Netbooks?

[Sarge]

Does anyone know of any netbooks that are good for viewing/showing pictures and not over $350?? I would like it to have 160GB built-in.

I am thinking of buying one, solely for the reason to put pictures on it and be able to view/edit them while travelling. I have looked around but am not finding that many...


Thanks in advance.
Tim

[phild]

Tim, I should have posted a heads up, shoppingsquare.com.au had the MSIwind U100+, just a few days ago, for $399 after $50 rebate from Paypal. (they still have it listed at $449). That's about as cheap as you'll get a netbook and the U100+ has led backlighting as well as bluetooth & 160Gb Hdd.

It's worth keeping an eye one shoppingsquare as they have daily specials and the prices are often very good.

FWIW netbooks are starting to appear with 3G broadband modems, if you're like me and interested in mobility it may be worth waiting for a while until the prices drop.

[Sarge]

Thanks for your reply Phil.

I am willing to spend a couple of $100, but I thought it through, and really all I need it for is for photographic purposes, so not looking for a flash one. Maybe, if like you say, that around the $450 mark is about as cheap as you get them, then I would go ahead and get one. I think I looked at U100+ and it did look very nice.

Thanks for telling me about shoppingsquare. I will have to go check them out. I know that Catch of the Day sometimes has netbook specials, they recently had one for $399 - $50 cash-back using paypal, but I passed it up as I thought that was too expensive, so with your advice in mind I will keep a sharp eye out now.

Thanks for your advice Phil. Greatly appreciated!
Tim

[Analog6]

I bought the Australian Kogan Agora Pro for $569 (incl postage) and it is a good little thing. I planned to take it tto NZ, but it runds gOS Ubuntu and I could not work out how to get a graphic programme onto it. I'm thinking I might sell it as I have bought a MacN=Book Pro on eBay and will probably take that in future.

But they are worth looking into. I've connected wirelessly to the network at work and surfed thenet, used Open Office etc, and for such a tiny package it performs well.

Specs:
Battery:
 Lithium-ion
Connectivity
• Network interface: 
10/100 LAN, 802.11b, 802.11g
• USB ports: 
3
• VGA: 
Yes
Display
• Natural resolution (max): 
1024 x 600 pixels
• Diagonal screen size
: 10 inch
Drives: Primary hard drive: 
160 GB
Memory
• Amt of RAM
: 2GB
• Memory card reader
: Yes
Integrated webcam
: Yes
Processor
Processor type: 
Intel Atom
Processor speed: 
1.6 GHz
Sound: Embedded stereo speakers


[yummymummy]

My son has an Eeepc netbook for his "homework" ( well that's what we bought it for, he uses it more for gaming ) It's a snazzy little thing, a bit too little for my eyes, but seems to boot up quickly etc etc.. The only trouble we've had is it doesn't have a disc drive, and you have to buy the software for it on a USB stick unless you have an external CS or DVD writer to plug into it.

[Loum]

I have the Asus 901, because i wanted linux and 6+ hours of battery life.
this is a great table to compare what it is you want in your net book - then go and price them http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...on_of_netbooks

[pgbphotographytas]

I have a MSI U100 which I use as my main computer at home

[MATT]

Thanks for your reply Phil.

I will have to go check them out. I know that Catch of the Day sometimes has netbook specials, they recently had one for $399 - $50 cash-back using paypal, but I passed it up as I thought that was too expensive, so with your advice in mind I will keep a sharp eye out now.

Tim

I grabbed one of these. great little netbook.. Really enjoying the 9 hrs battery life. Great for browsing. If only it had in built 3G.

I have it running mac OS with 1 gig Ok, just cant get the wireless to work..

If your budget cant stretch to that look around for a second hand one.. If it was to show images I would be tempted to go to a cheap Notebook for the bigger screen.

MATT

[Wilky]

I have an acer aspire one running a version of Ubuntu linux and gimp. It travelled 13,000k around the UK and Eu in the tank bag on the bike. Wireless card played up but now works a treat. For portability it has been great.
Down side. 80gig solid state hd is very small. Up side no moving parts.
I carry a 180gig portable hd with me. Everything sits on this drive then back up onto cd/dvd.
Down side batery life, bigger batteries are available for them but 90% of the time I had power available so it never became an issue.
Cheers
Wilky

[wanderer51]

We also have and can recommend the MSI Wind. Running XP. Inbuilt wireless and Bluetooth, 160GB HDD. Used it throughout UK & Europe to store photos and video. More than capable of doing any editing (as I have since found out). Viewing pictures/video was no problem.
It also had more than enough grunt to play Chicken Invaders!
Battery life was OK.
Down side is that you aren't going to get it for $350, however, if you aren't concerned about 'brand names' then you should be aware that the Aldi Netbook is a rebadged MSI Wind! While still >$350, it is cheaper than a branded Wind and has the added advantage of Aldi's 60 day return policy for whatever reason.