Best netbook as of... Recentish

[palmertech]

I know there was a netbook thread a while ago, but there have been a lot of new releases and most notably, price drops as the Christmas season approaches.

As such, what is the best netbook to get right now? Obviously, it depends on what you would want to do with it, but for "general use" (Net, Docs, random apps, maybe a bit of lower powered gaming) what do the members of benheck think?

I like the look of some of the newer 8.9" EEEPCs, Aspire One, and dell mini 9. I noticed the 8gb EEE model with XP for $350 at target, which seems to be a decent deal for a retail store. Any other ideas? I am looking to spend under $350, but other stuff is good too.

[vskid]

I like the look of some of the newer 8.9" EEEPCs, Aspire One, and dell mini 9.

I think all of those plus the MSI wind have similar specs. Battery life, looks, and price are the only major differences, so just look for one that meets your needs, there shouldn't be any performance difference.

[palmertech]

Not sure if this is black Friday only (Till Sunday like most) or a permanent deal, but newegg has an 8gb Aspire One for $249 with free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834115531

Hope you don't me selling the lifebook I bought from you, vskid. I love it to death, but the screen is simply too dim. Nice most of the time, but bright rooms are problematic. Also, flash usage is pretty slow. I have a nice youtube browser set up, but hulu.com is another beast. Nice to see my N800 in your avatar, too.

[Triton]

most powerful netbook/umpc is the raon everun note. suffers with lackluster battery life (2-3 hours at best with standard battery) but makes up for it with regular laptop level processing ability (turion X2 1.2ghz dual core processor 1gb ram 7" touchscreen)

[gamemasterAS]

I have an msi wind and I also have a Acer Aspire One coming in the mail for another member of my family. So if you guys want I could give you a run down of witch one I like the best, wouldn't be until Christmas though.

[sgtpepper]

I've got an EeePC 901, I can answer any questions you might have. I've had it since August 1st, use it daily, and I haven't had any problems. The battery life is awesome, 5 hours or more with Wifi and Bluetooth on, while doing intensive tasks. I can squeeze out nearly 7 hours if I turn off everything and just play N64 and NES emulators I dual boot XP and OS X, but tend to stay in OS X, being a Mac user (duhh). I would say that both of them get similar battery life.

I'm planning on either getting a 64GB SSD replacement in the next couple months, or maybe wait a bit for the 128GB to drop below $300. I will be buying from this place.

Let me know if you have any Eee-related questions, I've also used a 701, 900A, 1000HA, and a 1000 series, so I can (hopefully) cover most anything you might want to know!

[tom61]

If I were buying one now, I'd go with the Dell Mini 9 (passively cooled goodness) or the Asus EEE PC 900HA(cheap price if it came out at the announced price + decent sized HD).

My EEE PC 900 is serving my needs.for the time being, so I haven't been following the netbook scene too closely. I probably won't look into it too much until the GMA 500 starts landing in Netbooks (better graphics, lower power consumption, less heat).

[bicostp]

It looks like the Eee 901 comes with Intel's Atom processor, so it's no wonder it gets decent battery life. Best Buy had one in their flyer for under $300.

I might look into a netbook if I ever need to replace the Axim. Hopefully by that point they'll have a better graphics chipset; I'd want it to at least try and run a couple games... (Of course, waiting will also see solid-state storage prices come down.) But for now, the PDA is fine for most occasions, and I have a 500 mhz P3 based 12" subnotebook to use. (Free from the trash at my old job.) The iPod Touch might be more suitable for quick 'net fixes, though...