Preferred Netbooks?

[visionquest]

I know this is a big topic and will have many opinions, but I thought I would ask what netbooks members here have and use regularly. My wife and I both have Samsung n110's and love them. She had to upgrade from her 1 year old HP 1030NR mini due to premature death of the fan, battery, charging cord (which happened multiple times and the first within a couple weeks).

We connect to the web with both our Verizon 3G connected to a cradlepoint router and WiFi from coffee shops etc when we have big downloads to spare our 5GB limit.

Outside of that, I run Backtrack 4 linux and she runs XP. Any input from others?

BTW, hope this hasn't been covered really well already, I did search this forum before posting.

-Mike & Heidi
97 Roadtrek 170P "Taj Ma Trek"
http://vantramps.blogspot.com

[MarcV]

I've used an Air Mac since they were introduced and love it. Mine is the model with solid state memory so there's no disk drive to eventually fail. It syncs well with my iPhone which also serves as an Internet tether. Haven't used a pc that required a Microsoft license since 1980 and love not worrying about viruses or the "blue screen of death". Check the apple.com for weights and sizes, but I suspect the iPad will replace this. Same operating system but even lighter and with longer battery life.

I also use the Air Mac as a terminal to login at my company site. This is the nicest little box I've used since I started in 1972. It's Unix based so it belongs on the Internet, unlike machines with non-Unix operating systems.

[Mike]

Simple and inexpensive Acer Aspire One AOA150 - 1901 (colour code I think).
Pros: Nice little machine, lightweight, Win XP SP3, 1 GB RAM, Intel Atom CPU, 80 GB HDD,
3 USB ports, 1 mulit-card reader. No new operating system to learn.
Cons: Little rubber feet come off after too much table top dragging, battery life is down
to about a half hour after just over 1 year. Screen resolution is 1024 X 600 pixels, so some
apps complain about it. Had to tweak the character size/font a bit to get the max without
crowding the desktop. Sound volume is a bit weak at times, the embedded Realtek audio
system isn't great even after refreshing the driver with the "fix".

We use Starbucks for our wifi on the (U.S.A.) road. The loyalty card gets us up to 2 hours a day
free, providing we keep the card current through regular use, which we do. The down side is
not every stop has a Starbucks.

Checked out free wifi at McDonalds online. Seems that not every store has it, but they say
11,000 of their locations do. We'll try it if we can find one that "does" next trip south.

[g1g]

I have a HP but funny you should mention them as I think I have the same problem. I know the battery is a goner and I know I have questioned the fan too.

[Davydd]

We bought iPads (his and hers) for travel. Generally you can't find a Starbucks in remote country but McDonalds with free wifi can get you started most mornings to check email and update news apps like USA Today, New York Times, Early Edition (RSS feeds) and others and then read later while on the road. It takes less than 5 minutes to update the apps. The iPads without 3G work with a Verizon mifi 2200 if you find a need to extend and get wifi more often. Or you could buy the iPad 3G model which picks up the internet for a no contract $30 unlimited per month or $15 250 MB per month. You can turn it on or off in monthly increments. I opted not to get the 3G iPad because I already have an iPhone 3G and can get what I need off the internet most all the time with it.