Netbook or Ultraportable - recommendations?

[me_flay]

Time past while I was hoping Apple would come up with something smaller then 10 inch, but I guess it will not happen soon. As much as I like my MBP, for a long tour it's simply (even the MB) a waste of space and weight I can not afford. And I can't wait longer then maybe another 3 months before leaving everything behind for a longer period.

Though I really hate to say this (and I never expected me to consider buying a PC ever again after nearly 15 years of abstinence), but does anyone one have a recommendation for an ultralight and thin PC book? I guess it must be Windows as it at least needs to be able to run older versions of Photoshop, Freehand and the Distiller apart from the ordinary... Not for seriously working of course, but so I can at least do something in case urgent work on recent projects is required while I'm away hiking and stuff. Maybe an external display port would be great, just in case...

Many thanks for your help!

 

[zap2]

I like Dell's Mini 9

Or Asus's EEE PC

 

[me_flay]

Ah yes, just looked at the Dell, nice but to me it seems it has a really fat back. The Asus seems a bit slimmer. Are there any thinner ones out there?

I like Dell's Mini 9

Or Asus's EEE PC

 

[Abstract]

They're all a bit thick, but the difference between a 1" and 1.2" laptop (for example) isn't really THAT much. What's going to affect portability is the length and width, since this affects where you can keep it.


Personally, I think the EeePC 1000 or 1000H are good (1000H has a harddrive, while the 1000 has a 40 GB solid-state drive) because they have a matte screen (not glossy).

I hear the MSI Wind is good, and it's supposedly possible to get Mac OS X running on it with no problems.

The Lenovo S10 seems really nice, but I don't know about the battery life, and it supposedly gets too hot.

The Dell is supposed to be very good. It's battery is only 4-cell, and in Australia, there's no 6-cell battery available, so it only lasts around 3.5 hours on battery. Also, the Dell keyboard is supposed to be crap.

Samsung is making one right now that's supposed to be very good. I think it's probably the nicest looking netbook, and the keyboard looks great. Toshiba is also supposed to be making one.


If I were to buy a netbook today, I'd get an Acer Aspire One with the 6-cell battery. Why? Because it's the cheapest, and the specs are as good as the best, most expensive models. I would also consider the Asus EeePC 901.

 

[Roy Hobbs]

I agree on the Acer Aspire One.
Great little machine if you can stand using Windows

 

[Sesshi]

Toshiba R500? It's seen some price drops, and a 128Gb SSD is also available. .5Ghz down on the upper-end Air, but in all honesty all the Windows Vista 1.2 / 1.33Ghz ULV's I've used have been far more stable and faster in many tasks than the Air when it's hiccuping.

Still, with the Centrino 2 ULV's on the way soon you might want to wait for refreshes of the Sony TZ, R500 et al before you make the jump.

Netbooks have no interest for me - despite Dell coopting me into trying them out - and I see absolutely no plusses in buying what is basically a cheaply built 4+ year old ultraportable now.

 

[me_flay]

Running OS X?? You made me curious, any possitive reports/hints out there somewhere already?? Aye, looked ok in what I could see so far! Will also have a closer look at the R500, 750g sounds great to me!

I hear the MSI Wind is good, and it's supposedly possible to get Mac OS X running on it with no problems.

 

[gonyr]

The msi wind can definitely run osx - just google it. A few of the other netbooks can also, but with a bit more work involved. If you don't need it right now, you might be better off waiting a little while until machines with the dual core atom get released (probably by the end of the year). You'll have a much faster machine with similar battery life at pretty much the same price points.

 

[ethen]

I wouldnt recommend using netbook as primary system unless your activities is limited to web browsing, email and word processing. but gosh, those battery life on some newer netbook are very lucrative

 

[Saladinos]

Go for the Aspire One. Replace the WiFi card ($10 and 5 minutes) and you can run OSx86.

The Dell looks nicer, but HDD size is rubbish. The HP Mini-Note looks better, but uses a VIA processor that OSX won't work with (apparently).