11 replies to this topic

[Phil]

Well, I'm kind of considering the purchase of a netbook or subnotebook for university. Now, my mind isn't actually made up yet and the device I have in mind might not even exist. I'm really just starting to look around at this point.

Use case: I want to use the subnotebook at university to take all my notes, check the professor's slides and surf a little when the class is boring. I already have a real notebook that is powerful enough to serve as a "mobile workstation" (but the battery is awful and it's too big and too heavy to be practical for transport). So the subnotebook is really only for use while I'm at university; it doesn't need to be very powerful. What's more important is battery life. Sometimes I'm at university for 8 hours on a day and only very few rooms have sockets to plug it in. Depending on my schedule I might not even have time to recharge it during the lunch break. It should also be fairly portable (but I'm not a wuss, so weight is not a killer criteria). It also shouldn't be an Apple product as I'll slap Linux on it anyway and don't wish to pay more for a subnotebook than for my powerful one.

The specs:

Battery Life: Preferably 8 hours or more. Below 6 hours makes it worthless for my purpose.
Screen size: 13". 12" might also work, but I can't imagine actually working with 11" or less.
RAM: Should be 2GB. More is good but not necessary.
Processor: No idea, but I don't really expect power with such long battery life
Size/weight: I don't think any device with 13" is too heavy or too big
HDD size: irrelevant.
Optical drive: not required.
Price: not all that relevant, up to $1000 is possible if the product fits my needs


From what I've seen, the Toshiba Satellite T135-S1310 would be quite a good match, however it doesn't seem to be available here in Switzerland ( ).
I've also taken a look at some other netbooks or subnotebooks but a 13" screen and good battery life seems to be a pretty rare combination:
- The 12" Asus EeePC hasn't got good battery life, while the 11" version is only 11" and comes with only 1 GB of RAM
- The Dell Minis are simply too small (wtf, 10.6"??)
- The Acer Aspire Netbooks also come with those ridiculously small screens, the notebook versions might be okay but there are so many models that I don't know where to start...

So... can anyone give me any recommendations?

[Beowulf]

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834220504
Not quite the biggest screen but 10" should be enough just because it's a netbook. You're not likely going to find a good netbook with a 12" screen, 2GB RAM and long battery life; that's likely just not going to happen. The one linked shows nine and a half hours of battery life. Being that it has XP Home, it'd run just fine... and probably even better if you used Linux.

[MirkwoodArcher]

Here's a site (Fujitsu) that has notebooks and tablet PCs and it looks like you can buy their products in Switzerland. I have a Lifebook made by this company and I really like it. The link has stuff for you to look at, so no specific laptop, but you can take a look at what they have. And I have it on the Swiss page, so you're all set. And the screen sizes are pretty good-sized, so that's nice.

http://ch.fujitsu.com/products/mobile/

And here's the online shop page.

http://shop.ch.ts.fujitsu.com/

Edited by MirkwoodArcher, 08 May 2010 - 02:47 AM.

[Jeeves]

I can personally vouch for the HP Mini's, and the keyboards are the best of any netbook I've used (also dead jealous of its mutitouch, that shit would actually be useful on my machine). One I've got only has a gig and runs fine, if you find yourself needing more than that to take down notes then something is very wrong. Its also only 10", but that's enough room to do singular tasks.
Alternatively, just take a powerboard with you so you can always plug in however few ports. My laptops in the wall 90% of the time I'm at uni.
Out of curiosity what were you planning on using to take said notes to keep them in sync so you can jot down on one and review on t'other?

[Phil]

Really, I just can't imagine actually writing anything serious on a 10" screen... I've realised though that 13" models usually pack too much power for my battery life requirements. The Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T also looked quite promising in my case, but apparently it doesn't live up to its claimed 8 hours of battery life.

Sigh, looks like netbook it is, then. I'm just a bit sceptical about the 1 GB of RAM... I'm not sure if that's enough to handle KDE and OpenOffice, and I don't feel like using a distro with Gnome. If I'm going netbook, I might as well just pick the Asus Eee PC 1101HA. At least that one features a 11.6" screen (every inch matters ). Plus, I've read that you can upgrade it with a second RAM stick, so that might be an option.

Alternatively, just take a powerboard with you so you can always plug in however few ports. My laptops in the wall 90% of the time I'm at uni.

The problem is not a general shortage of sockets, but in fact a complete lack thereof. The university's rooms were not designed for students with computers (and because it's not a technical uni, they didn't bother upgrading yet), so there are really only simple wooden desks. They have a few spots in the main building where you can plug it in, but my schedule doesn't always permit sitting around idly for an hour.

Out of curiosity what were you planning on using to take said notes to keep them in sync so you can jot down on one and review on t'other?

I haven't really thought about it yet. If I can't be bothered to copy the files manually, Dropbox or Ubuntu One might be a solution.

[Jeeves]

No power-points? That's pretty useless, don't think there's a single room with a single wall without at least one pair at mine... Downside is when there only is one pair a wall in a two-hour lecture and 600 other students brought their laptops with them. I'd really be happy if my battery lasted longer than that!

Eee's tend to be overpriced and under quality, but can't argue with the spec's on that thing. 1366x768 isn't a bad res for a netbook either, I live off 1280x800.

Word of warning though, if that touchpad's perforated and not just cosmetically spotty, prolonged use will result in tingly numb fingertips. Was the second biggest downside of my ol' HP TX, after having an increadibly hot Turion with a tendancy of overclocking itself in an ultracompact chassis. My numb fingers never got cold using it though!

Let me know how your portablility problem works out. I only use different machines to continue work when writing websites, so everythings always on the server for me, but sometimes it would be good for a more elegant solution than having to log into my FTP and sync folders manually (and Opera for bookmarks and in-browser notes, naturally). But if it comes to just copying, SD's are fast and cheap

[Phil]

Well, of course there are sockets in the wall, but I can't rely on sitting right next to one when 300 people queue up 15 minutes before the prior lecture ends to snatch a seat. Plus, you can be certain that one of those 300 people will run into your power cord. No really, plugging it in during lecture is not an option, unless I'm sitting in the one out of twenty rooms that has sockets for every student.

[Pasidon]

I would recommend an Linux Notebook, and they're real cheap for how good they are. But I wouldn't listen to me... I walked into Bestbuy looking for a 300 buck notebook and ended up buying a 1200 buck HP...

[el kevo]

Well the regular Apple MacBook is only $999 which is in your price range and fits all your needs, plus its stylish:

http://store.apple.c...W-MACBOOK-INDEX

They also offer free shipping and will give student discounts if it registers your university

[Jeeves]

Regulars useless though, you want the 15" pro. And upgrade to the high-res non-gloss display and the 7200RPM HDD

[Phil]

Apple isn't really an option for me (yet), as I'd like to slap Linux on the machine anyway. Using Apple hardware to run Linux simply isn't cost effective.

[Allathar]

Apple per definition isn't cost effective.