I have a business client who, since I happen to live and breathe in the computing world, ask me a very simple question: For someone who travels a lot, a huge laptop is just a big pain - what is out there in the world of netbooks? I popped over to Linked-In and figured I'd ask my network - which actually includes a lot more people than I thought.
This opened the floodgates. I thought I'd share some of the results.
My goal here was actually even simpler than some of the replies. Email, Web, and an office suite are really all we're looking for - but I'll post everything I could find.
While I don't any super clear winners, it looks like HP and Dell take the cake for support and compatability, and the Asus, Acer, and MSI Wind products for general appeal. Hope this helps someone looking for hardware
- The results:
- MSI Wind 2 direct good experience (light, wonderful)
- Acer Aspire (11.6") 2 people like - easy to upgrade memory and HD, great keyboard , 1 person Acer Inspire "sleek like crazy"
- Acer 1420P - 1 liked (special edition), great battery life and touch screen look for PDC version on ebay.
- Asus eee - 2 Heard Good, 2 Liked (900 series and 1005HA), 1 experience Bad connection w/ AT&T built-in, worked with Sprint stick. 1 Worse service than HP
- ASUS 1000HE - great keyboard,wireless,bluetooth, memory upgrade was easy, Win 7 without problems
- ASUS 9H - great with XP
- T91 - 1 Heard Good
- R1f tablet - 1 Heard Good
- HP Netbooks - 1 Liked support, 4 liked in general Mini 311-1000NR very nice.
- Lenovo S10 and S12 (bigger). Cheap, windows, easy upgrade - nice screen and very light.
- Dell - 2 Liked Support over HP/Asus, 2 liked Driver compatability , 1 liked for price (Vostro A90)
- Toshiba NB205 - 1 liked and gave up the laptop on trips, long battery life.
- General:
- recommend as much ram as possible
- Solid state drive if you can afford it
- May want to stick with GSM for international travel if can afford.
- Avoid using for large app demos, fine for presentations.
- Links:
- http://www.squidoo.com/netbook-comparison
- http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=3360&tag=nl.e101
- Top 10 netbooks for 2009 - http://computers.toptenreviews.com/netbooks/