Netbooks?

[Jayson]

Do anybody use these on a regular basis?

I pre-ordered the Dell Mini 10 after looking at several brands and models and it seems to be one of the best of the bunch. I know I didn't want a full sized laptop that would end up sitting on a desk or table, I have my desktop PC for that. I wanted something that was truly portable. The HDMI output is a bonus, it would be perfect for me to plug into my TV for emulation goodness and maybe streaming some Netflix.

I am wondering if anybody can tell me any downsides to netbooks that maybe I am not realizing yet.

[Niode]

I've got an Acer Aspire One and it's great as a little portable machine but it does take a lot of getting used to. If I know I'm going to be using a computer a lot away from home I'll take my macbook pro, but there's nothing quite like being able to just toss a netbook in your bag and being able to whip it out in a moments notice when you really need it.

Disadvantages

- Small screen
- Uncomfortable keyboard
- Fiddly track pad

Advantages

- Very light
- Ultra portable
- Fast boot up (if you get a Linux one, my Fiancée's AA1 has linux with an SSD and that boots up in less than 5 seconds. Mine takes a bit longer because of the mechanical drive, it's an AA1 windows version but with ubuntu on it)
- Battery life is usually better than a bigger laptop.
- Really good portable emulation machines.

[racketboy]

I almost got an Eee PC a while back, but got a used Thinkpad X41 instead and love it.
A real ultraportable that's actually thiner and is a more rounded machine for the same price.
Trick is you just can't walk into a store and buy one.

[Niode]

Same price?! They're £500-£600 here. A netbook costs on average £200...

My Acer Aspire One cost me £100.

[Flak Beard]

I've been considering one of these just to have a machine to play emulators or watch videos on my lunch break. How well do they run say something like ePSXe?

[Jayson]

Disadvantages

- Small screen
- Uncomfortable keyboard
- Fiddly track pad

I haven't seen any of the 10" netbooks in person, but I know the 7"s were waaaay too small and the 12" ones seemed a little big and pointless when the full featured 12-13" laptops were only a little more money.

I am hoping for the best with the keyboard and trackpad since I have only been able to read 1st impressions of them so far. The keyboard only being 10% smaller than a regular laptop's and it having the multi touch trackpad.

I will post my impressions of it at the end of the month when it's supposed to arrive.

[Niode]

I can run simple PS1 games on PCSX. It doesn't like complex 3D games like MGS or GT but it copes fairly well with most games.

However that might be due to the Linux PCSX emulator I don't think it's as optimised as something like ePSXe.

I can run all my SNES/NES/MegaDrive games on my netbook without a problem.

@Jayson: mine uses a 8.9" screen it's good enough. Anything bigger just increases the size of the machine. I like how small the unit is and not having a huge screen is something I can deal with.

[Jayson]

I've been considering one of these just to have a machine to play emulators or watch videos on my lunch break. How well do they run say something like ePSXe?

I haven't read up on that yet, but the onboard video is pretty anemic. Most have the GMA950 and the one I am getting has the GMA500 which is slower for games than the 950, but supports hardware decoding of MPEG2/AVC/x.264 with the right software so I should be able to get 720p video out of the thing.

I assume everything will run correctly, just not with all of the filters/shader packs.

[fast]

Ive used a 9inch eee quite extensively over the past few months. It is my oldmans and when the os went kaput it came to me. Fair warning most require XP sp2 to be installed - which buggered me up since I have base xp. The keyboard is quaint, the screen is a bit rough for a long time, and a wireless mouse will be a good friend to you. But overall it works very wel. If they had rca/svideo out I would be all over one.

[CantStrafeRight]

I have a hp mininote 2133 and I love it
The only bad thing about it is its 1.2ghz c7 cpu is a little slow for some online videos.

but there's a newer model (hp 2140) with a 1.6ghz atom cpu which makes the battery last a lot longer as well as making it faster.