Okay so i'm backpacking later this year so i was going to get myself one of those mini laptops.

I have no idea about them so i was wondering if any of you have had experience with them and would suggest any to me.

People have reccomended an Asus EeePc considering it has no moving parts therefore is less likely to f*** up on me.

Only restriction is i don't want to pay $800, hoping to pay around $500 mark.

i bought my mum an eeepc laptop for $470 ish, they're good for email, internet & solitaire, not much space on hers & no optical drive so movies are externally stored but it plays them ok.

edit:

It has solid build quality, a very usable keyboard and wireless b/g/n support

Oh yeah, I find the keyboard on my mums eee to be quite small and annoying but then again I find normal keyboards small & annoying, can't live without my natural keyboard but if you're a 2 finger typer then it shouldn't really be an issue.

last edited by whoop at 20:33:33 27/Feb/09

you can get the original EEEPC for around $300, the screen is a wee bit small, but can't beat the price.

I have been looking in to getting one for uni.

You will find they are all pretty similar spec wise - Intel Atom N270 1.6ghz processor, 1GB ram, 9-10" screen with 1024x600 res, 16-120GBish HDD.

The one i have my eye on the MSI Wind U100. It has solid build quality, a very usable keyboard and wireless b/g/n support (some of the older / cheaper ones do not have the .n draft support. its not really a requirement, but nice to have the option there). Most importantly though, it has a 6 cell battery as standard. People have been getting around ~4 hours out of the MSI Wind U100, where as most reports have the offering from HP/Dell/ACER/some EEEpcs at around 2 hours.

The MSI Wind is ~$600.

A great place to read up on this is stuff is here:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f=130

There are big discussion threads on all the major offerings (some ones to look at are the EEEPc range, The MSI Wind, Dell Inspiron Mini 9 & 12, HP Mini, Acer Aspire One).

As i said, they are all pretty similar in terms of specs. The main differences are ease of use and battery life.

If your looking around, the standard term for laptops of this kind is netbooks.

I would recommend the Dell Mini 9. Solid laptop. The keyboard may take some getting used to (ie using the Fn + another key to get the F buttons and the apostrophe being lower than it is on a normal sized keyboard).

There is a 12" model and a 10" on the way with different specs.

I bought the 9" Asus eee pc around christmas time for $547 to take to uni. I love it so far

What are you studying Minxy?

The one i have my eye on the MSI Wind U100. It has solid build quality

You did not just use the word MSI and build quality in the same sentence.

Slaps: 3rd year Secondary Education at KG.

You did not just use the word MSI and build quality in the same sentence.

Don't comment when you obviously haven't seen/used one in person.. or at the very least, read some reviews.

secondary education... What a f***ing waste of time. Imo do a real degree then postgrad the edumaction

secondary education... What a f***ing waste of time. Imo do a real degree then postgrad the edumaction

Aye, it takes a year longer but you have more employment options.

Do a science degree and follow it up with Ed.

I thought about doing Ed, because teachers get paid more it seems, assuming you can start on the second banding (or whatever it is) that starts at around 48k. Only you have to do 52 days worth of teaching somewhere (not in a row). I can't afford to take that off work.

And teachers are bitching about not getting paid enough.. whatever.



last edited by Tollaz0r! at 10:34:45 28/Feb/09

secondary education... What a f***ing waste of time. Imo do a real degree then postgrad the edumaction

Yea, see imo I dislike the idea of people doing one year of actually learning to teach. I don't actually want to work in schools. I'm studying to teach English as a Second Language, so I'd rather be teaching in a private language college, where the students (usually) want to be there. And the money is a lot better. At this stage I'll most likely do my masters afterward so that I have the option of uni lecturing also. Which again is much, MUCH better pay.

And teachers are bitching about not getting paid enough.. whatever.

48k is f*** all, you can earn 50k+ as a medical secretary.

And teachers are bitching about not getting paid enough.. whatever.

I find this odd as well. My mother in law teaches grade one in Tasmania, is payed $80+, and still bitches that it's not enough.

I am praying that Qld Ed looks at paying teachers up here more money some day.

Don't comment when you obviously haven't seen/used one in person.. or at the very least, read some reviews.

to Dodgy's credit - if MSI made a solid laptop, the Wind one will be the first I've ever seen. I haven't had to crack open a Wind yet though.

eeepc SSD ftw

teaches grade one in Tasmania, is payed $80+,

...Seriously?? Most teachers only earn up to $65k.. after their 10 years.

Pay is dramatically different in other states. Queensland Teachers are not well paid in comparison.

On topic, I picked up an MSI Wind U100 ($599) + an extra 1GB ram ($25) from Umart yesterday.

It's pretty good, better than a friends eeePC 1000xx i have tried (not exactly sure on which model it was).

Good things about it i've found:
-Wireless is strong, getting about the same signal strength & speed as my desktop PC with a proper PCI card (several rooms and up a floor from the router)
-Battery life; i've got about 2 hours off the first charge so far, and it still is a little above half full. So thats 4-5 hours, most are lucky to get 3
-Keyboard is of course not full size - but shouldn't be too hard to get used to
-There's a function button you can press which overclocks it 24% on the fly (handy for when you have it plugged in i guess)
-Tried connecting it up to my 22" Monitor, it runs fine at 1680x1050

Problems so far:
-At the bottom left of the keyboard, theres a function key with the left control key to the right of it. It's a bit weird not having control as the left most key, though i'm about to download a fix which swaps the assignments.
-The resolution of 1024x600 is a lot smaller than my usual 1680x1050, so will take some getting used to

wired article on netbooks

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks

DON'T LEAVE ME DEATHWALKER... !!

And teachers are bitching about not getting paid enough.. whatever.

I'd have more sympathy for them if the education system were producing results.

I worry about our next generation of kids, because they're gonna get our current generation of kids as teachers. Now that's seriously screwed up.

I'd have more sympathy for them if the education system were producing results.

EQ thinks every kid is a beautiful unique snowflake. So when a kid stabs a teacher in the cheek with a pencil, they get suspended for a few days.