Those 7 inch netbooks....

[bombtek]

Anyone here have one?

Are they worth the $150 you can get them for now?

Are they more like a toy that once you use it a few times, you've pretty much covered all it can do and might as well throw it away if you want to do more?

[Ben...]

I have a netbook. It's got a slightly larger screen but I find it quite useful. I take it to school and type stuff up on it. Easily worth 250 bucks I paid.

[Rsmacker]

Those 7 inchers (oo-er!) are only really good for checking your mail on. The screens are just too small to use for anything more than a few minutes and the keyboards are a bastard to use properly. I just bought a Samsung NC10 with a 10" screen and a near-as-dammit full size keyboard, it's the tits, thoroughly recommend it. (£275 with the 6 hour battery)

[Matt_B]

I bought a "large" netbook (Acer 1410 w/11.6" screen) and I love it. I bought it primarily for my TV room guitar rig (Guitar Pro, Band in a Box, MP3s and instructional DVDs) but it does fine for e-mail and web surfing.

[bombtek]

I bought a "large" netbook (Acer 1410 w/11.6" screen) and I love it. I bought it primarily for my TV room guitar rig (Guitar Pro, Band in a Box, MP3s and instructional DVDs) but it does fine for e-mail and web surfing.

So some of these are capable as a recording platform?

[Ben...]

So some of these are capable as a recording platform?

Not processor heavy stuff. I'm sure you could use stuff like Audacity just fine though.

[m2pmd70]

I bought a 10" Acer EEEpc to take on vacation, just in case something went screwy at work I could fix it from the other side of the country.

It's handy at home too, cause I can check my email (or the JCF like now) without pissing my old lady off by disappearing into the man cave. It handles youtube just fine and the older games games I've tried work fine. I even have my work CAD and Google Sketchup installed on it - I wouldn't want to have to do CAD work on it, but it's functional.

I looked at a bunch of different ones, I liked the Dell mini10 (the Latitude 2100 is even cooler); but they make the RAM a real bitch to upgrade. I liked the Acer keyboard the best, though the Toshiba was a close second. The keyboard really seems to be the make/break on netbooks for most people.

Installing Windows7 made it a bit zippier too, plus I bumped it up to 2 Gb RAM too.

[Newc]

These are primarily surf-on-the-go units from what I've seen. Yeah they may do a spreadsheet or basic PowerPoint but I wouldn't expect them to do real 3D programs like Max, Maya, Bryce, Poser, Lightwave, etc.

Can't say I've seen anything about them using a real recording app like Audition (tons of tracks, ReWire instruments running, etc) or video editing like Premiere/Elements. Would be nice to see exatcly what it can and cannot do in those departments.

I thought about getting one to take to work just as my "surfing at lunch" box instead of dragging my full-size laptop, but really can't justify the $200+ for just a "failblog and email" machine.

[Flatpicker]

I had a Dell Mini 9 that I used for about 6 mos at work while traveling.

I liked the convenience, but the screen was too small for me. Gave me headaches.

[Spivonious]

They're fine for surfing/email, but remember that the screen resolutions are pretty small. The small ones only give you 600 pixels of height, which means a lot of scrolling. The keys on the keyboard are also a bit smaller than normal, so I'd avoid them if you do a lot of typing.

Honestly, even the $400 laptop is going to outperform a netbook, so if you don't need the ultra-portability, just get a cheap laptop.

[RobRR]

I have an Acer 8.9" and I love it. Very convenient and easy to carry around.

[Matt_B]

One of the neat things about the Acer 1410 (or any netbook/laptop with a 11.6" screen) is that it's about the same size as a piece of paper (8.5" x 11"). In other words, it's about the size of the medium sized book. That makes carting it around in bags, backpacks, etc. very easy.

[RobRR]

Also one thing to keep in mind as others have said, these things arent very powerful processor wise. Most of them are the 1.6 atom and while its a decent cpu for its size, I wouldnt consider it fast. Itll do fine on the 'net though.

[Matt_B]

Also one thing to keep in mind as others have said, these things arent very powerful processor wise. Most of them are the 1.6 atom and while its a decent cpu for its size, I wouldnt consider it fast. Itll do fine on the 'net though.

That's why I went for the Acer 1410. It was the least expensive 11.6" that had a Core 2 Solo. For another $280 I could have gone for a Asus UL30 with a Core 2 Duo but I didn't want a netbook/laptop that physically large.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

To me, if you're buying it for on-the-go Internet and Email and MAYBE a little bit of light-duty work like VBScript or MS Word, they're a good buy.

In fact this would be the perfect thing for the wife & I to take on vacation for doing research on local restaurants/attractions, checking our email, that kind of thing, and if it weren't for the fact that we've already got that covered by an old but still trusty laptop we would probably buy one, they are SUPER portable.

If you actually want a laptop for "real" work then you're going to be frustrated with the tiny screen and lack of computing power.