[sinhead]

I need a netbook - 11inch screen- only for web browsing- reading articles, and some videos.

New Asus EEEBook is available for 14K on flipkart - Celeron Dual core+ 2gb ram.
Micromax, Iball, RDP with intel atom are available for 11K.

Used 2year old Asus EEBook and Dell Netbooks are available in shops for only 6K. With 1 month working warranty.

1. What could go wrong with this purchase of a used Netbook, except poor battery backup?

2. Somene mentioned - that over a usage of 2 years parts become slow because of heat. So this used netbook could be freezing within 1hr of use.

3. I heard Linux runs good on old/low end hardware. That should take care of "slowness" and the low 2gb ram.

[carboy]

What's a decent brand for a wireless mouse for a laptop? Should I go for 700-800 Rs HP/Dell/Logitech ones or are there any cheaper decent ones. My usage is not going to be heavy? Can these mouses be switched off when I am using the touchpad - i.e. to prevent battery draining?

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by carboy

What's a decent brand for a wireless mouse for a laptop? Should I go for 700-800 Rs HP/Dell/Logitech ones or are there any cheaper decent ones. My usage is not going to be heavy? Can these mouses be switched off when I am using the touchpad - i.e. to prevent battery draining?

Stick with Logitech - Dell/HP should be good, but these days they are not too picky about the build quality.


Logitech M185 has been OK so far.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by sinhead

I need a netbook - 11inch screen- only for web browsing- reading articles, and some videos.

New Asus EEEBook is available for 14K on flipkart - Celeron Dual core+ 2gb ram.
Micromax, Iball, RDP with intel atom are available for 11K.

Used 2year old Asus EEBook and Dell Netbooks are available in shops for only 6K. With 1 month working warranty.

1. What could go wrong with this purchase of a used Netbook, except poor battery backup?

2. Somene mentioned - that over a usage of 2 years parts become slow because of heat. So this used netbook could be freezing within 1hr of use.

3. I heard Linux runs good on old/low end hardware. That should take care of "slowness" and the low 2gb ram.

Don't buy a netbook until you try one out. Used ones have processors that are slower than your old Samsung S2. It is always tempting to assume you will not be doing a lot of "heavy" computing, but over the years applications have been growing in size and complexity - means they run best on the newer processors. Yes, this applies even to browsers.


Parts getting slow can be fixed by cleaning the fan and re-seating the CPU with fresh thermal paste.


But you cannot fix software, where you need the latest to keep up with security requirements of eCommerce payments or banking applications that will require a certain minimum browser version with some necessary security features.


Anyway, the above are my opinions. YMMV.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by mvadg

Stick with Logitech - Dell/HP should be good, but these days they are not too picky about the build quality.


Logitech M185 has been OK so far.

I have never used a wireless mouse so my question may be silly.


When you are not actually moving the mouse or clicking on it, does it still use the battery - unless there is a way to turn off the mouse, I assume the mouse may be still be using battery, right? How long does the battery last for a wireless mouse?

[mxh]

Originally Posted by carboy

I have never used a wireless mouse so my question may be silly.


When you are not actually moving the mouse or clicking on it, does it still use the battery - unless there is a way to turn off the mouse, I assume the mouse may be still be using battery, right? How long does the battery last for a wireless mouse?

Some of them have a sensor which allows them to go to sleep automatically but i guess it takes some battery to keep that sensor active. The battery life ranges from 6-12 months. I still prefer wired mice, much more reliable and work perfectly every time and costs less to replace which is important since all mice start having issues after 1 year.

[JonSnow]

Any suggestions for a laptop in 25-30k range? Usage is pretty basic - office documents, browsing, watching videos...

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by carboy

What's a decent brand for a wireless mouse for a laptop? Should I go for 700-800 Rs HP/Dell/Logitech ones or are there any cheaper decent ones. My usage is not going to be heavy? Can these mouses be switched off when I am using the touchpad - i.e. to prevent battery draining?

I have been using Logitech M235 wireless Mouse for close to an year. Quite reliable and the mouse has a sensor which detects movement and connects to the Unifying Receiver. When you buy any other Logitech Wireless product, you don't need a separate receiver. Costs around Rs.650/-

BTW I have dropped it several times and it has survived all the falls. I am used to the wired mouse and kbd and in the initial days didn't realize that there is no umbilical cord to tether the mouse.

[carboy]

Got the Logitech B170 for Rs. 574 off Amazon. It does have an on-off switch for the mouse also. Seems to be fine.

[HydroFuel]

Hi
I am currently using old Dell Latitude D630 at home for nearly 3 years which was pre-owned. It has core2duo T7500 2.2 gz processor with 3 gb RAM and 160 GB HDD. It is showing its age and one hinge is little damaged. It is used for light work like browsing, word, excel etc. I have also used an assembled AMD laptop for nearly 7 years which gone kaput nearly 2 years back. \

I do not want to get a desktop which I can assemble myself also. Even my wife also suggested that we should have laptop only which is also handy when there is power outage sometimes.

It shall be used as mentioned above. At the most I may use it to connect to my Home Theatre AVR in future to watch movie through HDMI. Now my requirements are as below:
1. The laptop should be light weight say upto 1.7 or 1.8 kg though it shall be used mostly at home only.
2. It should be sturdily built.
3. It should have backlit, spillproof kepad.
4. I shall prefer an SSD of around 128 GB with HDD or only SSD of size 256 GB. I have 2TB external HDD for storage.
5. I do not mind even 6th generation processor though it may not be available now.
6. Power back up upto 4-5 hours is sufficient.
7. I do not want separate numeric keypad which shall increase size and weight also. 14' screen is sufficient.
8. Screen should be glare free so in the dark also it should not hurt eyes.
9. If required it can also be connected to my old 23 inches full HD LG monitor-cum-tv (It has TN panel) through HDMI port which do not have good viewing angles but sufficient as monitor.

Kindly suggest a good laptop around 50k budget. I shall prefer Dell, HP. I do not want Inspiron series though. XPS is costly. Better support is essential since I can not at all tinker with laptop though I can assemble desktop myself.

[Miyata]

Originally Posted by carboy

When you are not actually moving the mouse or clicking on it, does it still use the battery - unless there is a way to turn off the mouse, I assume the mouse may be still be using battery, right? How long does the battery last for a wireless mouse?

It does use minuscule amounts of battery power when not in use. I've been using the M235 for quite some time now and haven't had the need to replace the battery. They come with a switch on the back so one can turn it off/on. I prefer the convenience of the wireless over the wired options. No reliability issues so far.

I have used it with Win 7 and Mac - works just fine on both. I like the fact that it's small'ish USB adapter doesn't stick too far out when connected.

One thing though, the one I have is blue in color and begins to show the dirt and 'grease' accumulation over time. Might be better to get a black color one.

--------------------

I incidentally came hear to post the following -

What do you folks use for cleaning up the electronic devices and accessories? Being a dad to <2-yrs old child, I have discovered the baby-wipes as one good options that I currently use. Would love to know of other options around too.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by carboy

Got the Logitech B170...

Originally Posted by Prowler

I have been using Logitech M235 ...

Originally Posted by mxh

Some of them have a sensor which allows them to go to sleep automaticall..

Originally Posted by Miyata

I've been using the M235 .

Might sound silly to some that so much discussion on a wireless mouse. But all of you who have been using the above Logitech models, do try the Logitech M220 Silent Wireless mouse.

I was blown away by the smoothness of the click and performance.
It also uses an infrared (IR) optical LED light sensor underneath that is invisible to the human eye in addition to consuming less power which goes a long way on a single AA battery.

[self_driven]

Hi friends,

I'm using a 5 year old Sony Vaio E14 Series laptop (2.6 GHz Core i5, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) which meets my requirement as far as performance goes. Due to my carelessness, it fell off from a height today and needs a screen replacement.

Is there any website that sells original or good quality parts for Sony laptops? I am planning to get the body shell replaced as well since it has accumulated some scratches over the years.

I tried hard in local repair shops but most of them don't stock Sony parts. Even Sony service centres are not sure of part availability (esp. body shell).

Also, is it possible to put parts of this laptop to some other brand's body shell? Similar to what we do in assembled computers.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by sinhead

I need a netbook - 11inch screen- only for web browsing- reading articles, and some videos.

Originally Posted by mvadg

Don't buy a netbook until you try one out. It is always tempting to assume you will not be doing a lot of "heavy" computing, but over the years applications have been growing in size and complexity - means they run best on the newer processors. Yes, this applies even to browsers.

I agree with mvadg - browsing should no longer be considered as a light activity. The complexity of websites (scripts, responsive/progressive sites like FB) and browsers means that you need fast single-threaded performance in particular to make browsing anything better than annoying. Netbook processors are quite poor at this, as they're heavily limited towards power consumption, making them poor performers.

In the past, browsing was considered a light activity (due to the reasons mentioned above, as well as the fact that our slow internet speeds meant that downloading a page was often the first bottleneck, and parsing/displaying it wasn't a problem), and watching videos was considered medium/highly intensive.

Today, I'd say it has flipped - there is a lot of video decoding hardware on chips, so watching videos should barely stress any recent CPU, but browsing can still make a CPU sweat.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Got the Omen

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Thanks a lot.
I am yet to receive my OMEN Backpack

After waiting for more than a month, the dealer was still unable to get me a bag. I was adamant for having only the Omen branded bag, and nothing else.

I mailed HP service and they promptly sent me a bag after verifying my credentials. And last week, I got a call from the dealer too that my bag has arrived.

Ended up with two bags. Time for some pics:

The Twins



But with different manufacturing dates





Has 3 spacious compartments:







This indicates the Laptop compartment



Love this hard shell at the front. Mimics a carbon fiber pattern



Also picked up this Cooling pad. Was surprised to see that Cooler Master, which was once a leader in this segment has almost exited from the market. This one had the best reviews, and the most airflow. Hence picked it up.



Regards,
Shashi