Notebook/Netbook suggestions

[joeperson]

I'm looking for a light notebook/netbook around 13" or less with 5+ hours of battery life. I don't intend to do much more then word process or play anything more demanding then a snes emulator/flash games. I also tend to multitask.

I've stumbled across the ASUS UL30A and UL20A as some indicators of what might work. Suggestions from other brands? Would a small (30gb) ssd change the significantly power requirements over and traditional hard disk?

[lcdguy]

the Ul30a is a rather nice unit but it lacks an optical drive. I have the larger Ul50VT which gets great battery life, Has hybrid graphics and an optical drive.

[Raserei408]

I've been looking at the ASUS EEE 1201 with the dual-core atom. Most netbooks aren't going to do well in multitasking because of the single-core atom. However, for the same price you can get a much more powerful notebook, though it won't have the battery life you're looking for. What's your maximum budget?

[Fudd Rucker]

HP minis are hands down the best netbook you can get.Crisp vibrant LED monitor, fast 160gb hdd and the keyboard is 92% of a stanadard one. I liked my minis so much i bought 3 of them of lol. As for the single core argument, hyperthreading works spectaculry at picking up the slack from a single core.

[gingerbee]

I would wait all the new 510 atoms are Coming out real soon if not already

[Jack Rabbit]

Lots of companies are releasing the harbingers of the next generation of Netbook / ultraportable computers. I really would not buy anything right now; wait six months or so. The i3 processors are coming out and more low voltage things are happening from that devil and AMD. Resolutions are getting better on small screens. More units are getting larger batteries. If you do want to buy do some scrounging through the sales. Lenovo is offering a good sale on the x100e netbook right now. The raw specs would be lower but you can get something smaller and lighter for less than $500 with the sale and coupon code.

Personally, I think not having an optical drive is a good thing. USB ones work just fine and I would much rather have the space savings than the drive. But then I almost never use the stupid things so if you do then it is best you get one.

Make sure you know the size of the hard drive before you buy; the physical dimensions. Some of these come with 1.8" drives and, AFAIK, are less common. Also check on how hard it is for the user to replace it. SSDs usually draw less power than spinning disks.

[Eldonko]

I have an ASUS EEE. I just threw in 2GB of mem and installed W7 and it's great.

[Thund3rball]

Originally Posted by Jack Rabbit

Lots of companies are releasing the harbingers of the next generation of Netbook / ultraportable computers. I really would not buy anything right now; wait six months or so. The i3 processors are coming out and more low voltage things are happening from that devil and AMD. Resolutions are getting better on small screens. More units are getting larger batteries. If you do want to buy do some scrounging through the sales. Lenovo is offering a good sale on the x100e netbook right now. The raw specs would be lower but you can get something smaller and lighter for less than $500 with the sale and coupon code.

Personally, I think not having an optical drive is a good thing. USB ones work just fine and I would much rather have the space savings than the drive. But then I almost never use the stupid things so if you do then it is best you get one.

Make sure you know the size of the hard drive before you buy; the physical dimensions. Some of these come with 1.8" drives and, AFAIK, are less common. Also check on how hard it is for the user to replace it. SSDs usually draw less power than spinning disks.

Agreed! There is some sweet stuff on the horizon and I am pretty excited about it. Never liked netbooks myself so a powerful 11" sub notebook that can play games, for $1000, is right up my alley.

[Deeival]

Originally Posted by lcdguy

the Ul30a is a rather nice unit but it lacks an optical drive. I have the larger Ul50VT which gets great battery life, Has hybrid graphics and an optical drive.

Or go with the UL80VT - it's a UL50VT with a 14" screen.

[kendallcschm]

Originally Posted by joeperson

I'm looking for a light notebook/netbook around 13" or less with 5+ hours of battery life. I don't intend to do much more then word process or play anything more demanding then a snes emulator/flash games. I also tend to multitask.

I've stumbled across the ASUS UL30A and UL20A as some indicators of what might work. Suggestions from other brands? Would a small (30gb) ssd change the significantly power requirements over and traditional hard disk?

macbook... 13" and 7 hour battery... or wait till the end of February then you can get a mac tablet :-P thats gonna be awesome... but if your really fond of PC's then i would suggest this:
Newegg.com - ASUS Eee PC 1201N-PU17-BK Black Intel Atom N330(1.60GHz) 12.1" WXGA 2GB Memory 250GB HDD NetBook - Netbooks