doesn't bother me, but as said the processor just will not be able to take playing games that well. Plus the smaller screens on most netbooks will mean you won't see much of the game either!

It's going to have to be a full size laptop to suit your needs. Not saying a 17" widescreen monster, but at least one with 14.1" screen. You can get them quite slim now with good battery life, but bear in mind the more you try and make it do, the less the battery will last.


DJ OD

[L4dderon]

Hi All

Thanks for your replies, the Asus UL30 looks really good - powerful plus good battery life exactly what I am after....I may give up the gaming on a netbook and leave that to the new xbox 360

Thanks for your help and the good links



L4dderon

[EvilBoB]

I have one of the Asus Eeepc's (The original 701). Screen is a bit small but I have it running Windows 7 from it's 4gig SSD drive and it even runs World of Warcraft at about 20fps off a 16gig SDHC (with some tweaking).

As stated above - a netbook is really only useful for simple stuff - browsing the web, emails and stuff like that but if you push it hard you can get a bit more performance out of them.

Oh - also gaming on batteries is a waste of time. To keep these things light the batteries are pretty dire when you hammer the CPU (Especially if you overclock). Playing WoW on battery I get about 20 mins.

[Over Carl]

I couldn't stand using a netbook even just for browsing, the atom processor just wasn't up to it (had an nc 10, upgraded to 2gb and tried xp pro and win 7).

At work for highly mobile people who can't deal with a full size laptop, we get in dell latitude e4300's, bigger than a netbook but smaller than full size laptops, but decent power, and battery life.

[EvilBoB]

I couldn't stand using a netbook even just for browsing, the atom processor just wasn't up to it (had an nc 10, upgraded to 2gb and tried xp pro and win 7).

At work for highly mobile people who can't deal with a full size laptop, we get in dell latitude e4300's, bigger than a netbook but smaller than full size laptops, but decent power, and battery life.

My eeepc was fine for pretty much everything (Screen was a bit small mind). Had to do a lot of tweaking. Put 2gb of RAM in it and a fast SDHC card. Reserved 512 meg of the RAM for a RAM disk to store the swap file on with a neat little util and overclocked it to 1.3ghz (from the stock 600 - even though it was labelled as 900mhz!).

I used to play WoW and Eve on it without much hassle and used it as a voip/video phone whilst in India with work last year.

I haven't used it in a while as I've lost the PSU but now there is much better options for small footprint laptops that are cheap enough. The little Dell ones look quite nice. Depends on how tight your budget is and what you want to do with it. If I'd had £300 to spend on a laptop I wouldn't have bought the eeepc but I got it for £99 so I can't grumble.

[Over Carl]

That reminds me of what I did with my nc10 - added a 4gb sd card and told win7 to use it for readyboost and swapfile. Overclocked mine from 1.6 to I think about 1.75 which was as far as it would go but didn't notice much difference.

Have to say though, I am fussy with pc's. If I have to wait for them I'm not happy.

[Wompastompa]

Slightly bigger than a netbook, but far better - http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/bro.../buy/ASUS-UL30

really good machine IMO

[DejaVu]

My Acer Revo has the Atom processor in it. Albeit a Nettop. It runs 1080p films flawlessly. It's also connected to my TV meaning surfing the net is great on 50" Monitor. Use it more now than my Home PC!

Just havent tried games on it yet... but with 4GB, it might be worth trying. Supposedly, some have managed to get COD2 working on it.

[broona]

Even better deal on a 14.1" laptop - http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/asus-ul...369&xtor=AL-63

Use the code 5LAP to get it for £379.99 delivered, well worth it over the UL30, especially as it has a switchable dedicated graphics card so you can play basic games, just ordered one!

And out of stock everywhere now, typical!

[L4dderon]

Hi All

Thanks for all the responses I have given up on the games side and really just want a portable netbook/notebook for movies, music, net browsing, and office. It has to be portable enough to take on holiday and preferably 10-12inch screen.

I have been looking at the Asus UL30 but also found this http://www.bennettsonline.co.uk/comp...0-121-70830822
can't find many good reviews on-line has anybody got one of these?? or have any advice on this...

The budget is £350 maximum, any recommendation's would be appreciated.



Cheers

[DJ OD]

I'm an IBM fanboy... I have one of the smaller 9" ones of these: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...1D67ED118D39F1

But they do 10" and now 12" ones as well.


DJ OD