While we're playing Consumer Reports

[jethrien]

Also considering getting a laptop (we only have a desktop). Requirements - small, light, cheap, runs Word, Excel, and a browser. That's about it. We've got a PC as the main computer, so laptop should match. (I'm not planning to store much on this long-term - basically, I want something I can use to write or do minor chores or check email while traveling. We've done an enormous amount of traveling this fall, which has kind of underscored this desire.)

Opinions?

Comments

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

The Mini 9 and the Eee get a lot of positive feedback online.

Microsoft claims that Office 2007 will run fine. I'm not so sure, just from observing how my 3 year-old PC does, but OpenOffice should be fine.

Pros to netbooks:
-CHEAP!
-LIGHT!
-runs basic tasks just fine - can play DVDs (with separate drive) and MP3s just fine
-Should be able to run most office programs
-did I mention CHEAP and LIGHT?


Cons to netbooks:
-small screen
-small keyboard
-tend to not be future proof (old RAM standard, slow CPU, most don't support the wi-fi N standard yet), but at that price, not too much to worry about
-public benchmarks show chugging when using more than one app at one time, file compression, or media encoding

Sort of in the middle:
-Netbooks can supposedly run MS Office and basic photo/image editing programs just fine, without crashing or chugging, it will just take a much longer time to do so.