A netbook for my sister

[mardal]

Im trying to recommend a netbook for my sister.

Her wishes are:

Long battery life, the longer the better
Max 12", 10" is preferred
HDMI would be nice
A decent webcam
The budget max is 600$

She mainly wants it for schoolwork, surfing and watching movies, mainly dvdrips(700 mb)

My own thoughts.
Is it true there are basicly 2 types of CPUs in netbooks atom single and dual core? I guess the dual core is a pretty big buff?
The more powerful hardware you buy the less battery life you have?
I cant find any 10" with hdmi?
a lot of netbooks only have 1 gb ram, is that desirable for windows 7? isnt 2 or 4 preferred?
I can see some use 0.6 megapixel webcam and some 1.6. is that a noticeable difference?

btw i live in Denmark.

Thx in advance

 

[lostandwandering]

1) Mostly you will find the single and dual core Atoms. You can also find some with the AMD Athlon Neo and Neo X2 processors. Compared to traditional processors, the Atoms and Neos are pretty under powered, even the dual core ones. They are fine for basic uses though.

2) Generally, yes. The more powerful your system, the more it will consume. However, none of the parts that come in netbooks are that high powered that you will see a huge difference.

3) Most of the netbooks I am seeing with HDMI are either 11.6'' or 12''.

4) Personally, I would go with 2gb of RAM for Windows 7. Some of those netbooks are probably coming with Windows 7 Starter installed, which is a very stripped down version of Win 7 and isn't preferable, IMO.

The two that I would look at that seem to fit most of your needs are the HP Mini 311 and the Asus Eee PC 1201N

 

[WR2]

You'll want to watch the screen resolution of the 10" netbooks. The usual 1024 x 600 isnt the best choice for HD movies. Or 'net surfing or work for that matter, at least IMO. You can find 10" netbooks with 1366x768 LCD screens. An example would be the HP Mini 210 HD Edition
If schoolwork involves substantial multitasking, for example, using MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel at the same time a netbook will really struggle there.
Netbook tips and reviews

Since you're interested in movies, HDMI and a decent webcam you might also want to look at the next step up from Netbooks.
Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T would be one example and should be available near the top end of your price range. It's almost as light (3.6lbs) as the HP Mini 311 (3.2lbs)
Battery life rated at 8hrs, HDMI port and 1.3MP webcam.

 

[mardal]

Thx for the replies!

The HDMI thing is not a deal breaker, and she wont be watching that many HD movies, mostly dvdrips(700 mb) like i said. and if she would be watching HD, it would only be 720p

i cant seem to find the HP Mini 210 HD Edition in my country, is it pretty new? the only hp 210 i can find has a 1024 x 600 display. tho i have found a HP Mini 5101, thats 10" and 1366x768, perhaps thats the one?

Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T is just too big and expensive, 600$ is an absolute max.

The ones i have been looking at are 1005pe and 1201n from asus.
She likes the size, price and long battery life of the 1005pe. if she settle for this one, ill ask the retailer to upgrade it to 2 GB ram.

But im concerned about the less powerful CPU and small display. If the netbook was for me i would pick something like the 1201n, no doubt. But she is concerned about the low battery life, price tag, and the larger size

So... i have been looking for a compromise between the 2.
And i have stumbled upon Acer Aspire 1410
I have noticed there is both a dual and a single core version, but i cant seem to find the dual core version in denmark. They all have Celeron M 743, and thats the single core right? Im trying to find out when(or if) the dual core version will get released in denmark. But the single core version is still more powerful than atom CPUs right?
it only uses one of the ram slots, so its easy to upgrade
it has HDMI
The price is right between the 1201n and 1005pe(at least in my country)
The battery life is almost 3 hours more than 1201n and about 4 less than 1005pe, right?
It has 11.6" and 1366x768 display
it comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition
Another downside is the webcam, which is only 0.3 megapixel. But i have read somewhere that 0.3 and 1.3 are the actually the same webcams. Its just different advertising, the 0.3 is for video and 1.3 is for photos, is that true?

dont u think the Acer Aspire 1410 is the right choice?

 

[jsc]

Your sister really doesn't want a netbook. She wants a subcompact notebook.

Netbooks also do not have an optical drive.

 

[mardal]

well on some level thats true. But she really wants a laptop no bigger than 12", with a low price tag, and long battery life. so that can only be a netbook right?

 

[WR2]

-> ASUS Eee PC 1201PN with ION2 should be out shortly (this month) as well. [/url]To further confuse things the new ASUS Eee PC 1201PN is a SINGLE core Atom N450 CPU, not the dual core 330 or the rumored new dual core 5xx.

 

[WR2]

A benchmark chart showing the Asus 1005PE and Asus 1201N netbooks.

Asus Eee 1201n review @ AnandTech

 

[lostandwandering]

^I think if I had to get a netbook, I'd go for the 1201N. Dual Core Atom + NVidia ION = Win. Well, as much win as a netbook can get.....

 

[mardal]

I dont think the 1201N is the one for my sister. The poor battery life, somewhat higher pricetag and large size is just too much. and she wont really utilize the extra graphics

Im pretty confident ill recommend her the 1005PE or the Acer Aspire 1410 if she wants a little bit more power, hdmi and larger resolution.

 

[WR2]

Acer Aspire 1410 review

On a 10" 1024x600 LCD netbook the HD 720P would downscale somewhat. And the single core Atom netbooks struggle with HD video playback - it's not always as smooth as you'd like watching movies (choppy & stuttery). Netbooks with ION video chipsets (plus the soon to be available ION2) netbooks don't have that same problem.
Another option for better HD movie performance are netbooks with the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator. A notch below the ION solution but a step up from the plain netbook HD performance.
Asus Eee PC 1005PR would be one example to keep your eye on. 1366x768 LCD screen and the Broadcom HD video accelerator.

The Acer Aspire 1410 will handle HD content adequately with its GMA 4500HD video chip.