Netbook Obsesion.

[Connly33]

I just wanted to post about and see if anyone has either the same or a similar obsession, i guess you could compare it to older but not vintage keyboards, but in my mind something like a peripheral doesn't necessarily go out of date or obsolete the same way a piece of computer hardware does.

But I have a weird obsession with netbooks from the 2007 to 2010 ish lifespan they they had. Even though i have a couple chrome books that are way more powerful than any of the netbooks with 5 times longer battery life, and it weighs much less. But i cant keep myself from buying a netbook every time i see one cheap on eBay. there is something about the form factor that i love, and the way they squeeze almost a full keyboard into them, even though the typing experience is usually horrible aside from the Lenovo X100e im typing this on, which is probably the highest build quality of a netbook you can get.

So far i have as mentioned, a Lenovo ThinkPad X100e  running windows 10 with a single core AMD cpu
A dell inspiron mini 9 with a dual core atom running xubuntu
A dell inspiron mini 10 with a better but still horrible dual core atom running Ubuntu
an Acer eePC with a single core aom running puppy linux

[heedpantsnow]

You need an Acer AspireOne. Still have mine, still awesome.

[Connly33]

You need an Acer AspireOne. Still have mine, still awesome.

Looks like i can get a half decent one for $70... ill have to keep my eyes open, i almost went for one a few moths ago.

[Leslieann]

I have an X100e and it does have pretty good build quality, it's just really starting to lag on performance.

An interesting model though is the Lenovo S10, which I use for work. These came with Intel Atoms as well as AMD processors. The Intel models are a bit harder to find if I remember right as they were meant for Australia. The better model in my opinion though, and the reason I bought it for work is the S10E model has an Express card port. Combined with an express card esata adapter, I use it for drive imagine. It may not have USB 3, but an express port really makes up for it. They also came in multiple colors, I found one on Ebay, through Google that was mis-labled, and got a pink one for a song. No, I didn't want pink, but it was CHEAP, and for a laptop I lug around, few people are going to steal a pink laptop.

Another good one is the Toshiba NB305, which looks and is about as well built as Toshiba notebooks at the time, in fact reviewers flat out said it was built like a laptop. Unfortunately, it's slower than others with equivalent hardware.

Still another is the Samsung N310, it's rubberized/ruggedized. It feels kind of cheap because of it but it's DURABLE. I have one that went over to the Persian Gulf for a year, and came back loaded with sand and still ran.  Not only was every screw covered and sealed (but not waterproof), it also had a protected screen. Which is funny because Samsung stuck a fantastic matte screen behind that shiny protective plastic cover. The cover is great for harsh environments, but matte is much nicer.

Interestingly, the screens on the Samsung and the Toshiba interchange (as do most netbook screens probably),  so when the airlines broke the Toshiba screen, I just swapped in the Samsung screen, which gave me a Toshiba netbook with it's great build quality, but, with a matte screen. It was a nice upgrade to the Toshiba. Most screens if the connector is in the right place, uses the same backlight, and is the same size, will interchange. Even with higher resolutions. I upgraded the screen on my old T410 that way. Just beware that sellers will often mix glossy and matte and not give you the choice, also, some are cheap Chinese knockoffs, always try for an oem screen. I would rather buy a good used one with hinges still attached than a brand new aftermarket.


Forget the AspireOne.
All of these are fun, but if you love the format, check out the Samsung NP300U1A (sometimes called the Princeton). These have an 11.6in screen, handles 8 gigs of DDR3, has a 2.5in sata drive (slim, but people have fit normal ones), 1366 resolution, and a Core I3 processor. I paid $140 for mine in mint condition, which was a bit much, but they aren't common or the easiest to find so you have to grab what you can. Really, they are awesome little laptops. It came with Win7, worked well with Win10, and while Mac is possible, Linux absolutely screams on it, it loves Linux. Few laptops other than Ultrabooks pack this kind of power into such a small package and you won't get one of those for as cheap. While it lacks a lot of things, it is perfect in it's own little way and become my primary laptop, and that's saying something considering the laptops I have.

There are actually a couple other laptops like this as well, but they are extremely rare to come up for sale, and often cost as much as new mid level laptops. People into these types of laptops tend to covet them because there aren't many options. The Samsung is a relatively unknown jewel among them. Oh, and if you break it, parts are actually reasonable and easy to get.

[rowdy]

One of our clients decided to use EeePC for their remote/mobile users a few years back.

I spent a couple of weeks with one of their netbooks running the original Linux trying to setup it to boot, start and stop services easily for non-technical users.

The kind of put me off them - the keyboard was too small (I have fairly large hands, which probably didn't help), the screen was too small, and the whole thing was generally too slow (for continual reboots and restarts to repeatedly test everything).

A couple of years later I acquired a tablet, and found that much more usable, despite its much higher level of proprietaryness.

[Connly33]

I have an X100e and it does have pretty good build quality, it's just really starting to lag on performance.

An interesting model though is the Lenovo S10, which I use for work. These came with Intel Atoms as well as AMD processors. The Intel models are a bit harder to find if I remember right as they were meant for Australia. The better model in my opinion though, and the reason I bought it for work is the S10E model has an Express card port. Combined with an express card esata adapter, I use it for drive imagine. It may not have USB 3, but an express port really makes up for it. They also came in multiple colors, I found one on Ebay, through Google that was mis-labled, and got a pink one for a song. No, I didn't want pink, but it was CHEAP, and for a laptop I lug around, few people are going to steal a pink laptop.

Another good one is the Toshiba NB305, which looks and is about as well built as Toshiba notebooks at the time, in fact reviewers flat out said it was built like a laptop. Unfortunately, it's slower than others with equivalent hardware.

Still another is the Samsung N310, it's rubberized/ruggedized. It feels kind of cheap because of it but it's DURABLE. I have one that went over to the Persian Gulf for a year, and came back loaded with sand and still ran.  Not only was every screw covered and sealed (but not waterproof), it also had a protected screen. Which is funny because Samsung stuck a fantastic matte screen behind that shiny protective plastic cover. The cover is great for harsh environments, but matte is much nicer.

Interestingly, the screens on the Samsung and the Toshiba interchange (as do most netbook screens probably),  so when the airlines broke the Toshiba screen, I just swapped in the Samsung screen, which gave me a Toshiba netbook with it's great build quality, but, with a matte screen. It was a nice upgrade to the Toshiba. Most screens if the connector is in the right place, uses the same backlight, and is the same size, will interchange. Even with higher resolutions. I upgraded the screen on my old T410 that way. Just beware that sellers will often mix glossy and matte and not give you the choice, also, some are cheap Chinese knockoffs, always try for an oem screen. I would rather buy a good used one with hinges still attached than a brand new aftermarket.


Forget the AspireOne.
All of these are fun, but if you love the format, check out the Samsung NP300U1A (sometimes called the Princeton). These have an 11.6in screen, handles 8 gigs of DDR3, has a 2.5in sata drive (slim, but people have fit normal ones), 1366 resolution, and a Core I3 processor. I paid $140 for mine in mint condition, which was a bit much, but they aren't common or the easiest to find so you have to grab what you can. Really, they are awesome little laptops. It came with Win7, worked well with Win10, and while Mac is possible, Linux absolutely screams on it, it loves Linux. Few laptops other than Ultrabooks pack this kind of power into such a small package and you won't get one of those for as cheap. While it lacks a lot of things, it is perfect in it's own little way and become my primary laptop, and that's saying something considering the laptops I have.

There are actually a couple other laptops like this as well, but they are extremely rare to come up for sale, and often cost as much as new mid level laptops. People into these types of laptops tend to covet them because there aren't many options. The Samsung is a relatively unknown jewel among them. Oh, and if you break it, parts are actually reasonable and easy to get.

The x100e is deffinitly lacking in performance now, even with most linux distros.

The S10 does look pretty interesting, but i am seriously going keep an eye open for that samsung with an i3... That would be a great still usable machine for most of the things i would use it for. Though my acer c720 chromebook with a dual core haswell celeron is pretty nice, and runs linux well, i cant run windows on it. So it would be really nice to have something in that form factor that i have a little more flexibility with OS wise.  If i find one when i do have the money.... i probably wouldn't mind paying $140. . But it doesnt look like there are any up on ebay that are even remotely working right now, but ill have to remember to look now and then.

Thanks for replying and feeding my obsession lol.

[Connly33]

One of our clients decided to use EeePC for their remote/mobile users a few years back.

I spent a couple of weeks with one of their netbooks running the original Linux trying to setup it to boot, start and stop services easily for non-technical users.

The kind of put me off them - the keyboard was too small (I have fairly large hands, which probably didn't help), the screen was too small, and the whole thing was generally too slow (for continual reboots and restarts to repeatedly test everything).

A couple of years later I acquired a tablet, and found that much more usable, despite its much higher level of proprietaryness.

 The EeePC is deffinitly down there in terms of performance, and the smaller netbooks are definitely not large hand friendly, the keyboard on my Dell Mini 9 is pretty small and hard to be accurate on. But i still cant help but like them..... Though i definitely prefer the higher end netbooks that came out near the end of the netbook craze and beginning of tablets taking the market share. 

[raymogi]

That Razer netbook announced at CES... I'm VERY interested. It looks gorgeous as usual.

[rowdy]

One of our clients decided to use EeePC for their remote/mobile users a few years back.

I spent a couple of weeks with one of their netbooks running the original Linux trying to setup it to boot, start and stop services easily for non-technical users.

The kind of put me off them - the keyboard was too small (I have fairly large hands, which probably didn't help), the screen was too small, and the whole thing was generally too slow (for continual reboots and restarts to repeatedly test everything).

A couple of years later I acquired a tablet, and found that much more usable, despite its much higher level of proprietaryness.

 The EeePC is deffinitly down there in terms of performance, and the smaller netbooks are definitely not large hand friendly, the keyboard on my Dell Mini 9 is pretty small and hard to be accurate on. But i still cant help but like them..... Though i definitely prefer the higher end netbooks that came out near the end of the netbook craze and beginning of tablets taking the market share. 

I liked the idea of netbooks, and enjoyed my time using one, but can't see myself using one on a regular basis.

More for you

[davkol]

I had an Eee 701 back in the day… it was awful, but at the same time it was the only electronic device I was able to use to type notes in same classes back in high school. Actually, HP Jornada 720 (a true netbook in the Psion way) was better for the most part, even the keyboard felt better… at the cost of WinCE (as opposed to up-to-date GNU/Linux) though.

Later, when I didn't need it anymore, I went through a bunch of "better" and better models. Acer ZG5 was the worst with its terrible SSD. Eee 901 looked like 701 done right, although I was already in love with Eee 1000HE, which was a tad bit bulkier, but had excellent battery life. It all felt very plastic, unfortunately. The greatest upgrade was HP Mini 5101, a miniaturized HP ProBook including a neat keyboard; it shipped with SLED too, that was an interesting experience.

It lead me to replace me big laptop by Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 (thinkpad keyboard w/ trackpoint; non-Atom CPU etc.), that lasted me the longest from all my laptops, until I finally got hold of a true X series thinkpad Tablet PC—I haven't looked back ever since. I've always avoided touchscreen netbooks, because of "Intel" Poulsbo GPUs with their terrible driver support. There were some netbook-sized Tablet PCs in Fujitsu-Siemens' Lifebook line, and I even tried P1510 for a while, but apart from terrible cooling, it had a resistive touchscreen with obscure drivers, rather than a proper Wacom digitizer.

The only x86 netbook, that I still want to try some day, is the legendary Sony Vaio P.

[Connly33]

That Razer netbook announced at CES... I'm VERY interested. It looks gorgeous as usual.

I think it does look pretty cool, but honestly not something id be super interested in acctually getting personally.

I had an Eee 701 back in the day… it was awful, but at the same time it was the only electronic device I was able to use to type notes in same classes back in high school. Actually, HP Jornada 720 (a true netbook in the Psion way) was better for the most part, even the keyboard felt better… at the cost of WinCE (as opposed to up-to-date GNU/Linux) though.

Later, when I didn't need it anymore, I went through a bunch of "better" and better models. Acer ZG5 was the worst with its terrible SSD. Eee 901 looked like 701 done right, although I was already in love with Eee 1000HE, which was a tad bit bulkier, but had excellent battery life. It all felt very plastic, unfortunately. The greatest upgrade was HP Mini 5101, a miniaturized HP ProBook including a neat keyboard; it shipped with SLED too, that was an interesting experience.

It lead me to replace me big laptop by Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 (thinkpad keyboard w/ trackpoint; non-Atom CPU etc.), that lasted me the longest from all my laptops, until I finally got hold of a true X series thinkpad Tablet PC—I haven't looked back ever since. I've always avoided touchscreen netbooks, because of "Intel" Poulsbo GPUs with their terrible driver support. There were some netbook-sized Tablet PCs in Fujitsu-Siemens' Lifebook line, and I even tried P1510 for a while, but apart from terrible cooling, it had a resistive touchscreen with obscure drivers, rather than a proper Wacom digitizer.

The only x86 netbook, that I still want to try some day, is the legendary Sony Vaio P.

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I really really want to get my hands on one of the Vaio P's....  up there in the top 10 impractical obsolete devices i want to own before i die. Sadly i dont have $500 to spend on something i would not be be able to use practically.  Maybe i could pic one up eventually, play with it for a couple months and sell it on ebay. But im afraid id get attached to it as i have all of my netbook's

One of our clients decided to use EeePC for their remote/mobile users a few years back.

I spent a couple of weeks with one of their netbooks running the original Linux trying to setup it to boot, start and stop services easily for non-technical users.

The kind of put me off them - the keyboard was too small (I have fairly large hands, which probably didn't help), the screen was too small, and the whole thing was generally too slow (for continual reboots and restarts to repeatedly test everything).

A couple of years later I acquired a tablet, and found that much more usable, despite its much higher level of proprietaryness.

 The EeePC is deffinitly down there in terms of performance, and the smaller netbooks are definitely not large hand friendly, the keyboard on my Dell Mini 9 is pretty small and hard to be accurate on. But i still cant help but like them..... Though i definitely prefer the higher end netbooks that came out near the end of the netbook craze and beginning of tablets taking the market share. 

I liked the idea of netbooks, and enjoyed my time using one, but can't see myself using one on a regular basis.

More for you

For the most part i do not use them on a regular basis, kind of something i pull out of the closet when i get the urge to play with one of them .

[Leslieann]

But it doesnt look like there are any up on ebay that are even remotely working right now, but ill have to remember to look now and then.

Thanks for replying and feeding my obsession lol.

Haha.
Yeah, small little laptops like this are sort of a fetish for people, and they really hate letting them go. I was really bummed when Sony sold Viao off as they have historically catered to people like me.

As for the Samsung, I forgot about it, but mine flexes a bit because of me modding it to fit a standard SSD rather than buying a thinner one like I should have. I can fix it with a new palmrest, I just haven't gotten around to it. That will stiffen it back up a bit. Mine feels rather cheap because of it. Anyhow, keep your eyes out for it though, they are quite cool.


Oh, a little trick I heard regarding I3's... They tend to lag because the processor idles down too far under Windows default power settings. Put minimum processor state to about 7% instead of the 5% it usually is, and it eliminates the lag of it powering up. It does little to battery life and makes it a bit snappier. With this and an SSD, it runs as well as some new I5 laptops.

The only x86 netbook, that I still want to try some day, is the legendary Sony Vaio P.

The HP Minis were cool little netbooks (I forgot about that one), I never saw the pro, I had the consumer version, but it too had a very nice keyboard. Had I seen the Pro a couple years ago, I probably would have gotten one.  The artsy consumer ones were pretty and was going to swap my cover but I realized I had no use for it and a customer offered me more than I had in it, so I sold it after only a week.

Those Sony still fetch a premium for what they are (last time I checked at least), I wanted one for the longest time, part of me still does, but as much as I like it, I would pass. The old Atoms are just too slow, Intel waited way too long to update the Atom line.

[tp4tissue]

I got my x120e,   it's aight....  but overall...  I much rather have my x220 whenever possible.. It's not That much heavier,  but it can get things done way way faster.

[Geroximo]

We have an ASUS eeePC.
This thing is so awfully slow.
I already did my best at speeding it up by disabling fancy design features and useless services running in the background, I even upgraded the RAM to 4GB, but it's still very slow.

[Connly33]

But it doesnt look like there are any up on ebay that are even remotely working right now, but ill have to remember to look now and then.

Thanks for replying and feeding my obsession lol.

Haha.
Yeah, small little laptops like this are sort of a fetish for people, and they really hate letting them go. I was really bummed when Sony sold Viao off as they have historically catered to people like me.

As for the Samsung, I forgot about it, but mine flexes a bit because of me modding it to fit a standard SSD rather than buying a thinner one like I should have. I can fix it with a new palmrest, I just haven't gotten around to it. That will stiffen it back up a bit. Mine feels rather cheap because of it. Anyhow, keep your eyes out for it though, they are quite cool.


Oh, a little trick I heard regarding I3's... They tend to lag because the processor idles down too far under Windows default power settings. Put minimum processor state to about 7% instead of the 5% it usually is, and it eliminates the lag of it powering up. It does little to battery life and makes it a bit snappier. With this and an SSD, it runs as well as some new I5 laptops.

The only x86 netbook, that I still want to try some day, is the legendary Sony Vaio P.

The HP Minis were cool little netbooks (I forgot about that one), I never saw the pro, I had the consumer version, but it too had a very nice keyboard. Had I seen the Pro a couple years ago, I probably would have gotten one.  The artsy consumer ones were pretty and was going to swap my cover but I realized I had no use for it and a customer offered me more than I had in it, so I sold it after only a week.

Those Sony still fetch a premium for what they are (last time I checked at least), I wanted one for the longest time, part of me still does, but as much as I like it, I would pass. The old Atoms are just too slow, Intel waited way too long to update the Atom line.

I have to say.... ive definitely fallen into the obsession/ fetish of these small form factor laptops .... Id deffinitly get an SSD for it if , and thank you for the power management tip. Id probably get one of the lower end Kingston SSD's like whats in my main PC because they are a bit thinner than a standard one.


The little vaio's are deffinitly a lot for what you get... and i couldn't imagine using it for anything practical without running a really barebones linux distro.... but something about getting one and running something like windows 10 on it makes me happy lol. Maybe if im lucky ill find a few cheap ones going for parts on ebay or craigslist.

[Connly33]

I got my x120e,   it's aight....  but overall...  I much rather have my x220 whenever possible.. It's not That much heavier,  but it can get things done way way faster.

For real world use id most deffinitly take an x220 over an x100 or x120.

We have an ASUS eeePC.
This thing is so awfully slow.
I already did my best at speeding it up by disabling fancy design features and useless services running in the background, I even upgraded the RAM to 4GB, but it's still very slow.

The intel atom's are deffinitly the bottleneck, i have 4 GB's of ram in all of my netbooks since i have a lot of DDR2 laptop ram but it doesnt make much of a performance change at all, biggest thing you can do is put a better SSD in them but even then, a smartphone will give you better performance.

Im mainly using my dell mini 9 for a PSX, gameboy, NES, SNES etc..... emulator through linux, it can Almost handle PS2 games... but not quite. 

[tp4tissue]

I am using my x120e right now..

Basically what has happened is that the firefox adblockers are using so much more CPU power these days..

That the x120e is struggling a bit on loads..



When I first got it.. the adblocker wasn't as cpu heavy, and browsing was smoother..

That is really the only weakness now. .

[jerue]

I bought a Dell Mini 1011 a while back fully upgraded (except for SSD )

sadly I have been thinking about listing it...it made a great network bridge but haven't really done much otherwise.

convince me I am missing something

[tp4tissue]

I bought a Dell Mini 1011 a while back fully upgraded (except for SSD )

sadly I have been thinking about listing it...it made a great network bridge but haven't really done much otherwise.

convince me I am missing something

is that with the N270 cpu ?

[jerue]

I bought a Dell Mini 1011 a while back fully upgraded (except for SSD )

sadly I have been thinking about listing it...it made a great network bridge but haven't really done much otherwise.

convince me I am missing something

is that with the N270 cpu ?

Yep, N270. I guess there was an option for the N280, I could check if I have it but too lazy to charge it up right now lol

[Hak Foo]

Some of the earliest EEE netbooks had a weird Celeron-M 900MHz part.  In turn that got downclocked to like 660 for the original 7" one IIRC.

[rowdy]

I had an Eee 701 back in the day… it was awful, but at the same time it was the only electronic device I was able to use to type notes in same classes back in high school. Actually, HP Jornada 720 (a true netbook in the Psion way) was better for the most part, even the keyboard felt better… at the cost of WinCE (as opposed to up-to-date GNU/Linux) though.

Later, when I didn't need it anymore, I went through a bunch of "better" and better models. Acer ZG5 was the worst with its terrible SSD. Eee 901 looked like 701 done right, although I was already in love with Eee 1000HE, which was a tad bit bulkier, but had excellent battery life. It all felt very plastic, unfortunately. The greatest upgrade was HP Mini 5101, a miniaturized HP ProBook including a neat keyboard; it shipped with SLED too, that was an interesting experience.

It lead me to replace me big laptop by Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11 (thinkpad keyboard w/ trackpoint; non-Atom CPU etc.), that lasted me the longest from all my laptops, until I finally got hold of a true X series thinkpad Tablet PC—I haven't looked back ever since. I've always avoided touchscreen netbooks, because of "Intel" Poulsbo GPUs with their terrible driver support. There were some netbook-sized Tablet PCs in Fujitsu-Siemens' Lifebook line, and I even tried P1510 for a while, but apart from terrible cooling, it had a resistive touchscreen with obscure drivers, rather than a proper Wacom digitizer.

The only x86 netbook, that I still want to try some day, is the legendary Sony Vaio P.

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Compelling argument for the Sony there

[Altis]

I can certainly understand the appeal netbooks have to you.

I checked out the X100E and it looks really good, even for its age. One thing I absolutely love about the Lenovos is the keyboard -- the way it looks, feels, and sounds, is second to none. While many complained about the shift to the Chiclet/island style keycaps, I like them much more and think the whole thing looks great now. I actually bought a T450S primarily for the keyboard, although the trackpad is really driving me nuts and I'm not sure how long I'll keep it as a result.

One thing I like about netbooks is that they're similar in a way to a tablet with a built-in keyboard. For me personally, a tablet is useless without a keyboard since it takes up half the screen and isn't pleasant to use... so the netbook form factor has a similar appeal to me that a tablet might to others.

My girlfriend's sister uses a netbook for school, if you can believe it. I can't remember which one it is but it sure doesn't look great, to be honest. Not as a primary computer, anyways.

Sometimes, you just like what you like, whether for sentimental value or just something about it makes you happy. It can be very difficult to explain liking something that's objectively not good. I've heard this sensation referred to as a "second kind of cool", meaning something just appeals regardless of whether it's objectively good.

I'm kind of rambling at this point because I just got a Blue Alps keyboard. Forgive me. 

[jamster]

Huh, I had an Aspire One and it was one of the two worst computers I've ever used- incredibly underpowered and the keyboard was too cramped. It was okay to run a Linux desktop for browsing, but that was about it.

I'm much happier with old X series Thinkpads- great laptop keyboards, almost netbook sized, and powerful enough to use Windows on.

[vyshane]

I used an MSI Wind as my main laptop for a year. I swapped the wireless card so that I could run OS X on it. Good times.

This is the clearest photo that I have of it. It's obvious that the main subject of this photo was the Realforce keyboard when I took



Circa 2008, when running hackintoshes felt like as much work as running Linux back in 2000.

[davkol]

Basically what has happened is that the firefox adblockers are using so much more CPU power these days..

What add-ons do you use? ABP sucks hard.

[tp4tissue]

I bought a Dell Mini 1011 a while back fully upgraded (except for SSD )

sadly I have been thinking about listing it...it made a great network bridge but haven't really done much otherwise.

convince me I am missing something

is that with the N270 cpu ?

Yep, N270. I guess there was an option for the N280, I could check if I have it but too lazy to charge it up right now lol

I think, you can prolly get some linux fun on that thing.. but it's not gonna be an acceptable cpu for a good base computing experience

[tp4tissue]

Basically what has happened is that the firefox adblockers are using so much more CPU power these days..

What add-ons do you use? ABP sucks hard.

i have no script and ublock origin now..   they work,  but still hoggy,   before this I had the ablock edge..

[vivalarevolución]

Oh god, I remember the Acer eePC, a couple of my friends had those.  They were cute, but I tried to type on them and it was a disaster, to say the least.

[tp4tissue]

Oh god, I remember the Acer eePC, a couple of my friends had those.  They were cute, but I tried to type on them and it was a disaster, to say the least.

I think typing was fine..  but a little cramp if that was going to be a main driver..

For me though,  I already had immense typing prowess,  but I think for more n00b typers,   they would be somewhat hampered by the crampness.. since they might not have the precision for the tight spaces.

[davkol]

The keyboard was flimsy.

[tp4tissue]

The keyboard was flimsy.

yea i remember the first eeePc   the keyboard was flexing pretty hardcore in the middle..  and honestly, battery life wasn't "that" good either.

[tp4tissue]

also,  it wasn't $200 like when they promised us it would be... it was more like $400

[SamirD]

I actually have a netbook that doesn't even turn on from a bad business partner that ran off with my dad's money.  I need the HD for whatever data is on it, but someone can have the whole thing if they can send me the drive.  I think it has an extended life battery in it.

I just looked at it and it's an...Acer Aspire One 533.

[Leslieann]

Here are the various modern 11.6in laptops I know of.

All of these have standard memory and drives which can be upgraded. None have fantastic battery life (2-3hours for most), some have large capacity batteries available, but not all. Some have a decent support forum, others do not. While listed by price, the order often coincides with availability. I didn't list utrabooks, and by the time you cross $300 you start getting into new laptop range where some new convertibles and such start becoming available. Finding new laptops matching your criteria is FAR easier than finding older/used models that do, so I tend to keep a list of cool ones as I find them.


Low price (sub $200):
Lenovo X131E
These are cheap and plentiful. It has an 11.6in screen, however, this comes with 3 processor options, AMD, Celeron and an I3 (third generation), you really want the I3 version. I was unaware until today that it even had an I3 option. Like the Samsung it cannot be swapped with an I7, however, unlike the Samsung, these have USB 3, and are much easier to find. While I like the Samsung 300, if you are considering one, you might want to consider this instead,  I would. Should support 8 or 16gigs of ram.

Samsung NP300U1A Princeton
This one I mentioned earlier, it's a nice little laptop. Second generation I3, matte screen... Only one ram slot, but can handle 8gigs. Has some actual metal fascia. No USB 3 is a downer.

Samsung NP900X1A
This is a higher priced, older version of the 300 above. It's a first generation I3 and some of this generation of Samsung seem to have Bios issues and if the bios fail, the laptop is dead. It's not common, and by now all the bad ones should be long dead, but I feel I should mention it. These are not exactly cheap, nor easy to find. While Samsungs are not that common, the bios issue may have made it worse. Again, non-upgradeable processor and this model only supports 2gigs. All in all, it's better than a real netbook, but the others here are all better choices, even the 300, which sold at half the price. On the other hand, these are a nice laptop with some aluminum on it, they were meant to directly compete with the Macbook Air.


Mid price ($200-$400):
Acer TravelMate b113
While the US version uses a Celeron, the Australian version has Celerons and a third generation I3 (possibly seconds as well). Glossy screen, typical Acer construction. I don't know much more about it. While not expensive, expect to pay a lot for shipping for an Australian version if you import it, shipping can cost as much as the laptop, putting it in what I consider mid-range. The Celerons are widely available, I3 versions are pretty rare. Should support 8 or 16gigs of ram.

Asus U24
These are very rare, not cheap, and there is a reason, they come in I3, I5 and i7 versions and support 16gigs of memory. I have been watching, waiting and bidding on these for around 6 months, I've seen 3 in that time, two needed work and even those broke $150 and parts are almost as difficult. As a result, you will want a complete one, not a damaged one you think you can repair.  Warning!!!! This generation Asus often have a problem where it cannot run Win 8.1 or Win10. MS has spent considerable time on this and has never fixed it, saying Asus needs to update a drive or the bios. Asus wants nothing to do with these systems, probably because it was when they first switched over to EFI and things were a mess.


High price (Over $400):
Alienware m11x
I7, Nvidia 335m graphics, backlit keyboard, easy to find...  Not cheap, and far from being slim, but it's a little powerhouse. Battery life is probably terrible.

Acer Aspire S7
These hover around $400 going up from there. They come with third generation I5 and I7, beware, there is not only a 13in version, but also a Celeron version. Personaly, I think this is one of the worst options on the list. While nice, it's an Acer, high priced, parts are non-existent.

Clevo w110er and Sager NP6110
These are insane, 3rd generation I7 (possibly lesser too) and have an Nvidia 650 graphics card in them. They also support 16gigs of ram. Now the bad... These are super hard to find, owners bought them for a reason and there is nothing to replace them. Keep in mind, all of that power is terrible for battery life, 2 hours may be a optimistic. These can still be found new ($1200+), and used ones can top $500 for a decent one and there are no parts available used... You can get new and used Ultrabooks for less and there are new small, 2in1 convertibles available for even less.  Only the hardcore should really bother with these, but wow are they awesome.



Bonus 10.6in systems
Fujitsu LifeBook T580 - Tablet convertible (I.E. THICK and fragile), 1st gen processor. Usually Fujitsu are well made.
Gigabyte T1125N - 1st gen processor, probably the rarest on the list, I've never seen one for sale or in person. It's almost vaporware.
Surface Pro - If it breaks, buy another. Not a real laptop, haaaaard to upgrade.

[Connly33]

I used an MSI Wind as my main laptop for a year. I swapped the wireless card so that I could run OS X on it. Good times.

This is the clearest photo that I have of it. It's obvious that the main subject of this photo was the Realforce keyboard when I took :D

(Attachment Link)


Circa 2008, when running hackintoshes felt like as much work as running Linux back in 2000.

I'm Liking the keyboard :p , but i  do want to run OSX on a couple of my netbooks for the heck of it.

Sometimes, you just like what you like, whether for sentimental value or just something about it makes you happy. It can be very difficult to explain liking something that's objectively not good. I've heard this sensation referred to as a "second kind of cool", meaning something just appeals regardless of whether it's objectively good.

I'm kind of rambling at this point because I just got a Blue Alps keyboard. Forgive me.  :-X

Occasionally i due tend to think why anyone would be into a certain impractical format, but then i have to remind myself of the impractical format's and devices i have an obsession with And that you dont necessarily have to have a real practical reason to have a soft spot for something.

Also, No problem :p, i just finished my 60 % board with clears and im actually looking forward to an essay i have to do soon.

Basically what has happened is that the firefox adblockers are using so much more CPU power these days..

What add-ons do you use? ABP sucks hard.

I have noticed that too, firefox is okay , but my addons slow it down a fair bit, personally i run adblock, HTTPS Everywhere, to force HTTP encryption on websites, and Privacy Badger to block 3rd party tracking cookies.

also,  it wasn't $200 like when they promised us it would be... it was more like $400

That's probably why they didn't stay relevant very long, the point was to have a fairly capable machine at a low price pint with good battery life, and most netbooks failed on at least 2 of those point

Here are the various modern 11.6in laptops I know of.

All of these have standard memory and drives which can be upgraded. None have fantastic battery life (2-3hours for most), some have large capacity batteries available, but not all. Some have a decent support forum, others do not. While listed by price, the order often coincides with availability. I didn't list ultrabooks, and by the time you cross $300 you start getting into new laptop range where some new convertibles and such start becoming available. Finding new laptops matching your criteria is FAR easier than finding older/used models that do, so I tend to keep a list of cool ones as I find them.


Low price (sub $200):
Lenovo X131E
These are cheap and plentiful. It has an 11.6in screen, however, this comes with 3 processor options, AMD, Celeron and an I3 (third generation), you really want the I3 version. I was unaware until today that it even had an I3 option. Like the Samsung it cannot be swapped with an I7, however, unlike the Samsung, these have USB 3, and are much easier to find. While I like the Samsung 300, if you are considering one, you might want to consider this instead,  I would. Should support 8 or 16gigs of ram.

Samsung NP300U1A Princeton
This one I mentioned earlier, it's a nice little laptop. Second generation I3, matte screen... Only one ram slot, but can handle 8gigs. Has some actual metal fascia. No USB 3 is a downer.

Samsung NP900X1A
This is a higher priced, older version of the 300 above. It's a first generation I3 and some of this generation of Samsung seem to have Bios issues and if the bios fail, the laptop is dead. It's not common, and by now all the bad ones should be long dead, but I feel I should mention it. These are not exactly cheap, nor easy to find. While Samsung's are not that common, the bios issue may have made it worse. Again, non-upgradeable processor and this model only supports 2gigs. All in all, it's better than a real netbook, but the others here are all better choices, even the 300, which sold at half the price. On the other hand, these are a nice laptop with some aluminum on it, they were meant to directly compete with the Macbook Air.


Mid price ($200-$400):
Acer TravelMate b113
While the US version uses a Celeron, the Australian version has Celerons and a third generation I3 (possibly seconds as well). Glossy screen, typical Acer construction. I don't know much more about it. While not expensive, expect to pay a lot for shipping for an Australian version if you import it, shipping can cost as much as the laptop, putting it in what I consider mid-range. The Celerons are widely available, I3 versions are pretty rare. Should support 8 or 16gigs of ram.

Asus U24
These are very rare, not cheap, and there is a reason, they come in I3, I5 and i7 versions and support 16gigs of memory. I have been watching, waiting and bidding on these for around 6 months, I've seen 3 in that time, two needed work and even those broke $150 and parts are almost as difficult. As a result, you will want a complete one, not a damaged one you think you can repair.


High price (Over $400):
Alienware m11x
I7, Nvidia 335m graphics, backlit keyboard, easy to find...  Not cheap, and far from being slim, but it's a little powerhouse. Battery life is probably terrible.

Acer Aspire S7
These hover around $400 going up from there. They come with third generation I5 and I7, beware, there is not only a 13in version, but also a Celeron version. Personally, I think this is one of the worst options on the list. While nice, it's an Acer, high priced, parts are non-existent.

Clevo w110er and Sager NP6110
These are insane, 3rd generation I7 (possibly lesser too) and have an Nvidia 650 graphics card in them. They also support 16gigs of ram. Now the bad... These are super hard to find, owners bought them for a reason and there is nothing to replace them. Keep in mind, all of that power is terrible for battery life, 2 hours may be a optimistic. These can still be found new ($1200+), and used ones can top $500 for a decent one and there are no parts available used... You can get new and used Ultrabooks for less and there are new small, 2in1 convertibles available for even less.  Only the hardcore should really bother with these, but wow are they awesome.



Bonus 10.6in systems
Fujitsu LifeBook T580 - Tablet convertible (I.E. THICK and fragile), 1st gen processor. Usually Fujitsu are well made.
Gigabyte T1125N - 1st gen processor, probably the rarest on the list, I've never seen one for sale or in person. It's almost vaporware.
Surface Pro - If it breaks, buy another. Not a real laptop, haaaaard to upgrade.

Thank you for the list, ill keep an eye on a few of those, mainly the Samsung Princeton.  I have had a few Fujitsu's and i do like them a lot, i have a Lifebook ... T... i can't remember the exact model at the moment but my main reason for keeping it is that it's core 2 duo runs linux well and has a fingerprint scanner/ wacom digitizer and pen. But is is one of the bigger models.

[Leslieann]

You're welcome, I hope it helps some people, I love these little systems.

If you (or anyone else) get a Princeton
You can do a stock Win7 install and only install the settings app, I recommend the 2.0 version, and install nothing else from Samsung. if you need help finding it, message me and I can get you a copy. This is only necessary for the FN keys, though it will help you conserve battery life.

Do not replace the wifi card with a Broadcom. I put in a dual band version with bluetooth and had a string of problems with driver crashing and failures to resume standby, which only worsened with the Samsung settings program. It's fine with other Intel cards, I replaced the N130 with an N1030 and it works flawless now. I can't FN disable wifi (like the n130), but it brings up the settings app allowing me to, and resumes on lid open.

You can fit a standard 9mm, but it creates a bulge on the palmrest, I shaved down plastic under the palmrest, and got it to fit better, but caused the whole assembly to be a bit less stiff. By the time i put a slim drive it was quite flexible as the drive fitment stiffens the frame.


I would consider the Lenovo still, easier to find, cheaper, better support community, more abundant parts. On the other hand, it has a stupid bios whitelist of wifi cards and batteries (easy fix). The Lenovo will likely have better build quality and may not require a 7mm hard drive.



Oh
Warning!!!!!! Something forgot to mention regarding the Asus and I will add to the list...
This generation Asus has a problem where it cannot run Win 8.1 or Win10. MS has spent considerable time on this and has never fixed it, saying Asus needs to update a drive or the bios. Asus wants nothing to do with these systems, probably because it was when they first switched over to EFI and things were a mess.

[umeboshi]

Had an eeepc 1000 that ran osx for a while, and recently changed it to ubuntu so my kid can play with it.  A little slow but still quite decent!     Really annoying thing about this model was that they had the up arrow key where the right shift key should be.  I think they fixed the problem in subsequent models...

[Leslieann]

For those looking for one, an Asus U24 just came up on Ebay.

Second Gen Core i7, 8gigs ram, 256gig ssd, Win 7... It's a tiny beast, but it comes at a price ($350), even with a slightly dented top.
Remember this will probably not run 8.1 or win10 any time soon, if ever.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-U24E-XS71-11-6in-i7-2640M-2-80GHz-8-GB-RAM-256-GB-SSD-Silver-/231845737198?hash=item35fb1532ee:g:8~IAAOSwB4NWwMKj



Update and something I may have missed on my mini Samsung...
The sound is horrible. It's so bad, I'm planning to open it and see if anything's wrong, seriously my cell phone sounds better (my cell has pretty good sound). In other news, I added 4 more gigs of ram (8gigs now) and a newer, more efficient 256gig ssd. It's noticeably faster and I hope it will break the 3.5 or 4 hour battery mark.


I also found some more laptops some of you may be interested in.
HP EliteBook 2170p  - 3rd gen I5 or I7 (non-removable), 6 hour battery! 3.25 pounds (porky!). These run about $200.

ASUS ZENBOOK UX21E - I7, SSD, super thin, meant to compete with Macbook Air. These run around $300-$400 and are really nice.

Sony Pro 11 - Sub 2 pounds, 1080p IPS, (1.8in) SSD and carbon fiber construction. Unfortunately, it's hard to find, expensive, non-removable battery, and only 2 or 4gigs ram (soldered in). Expect to pay over $400, which really isn't that bad all things considered. Just remember, repairs are expensive too.  I love Sony high end stuff, but when it breaks, it's a nightmare. I don't think these are made in Japan either like prior generation high end stuff, so it may not even be be true high end Sony quality, but it's still well made. That screen resolution is stupidly high for such a small screen, so I'm not sure how good it will be. This was designed to go head to head in every way with the Macbook Air, and win.

These last two are REALLY CHEAP (sub $100), have true netbook size screens (8.9in), are under 2.5 pounds with decent battery life. On the other hand, they are c2d, still far better than an Atom. The worst part is that they are convertible tablets, which I hate,  but these could be a fun toy considering the price. I want one just to play with, even though I really have no use for it. Keep in mind that these probably use 1.8in drives.
Flybook V5 Ultraportable, hard to find, but can handle 8gigs of memory, which will probably cost more than the tablet.
Fujitsu LifeBook P1630, easy to find, 4+ hours battery (actual). Has only 1 ram slot so 4gigs is going to be the absolute max, but it may even have a 2gig limit.

[tp4tissue]

For those looking for one, an Asus U24 just came up on Ebay.

Second Gen Core i7, 8gigs ram, 256gig ssd, Win 7... It's a tiny beast, but it comes at a price ($350), even with a slightly dented top.
Remember this will probably not run 8.1 or win10 any time soon, if ever.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-U24E-XS71-11-6in-i7-2640M-2-80GHz-8-GB-RAM-256-GB-SSD-Silver-/231845737198?hash=item35fb1532ee:g:8~IAAOSwB4NWwMKj



Update and something I may have missed on my mini Samsung...
The sound is horrible. It's so bad, I'm planning to open it and see if anything's wrong, seriously my cell phone sounds better (my cell has pretty good sound). In other news, I added 4 more gigs of ram (8gigs now) and a newer, more efficient 256gig ssd. It's noticeably faster and I hope it will break the 3.5 or 4 hour battery mark.


I also found some more laptops some of you may be interested in.
HP EliteBook 2170p  - 3rd gen I5 or I7 (non-removable), 6 hour battery! 3.25 pounds (porky!). These run about $200.

ASUS ZENBOOK UX21E - I7, SSD, super thin, meant to compete with Macbook Air. These run around $300-$400 and are really nice.

Sony Pro 11 - Sub 2 pounds, 1080p IPS, (1.8in) SSD and carbon fiber construction. Unfortunately, it's hard to find, expensive, non-removable battery, and only 2 or 4gigs ram (soldered in). Expect to pay over $400, which really isn't that bad all things considered. Just remember, repairs are expensive too.  I love Sony high end stuff, but when it breaks, it's a nightmare. I don't think these are made in Japan either like prior generation high end stuff, so it may not even be be true high end Sony quality, but it's still well made. That screen resolution is stupidly high for such a small screen, so I'm not sure how good it will be. This was designed to go head to head in every way with the Macbook Air, and win.

These last two are REALLY CHEAP (sub $100), have true netbook size screens (8.9in), are under 2.5 pounds with decent battery life. On the other hand, they are c2d, still far better than an Atom. The worst part is that they are convertible tablets, which I hate,  but these could be a fun toy considering the price. I want one just to play with, even though I really have no use for it. Keep in mind that these probably use 1.8in drives.
Flybook V5 Ultraportable, hard to find, but can handle 8gigs of memory, which will probably cost more than the tablet.
Fujitsu LifeBook P1630, easy to find, 4+ hours battery (actual). Has only 1 ram slot so 4gigs is going to be the absolute max, but it may even have a 2gig limit.

Or you know x220   

[suicidal_orange]

I have a Dell Mini 9 I still use multiple times a week, it's on it's third SSD and the bottom case panel is starting to crumble but it does the job when I need to type more than I'm willing to on my phone but don't need a real computer - the keyboard is solid enough and I can touch type just as fast as a fullsize.

[Leslieann]

Or you know x220   

Show Image

Too big and heavy, but a really good laptop nonetheless.
The goal here was as close to 9 or 10in as possible. None of the ones mention are more than 11.6 and more than 3 pounds (unless mentioned), the x220 is nearly a 13in laptop and weighs 3.3 pounds.

[CSCoder4ever]

I've went through a few of these little guys, My favorite was a Toshiba nb305 in coffee brown, unfortunately I don't have it anymore, but oh well, too low powered for me as laptops these days 

[nephiel]

Low price (sub $200):
Lenovo X131E
These are cheap and plentiful. It has an 11.6in screen, however, this comes with 3 processor options, AMD, Celeron and an I3 (third generation), you really want the I3 version. I was unaware until today that it even had an I3 option. Like the Samsung it cannot be swapped with an I7, however, unlike the Samsung, these have USB 3, and are much easier to find. While I like the Samsung 300, if you are considering one, you might want to consider this instead,  I would. Should support 8 or 16gigs of ram.

I have one of these, the i3 version.

Pros:
Built like a tank.
Easy to open (to clean fan dust, upgrades, etc.)
Matte screen (a pro in my book).
The PCIe slot for 3G/WAN card supports mSata, and I don't use a WAN card, so I added a second SSD - feels really snappy.
I usually reach 4+ hours on battery.
VGA and HDMI allow a dual monitor setup.

Cons:
BIOS limits the cards you can install internally to a whitelist of approved models, unless you hack it to remove this whitelist.
I hate the touchpad (but I hate any touchpad on which the buttons are part of the touch area).
The TrackPoint is OK but doesn't support tap-to-click like the older ThinkPads did.
A bit heavy (the downside of its rugged build).

Overall I love it.

[Vittra]

I love SFF computing, so the general concept of netbooks are interesting, but in practice they always fell short. They fit an incredibly odd space between laptops and tablets that never made too much sense. I can't even call it a niche really, since they excelled at no specific metric, and now the 2-in-1s are trying to obliterate what little space they operated in.

I will admit - they may actually be more viable now due to technology advances than they were several years ago.

[Leslieann]

I love SFF computing, so the general concept of netbooks are interesting, but in practice they always fell short. They fit an incredibly odd space between laptops and tablets that never made too much sense. I can't even call it a niche really, since they excelled at no specific metric, and now the 2-in-1s are trying to obliterate what little space they operated in.

I will admit - they may actually be more viable now due to technology advances than they were several years ago.

I believe SFF is actually a desktop term and not applicable to laptops.

Netbooks are handicapped miniature laptops. MS & Intel limited the processor, memory and OS so as not to cannibalize laptop sales too much. They were engineered for and sold simply because they were CHEAP. They were meant to fall short so that you would still buy a real laptop. As soon as normal laptop prices dropped close to the same price, netbook sales dried up. Tablets are heading the same direction due to laptops and phone encroachment.

Ultra portables, which are what I've been listing are full power mini laptops, the ones I've listed just happen to be close in size to netbooks, but they are most certainly not a netbook (take a look at the Clevo/Sager specs). Ultra portables were/are popular in Japan, but a niche market elsewhere until netbooks and the Macbook Air showed Intel that there was a general market for it. Make no mistake, they have been around for a long time. Despite Apple advertising, Sony had been building laptops like that for over a decade, most made Macbooks look inexpensive by comparison.

Ultrabooks are actually ultra portables, Ultrabook is an Intel marketing term describing a specific set of features, ultra portable, Core I series, and an SSD. If any one of these is not present, it can't legally be advertised as an Ultrabook.

[n__dles]

One of our clients decided to use EeePC for their remote/mobile users a few years back.
..
The kind of put me off them - the keyboard was too small (I have fairly large hands, which probably didn't help), the screen was too small, and the whole thing was generally too slow (for continual reboots and restarts to repeatedly test everything).

For over 2 years my *only* computer was an Asus 1001P (Part of the EeePC family). It was a lot quicker than the ~2003 HP laptop I'd been using. Additionally, it had great battery life, around 7 hours on full tilt, and even the keyboard and trackpad were an improvement.

I happily did all my school work on that 10.1" screen and mini keyboard; The toolbars and widgets in OpenOffice ate up most of the screen, I was left with a dozen or so lines of editing space 

Thinking about it has gotten me nostalgic for it, and I regret getting rid of it now 

[Vittra]

I love SFF computing, so the general concept of netbooks are interesting, but in practice they always fell short. They fit an incredibly odd space between laptops and tablets that never made too much sense. I can't even call it a niche really, since they excelled at no specific metric, and now the 2-in-1s are trying to obliterate what little space they operated in.

I will admit - they may actually be more viable now due to technology advances than they were several years ago.

I believe SFF is actually a desktop term and not applicable to laptops.

Correct, hence me saying I love SFF so the general concept of netbooks is interesting to me - I should have specified that was referring to the size. The actual efficiency - power within a certain thermal envelope - for such small devices (netbooks/intel nucs/incredibly small sff machines) is really only starting to be realized now with the latest Intel product lines - whether we look at Cherry Trail, Core M and Skylake U products.

I'd like to see a modern take on the Samsung NP300U1A that you mentioned previously - coupled with Thunderbolt 3 for connectivity to an external GPU via an applicable chassis (Razer Core / Asus ROG XG2 / etc), that could be a very potent device for portability that will still have some grunt when brought home.

[mrbishop]

i need to dig my netbook out of the closet. load me some Lubuntu on it and either give it to my son or find a use for it. sell it or something.

i never found it overly useful due to the lack of horsepower. but it wasn't bad for general web surfing and what not. i just never tried useing it for that. it was always word processing or something else.

maybe this thread will inspire me to give it another go for SOMETHING.

thanks for this!

[Leslieann]

I'd like to see a modern take on the Samsung NP300U1A that you mentioned previously - coupled with Thunderbolt 3 for connectivity to an external GPU via an applicable chassis (Razer Core / Asus ROG XG2 / etc), that could be a very potent device for portability that will still have some grunt when brought home.

The closest thing to what you are looking for is the first generation Sony Z series that had the Core I in it.. It's a slim 13in with an I5 or I7, ssd, and had an external box with video card in it. I believe it provided 8x pcie-e. These were very expensive systems and years later, these systems can break $1000, and that's if you can find one, especially with the optional external card box. There was also a company a while back connecting one through the express port, while it got you more power, the Express Port is only 1x or 2x I believe, which severely  limits the card you can use.

All things considered (age/price/availablity), a better option is the Clevo/Sager model I listed (they still make them), or another of their models. Might even be better off buying a system with a high end AMD APU at this point if that exists (I don't know enough on this front though).

Thunderbolt never will and never was going to happen.
If you follow history, it was obvious from the first announcement that it was a non-starter, the plan they outlined followed the same exact path to adoption as 1394/Firewire and we know how that turned out, why anyone thought things would be different this time is beyond me.