Netbooks

[fearmeforiampink]

Am considering getting myself a netbook/similar at some point in the next few months, as while my current laptop is lovely, and I love the ability to lean back in a comfy chair with a powerful and large screened computer, I'd also like one I can take everywhere without noticing, for taking it to gaming nights and so forth.

Stuff I'm after, in no particular order

• Cheap. Doesn't have to be high spec, I want something that doesn't set me back too much


• Light. Being utterly tiny isn't so much a thing, as my bags are reasonably large, but I don't want too much weight


• Decent for reading PDFs from, as this will be one of its major roles


• Viable for dealing with email on (though doesn't have to be great for writing long long replies)


• Tough. This is fairly high priority, as I can be rather hard on my possessions

Tablet could work as long as it's not too expensive. Would consider an iPad, but the lack of true multitasking for swapping between character sheet and PDF would be annoying, and I don't need the apps.

So, what would people suggest?

Comments

[return2zero.livejournal.com]

I bought a little netbook to bring for gaming nights. I keep youtube (for the right battle music) and obsidianportal (character storyline) and character sheet (for ability scores, etc) up with no problems at all.

I watch Netflix movies and I have hundreds of mp3's downloaded so it's the perfect little carry-along for me.


I think I spent $340 with the year warranty plan.

[angelofsith.livejournal.com]

I've been tempted to get a netbook for a long time, mostly for writing and music so I can sit in Starbucks all day and chug coffee till I shake while I write, and I've seen a few I like. I rather like the Asus Transformer and the Acer Iconia. Both are tablets with a keyboard dock, though the Iconia is more expensive but it does have Windows 7. I'm thinking something like that or the Dell Duo or the Asus Eee PC T101MT would be best. You'll have the flexibility to have a portrait view for PDFs and character sheets as well as the keyboard for writing with. There are probably others so it'd be worth looking around, but that's the kind of thing I'd recommend.

[hawklord2112.livejournal.com]

android tablet? multitask a lot better than ipad.
HP Touchpad (if you can still get one) is impressive

[arachne.livejournal.com]

I've had my MSI Wind U100 for a few years, and it's survived a few years of living with me, so I figure it must be pretty tough!

[omniscient-fool.livejournal.com]

I know a couple of super computer geeks with Asus EeePCs. I don't know anything about the tech side, but I doubt they'd buy anything utterly shitty. They're cheap, pretty lightweight and seem to be hard wearing. I don't like typing on the small keyboard, but might be worth trying out to see how you find it.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

One of these?
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/asus-eee-pad-slider-sl101-1036296/review

I have an iPad2 as a pdf reader for role-playing. It does some things brilliantly (battery life, actually viewing the pdf, zooming in etc) but it's bloody annoying in other ways. iPads for example don't have any sort of file manager. Neither do they have any sort of removeable media slot. So to get a pdf file (or several hundred pdf files) from PC to iPad, rather than just dragging-and-dropping to copy the folder across, or even copying them from SD card or USB stick, you have to use iTunes to associate the files / folders with a particular iPad application and then synchronise them between the two devices. iTunes is a perfectly serviceable program for playing music files, but it's no substitute for a proper file manager. I believe that you can get file manager apps for Android devices. (This whole setup serves to confirm my view that Apple does hardware really well, but software quite badly.)

Not sure how well Android does multi-tasking. With the iPad, it's not as bad as is popularly believed. Switching between applications is pretty quick (and when you switch back to your pdf viewer app, the last file you looked at will be open. Also, the pdf viewer (at least the one I use - GoodReader) uses a tab system rather like a modern web browser, with a document open on each tab. So it's easy to have several pdfs open at once and flick between them.

[ephrael.livejournal.com]

I've got a Asus eeePC, and I really like it.
I use it for mainly internet, with bits of word processing (which does go up when I get on with my job searching) and some music.

The only query I'd have for you is using your big-adult-size hands on the slightly smaller netbook keyboard. It isn't a problem for me.

[angelil.livejournal.com]

I have an Acer Aspire One, and use it for basically everything you'd use a normal laptop for (music, internet, watching TV/movies, photos, reading word docs/pdfs, downloading ebooks...) and after nearly 3 years it's still going strong. I run DVDs/CDs on it using an external CD/DVD drive and I have an external hard drive too. Its portability is great and I haven't had any problems with it. Its keyboard is also much better than the Dell I had, whose keyboard needed replacing at least twice in the five years I had it (nearly 3 years young and this one hasn't needed replacing yet). I'd recommend it :)