Best Netbook for <£300

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Girlfriend is after a netbook to take with her to work for typing up notes / browsing internet during lunch etc

I really haven't got a clue with netbooks at the moment, battery life is probably most important because she will always forget to charge it!

I was looking at the ASUS 1005HA with the N280 Atom, looks nice and battery life looks good too, what's it like?

What else is there that's similar / better, I would love to go cheaper if possible....?


Cheers
 

Kua

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Asus EeePC 1005HA has the best battery life. Just get it.

All my 'research' (various google searches) points towards this.

But be careful: One version has a about a ten hour battery life, the other about eight.

Lookie here.

EDIT: The 8 hour version seems to be generally about £30 cheaper. I think I'll go for the 8 hour version.

Ah hang on, the 10 hour version also has a 280 processor as oppose to 270. I'll see if I can find out if that makes a significant difference.

Well the 280 is 667 MHz versus 533 for the 270. Probably something worth considering. Actually that makes the decision pretty hard :/
 
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Ah hang on, the 10 hour version also has a 280 processor as oppose to 270. I'll see if I can find out if that makes a significant difference.

Well the 280 is 667 MHz versus 533 for the 270. Probably something worth considering. Actually that makes the decision pretty hard :/

Yeah that is what I have seen, the one with the N280 has 10 hours and the N270 8 hours.

Makes it seem worth the extra £30/£40 quid, is there a noticeable difference between the Atom N270 - 280?

1.6 GHz to 1.66 GHz seems like a bit of a rubbish performance increase!
 

Kua

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Yeah that is what I have seen, the one with the N280 has 10 hours and the N270 8 hours.

Makes it seem worth the extra £30/£40 quid, is there a noticeable difference between the Atom N270 - 280?

1.6 GHz to 1.66 GHz seems like a bit of a rubbish performance increase!

What I quoted is the Front Bus Speed. I forget what that actually means - but there you have it.

I've actually read of folk preferring the 1000HE. Its matte rather than glossy, has right and left mouse keys, is thought by many to have a better keyboard and is more solidly designed. I'm just going by what other folk say.

The flip side is its heavier and larger than the 1005HA and has a very slightly shorter battery life (although its actually longer than the 270 version of the 1005HD - its worth noting that some [may be all, not sure] versions of the 1000HE have a 280 processor).

You can probably tell I've wasted my afternoon looking into this.
 
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Kua

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Argh, more versions to look into lol.

Thanks though, I'll have a look.

FSB times the CPU Multiplier = Clock Speed iirc

Yes that sounds about right. But I thought it was an attribute of the MB, so now I'm completely confused.

Anyway don't feel you have to look too far into it. You wouldn't go far wrong by taking the first poster's advice and just buying a 1005HA. They're a very similar price to the 1000HE and by (probably) by most folk's estimations, a step up.
 

Kua

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Well I just bought a 1000HE. Took a slight risk and got a refurbished one. Should be here on Saturday. I'll try to remember to report back.

I wanted to take a look at the different models first. But there wasn't a single ASUS netbook in my local town (Lancaster)!
 
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Photshop runs surprisingly quickly considering the hardware so long as you dont use any filters that require extensive rendering. the crippling aspect of it is the 1024x600 resolution.

I have CS4 masters edition on my 1000h but I dont tend to use flash so couldn't comment on how that runs.
 
Soldato
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I had to return my 1005HA N280 10.5 battery life version since it wouldn't charge the battery even though it says 100% charged always... Reading some reviews online and the ASUS forums it seems to be a common issue.

Got the HP Compaq Mini 311 instead
 
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Thanks Sketch145, anyone tested Windows 7 and/or OSX? is it faster than XP or the Same as I would rather have Windows 7/OSX

Thanks
 
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I had to return my 1005HA N280 10.5 battery life version since it wouldn't charge the battery even though it says 100% charged always... Reading some reviews online and the ASUS forums it seems to be a common issue.

Got the HP Compaq Mini 311 instead

Lol, well it's ordered now. I never know what to believe when it comes to 'common' problems being reported, there will always be a % of failures and the more people that buy something the more failures there will be.

Hmm well, I've almost convinced myself!!
 
Soldato
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Just got a Packard Bell DOT M myself foir £260, probably not technically a netbook at 11 inches but it runs Vista like a dream and has nice features like touchpad gestures, 160gb hd, 2gb ram.
 
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