[tj123]

Originally Posted by sammyboy

Congrats tj123 and Inder. How about some pics of the notebooks?
Also, how is the performance while working with MS office? Does it work okay with 5-6 documents open? Is the RAM expandable for Asus as well? As per tj, Samsung is 2GB max.

Thanks guys.

The Samsung N120 netbook is performing fine, I have loaded Office 2007 and opening multiple windows does not tend to slow down.

Other customization which I did was to replace Macfee with PC Shield Suit by F-Secure, loaded Firefox it tend to load a little slow but once loaded you can open multiple windows without any hitch. I am watching IBN news online , Youtube videos etc works fine till now.

About the Display 10.1-inch WSVGA 1024 x 600 with LED Backlit is quite bright even for outdoor use but resolution could have been better.

I have not expanded the memory it is still 1GB, the shopkeeper was willing to swap it with a 2GB Ram for Rs 800 extra , that’s the max memory it can take.

Sound Quality seems to be good compared to other Net books. Wirless LAN works as a charm.

Battery life is around 8-9 hrs depending on the usage. There is battery life extender software available which charges the battery to 80% only and hence enhancing battery life but reduced battery backup.

Things I don’t like is the glossy screen, those glares I hate.

[nishantgandhi]

I'm searching for a Netbook. Budget is on the lower side of 20k, preferably close to 15k. Key usage will be casual browsing and downloading.

Must haves:
1. Portability and long(er) battery life - as I wish to tug it along for my weekend road trips
2. WiFi
3. USB ports
4. Good after sales, support and warranty (as I suffered A LOT on my Compaq laptop)
5. Screen size - Minimum 10 - the higher at this price, the better it is!

Nice to haves:
1. HDMI port

Models that I could find thru Google and corresponding prices on Ebay:
1. Acer Aspire One AO532h - Rs. 19,790
2. HP Mini 210 HD - Rs. 21,799
3. Samsung N210 - Rs. 18,950
4. MSI Wind U100 - Rs. 13,490 (Cheapest - but I have no idea about this brand)
5. Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - Rs. 19,999

I dont need too much hard disk space, since I have external portable HDDs. So that feature is not a deal breaker.

Key questions:
1. Should I go for Linux, Win 7 or Win XP?
2. 3 or 6 cell battery?
3. How important is PineTrail?
4. Is buying through Ebay safe? The only reason to buy online would be to avail discount (I'll of course check out the models physically at Croma etc.)

Are the above prices correct? Is there any better (reliable) shop in Mumbai that I should purchase from?

[hvishwanathan]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

I'm searching for a Netbook. Budget is on the lower side of 20k, preferably close to 15k. Key usage will be casual browsing and downloading.

Must haves:
1. Portability and long(er) battery life - as I wish to tug it along for my weekend road trips
2. WiFi
3. USB ports
4. Good after sales, support and warranty (as I suffered A LOT on my Compaq laptop)
5. Screen size - Minimum 10 - the higher at this price, the better it is!

Nice to haves:
1. HDMI port

Models that I could find thru Google and corresponding prices on Ebay:
1. Acer Aspire One AO532h - Rs. 19,790
2. HP Mini 210 HD - Rs. 21,799
3. Samsung N210 - Rs. 18,950
4. MSI Wind U100 - Rs. 13,490 (Cheapest - but I have no idea about this brand)
5. Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - Rs. 19,999

I dont need too much hard disk space, since I have external portable HDDs. So that feature is not a deal breaker.

Key questions:
1. Should I go for Linux, Win 7 or Win XP?
2. 3 or 6 cell battery?
3. How important is PineTrail?
4. Is buying through Ebay safe? The only reason to buy online would be to avail discount (I'll of course check out the models physically at Croma etc.)

Are the above prices correct? Is there any better (reliable) shop in Mumbai that I should purchase from?

Have a look at MSI's:
1) CR 400, it comes with 1GB Ram,160GB HDD, 6 cell battery and Celeron processor, and the best part is that it comes with a 14" screen. Price will be around 20,500/-

2) X340 with 2gb,320 gb,13" screen, win 7 home basic, 4 cell battery & SU3500 processor which boasts of over 5 hours of battery standby time at a price of 23,500/-

3) U200 with 2gb ram,250 gb hdd, 6 cell battery 12" screen, win 7 , SU2700 processor with ultra low battery consumption and higher standby time at a price of 21,000/-

Also if you are not very brand conscious then you can also look at a brand from GIGABYTE called Hasee. It comes with 1gb ram,250 gb hdd, 6 cell battery, 14" screen and free dos. Comes at a price of 23000/-

MSI laptops have a 2year warranty out of which 1 year is international warranty. They have 2 service centers in mumbai. One at Santacruz and the other one at Lamington road. Hasee comes with one year warranty like the other known brands in India.

Hope this information will be of some help to you.

[CorsaLove]

You can try EePC from Asus with a 18K price tag. My friend uses it and works fine.

[nishantgandhi]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

Budget is on the lower side of 20k, preferably close to 15k.

Originally Posted by hvishwanathan

Have a look at MSI's:
1) CR 400......Price will be around 20,500/-

2) X340....price of 23,500/-

3) U200.....price of 21,000/-

Also if you are not very brand conscious then you can also look at a brand from GIGABYTE called Hasee. It comes with 1gb ram,250 gb hdd, 6 cell battery, 14" screen and free dos. Comes at a price of 23000/-

@hvishwanathan - Thanks buddy! But my budget is STRICTLY capped at 20k! I really want it to be lower than that. I'm OK between 15-18k.

[hvishwanathan]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

@hvishwanathan - Thanks buddy! But my budget is STRICTLY capped at 20k! I really want it to be lower than that. I'm OK between 15-18k.

In that case check:

1) MSI U135 netbook with 1gb ram,250gb hdd, 10" screen, windows 7, 6 cell battery and atom 450 processor. Price 18 thousand &

2) MSI U120 - 1gb ram, 160 gb hdd, 10" screen, Atom N270 processor priced at 16,500/-

[jkdas]

18k? Get Lenovo S10-3 !

End.

[leadf00t]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

I'm searching for a Netbook. Budget is on the lower side of 20k, preferably close to 15k. Key usage will be casual browsing and downloading.

Must haves:
1. Portability and long(er) battery life - as I wish to tug it along for my weekend road trips Look out only for 10 inch and 5 cell batteries
2. WiFi - standard across any models
3. USB ports - look out for atleast 3 USB 2.0 ports. Most have them Not to worry
4. Good after sales, support and warranty (as I suffered A LOT on my Compaq laptop) - stay with dell / Lenovo in that case. Dont have exp abt Acer and Samsung.
5. Screen size - Minimum 10 - the higher at this price, the better it is! If you look at bigger sizes , you will loose out portability and battery power see point 1 . Looks contradictory. though a 12 inch screen might be a decent compromise but i doubt you will find any in the Indian market.

Nice to haves:
1. HDMI port - Old Dell Mini models used to have it . Haven't seen any in the recent models due to lack of Decent graphics on any netbook inherently

Look at the this deal on ebay
eBay India: Dell 10" Mini Laptop 1GB 160GB 1.6ghz DOS (item 250665753756 end time 21-Jul-2010 08:30:00 IST)


Models that I could find thru Google and corresponding prices on Ebay:
1. Acer Aspire One AO532h - Rs. 19,790
2. HP Mini 210 HD - Rs. 21,799
3. Samsung N210 - Rs. 18,950
4. MSI Wind U100 - Rs. 13,490 (Cheapest - but I have no idea about this brand)
5. Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - Rs. 19,999

I dont need too much hard disk space, since I have external portable HDDs. So that feature is not a deal breaker.

Key questions:
1. Should I go for Linux, Win 7 or Win XP? Linux if cost is high priority . Win 7 for convenience.
2. 3 or 6 cell battery? 6 cell all the way expect atleast 4 to 5 hrs backup with 6 cell batteries. 3 cell will be max 3.5 to 3 hrs .
3. How important is PineTrail? - newer processor family hence better power efficiency. Look out for the Intel Atom N450 processor . I have seen most recent netbooks with this processor.
4. Is buying through Ebay safe? The only reason to buy online would be to avail discount (I'll of course check out the models physically at Croma etc.)
Safe if covered by company warranty. Look at the EBAY Dell shop or direct dell.co.in. and the link given above for Deals of the week.
IF you request a quote from your official id instead of a gmail or yahoo id , you could get around 700 rs as corporate discount from Dell.

Are the above prices correct? Is there any better (reliable) shop in Mumbai that I should purchase from?

All the above comments were based on my recent netbook buying experience for Wifey.

I ended up buying a dell inspiron Mini 10 from the dell.co.in site for a total of 21.5K

Specs included Intel Atom N450 2gig RAM 320Gigi HDD , Broadcom Media accelerator card , 6 cell battery , customised lid cover , Windows 7. HD dsipaly 1366 x 768 reso.
However dell seems to have taken off this model of their list on the site. Otherwise was an excellent deal.

Most importantly checkout ergonomics of any model you finalise to buy. Keyboard sizing , touchpad usage and screen make a lot of difference than these technical specs in making you purchase worthy and future experience enjoyable.

My recommendation is stretch your budget by a thousand or two to pick something that will cover most of your rerquiremtns. 20K is still a very very decent budget.

[Brix]

My advice - get one with ION. It helps with playing games and running hi def movies. Although you might not see it on the 10.1" screen, when you connect it to the big screen it will help.

Some brands like the Samsung allow you to fix a Broadcom Crystal card for the hi def.

[vkochar]

Ok - I did a lot of survey when I was out to buy a netbook. I ended up buying a Samsug N210 as it was the latest whenI bought it a few months back, I think March.

Specs were Pinetrail Processor, 1GB, 125GB, 10.1,3 USB Ports, Win 7 Starter etc.

The one big plus point this netbook has is 10 hours + battery life - no matter if you watch movies, surf the net or send emails and browse, it is 10 hours + !!!!! No other netbook has this kind of a battery. Its a cell.

The minus points are no HDMI, Win 7 starter is useless as its limitations are quite a few. I would suggest Win XP.

Also this netbook has 1 usb slot which can be used to charge mobiles even when the netbook is off !! It was a boon for me a few times.

The Dell as someone suggested above is great deal but I guess they no longer have it.

[zaks]

Yes the Samsung N210 have got some really good reviews for it's price. But as you rightly said don't bother about big hard disk, high end cpu, etc if you are just looking one for very light weight work.
Though the tried and tested in this segment is still Acer.

[sreedotk]

I have a Samsung N150. Got it for 19K with a slim usb drive. Decent specs and the best of all has a matte screen . Does not reflect off the screen.

Battery life if used on and off can last an entire day. recharges pretty quickly.

Just upgrade the ram to 2 GB and can run most programs well. Gaming is something i don't do on this laptop or for that matter any laptop as graphics will be bad.

It is very similar tot he N210 except for the Island style (chicklet) keyboard available in N210.

Chroma had a red colour version with 2 GB ram and Win 7 starter for around 17k

[simran]

Hi Nishant,

I bought an Acer a couple of months ago from Jumbo for 16500, it retails for Rs. 500-700 less at this time.

other details:
1. Portability and long(er) battery life - as I wish to tug it along for my weekend road trips - gives more than 10 hrs. don't buy HP mini with 3 cell battery. 6 cell batter is amazing.
2. WiFi - has it
3. USB ports - 3, with card reader, VGA port, charger, mic, and headphone and ethernet and lock
4. Good after sales, support and warranty (as I suffered A LOT on my Compaq laptop) - no idea on Acer. my friend has one and has not faced any problem in the last 2 years he has been using this, so I went for Acer.
5. Screen size - Minimum 10 - the higher at this price, the better it is! - dunno. I wanted something not bigger than a book, so was looking at a 10 incher only.

Nice to haves:
1. HDMI port - does not have this

Models that I could find thru Google and corresponding prices on Ebay:
1. Acer Aspire One AO532h - Rs. 19,790 - this is a very high price, you will get it at much less, esp at Spice stores.

I use it for net browsing, and playing music. Its wonderful for these aspects. Have used it to watch videos on Youtube, and its good.

It has Win XP - I think its the best for 1GB RAM and Atom processor. That reminds me - Have to upgrade the McAfee anti-virus.

I did not go for Samsung since I didn't like the keypad. HP had a 3 cell batter, and Dell netbook was rumored to have heating issues (as per reviews on the net). I did like the Lenovo S-10-3, but I had a bad experience with a Lenovo laptop earlier so did not go for this. Have no idea of MSI and other brands.

[TaureanBull]

My advice would be to go for brands like ACER. You will find them VFM. Other more famous brands will be costlier or will have small screen size.

Dont buy through ebay, its likely to be costlier. As he would charge you for shipping. Best is to go to showroom/shop check the piece to your satisfaction and buy it.

I would suggest windows 7. It may be costlier but you should be up to date. A new laptop is likely to serve you for a longer time. Windows XP will save you money. Its going to be there for lot of time.

Go for 6cell laptop if you want to use during weekend trips and you dont have a charging point in your vehicle. Else go for three cell and save money.

Try and select one with decent RAM and processor speed to cater for future updates.

[sgiitk]

If money is not that critical then how about a small Notebook with say 13" screen and no DVD. These are under or around 1.2kg! I was thinking of a netbook last year but ended up buying an Acer 3810T.