Just bought a MSI Wind netbook

[MillCreek]

I have a bunch of business trips coming up this last quarter.  My work laptop is four years old and is quite bulky and heavy.  I have been thinking about a netbook for some time to lighten my load so I don't have to check luggage.  I have been doing some research and I had been more or less holding out to see what Dell and Lenovo were coming out with, since I was already familiar with Acer, HP, Asus and MSI.  I knew that I wanted something with XP and a hard drive.  The solid state drives just are not yet big enough for a reasonable cost to meet my business needs. 

After reading a ton of reviews and seeing that if you wanted a 10" screen with a good keyboard, XP and a hard drive, there were really only a few choices currently available.  I was surprised to see that many of these netbooks are either sold out or are not yet released.  Of those choices that I could buy today, the MSI Wind seems to consistently get good reviews, with the major con being the 2 hour battery life with the 3 cell battery.  So I bought one from Newegg for $ 514 shipped.  It will do what I need of a netbook: get on the Net, create and edit my Office documents and show my Powerpoints through a LCD projector. 

I recall that we discussed netbooks earlier this year; has anyone else taken the plunge?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I want one.  Haven't plunged yet, tho. 

I'd be interested in hearing what you think of yours after you've used it a bit.

[Perd Hapley]

net book?  This is something like a notebook computer? 

[Regolith]

net book?  This is something like a notebook computer? 

Its a laptop that is "optimized" primarily for word processing and surfing the internet.  They're usually cheaper than other laptops because they're pretty bare bones; crappy graphics card, mid level processor, minimal RAM, small screen, etc.

[Gewehr98]

Sounds intriguing, kind of like the Asus EEE that was the topic of discussion here not too long ago.

I'm still considering one, but just tonight I picked up a nice Dell Inspiron 1100 for $15.00.  It needs a new external power supply, but that's cheap, and I'll probably install either Ubuntu or Suse and see how it scoots along.

[Snowdog]

I don't know if I'm prepared to abandon my IBM Thinkpad with blazin' 800 MHz processor, awesome 512 MB RAM and kickin' 10 GB hard drive.  Plus, I really like the uber cool Windows ME.  LOL
Hey, it was free and I'm more of a desktop guy.  As long as I can surf the web, I'm content.

[Iain]

Had a good look at the EEE, Aspire One and the Advent (rebadged MSI Wind) yesterday.

Decided I'll probably go with the Aspire One, it could house a 10.2" screen and that screen would be slightly better than the 8.9" that is in it, although these panels have the same resolution (1024x600). The internals are largely the same on these things, SSD's and HD's aside. The build quality, keyboards, screen quality and price are the difference. I can get a Aspire One with a 1gb ram and 120gb hd for ?225, the MSI wind variants are pushing ?300+ and that's a little too much for what I envisage using this for.

[Manedwolf]

MSI Wind? Well, with a name like that, just don't break it. The service call wouldn't be taken seriously.

"Hello, my Wind has broken."

I'd also seen jokes about the Asus EEE, that if it started to come with Vista, it would have to be the AIEE!

[MillCreek]

Between work and home, I already have four laptops, the smallest of which has a 14.1 inch screen.  I am getting the netbook solely as a much smaller travel device.  It is smaller by about an inch than a 8.5 x 11" piece of paper and weighs just over 3 pounds with the power brick, and just over 2.5 pounds without it.  They are pretty much marketed as a second or travel laptop to people who already have at least one other.  They don't really have the horsepower or ergonomics to be used as a primary office or work machine.  

You can also find them a lot cheaper if you get one with Linux and a small solid state drive of 4-8 GB.  Those are commonly going for $ 350-400.  A model with XP and a hard drive is going to be up in the $ 450-700 range.  If I could have found a HP 2133 with XP at a reasonable price, I would have bought it.  But at this time, you can only get them with Vista, and they are running upwards of $ 750 or so,  with an XP downgrade.

[41magsnub]

I've started using a tablet PC for everything.  Handwriting my notes in Onenote and the OCR'ing them with 100% accuracy is freaking awesome.  Handwriting my e-mails tends to freak people out too.  And, when I do presentations I can do a John Madden and diagram everything.  They are a bit more spendy than $750 though.

[zahc]

I picked up a returned Eeepc 701 about six months ago for $300, after my nice laptop got stolen. It's an amazing machine. I've been thinking of dumping it for an Acer Aspire One, microcenter has the 120gb one for $350, but I would rather have the ssd...actually my 4gb eeecp is fine for me. I haven't wanted to take the resale price hit selling my eeepc, though.

[Ben]

I have the Asus eee 900 20g. Turned out to be a great investment. It does exactly what I need for traveling. Surf the web, email, document reviews for work with Open Office, etc. The keyboard is not something I want to use to write a 10 page report, but for shorter docs and answering emails, it's just fine.

In fact when I travel for work, because of all the security restrictions that are on my work laptop now, I take this one as a second laptop for personal biz and to do work related stuff my work laptop is blocked from doing outside of our AD. It's so small and light that it's unnoticeable in my luggage, and does a heck of a lot more than a Blackberry or similar can do.

[lee n. field]

I recall that we discussed netbooks earlier this year; has anyone else taken the plunge?

Our clone vendor now has it's own version of Intel's Classmate v.2.  With .5GB, 30GB disk and XP home it's getting up towards $500 (once we've added our usual markup).

Specs are interesting, I'm tempted, except I'd really like to see one first, and the screen is smallllllll.

[MillCreek]

Wow, I am surprised they can command almost $ 500 with those specs.  The Wind I  bought has the Atom CPU, 10 inch screen, 1 gig RAM, 120 gig hard drive, 1.3 MB webcam and XP for $ 499.

[RNB65]

I thinking about buying a Wind when the 6 cell models are available.  I just need something lightweght, cheap, and reliable for net surfing and editing documents.

[RaspberrySurprise]

And, when I do presentations I can do a John Madden and diagram everything.  They are a bit more spendy than $750 though.

Just don't include the Madden Commentary along with it.

[Regolith]

And, when I do presentations I can do a John Madden and diagram everything.  They are a bit more spendy than $750 though.

Just don't include the Madden Commentary along with it.

 

Madden, like Obama, is a guy who can talk a lot and not say anything.  At least ol' John knows better than to stick his nose into politics.

[Iain]

I'm blaming you Millcreek. I've just spent two hours fiddling with and tweaking linpus to my satisfaction (for now). Good thing I have some basic linux ability, some very scary mistakes were made, and I couldn't access anything but the acer search bar at one point. Had to remember how to dig through the file system to open a terminal and rectify idiocy.

Bought the aspire one with 1gb ram and 120gig hdd. Very pleased with it so far. Typing on it now - keyboard will only take a little while to get used to, mousepad with side buttons isn't as bad as I feared and the xfce desktop is pretty pleasant so I'll not be wiping it just yet.

[longeyes]

I bought an eee pc last January for about $400.  Linux + 4GB solid-state drive (I added another 4GB with an SD card) so about $450 into it.  I think it's a great machine for what it is.  The keyboard's a bit cramped but still usable with some getting used to.  I use mine mostly for wi-fi Web surfing in cafes.  I think the solid-state drive is the way to go, at least for me.  I wanted something light with no moving parts.  Voila!

The Dell netbook looks interesting but I've only read about it.

[lee n. field]

Wow, I am surprised they can command almost $ 500 with those specs.  The Wind I  bought has the Atom CPU, 10 inch screen, 1 gig RAM, 120 gig hard drive, 1.3 MB webcam and XP for $ 499.

Let's just say I'm rounding up.  Our cost on the Linux version is under $400.  Also note that (being intended for grade schoolers) some effort has been made to make it drop safe and to some extent water resistant.

[Matthew Carberry]

I have the Asus eee 900 20g. Turned out to be a great investment. It does exactly what I need for traveling. Surf the web, email, document reviews for work with Open Office, etc. The keyboard is not something I want to use to write a 10 page report, but for shorter docs and answering emails, it's just fine.

In fact when I travel for work, because of all the security restrictions that are on my work laptop now, I take this one as a second laptop for personal biz and to do work related stuff my work laptop is blocked from doing outside of our AD. It's so small and light that it's unnoticeable in my luggage, and does a heck of a lot more than a Blackberry or similar can do.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing with a netbook.  This is a great thread.

[Iain]

The results of an evenings fiddling with the linpus lite install on my aspire. Quite pleased with it, very useable, feels like a proper computer now that I have a proper desktop. Now to make conky start on start up.

[Gewehr98]

I just wish the Linpus Lite download site was working.

(I want to try it on this Dell Inspiron 1100)   

[zahc]

I got around to listing my eeepc for sale.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/sys/859990414.html

I can't decide what I'm going to replace it with yet. I wanted SSD but the best deals in Acer One's all have HDDs.

[lee n. field]

my eeepc

Hnuh!  I could get that, and the wife would never tell the difference between that and my 2001 iBook.  Except for the paying for it part, at which point I'd have some 'splainin' to do.