cookie_monster Posted March 27, 2009 Posted March 27, 2009 Hi all, as i'm sure some of you know i've been away for a few months and will be returning to blighty in the next few days. I'm currently behind the 'great firewall' and internet speeds are glacial at best which is giving me a few issues shopping on U.K sites. I need to pick up a new netbook when i get back as i currently don't have anything but i'm a bit out of date on them and don't have time (or the ability) to read reviews out here so i could do with some recommendations to narrow down options when i get back. I'm looking for something with approx 10 inch or above screen and i have 250 pounds maximum to spend. It doesn't really need to be an XP edition i'm fine with Linux as long as it's not a vendor hashed version. Whos' purchaced one recently and can offer advice on what to avoid or things to look out for. I would like one with a reasonable amount of disk space and a solid state drive isn't a must. Other than that i just need something to get on the net with. Cheers for any suggestions all and speak soon. Grant.
Jamo Posted March 27, 2009 Posted March 27, 2009 Hi all, as i'm sure some of you know i've been away for a few months and will be returning to blighty in the next few days. I'm currently behind the 'great firewall' and internet speeds are glacial at best which is giving me a few issues shopping on U.K sites. I need to pick up a new netbook when i get back as i currently don't have anything but i'm a bit out of date on them and don't have time (or the ability) to read reviews out here so i could do with some recommendations to narrow down options when i get back. I'm looking for something with approx 10 inch or above screen and i have 250 pounds maximum to spend. It doesn't really need to be an XP edition i'm fine with Linux as long as it's not a vendor hashed version. Whos' purchaced one recently and can offer advice on what to avoid or things to look out for. I would like one with a reasonable amount of disk space and a solid state drive isn't a must. Other than that i just need something to get on the net with. Cheers for any suggestions all and speak soon. Grant. We have tested the eeePC 901 Linux, not a big fan of that model disk space is limited for any updates and the update manager seems to find missing packages in the Asus repo. Not too impressed.
jcollings Posted March 27, 2009 Posted March 27, 2009 We just bought a load of Samsung NC10s and I like them lots. Perhaps a little over budget though. We also bought a Lenovo S10e - again very nice and it was £216 ex VAT with Windows Home, 1Gb RAM, 160 GB hard disk etc.
AMC Posted March 27, 2009 Posted March 27, 2009 I can also recommend the Samsung NC10s. You might want to look at the HP 2410 netbooks, soon to be the 2240. Very well built machines, although there is mixed feedback on the standard screen res. There is a 1366 x 768 due for release, but that might put you over budget... Hope this helps!
crc-ict Posted March 27, 2009 Posted March 27, 2009 If you can find one in budget, the Samsung NC10s really are the dogs. More an ultraportable than a netbook, with a roomy 120Gb hard disk and XP Home. I love mine, and so does anyone who sees it. Quite worthy of the best netbook crown it seems to get if you ask me!
K.C.Leblanc Posted March 27, 2009 Posted March 27, 2009 I've got no idea if this is any good, but their bigger laptops are ace and at this price it looks very tempting. Lenovo IdeaPad S10E Laptop - Laptops at Ebuyer
cookie_monster Posted March 28, 2009 Author Posted March 28, 2009 (edited) Excellent thanks for the links and tips it gives me a good starting place. What's the Samsung NC10s screen res like, do you find yourself scrolling up and down alot? Speak to you all soon. Edited March 28, 2009 by cookie_monster
pagelad Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 Another NC10 fan here, Iva had an EEE 4G and an Acer Aspire one and the NC10 wipes the floor with all of them.
m25man Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 I also will endorse the Samsung NC10 especially as my wife just tripped over the power cord sent it crashing from the kitchen worktop to a stone floor! A quick chkdsk and a close inspection shows just the chrome paint scratched on the trim insert. It went with such a crash I was expecting the worse, I hope it stands up to the test of time.
MatthewL Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 Another one here for the Samsung NC10, got mine sat right next to me here
cookie_monster Posted March 30, 2009 Author Posted March 30, 2009 Ok i'm about convinced on the Samsung NC10, just one more question. How do they cope with AV software? If i put AVG 8 free on it will it reduce it to a crawl?
Quackers Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 We just bought a load of Samsung NC10s and I like them lots. Perhaps a little over budget though. We also bought a Lenovo S10e - again very nice and it was £216 ex VAT with Windows Home, 1Gb RAM, 160 GB hard disk etc. Could you tell me what the Lenobo S10e is like? We are looking Netbooks for a different reason, and currently have Samsung NC10 Asus EeePC1000H for testing. Both have ups and downs, NC10 does not have an N capable Wireless Card (just B/G), which for us will be a problem and it does not have this magic 1024*768 mode (as far as i can see) which the ASUS has, (it misses out a few pixels to give a good attempt at it) Handy for when you need that little bit more res. The Asus 1000H's mouspad is no where near as good as the samsung NC10 though, but has the N capable wireless card. Both have a decent size keyboard, So on the S10e, Whats the keyboard like? is it 92/93% full size? Screen res in the spec says 1024*578 is this true? nothing higher? Battery life? Mousepad is it anygood?
Bezwick Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 I bought one of these last week, and am very pleased with it for the money. Grade A1 Acer Aspire one A150L - 120GB -1GB - Blue A1/LU.S050A.074 - Acer Products | Acer Direct.co.uk
TronXP Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 I've got no idea if this is any good, but their bigger laptops are ace and at this price it looks very tempting. Lenovo IdeaPad S10E Laptop - Laptops at Ebuyer We have 24 of these, and they are absolutly fantastic, the quality simply blows the eeePC out of the water. The screens are vastly superior in quality, it truely feels like mini laptop and not some kids toy.
gaz350 Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Trackpad buttons on the eeepc require too much force to press imo and can be fairly difficult to use for long periods of time. The NC10 keyboard is also better than the eeepc 1000, the shift key annoys the hell out of me as its right shift key is half sized sharing the space it normally would with the up arrow!!!! so you end up pressing up instead of shift!
AyatollahPies Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Ok i'm about convinced on the Samsung NC10, just one more question. How do they cope with AV software? If i put AVG 8 free on it will it reduce it to a crawl? I recently moved from AVG 8 free to Avira. Best decision I've made in some time. Nowhere near as big a resource hog. You might be able to track down a 6 month trial of the premium version, but if you can't the free version is still fantastic and regularly tops the AV lists for detection. Runs fine on my Toshiba NB100 netbook.
pagelad Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 I recently moved from AVG 8 free to Avira. Best decision I've made in some time. Nowhere near as big a resource hog. You might be able to track down a 6 month trial of the premium version, but if you can't the free version is still fantastic and regularly tops the AV lists for detection. Runs fine on my Toshiba NB100 netbook. Another Avira user here, use it on my NC10 and my desktop. No noticable slow down on either.
cookie_monster Posted March 30, 2009 Author Posted March 30, 2009 Well i had a look around and couldn't find an Amstrad NC100 what a shame it looks the nuts Instead i've gone with the NC10, should be here tomorrow morning. I also popped into currys to play with one (and the Acer/ASUS models as well) and it seemed very well put together and i can see what everyone means about the keyboard being superior to other models. Thanks for the tips lets hope it fits the bill.
Martin Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 cookie_monster Where did ya get it/how much (if you don't mind me asking)? I bought one just over a week ago from eBuyer for £308 and i am very impressed so far - especially with the battery life and the build quality It is also nice that it doesn't come with loads of pre-installed trial-ware (just McAffee which you can remove quite easily). The only problem so far seems to be the fact that the Samsung software that comes with the NC10 seems to require Administrator rights - so you get an error logging in as a dumb user (under XP Home - anyone else found this). mb
damienharrison Posted March 30, 2009 Posted March 30, 2009 Had an Amstrad NC100 back in 1995 it was ace - being able to code basic whilst bored in lessons =0)
cookie_monster Posted March 30, 2009 Author Posted March 30, 2009 @ Martin I ended up getting it from Amazon for the same price.
cookie_monster Posted April 1, 2009 Author Posted April 1, 2009 Well it arrived yesterday and i'm very impressed so far, the battery life is unreal and the perfomance is very good. Also as others have said it's nice to buy something where you don't have to uninstall a bucket of c@rp applications or worse reinstall Windows before it's usable. The mousepad is taking a bit of getting used to but the keyboard is excelent. Cheers all.
Arcath Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 i recenlty brought a MSI Wind and am impressed with it so far (much better than my old EEE 2G Surf). Having a slight driver issue with the wireless in fedora but that should be fixed by the new wireless card ive brought for it. I tried an NC10 and got very pissed off by the mouse, kept running out of mouse space (vertically)
cookie_monster Posted April 2, 2009 Author Posted April 2, 2009 Anyone running Ubuntu Remix on their NC10? I stuck an image on a USB stick and had a play it seemed to work really well and installed all hardware inc wireless card straight away. The only issue is that i couldn't seem to create a partition of less than 40 Gb, i didn't want it to be quite that big. Anyone come across this issue?
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