Jimellow

I was at Best Buy the other day and while browsing the computer section, I noticed some very small and affordable laptops. After doing some research I gather I was looking at a selection of Intel Atom netbooks.

Given the low cost and small size, I'm intrigued by these models and was hoping to find out more information at the forums here.

I'd be using the netbook primarily for the Internet and word processing, and nothing overly resource heavy.

If anyone has experiences or feedback regarding these types of processors/netbooks, I'd appreciate it if you would share them.

I'd also be interested to read anything that's available in regards to individual brands/models and which ones are recommended above the others; whether that be through responses here or a link to a website that features reviews of the different models.

The portability and low cost are very desirable to me, and whereas I'm not looking to spend a lot of money on a new desktop computer or laptop right now, I would consider buying a netbook-type device providing the reviews are generally positive.

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Martian

Any laptop with a price tag under $500 or so is likely to be based on a low-cost, low-power CPU (Intel Atom or Via C7, generally). But that's okay.

See, the reason netbooks caught on like wildfire is because you're like most people. The overwhelming majority of people who own and use PCs don't play games or do A/V editing or any of that really heavy duty stuff. Most folks listen to mp3's, update their facebook status 80 times a day and check email. Maybe in these harsh economic times they'll update their resume, but that's really about the extent of it. As an extension of that, most people don't need quad-core 3 GHz CPU's and gobs of RAM to do the things they want to do.

That Atom is a fine budget processor line. It's not going to play the latest or greatest games and you're not going to want to run Photoshop on those bad boys, but for browsing and the occasional .doc it'll work great.

Far more important than the individual processor used is going to be the overall build quality. I don't have enough experience with these things to make and concrete recommendations yet, but I will say that I've always like Lenovo and Acer for laptops. I think you'd probably do okay with one of those.

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

snowy

I am writing this post on an ASUS eeePC 900 with an Intel Atom processor. I LOVE IT. I cannot understate how much I adore my netbook. Super portability was important for me because I have a hand issue that means it's no longer feasible for me to take notes longhand in class. Thus, I have my eeePC with Office installed and use OneNote instead. It's far lighter and smaller than any laptop--I have an HP 15.4" dv6000 notebook, and this thing is positively tiny compared to that. It's even tinier than my SO's small laptop.

Martian is absolutely right--if you're like most people, and are planning on just surfing the web and emailing, a netbook is perfect. I've been really impressed with my ASUS. After 5 months of carting it to school and back, it's still doing great.

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sapiens

I bought a Gateway LT2005u last week for around $230. It has a 6 cell battery. I have really enjoyed it. It's light and runs for a long time. We plan to use it primarily for travel. I ripped a bunch of our children's movies to its hard drive. Now, when we travel, my kids will have movies to distract them and my wife and I will have easy access to email.

Shauk

I think i'll pick one up for school, I just enrolled for my AS in Journalism.

clavus

I own a Samsung NP-N110. Added RAM. Love it. I'm about to add Win 7 to it. Wish me luck.

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telekinetic

After repeated failed attempts to do the same on my eeePC900, via five different USB thumbdrives, I finally sucked it up and bought the $35 USB external DVD burner that is on NewEgg right now.

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Shauk

ironman

I'm writing this from my Acer Aspire One, best purchase ever!!! I installed windows 7 on it and it runs even better than with XP. If you are into HD movies, I'd hold my buy at least 'till march next year when most netbooks will come with ION boards that can handle even 1080p videos, if that's not you're thing, just go and buy one NOW!

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SecretMethod70

Wow, netbooks that can handle 1080p. It was only maybe 4 years ago that my DESKTOP couldn't handle 1080p.

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connyosis

Samsung NC10 here. I'm running Linux on it and it works just fine. Granted it's not a powerhouse (It does not like flash heavy web pages) but it's not made to be either.

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telekinetic

I've tried variants of that with four different thumbdrives with no success.

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flat5

I have Medion netbook. You may not be able to change the Microsoft OS.
I tried going from a Dutch XP to an English XP. Tried many versions and had another computer pro help me. I believe there is something in the bios that only allows the OS that the manufacturer provided to install. I did not try Linux.

telekinetic

Well, I have had 4 different OS on it before now, but they were all specifically compiled for install via the USB, rather than compiled for CD/DVD and hackified onto a USB stick.

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flat5

I'm talking about one specific netbook. Medion Akoya.

I posted my experience because if someone thinks that after they buy a netbook they will want to change the OS right away they may have a problem that they did not consider.

I tried usb, external cd rom, and install from hard disk.
Every way and version resulted in the same blue screen after the first re-boot after Windows installed the first run drivers.
What I would call after the first stage of install.

telekinetic

I don't believe that this is accurate. I have never heard of a bios locking someone into a specific OS.

In this specific case, it's almost certainly innaccurate--the Medion Akoya mini is just a rebranded MSI Wind, which is just as easy to put whatever OS you want on as any other netbook--people have put OSX, Windows 7, Linux, other flavors of XP on them quite regularly.

Now, I'm not saying you weren't able to get Windows on it via the methods you attempted, as if you scroll up you see I just basically stated I can't get windows 7 on my eeePC and should be able to. I freely admit in my case it's user error, or incompatible tutorials, rather than any sort of actual hardware limitation, and am trying a simpler method to route around that error. I suspect in your case it is the same.

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flat5

I have considered flashing the Wind bios but don't want to end up with a dead computer. I never heard of this problem before, either, but the only XP I am able to install is from the CD Rom that came with the machine. I wrote to Medion UK (email) but they won't talk to anyone not having a UK address. It's been a half year since I have tried to solve this. I just live with the Dutch version.

After I failed I brought it to a pro who does this sort of thing every day for the last twenty years. He also does custom networking and security. He "knows his stuff".

Martian

I do custom networking and security, and I've been doing this sort of thing nearly every day for fifteen years. I will concede that a BIOS lockout is technically possible (checking for a specific signature in the boot sector would be the easiest way to implement it), but it makes no sense. By the time that netbook gets into your hands, both Microsoft and Medion have made their money off you. Furthermore, Microsoft would most likely actively oppose such a thing, since it denies them future revenue from OS upgrades.

As telekinetic noted, there are documented cases of people putting OSX on Akoya minis. The fact that you and your 'expert' can't figure it out doesn't make it impossible.

That said, changing the OS on a netbook is notably more difficult than it is on a full-size laptop or desktop computer. This is more to do with the restrictions imposed by the limited hardware than anything.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

telekinetic

Here's a picture of an in-progress Windows 7 install on an Akoya mini that succeeded:



and OSX:



If you want more internet assistance getting a new OS on your netbook, do searches for MSI Wind, which it basically is, as that is much more common, and will have a larger quantity of relevant published material.

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flat5

Thanks, you two. I'll look into it again at some point, I suppose.

Cynthetiq

DISQUS | sean808080's ohmbase- The netbook revolution - Acer Aspire One

that's someone that got OSX on the Atom procecessor

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Latenter

Looks like it's already been covered an moving on to OS options, but I've been looking at netbooks for a while and have some fairly researched opinions. My biggest hangup with them is actually the amount of screen real estate - 800x480 or even 1024x600 is way too small to use for much, even web browsing feels cramped. Up to recently my top pick would be a configuration of the HP Mini 101 or 110: for about $350 it has basic Atom 270 processor but has an LED backlit 1366x768 display and a Broadcom media accelerator to play HD video, even Hulu with the newest Flash update.

I'm looking forward to the Asus Eee 1201N once it's out in the next month of two, even though it's up to $500. Dual core (still Atom) 330 processor, Win 7, 2GB RAM, high res display, plus an Ion graphics chipset for media acceleration. You can configure full laptops with similar specs, but it's small, and Atom+Ion has better battery life. Besides, I think the hardware video acceleration makes a bigger difference than a better processor at this point anyway. Other than full blown PC gaming, I don't think any more upgrades would make much difference for most people, except maybe adding a little more memory.

Shauk

Was wanting to wait a gen or 2 to get one of these at the 300$ price point.

But circumstances have landed me with this one (HP MINI 110) for the time being. It's a capable computer, no doubt. It's just a tad overmatched by hulu I think.

I got open office installed on it, skype, my dj software (which surprising runs well), windows live mail, winamp and digsby. I think thats about all I plan on putting on here for now.

Hulu is the only thing that kind seems like it could use 10% more video horsepower to process, just drops frames here and there trying to keep up.