anyone have a 7 inch netbook????

[rbeemer]

At work we have an iPad, iPad2, Xoom and Galaxy. Our apps are Terminal charts for pilots and an enroute capability. We find that the graphics on a 7" are very small and hard to read. I would recommend a 10" screen as a minimum. One thing also to consider is how much memory you want and what features you want(wireless, 3/4G, bluetooth, etc).

[starleen2]

I have a regular laptop (HP) and and an HP netbook - both do what I want them to do. I can install regular programs on both of them - both are wireless and fully functional. Netbooks needs accessories - an external CD/DVD and IMO - a USB mouse. I use the netbook for my classes and work due to it's small size. I just increase the magnification of the document to make it easier to read with older eyes. However, Since i now have a galaxy tab with the wireless keyboard - I'm tending to rely on it more and more due to it's size and the ability to sync with google and android based systems - for me it's like the Ipad and Iphone configuration - it syncs across the platform (meaning if I make a change on the calendar or contact on the phone, it is made also on the tablet). I have no trouble sharing documents between the tablet and the HP laptop, it all done tirelessly - just another option

[eamarquardt]

I have a couple of Acer Apsire One. Nice little machines. I use one in the car with a GPS program in lieu of a GPS.

Some programs (Nero photo editor for one) can't be used as the screen size isn't big enough to get all the info there and I haven't figured out how to "make it so".

The really nice thing about a netbook is that with the larger battery available they will last a lot longer than a typical notebook. Turning the wireless off helps extend the battery life.

The keyboard is slightly smaller but I adjust after a bit of use. For a girl/woman with smaller hands it shouldn't be an issue.

I with a few exceptions, a netbook does all that I need.

Cheers,

Gus

[ssrjim]

Look at a MacBook air. Great computer, love mine, small, battery goes forever, fast, full size keyboard, awesome display, weighs nothing.

[myoung]

Look at a MacBook air. Great computer, love mine, small, battery goes forever, fast, full size keyboard, awesome display, weighs nothing.

Both models are way cool. Did you go with the 11-inch or the 13-inch model? For maximum coolness, I'd opt for the 11-inch if I had one.

Don't forget to mention that because of the solid state drive, the startup time is nearly instantaneous.

[dmb90260]

I have an Acer and it does just what I expect it to do. It goes on all my travels and is a back up at home. Of course the screen size can be an issue I knew that when I selected it and have not problems in that area. I do have the extended battery that works very well.

[caseydog]

Is the small size that important?

I tend to agree that a 14-inch or so laptop is more useful for school work.

Also, the original post mentions an iPod, not an iPad. An iPod would be useless for work -- was that just a typo?

As much as I love my iPad, it does not replace a notebook. I have a 14-inch MacBook that goes on business trips with me and hangs out in the hotel room for uploading and sending my photos. My iPad is more of a carry-around device, and more of a personal tool than business, for me.

Anyway, whether it is Apple, Dell, or whatever brand, a regular sized laptop would be a better school tool, IMO, unless that is not the real reason for this purchase.

CD

[caseydog]

Look at a MacBook air. Great computer, love mine, small, battery goes forever, fast, full size keyboard, awesome display, weighs nothing.

Both models are way cool. Did you go with the 11-inch or the 13-inch model? For maximum coolness, I'd opt for the 11-inch if I had one.

Don't forget to mention that because of the solid state drive, the startup time is nearly instantaneous.

I wouldn't pay that much for a kid's computer.

CD

[hotrod]

Is the small size that important?

I tend to agree that a 14-inch or so laptop is more useful for school work.

Also, the original post mentions an iPod, not an iPad. An iPod would be useless for work -- was that just a typo?

As much as I love my iPad, it does not replace a notebook. I have a 14-inch MacBook that goes on business trips with me and hangs out in the hotel room for uploading and sending my photos. My iPad is more of a carry-around device, and more of a personal tool than business, for me.

Anyway, whether it is Apple, Dell, or whatever brand, a regular sized laptop would be a better school tool, IMO, unless that is not the real reason for this purchase.

CD

yea an Ipod was mentioned in my first post...
We discussed the coolness factor with said daughter and the small netbook would rate as "cool" in her realm.. I would love to run out and buy a ipad or upper end notebook but shes not ready for that kind or resposibility yet. A 7 inch netbook will handle her MP4 player, camera, , interface with this pooter plus schoolwork. And its nearly pocketsized, heck with the way these kids text with those little keypads this should be a breeze. Maybe in a year or 2 she will need to upgrade for school until then this will likely serve her needs quite well. An ipod has cool apps but no keyboard. I think it might be a good starting off point..
Its amazing how far the technology has come in the last 5 years and where the prices are, some pretty awesome stuff out there for not alot of money..
thanks folks!! Paul

how about some wireless router advice??

[hotrod]

Paul,

You never mentioned how old your daughter is or what she would like to do with a computer.

Rather than chose hardware and hope that the software matches her needs present and future, mightn't it be more reasonable to turn the order around?

Just a thought.

she will be 10 this may..it will be mostly gaming, music management and email..schoolwork some, they play learning games at school and she plays them at home here also..

[myoung]

she will be 10 this may..it will be mostly gaming, music management and email..schoolwork some, they play learning games at school and she plays them at home here also..

Got to believe that the iPad is a superior gaming platform. Perhaps she should check out the games and other apps available on the iTunes App Store. Angry Birds on the iPad is the only way to go.

[toypusher]

how about some wireless router advice??

Linksys (Cisco) or netgear are common and both work well in my experiences.

[madjack]

how about some wireless router advice??

Linksys (Cisco) or netgear are common and both work well in my experiences.

I have an inexpensive netgear router which has worked fine for me...there are several protocols out there(type A, B. G and the newest one, N) the N is the newest and is backward compatible with the rest...I have cable internet...the router plugs in between the cable modem and my desktop PC and only took a few minutes to setup...be sure and enable the password encryption or your neighbor(or others) could steal bandwidth and download porn, movies, music or do other stuff you wouldn't want attributed to your IP address...I think the netbook a good choice and would get the 10" version...keep in mind, most of these come with a built in netcam for such things as video chat...I would disable it or have a looooong talk with the kiddo about sending out video of herself, her room or????????
madjack

p.s. at her age, I would keep her off Facebook, Twitter and other such social networking sites...peer pressure at school can be bad enough but add in every kid in the world and it becomes that much worse.............mj

[caseydog]

how about some wireless router advice??

Buy the best speed for the money. They are all pretty much the same. I am completely 803.11N in my house. If you have a mixture of speeds, the slowest tends to bring down the whole network to it's level, as I understand it.

I have all my devices on the network, and my home theater and garage audio system is tied into my network, too. I have all of my music on my 27-inch iMac desktop in iTunes, so I can hear my music all over the house, and control it from my iPhone or iPad using an app called "Remote."

My stuff is all Apple, but you can do the same setup with other PCs and networks using the same software I use.

CD

[bve]

Got to believe that the iPad is a superior gaming platform.

For twice the price it should be superior, however beyond gaming the document compatibility factor becomes an issue. Despite my distaste for Microsoft, most of the world has adopted their proprietary document formats - and there are limits to 'compatibility' other office suites offer, most office suites can convert simple documents, unfortunately complex real world documents are another story.

While Apple produces very nice hardware (at a premium price) Steve tends to extend far too much control over what his customers are allowed to do with their devices - at least for me.

Now in response to the OP's question, I have a 10" Acer netbook which I run Linux on, it provides me with ALL of the computing needs I purchased it for, however I am not too satisfied with it's modest 3-4 hr battery life. I spent about $350 Canadian.

Specs for anyone interested below.

Code: Select all

Computer
********
Summary
-------
-Computer-
Processor      : AMD Athlon(tm) II Neo K125 Processor
Memory         : 4 GB
Operating System   : Linux Mint 10 Julia
User Name      : burke (Burke)
Date/Time      : Wed 13 Apr 2011 07:48:10 PM MDT

-Display-
Resolution      : 1366x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer      : Mesa DRI R600 (RS880 9712) 20090101  TCL DRI2
X11 Vendor      : The X.Org Foundation

-OpenGL-
Vendor         : Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Renderer      : Mesa DRI R600 (RS880 9712) 20090101  TCL DRI2
Version         : 2.1 Mesa 7.9-devel
Direct Rendering   : Yes

-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter      : HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
Audio Adapter      : HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI

-Input Devices-
 Power Button
 Lid Switch
 Sleep Button
 Power Button
 AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
 Video Bus
 Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0
 1.3M WebCam
 SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad

-Display-
Resolution      : 1366x768 pixels
Vendor         : The X.Org Foundation
Version         : 1.9.0

-Monitors-
Monitor 0      : 1366x768 pixels

-Printers (CUPS)-
Print_to_PDF

-SCSI Disks-
ATA Hitachi HTS54505    : 500GB
Generic- Multi-Card

Operating System
----------------
-Version-
Kernel         : Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (x86_64)
Compiled      : #35-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 16 20:45:36 UTC 2010
C Library      : GNU C Library version 2.12.1 (stable)
Default C Compiler   : GNU C Compiler version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5)
Distribution      : Linux Mint 10 Julia

-Current Session-
Computer Name      : netbook
User Name      : burke (Burke)
Home Directory      : /home/burke
Desktop Environment   : GNOME 2.32.0

-Misc-
Uptime         : 2 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes
Load Average      : 0.44, 0.50, 0.44

PCI Devices
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-PCI Devices-
Host bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge Alternate
PCI bridge      : Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 9602 (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
PCI bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
PCI bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
SATA controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
USB Controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
USB Controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
USB Controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
USB Controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
SMBus         : ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 41)
Audio device      : ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
ISA bridge      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller (rev 40)
PCI bridge      : ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
USB Controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
USB Controller      : ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Host bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration
Host bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map
Host bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller
Host bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control
Host bridge      : Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control
VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M880G [Mobility Radeon HD 4200] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Audio device      : ATI Technologies Inc RS880 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4200]
Ethernet controller   : Atheros Communications AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
Network controller   : Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

DMI
---
-BIOS-
Date      : 09/06/2010
Vendor      : Phoenix Technologies LTD (www.phoenix.com)
Version      : V1.15

-Board-
Name      : Aspire One 721
Vendor      : Acer (www.acer.com)



BTW you don't need an external dvd drive with a netbook.