Help choosing/buying a web-book/netbook please

[Guy Fawkes]

Hi all.

Just after a bit (lots?!) of advice regarding the purchase of a webbook/notebook for my fiancee for xmas.

She doesnt want a laptop or nothing as big as a laptop or as small as a blackberry, just somethign that she can fit in her workbag.

All she really wants to do on it is:

* surf the internet (no downloading music/films)
* check and send emails - nothing major or important - just for zipping them around when on the train or at home etc (the keyboards on most notebooks ive seen would suffice?)
* the ability to look at pdf's, jpegs
* the abilty to do a small amount of work on MS word, excel
* be able to watch iplayer and similar

Could anyone reccommond something. The budget is round about £200 if this is possible, or a bit more for an exceptional product.

Cheers.

 

[Steep]

I think you're looking at £240 for one of the ultra small laptops like the 9" Asus eeepc 900. That's about as small as you want to get and still be useable for web browsing. Get her down to PCWorld to see them in the flesh, that's the best way to see if one will suit.

I have one of the earlier 7" low res models and it's fine for the odd few minutes but gets frustrating when trying to view images etc.

 

[Veracocha]

I ordered an Asus Eee PC 904 today from Amazon after reading copious amounts on the various models. £200 gets an Asus Eee 900 for around £200 on e-bay. I went for this one as it does exactly what you have listed above and has a larger keyboard than most other netbooks. It also comes with an 80Gb hard drive & 1Gb of ram. I believe this is enough to cover all of those requirements and remains small enough to throw in my camera bag.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Thanks chaps

Veracocha - will definitely check out the Asus Eee PC 904, many thanks.

 

[johnb]

Look at the "Web book" in Maplins at around £130. Was thinking of having a dabble myself

Good luck

 

[itsjosh]

I'd definately recommend an eeepc!

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I'd definately recommend an eeepc!

Cool!

So does this come loaded with pretty much everything she'd need?

 

[Veracocha]

The 904 (XP version) comes with all the things needed to cover the tasks you mention in the op. Comes with Works and OpenOffice.

 

[itsjosh]

yeah, especially if you are not using heavy resource programs
openoffice as replacement of MS Office etc.
then it works well

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Fantastic, thanks very much guys. The 904 it is.

Thanks again.

 

[DinoS]

Ive got an acer aspire one, which i think is great. 1gb ram 120gb hardrive

 

[jerry12953]

Could these things run Lightroom, I wonder?

 

[hyperfocal]

Have a look at the Acer Aspire One in the for sale forums:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=91421