Recommended netbook (Page 1 of 2)

Ken Rockwell at www.kenrockwell.com has his 1m test for hardware.

Drop the camera/lens 1 metre and see if it still works.

Looking at my first post I think it is the build quality and battery life that are the prime considerations. If anybody has dropped their netbook the required 1m then that would also help in my choice.

I have dropped 2 lenses, 3 cameras and 2 video recorders in my time, all have, suprisingly, survived. I have never dropped a laptop, desktop or mainframe to date.

I'm a writer and swear by my two "older" eeepc's...a 701 and 900a. I upgraded the ram to 2g in the 900a, have been amazingly satisfied with the battery in the 900a, put a 16g SSD into the 900a and switched up to a big lump of a battery in the 701. Wifi has always "just worked" with both. I typically keep the 701 hooked up to a big monitor and keyboard and carry the 900a everywhere. And all I gotta do to switch machines is swap the SD card and do occasional ISOs onto my external USB drive.
Windoze came with the 701 and Xandros with the 900a. I didn't even try Xandros after reading reviews and I tried pupeee, fluxflux, and a host of others before I dropped eeebuntu base onto it. Nice, I thought...but then the trouble started with the LXDE version. And that's when I strayed over to #!.
Anyway, #! worked OOTB with both machines, I've done most of the tweaks (auto touchpad shutoff when typing, fonts, conky, etc) and can't picture anything better (or more fun!).
A triple hooray to Philip and friends!

I've done the one meter drop with an eeePC 900a. Results: a few blue lines on the LCD that have gone away in time since dropping, and the left click on the trackpad no longer works (I tap-to-click anyhow.)

I very much like the 900a and would recommend it. Aftermarket batteries are available to increase time (3cell stock), I have an 8 cell that i get 7-8 hours out. I have the "Best Buy" version with a slow 4gb SSD stock, replaced with 16gb SATA SSD which flies. So for a good deal less than 300 (170 for the computer, 45 for the battery and 40 for the SSD) I have a little thing that flies with #!. You can still occasionally find the best buy variants refurbished for a good deal less than 200.

The only thing that bothers me is the keyboard is slightly cramped for longer writing sessions. Only reason I'll upgrade in a year or two's time.

@cheekybangbang

good point ive never bought a computer new, theyre so much cheaper second hand, plus theres the fact that something like 90% of computers that break, do so within the first 18months, after that youve filtered out most of the manufacturing faults, so it tends to just keep working, although i have to say, you don't seem to be very careful with your computers

I would wait another month if possible, with windows 7 just out some of the restrictions on netbooks have been lifted. So there should be some better models coming out soon. Also I would look into something with a culv processor instead of atom, I just picked up a dell inspiron 11z, it's got a slightly faster video card and a dual-core low voltage cpu...should be in soon and I can give you a review. I specced it a little higher so it came out to $500 but I think baseline they are like $400, so about the same price as a higher end netbook but also with 1366 x 768 resolution.

I've never heard of these, what do you think of them? 

I'm usually looking at armel stuff, and as far as netbooks I'm actually waiting for a tablet with a good linux touchscreen implementation.  After having an N800 there's no way I can go back to not using a stylus, handwriting daily notes instantly is fun.  The Touch Book has launched and looks good, but not outstanding end-user ready enough for me.  The Microsoft Courier sounds great, but if they actually release it I doubt I'll like the price or limited features that usually comes with Microsoft.  The Entourage Edge takes the idea even further, and has a February ETA, but I'm hearing even it shall be a bit limited in features.  And I'm a bit cautious about how the hardware and software quality are going to fully work out, especially since these are all essentially market entry products and market entry products basically never use their full potential.

But how fun would it be two have two Linux workspaces running on a dual-screen tablet?  Especially if they took it a step further and let you combine and rotate the screens the way the Nintendo DS does.

*hopes a miracle product finally comes within a year*

I use a Samsung NC10 and I'm very happy with it. Great display, great keyboard, 6-8h working with one charge, good finishing - the other specs are the same for all netbooks. One negative aspect is that you see every (finger)mark on my black netbook.

My first laptop, actually is the eee 1000ha (fine, it's a netbook).  If you've got the cash, I'd go for the 1000HE, or an even newer model, but my HA hasn't failed me yet.

i looked at a lot of computers when i bought mine recently. although my main concern was price and then qulaity and battery life.

i actually ordered a mini 10v from dell with a SSD and after a month and a half of it being backordered and the production date constantly changed and way to many calls to customer service. i canceled the order and went to the nearest computer store, a best buy over an hour away.

and you know what i learned at the best buy? that the dell mini 10v not 10!!!!was the best in build quality and hardware by a long shot. as much as i hated dell, and i really hated them i went ahead and bought a dell mini 10v in the store.

a few notes, firstly i got $50 off, all i had to do was tell the manager that it sold on the dell WS for $50 less with Linux, and i didn't even want the windows, and they matched the price. secondly, i got the 160 gig traditional HDD and haven't looked back, the SSD's didn't have as good of a review and the 160  is super fast and quit.

i get a consistent 2 to 2 1/2 hours out of my battery, i only have #! installed on it and that is the statistic for #!. this is my PRIMARY computer and it hasn't faltered a bit with #!.

final battery notenote i have the smaller battery, if you order it you can get a double battery lat lasts twice as long. BUYER BEWARE, it sticks out of the bottom of the laptop and while they tried, its not very sleek or attractive.

that all said i bought my 10v before the 11z came out, and as great as the atom is, this is a primary comp and i wish i spent the $100 and bought the 11z with a celeron processor i believe.

Do you guys think that any recent netbook will be able to playback 720p h.264 mkvs fine in Crunchbang?

@zhfac:  No problem at all with HD video in Statler on my Dell Mini.  Kernel 2.6.32 includes built-in support for improved graphics from the Intel graphics chip in Dell laptops.  (Don't remember what it's called, but it was big news a few months ago.)