I treated myself to an Eee PC 1005HA a couple of weeks ago (well I deserve it!) and think it's fab. (Win XP, 160GB HD, 1GB RAM).
Says it does 8.5 hours battery life, I'm finding it about 6.5-7ish. The battery life was the selling point - as was the price - £279 in PC World on offer.
Really the reason was to have with me when I'm away from home for any length of time; screen size isn't bad at all though you wouldn't want to be working on it all day. Doesn't weigh much so it can be in your bag all the time if you want. Got an O2 dongle PAYG dongle as well so I have wireless broadband any time I'm away from a wifi connection for £2/day or £7.50 a week.
Oh and last night lay in the bath watching Peep Show on 4oD on it. Best thing I've bought in ages.
"netbooks"?
Well no, as (a) it's not plugged in and (b) it's size means it fits nicely on a convenient shelf.Neil Green wrote:Isn't there a danger of dropping it in and dying?!marksi wrote:Oh and last night lay in the bath watching Peep Show on 4oD on it. Best thing I've bought in ages.
Now these strike me as an absolute scam, for a fraction of the price you can have an unlimited data plan on your mobile (£7.50 a month on O2 or free with an iPhone), and then you can 'tether' your cell data connection to your laptop.Got an O2 dongle PAYG dongle as well so I have wireless broadband any time I'm away from a wifi connection for £2/day or £7.50 a week.
The mobile phone companies don't like it, but there's not much they can do about it.
That said if you're only away from wifi one day a month, a PAYG dongle makes sense I guess.
£7.50 a month "unlimited" on your O2 mobile is actually restricted to a "fair usage policy" of 200MB.cdd wrote:Now these strike me as an absolute scam, for a fraction of the price you can have an unlimited data plan on your mobile (£7.50 a month on O2 or free with an iPhone), and then you can 'tether' your cell data connection to your laptop.Got an O2 dongle PAYG dongle as well so I have wireless broadband any time I'm away from a wifi connection for £2/day or £7.50 a week.
The mobile phone companies don't like it, but there's not much they can do about it.
That said if you're only away from wifi one day a month, a PAYG dongle makes sense I guess.
The O2 Broadband dongle (500MB/day) also gives you access to pretty much all public wifi hotspots (no usage restrictions when using those).
So... having nearly put out my shoulder carting the clunkotron down to the library I saw an offer in staples where you get the Samsung NC10 for £199 (so long as you buy Norton somethingorother for £28) so I went for it on the assumption I could flog norton off on ebay.
I am VERY happy with the thing. Compared to some of the other netbooks I had played with in PC World the other day with mushy keyboards and general cheapness the thing has excellent build quality and the battery is fantastic (I think I've been getting about 5hrs use so far but I've not properly measured yet). Took it to uni with me the other day and barely even noticed I was carrying it. It came with a cheap little sleeve but staples were also giving away a much nicer neoprene one free with any netbook so I've been using that instead.
The thing that surprised me the most was that its actually quicker than the clunkotron which has similarish specs. I think the only downsides to it are the odd choice by samsung to supply the drivers on a CD rather than USB stick (although ripping it into an ISO and running through deamon tool solved that one) and the fact they decided for some reason to include a musical screensaver with horrendous plinky plonky music. Give me AfterDark any day.
I am VERY happy with the thing. Compared to some of the other netbooks I had played with in PC World the other day with mushy keyboards and general cheapness the thing has excellent build quality and the battery is fantastic (I think I've been getting about 5hrs use so far but I've not properly measured yet). Took it to uni with me the other day and barely even noticed I was carrying it. It came with a cheap little sleeve but staples were also giving away a much nicer neoprene one free with any netbook so I've been using that instead.
The thing that surprised me the most was that its actually quicker than the clunkotron which has similarish specs. I think the only downsides to it are the odd choice by samsung to supply the drivers on a CD rather than USB stick (although ripping it into an ISO and running through deamon tool solved that one) and the fact they decided for some reason to include a musical screensaver with horrendous plinky plonky music. Give me AfterDark any day.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
Aha, I was thinking of the o2 iPhone internet terms, which have no 200MB cap (and do allow Wifi hotspots). You're right, that's not the case with the normal tariffs. My mistake!marksi wrote:£7.50 a month "unlimited" on your O2 mobile is actually restricted to a "fair usage policy" of 200MB.