10 inch laptop

[plien]

Thinking about getting a 10 inch laptop. It will be the perfect travel companion for me since my 12 inch is getting heavy to carry around.

Have looked at 2 brands, Acer and Samsung. Anyone have experience with these small ones? Pros and cons? And how much do they cost approximately?

Input welcome, thx Plien

[rjj04]

I can not comment on the Acer or Samsung. I bought an Asus 1000HE, but also have a 15 in laptop. Now, I only use the 15in for batch job stuff. The Asus does everything. It takes a while to get used to the screen size, a bit annoying at first, but the portability is awesome. It is very comfortable to use when lying back and relaxing... unlike a larger laptop. It feels like it is not even in my backpack when I haul it around. I put it into my little gym bag as well... no problems. Had the Asus for about six months, without any issues. Battery life is around 8+ hours depending on what devices are disabled... another great point.

Bought it through Amazon.com
Items Ordered Price $384.51
1 of: ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch Netbook (1.66 GHz Intel Atom N280 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 10 GB Eee Storage, Bluetooth, XP Home, 9.5 Hour B [Personal Computers]

Have you looked at Lenovo?
http://www-07.ibm.com/lenovoinfo/sg/not ... /s-series/
I really like the case on the Lenovo models. Some sort of metal, very strong. This Asus is plastic, and feels like it will crack one day. Had a Lenovo before, it was the best performance/cost I could find.
If I were to do it over again, I might try a Lenovo instead of the Asus... just get the feeling the Asus is not going to last very long.

Oh, I run Ubuntu (dual boot with XP), so can not comment on XP performance, don't use it enough.

[rjj04]

Oh sorry, Asus apparently has a newer model out with Windows 7 loaded (not sure if that is a pro or a con)....

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Seashell-100 ... 424&sr=1-6

[mak]

My daughters each have an Acer netbook. 14,000 baht. We are satisfied with them. Ideal for children. Also great for travel for both adults and children.

[laphanphon]

i would go with the ASUS, have one of those, and one Acer, basically twins, same price range. asus with 6-9 hr battery life, acer with 2-3 being the only noticeable difference. both very nice. extra battery life is excellent if out and about.

i would think window 7 would be a huge con, as it takes up too much space and would definitely slow them down. they are not exactly zippity fast to start. buying battery life and portability, giving up a bit, but they are nice laptops. cheap enough.

[rjj04]

Agreed, the N280 CPU is quite slow already, Windows 7 would probably drag it down to a crawl. But perhaps "plien" wants the latest and greatest Also doubt if Windows 7 really does have a smaller RAM footprint.
Does Windows 7 have a better internal firewall? I checked my XP partition (using clamscan from Ubuntu), it has AVG installed and up to date, and still 4 viruses were found and quarantined. Windows Anything... still do not trust it at all.

[plien]

Thank you for your feedback rjj04, mak and la.

Just read up on the Lenovo. Its a nice machine also but RAM is limited to 1,5 mb. The others you can upgrade to 2 mb.

The Asus looks tasty, and 10+ hours doesnt hurt either.

Reason IM looking at Acer also is my privious 3 computers have been Acer and all have met my expectations. Well, could have wished for some more battery life on the laptops.

Samsung is the only one I have found with a built in 3g modem. If I remember correctly Acer had this feature a year ago but now I cant see it in any other netbook then Samsung. Wonder why. Also the Samsung has the largest keybord, but then again the smallest touchpad.

Yes rjj04, I want the latest, but not nessecarily the greatest. The latest will carry me further into the future. The feeling is not so nice when after buying a product find out it will soon be replaced with a newer model. I am happy with XP on a small notebook, and if I knew more about computers in general I`d probably go for Linux.

Thanks again, Plien

[laphanphon]

The Asus looks tasty, and 10+ hours doesnt hurt either.

that's with most bells and whistles turned off. though i have plenty of time, using wifi or cell phone internet. at least 5 hr at full powers, so very nice, as i self drive and it comes in quite handy, along with some mapping software that has saved me a couple times. the acer should give you at least 2 hrs full powers, so fine for most travelers. good luck

[plien]

A little update on my 10 inch adventure.
Bought a Samsung NC10. Nice little thing. Comparatively large keyboard, built in modem, light and easy to handle. But... The screen really stinks, it was so bad I stopped using the new netbook after an hour and went back to the old one. Yes I know its a small screen, only 10 inches. But my old laptop is 12 inches and three times better even though its three years old. Today I took it back to the store and got a refund. Got money back minus approx 5000 baht. Still it was worth it, dont want to get angry every time I use the thing. Will arrive in Thailand in two weeks and will buy the new netbook there. This time it it will be either Asus or Acer.
If any of you are interested in the Samsung, check the screen and make sure its up to the standard you expect.

[KHONDAHM]

...my 12 inch is getting heavy to carry around...

Yeah, I have that same problem. Squats to build up the leg strength worked for me, though. [Zing!]

Seriously, I am in the same boat and thinking of getting a netbook or something light when I just lay in bed and surf or keep in the car. I currently have a massive tricked out HP HDX-9200 notebook (20.5" HD monitor) upgraded with a Torqx 256 GB SSD primary drive and 500 GB 7200 RPM secondary drive. Great for work and goofing off, but too much of a behemoth to lay in bed with comfortably.

I am also anxious to hear the feedback from others. I may grab one soon.

[rjj04]

The 10" netbook format is great. As I speak, I am lying on the bed with a couple of pillows for the head support, and one leg folded over the other, with the netbook wedged below my ribs and resting back on the folded leg... oh very comfortable, and do not need any hands to keep it there. This is the most useful notebook I have ever had, because of the extreme portability.

"The screen really stinks" what does that mean Plien? Brightness, contrast?

[Farang1]

I just bought 3 of th Acers for the kids. 250gb harddrive, 2gb RAM. $350 at BestBuy. I wanted to keep one for myself. The screens are a bit small but, when you get home, you can always hook a moniter up for that big screen affect.

[mortiboy]

What does that mean Plien? Brightness, contrast?..............".change" Why is it in Thai?

[rjj04]

What does that mean Plien? Brightness, contrast?..............".change" Why is it in Thai?

Perhaps I am retarded or something but I do not see here exactly what the complaint is...

"Yes I know its a small screen, only 10 inches. But my old laptop is 12 inches and three times better"

Better? If size is the issue, then why does he say this...

"If any of you are interested in the Samsung, check the screen and make sure its up to the standard you expect"

instead of say, make sure that 10" is okay for you. People would not need to look at the Samsung in particular.
Then he wants another netbook, only an Acer or Asus. If it was the size of the screen that was the only serious
issue then logically he could look at buying a Samsung 12" as well as an Acer or Asus.

He implies that it is a quality issue with the LCD or LCD control logic, no? Having designed LCD/graphics
controller chips before, I was curious.

[KHONDAHM]

I just bought 3 of th Acers for the kids. 250gb harddrive, 2gb RAM. $350 at BestBuy. I wanted to keep one for myself. The screens are a bit small but, when you get home, you can always hook a moniter up for that big screen affect.

I may grab one of those this week. 2 GB RAM or more is exactly what I am looking for since I always have lots of apps open and use Virtual PCs extensively. HDD really doesn't matter to me because I would primarily use it like an oversized iPod/Skype phone.

Speaking of HDD, I highly recommend swapping the HDD for a SSD (Solid State Drive) if you have a few extra baht/dollars to kick around. They get a little pricey the larger you go, but if you plan to use it like me, you only need a 60-80 GB or so as a primary and a USB drive for holding files or whatever. An SSD drive will not only make the entire system perform faster (fully boots Windoze 7 and all start apps in less than 15 secs, for example), but it will also extend battery life. Not to mention no need to defragment anymore and no worries about crashing or losing everything on the drive if the little critter accidentally drops.

Windoze 7 64-bit will also get you superior performance over XP or Vista on a netbook, and you can always use XP within the included Virtual PC.

Just my song-baht.

Cheers!