Notebooks - Are they worth it????

[jamesfed]

Think you might be pushing the limits of most netbooks there - might have to look into the Asus EEE PC options with their crazy all day abilities.

[RabbieBurns]

I'll take it back - maybe their not crap notebooks just expensive netbooks then

 

regards

 

Simon

 

I also forgot to mention the price includes 3 year next dat on site accidental repair warranty stuff

[torledo]

http://www.mobilitysite.com/2009/12/two-weeks-with-the-hpcompaq-mini-311/

The ION was designed to push up the performance of netbooks and turn them into something which sits between the netbook and a notebook (think some people are calling them notbooks);

 

But the Celeron M seems to have found it's way into those laptops inbetween the atom netbooks and a full featured notebook running core2's. No point in OEM's waiting around for intel to beef up the atom,

when budget processors already exist to built midi-netbooks.

 

And the battery life of many of the celeron machines doesn't look too shabby either.

 

Plus that 311 is my point about the dimensions and weight starting to creep up a little. And once you

start speccing those ION netbooks with the hard drive and RAM of the celeron machines, what's the price difference compared to the celerons ?

[dwhyte85]

The only issues we've seen with the NC10 (and newer replacement) is speed on Wireless connecting to the domain whilst on battery, on initial getting of profile it's pretty slow, we have overcome this by scripting an auto login using the original XP Home licensing that comes with it to prompt for username and pw and then map drives, proxy and anything else needed based on OU & Username. Saving money on licensing and speeding things up leads to happy SLT.

 

They are relatively low cost which is the driver for our SLT, they are expected to do everything on it - Excel, Access, Word, Internet & more annoyingly when teachers do not plan a lesson watch youtube, on the NC20s we even have photoshop installed and it works, although a bit slow...

 

I was not a fan prior to buying them, I had limited experience with the ASUS E Series and hated them, the XP Home Samsungs are pretty good, as much as I hate to admit it.

[SimpleSi]

by scripting an auto login using the original XP Home licensing that comes with it to prompt for username and pw and then map drives, proxy and anything else needed based on OU & Username.

 

Would you like to share your script?

 

regards

 

Simon

[enjay]

We have just rolled out 181 Acer Aspire 'netbooks' for student use. The 1410 model, 250gb disk, 11.6" screen, 1366x768 resolution, 2gb ram, 11n wireless, 1.2ghz celeron processor.

 

Were about $800 which is about 400UKP so its more pricey than the cheaper EEE type machines, but they work pretty well, run adobe CS4 with ease, and have been pretty well recieved by staff and students.

 

The same £400 or not much more would get you a significantly higher-specced laptop. It wouldn't have the teeny tiny screen though - that seems to be the only reason to buy netbooks, if you're happy with the compromise.

[localzuk]

The whole point of netbooks was the cheap price. We bought them at £160 each. The last laptops we bought for staff only cost us £436 + £37 for 3 year warranties. They're very good laptops too...

[SimpleSi]

Size and battery life are also reasons to buy them

 

regards

 

Simon

[Haptic]

the problem with the compaq model using the nvidia chipset is that the board will only allow 1GB of memory of which a percentage is used for the video

[torledo]

The same £400 or not much more would get you a significantly higher-specced laptop. It wouldn't have the teeny tiny screen though - that seems to be the only reason to buy netbooks, if you're happy with the compromise.

 

How much does your 'significantly higher-specced' laptop weigh, and what's the battery life like ?

[localzuk]

How much does your 'significantly higher-specced' laptop weigh, and what's the battery life like ?

 

The ones we bought have 5 hour batteries and weigh 2.5 kilos. So not hugely heavy, and decent battery life - especially as it can charge to 90% in 90 minutes.

[torledo]

The ones we bought have 5 hour batteries and weigh 2.5 kilos. So not hugely heavy, and decent battery life - especially as it can charge to 90% in 90 minutes.

 

2.5kg's isn't ultraportable. Not even close.

 

5 hours or more [as marketed] seems to be standard amongst the budget ultraportable. Without pushing the weight up above 2kg.

[localzuk]

2.5kg's isn't ultraportable. Not even close.

 

5 hours or more [as marketed] seems to be standard amongst the budget ultraportable. Without pushing the weight up above 2kg.

 

I seem to remember in secondary school, my text books weighed in at around >10kg on a busy day... What is wrong with 2.5kg? My first laptop weighed in at a nice 4.8kg, when I was 16.

 

Surely functionality is more important than ultra portability? 15" screen, proper sized keyboard, Core2Duo processor instead of atom etc...

[torledo]

I seem to remember in secondary school, my text books weighed in at around >10kg on a busy day... What is wrong with 2.5kg? My first laptop weighed in at a nice 4.8kg, when I was 16.

 

Surely functionality is more important than ultra portability? 15" screen, proper sized keyboard, Core2Duo processor instead of atom etc...

 

that's a fair point. But for convenience, those fewer grams in weight do make a significant difference. If such devices are to be carried around a lot.

 

If it didn't matter, manufacturers wouldn't strive to make laptops that weighed a lot less. I agree about having performance and good screen sizes, that's why i think the 11.6" devices with 2/3gb of ram and higher res screens is getting a better balance between usability and portability.

 

Netbooks may at one point have been forgiven for the compromises because of the price, but i think now it's increasingly becoming more about what they can do, and striking the right balance.

[SimpleSi]

5 hours or more [as marketed]

 

Its the real battery life that I want.

 

I want a laptop trolley to work 1st period and still work for another class after break till lunch.

 

And then another session after dinner after a quick charge

 

Or if a few TA's borrow some for SEN 1st lesson, they still all work for scheduled ICT after break

 

My priority for a computer is

1. Does it switch on and run local progs

2 Will it last the lesson

3. Can I get on local net

4 Can it print.

5 Can it get on T'internet

 

 

Battery life affects Numbers 1&2

 

regards

 

Simon

PS And of course for lowest possible cost

[enjay]

How much does your 'significantly higher-specced' laptop weigh, and what's the battery life like ?

 

Weight is probably around 2kg (so as others have said, less than a school bag full of books), battery life is shorter than a netbook, but acceptable given the greater performance and larger screen size. It is all about compromise.

[runcmd]

about 8% of the 120 asus netbooks our school have been returned to us with various hardware faults. Many more of the netbooks that have been returned to us have suffered misuse liquid damage, keyboard keys removed and other physical damage.

[cookie_monster]

I seem to remember in secondary school, my text books weighed in at around >10kg on a busy day... What is wrong with 2.5kg? My first laptop weighed in at a nice 4.8kg, when I was 16.

 

Surely functionality is more important than ultra portability? 15" screen, proper sized keyboard, Core2Duo processor instead of atom etc...

 

 

 

That's an interesting point this school has gone crazy for Netbooks, I can't talk them out of it. I like them but some students don't like the small keyboard but it seems enough teachers and students love them enough for the small keyboards and small screen not to matter.

[torledo]

Weight is probably around 2kg (so as others have said, less than a school bag full of books), battery life is shorter than a netbook, but acceptable given the greater performance and larger screen size. It is all about compromise.

 

At 2kg's it must be a 14" screen a la some of the thinkpad models. And even then, probably a 4-cell battery ?

 

i would say battery life is much shorter than a netbook, and larger battery specced would add to weight.

 

The aspire 1410 weighs something like 1.4kg's. It's screen size and dimensions make it a lot less bulkier and it weighs atleast 25% less than your much better specced latops, that makes a difference if a laptop is to be carried along with one or two books.

 

I'm not arguing against going for budget performance laptop instead of a budget ultraportable, just that it's not cut and tried.....they are some compelling arguments to go for the latter depending on who

the laptops are for.

 

The question is, what's the day to day performance difference between the celeron M's and the core duo's, and can you live with it.

[gshaw]

We've just bought a mini fleet of NC10's for Community use, much easier for tutors to take around as I can now get a projector, netbook and Smart Airliner tablet into a bag that only housed a laptop before Netbooks are great for taking computing to places that you wouldn't bother with the extra bulk of a laptop but for long-term work use a proper machine i.e. a desktop (who wants to type for hours hunched over a laptop!)

 

Keyboard wise NC10's aren't much different (main reason that I always recommend them over any other netbook), screen is OK but the 1024x600 slightly annoying for vertical scrolling.

 

Speed-wise, OK for basic tasks but they do take a bit longer to get going with AV etc, all depends how you use them and what you expect from the device.

 

As for Celeron vs Core2Duo... spend the extra and get the better CPU, will last better in the long run imo. Our previous batch of laptops are Stone Core2Duos and still nice and nippy even though they're the older Core2s

Edited January 12, 2010 by gshaw

[tommej]

We have a trolley full of MSI Winds here and they're excellent. Kids love them and they're very quick, especially with windows 7 on them, couldn't really be happier.

[witch]

I also have a similar problem. The boss is desperate for netbooks to hang off our wireless network (if we get it) and I was looking at the ruggedised ones at BETT. They were very nice but I am not sure whether they are what we want. We only have one IT suite in the school so these would be used as computers I think although he is thinking of just internet access.

I would like something I can put XP pro on and my network - the things that put me off laptops are the keyboards - easily broken, the weight and the price.

Maybe a small laptop with a ruggedised keyboard?

[tommej]

These keyboards look abit more rugged than normal but the only netbooks i've seen with them are the Sony Vaio W series.

[alan-d]

If all you require is Internet access, using web applications and are prepared to use something like Google docs and email then you may as well use an IPod Touch. The 8GB version is £142 from Amazon. I admit, charging them may be a problem, unless someone has come up with a 30+ charging unit?

[Dos_Box]

When people are buying hardware like laptops or netbooks you need to ask yourself the big question... What are you going to use them for?

 

Portability, long life battery , word processing because if you want portability then look at what u will run on it and then decide right...can "X" netbook run what i want well? if not then there will be one but rather than going for spec decide what your key points of usage will be out of it and then move either way and then into what model.

 

Almost all netbooks now can do the above especially since the vast majority of them use the same components, what most of us want is build quality, reliability, after sales (warranty) support, battery life and hardware (particularly with wireless) compatability with our existing infrastucture. Anyway, the NC10 is, to my mind, the best netbook around. A great match to all of the requirements I listed.

I'm just glad you didn't mention the Fizzbook again.