Any good deals on netbooks around?

[Goldilox]

Hi all - going to be spending a bit of time away from home for musical purposes this year, so I was toying with the idea of buying a netbook so I don't have to contend with predictive text in order to answer emails.

If I'm splashing the money it'd be nice if it would run a DAW and a photo editor so that I can post my pictures and music online as I go instead of having loads to deal with when I get home.

Any ideas what's good value at the minute?

 

[Gomez]

Wmr is your man for this stuff!

 

[wmrcomputers]

Problem with most netbooks is that the processors are fairly underpowered Atom's running at 1.6GHz or thereabouts. Consider your useage needs carefully before purchasing anything.

 

[My Name is URL]

Hi all - going to be spending a bit of time away from home for musical purposes this year, so I was toying with the idea of buying a netbook so I don't have to contend with predictive text in order to answer emails.

If I'm splashing the money it'd be nice if it would run a DAW and a photo editor so that I can post my pictures and music online as I go instead of having loads to deal with when I get home.

Any ideas what's good value at the minute?

Depending on your budget, you can pick up i3 and even i5 Microsoft Surfaces with the bonus that they run full windows and can be a tablet or "laptop replacement" as you desire. Not cheap though.

 

[biccies]

Depending on your budget, you can pick up i3 and even i5 Microsoft Surfaces with the bonus that they run full windows and can be a tablet or "laptop replacement" as you desire. Not cheap though.

I fancy a Surface Pro 3 but not sure I can justify the cost

 

[wmrcomputers]

I wonder what they're like for repairing? I've yet to get someone call me who's broken the screen on one, for example.

 

[biccies]

I imagine it'd be fairly horrible experience to open up. The screen will be glued down like other tablet devices.

Just had a look at this, terrible for repair-ability.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+3+Teardown/26595

 

[Goldilox]

To give you an idea, I'm tempted for this ASUS but I'm wondering whether this ACER would be worth the extra £50 for the extra RAM?

Also TESCO have a similar ASUS which has more RAM, with a different processor (worse? - it reads slower on paper) and doesn't come in funky red.

 

[wmrcomputers]

I'd go with one of the first 2... that extra 1" on the screen makes quite some difference.

Between the first 2, like you say it comes down to the RAM but also the dearer of the 2 also has a touchscreen - a nice gimmick IF you used it.

 

[Wormella]

Between the first 2, like you say it comes down to the RAM but also the dearer of the 2 also has a touchscreen - a nice gimmick IF you used it.

I use the touch screen on my acer all the time, it makes so much more sense of Windows 8.1. I was surprised how few netbooks / laptops had it as standard,

 

[shoes]

I'd go with one of the first 2... that extra 1" on the screen makes quite some difference.

As my mrs always says, an inch is an inch.

 

[photography_bloke]

I wonder what they're like for repairing? I've yet to get someone call me who's broken the screen on one, for example.

I've had 3 of our Surfaces brought in with broken screens - in sort, its practically impossible. Everything is glued in place, even if you can get the thing apart you're never going to properly get it back together again - in the end we wrote them off, which was a painful experience given they were less than 6 months old...

 

[wmrcomputers]

I've had 3 of our Surfaces brought in with broken screens - in sort, its practically impossible. Everything is glued in place, even if you can get the thing apart you're never going to properly get it back together again - in the end we wrote them off, which was a painful experience given they were less than 6 months old...

I appreciate you confirming my suspicions PB. The same damn reason I turn away tablet screen replacements every week of the year.
We really are living in a "throw away" world.

 

[photography_bloke]

I appreciate you confirming my suspicions PB. The same damn reason I turn away tablet screen replacements every week of the year.
We really are living in a "throw away" world.

No worries - sadly we are, everything is designed to be thrown away rather than fixed these days

One of my colleagues was determined that we should still try to repair it, but the simple fact is it was never going to work - we've got the same problem with some Samsung laptops, if the keyboards or screens ever get damaged on those I doubt replacing them will be an easy job!