I know everyone’s all about the iPad and Samsung Galaxy tab and all the other tablets out/rumoured to be coming out, but I’ve gone old school and picked up a netbook.
It’s a Samsung N210 Plus in white, but I got it for a bargainous £238 rather than the current listing of £285, because they seem to have put the price up in the last week and Amazon had a nice 10% off voucher code as well.
It’s cute, bigger than I expected (my main laptop is only 11” after all, although it’s almost twice the thickness because it has a DVD drive), and runs pretty well. I am a girl who used to run Photoshop CS2 on 512MB of RAM though, so I’m quite tolerant. I could upgrade the 1GB RAM to 2 for about £20, which I might do in the future to get more use out of it.
A lot of people complained because you can’t change the desktop background with Windows 7 Starter, but to be honest it doesn’t bother me that much, and a quick Google shows you can download something to fix that if you really want to. I don’t know about you, but the only time I stare at my desktop is when my computer’s booting up, and the Samsung N210 Plus takes less than five seconds to come out of sleep mode and not that long to boot up either.
When I got my first laptop back in 2005, it had a 70GB hard drive – crazy to think that tiny music players have more space than that now. Where will we be in another five years?! Walking around with 1TB phones, probably. This netbook has a nice big 250GB hard drive, so more than my other two laptops combined. I’m planning to put lots of films on there for journeys.
I haven’t installed much on there yet, just Google Chrome (I need the extra screen space which is why I haven’t gone with Firefox), AVG free, and Open Office. To be honest, I’ve uninstalled more stuff than I’ve installed because it came with a load of crap on it. It took me probably about 2 hours just to set it up and remove all the junk, not least because the crazy Samsung set up process took forever.
So, why did I pick up a netbook when everyone’s about the apps? Well, I have a Samsung Galaxy S phone to get my app fix. Tablet computers are crazy expensive; the wi-fi only 64GB iPad costs £599 (about $1,000) here and it’s a far lower spec. Plus I have Christmas presents to save up for. And thirdly and most importantly, I do a lot of typing. I want to be able to draft pages for Blossom, complete freelance writing assignments, write articles and so on. A touchscreen keyboard just doesn’t cut it. And there’s no way I’m going to be thinking about creating and editing graphics on a touchscreen device.
There’s the disadvantage that I need a wireless connection to be able to get online, but to be honest, it’s sometimes nice not to have the distraction of the internet. I spend ridiculous amounts of time on the internet, I need it in the morning like people need coffee, I’m hooked up to it 9-5:30 every work day, and I go home and work on my own website and various other things. Often I find it difficult to get anything done at home with the distraction of social networking websites, email, blogs and so on. And then there’s my Settlers of Catan addiction to battle with as well.
Now I just need to buy a nice sleeve for it, and I can chuck it in my bag and use it on the train, and take it out and about with me whenever I like. I was a bit concerned about the battery life because there seemed to be a lot of conflicting reviews, but after changing the default setting I think I can get about 8 hours out of it for light browsing and program use, which is good for what I need.
16 Comments
I actually think that I’d prefer a netbook over a tablet as well. Tablets remind me of my phone, which does everything I need it to do. I’d go with a netbook over my MacBook simply because I would need to have wi-fi where ever I take the Mac. Speaking of…the keys on your netbook reminded me of Apple. I had to do a double take.
16/11/2010 at 1:50 amIt looks lovely! I’d honestly choose a netbook over a tablet any day. Designing something on a tablet doesn’t cut it for me, but to be honest I’d probably choose a nice desktop computer for designing. My laptop is rather large and since they don’t last as long as desktops, I think I ought to get a new desktop soon.
When I got my laptop I didn’t really care about the storage; things come so cheap these days ahaha. 50GB is almost like the minimum or something. :3
16/11/2010 at 3:11 amHaha, I hardly look at my desktop too!
Hehe, my current laptop has 250GB too. My desktop has 80GB. I don’t remember how much my old desktop had. It’s actually pretty crazy to think about how much space we get now compared to back then! Haha, and yeah, I still run Adobe Photoshop 7.0 with 512MB of RAM… Haha…
Haha, yeah, I’m hooked on the internet… =/ Like you, I need it in the morning like people need their coffee. Haha.
But that’s awesome about the new netbook! =) I don’t think I’d ever get a netbook, even though the best part about it is that it’s small and you can use/bring it everywhere. Haha.
16/11/2010 at 5:05 pmI have an HP, a mac and a netbook. I barely use any because I’m on the computers all day at work so when I come home, I don’t even look at them. But that Samsung you got is cute! The next one I’m trying to get is the iPad. I’m currently saving money for that or wait until a new version comes out.
16/11/2010 at 5:33 pmit sounds great, I think it’s a much better portable solution than something like the ipad. I’ve looked into them but since I needed a basic computer more I got a regular sized laptop. THat’s nice that is has so much room though, I remember when my first laptop only had a 50GB hard drive. it was always getting filled up too fast
16/11/2010 at 6:23 pmI pretty much -have- to have a netbook/notebook. I need something that closes or else the toddler will have her way with it!
16/11/2010 at 11:38 pmI barely ever look at my desktop either :P my sister recently got a netbook and she was trying to figure out how to change the background. they’re way too tiny for me though, but i was thinking of getting one awhile back. I think i’ll just got for a macbook though, because they’re still a lot smaller than regular laptops.
And yes, I can’t wait to have my liscence :D
17/11/2010 at 1:28 amBless you for not getting those iPad or anything else that looks like it. And yay for netbook! It’s so much lighter and why would people wanna choose touch screen over keyboard. I’ll never understand.
19/11/2010 at 9:03 amI bought and sold an iPhone and an iPad because I like being oldschool. Just like I have a degree in multimedia and yet I won’t upgrade my photoshop from CS2 to CS4 because I love CS2 more …
19/11/2010 at 10:05 amThose pads are far too expensive and you can’t really do that much on then other than surf the net. I personally wouldn’t pay that amount of money to surf the net and go on facebook on the way. I have an iPhone anyways so its enough for me to check a few small things when I’m away from my PC.
I would prefer a netbook over those tablets. I’ve never had a laptop before though because I wouldn’t carry something like that around with me often.
When I’m at home I’ll like to sit at my desk to use the pc rather than sit around on the sofa.
I never change my wallpapers anymore. I haven’t changed wallpapers for 3 years now. I never even look at it, I just leave it as the default.
The internet is my life! I spend 8-9hrs at work on it (I’m a dev web so spending hrs looking at websites) then I spend more hrs on the net when I’m home. Can’t live without it at all!
19/11/2010 at 12:40 pmOhhhh very nice netbook! I’d choose one over a tablet, too. They’re basically just overglorified phones now with all the apps anyways :/ Ohh which Samsung Galaxy do you have? I’ve had my eye on the Fascinate. I want it!!! It’s all the touchscreen app enabled love I’d ever need :P
But it is pretty crazy how ipods and mp3 players and whatnot have SUCH huge harddrives now, we’ve come a long way! Hahaa I remember when shopping for my very first laptop I was like “It needs to have AT LEAST 80gigs of storage on it.” And now anything less than 1tb doesn’t seem like enough!
19/11/2010 at 2:28 pmI know I already commented on this, but I decided to go ahead and get a netbook! I got the Samsung in black, and I’m hoping that I love it. It runs on Verizon so even without wi-fi, it’ll work as long as I have a signal.
20/11/2010 at 1:03 ami don’t like netbooks because i’ve heard comments like they don’t last long and prone to breakage. :p but i would like to have a white laptop… haha i just think it’s cool and attractive.
–off topic–
20/11/2010 at 5:21 ami’ll be sending you an email regarding PENS OF HOPE. :) thanks for showing interest Jenni. appreciate it. :p
Congrats on the Netbook. I love getting new technology. I would have preferred to get a tablet rather then a Netbook. But I also have a laptop so I would have that to use in addition. If I didn’t have a laptop then I would have made the same choice as you did.
20/11/2010 at 7:40 pmI need to get my hands on a net book for school, but not sure if I will be able too. :( Oh well. I am glad you decided on a net book instead of a tablet.
20/11/2010 at 8:55 pmI’d love to get my hands on a netbook, and would prefer one over a tablet too. Would definitely go for one in white too, like yours! I have an iPhone already, so a tablet would feel too similar – as my iPhone can do all the simple tasks. Have fun with it, I love getting new tech!
21/11/2010 at 1:07 pm