December 8, 2008 9:57 AM PST
Handy Netbook Holiday Gift Guide
Economy in shambles? Cutting back on expenses? Then a Netbook might be just the thing you need to round out that holiday shopping list. After all, for around $500 (or less), you can give someone the gift of Internet access, e-mail, word processing, music playback, and even online video streaming -- Netbooks do all of these things fairly well.
In this video, we check out the pluses and minuses of the most important Netbooks to arrive since our last Netbook roundup, including the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, the Lenovo S10, the Samsung NC10, the HP Mini 1000, and the Asus N10J.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan. 
32 gb Dell - Really 32? An Ipod has more memory. And the battery is bad. The keyboard is a nightmare to type anything longer than finger by finger. Just a skype machine.
Lenovo S10 - What good is broadband if the battery is terrible? You'll hook to the internet anywhere...as long as there's an outlet.
HP 1000 - Not bad for a second attempt, but I just liked the experience on the Samsung better.
Asus - The 1000H is the second greatest netbook out there. But the N10J...gaming with a 1.6 ghz processor and 1 gb ram?
- by SanDiegoAttorney December 31, 2008 6:16 PM PST
- Thinking about the N10J (particularly the N10J-A2) as only a netbook with some gaming capability is missing the significance of this unit. It has more capability for business use than most full size laptops. Built in N Wireless & bluetooth, up to a 320 GB HD, web cam (1.3 MP) Decent Speakers (amazing for a netbook sized unit), its card reader handles high capacity SD cards as well as the usual other formats, an express card slot (size 34) the unit is available with two GB of RAM -- incredibly business usable. Assus has added a stack of bells and whistles in the system ROM as well. It allows a pre-windows boot for web and skype access. Takes between five and ten seconds from the time the system's launched to be on the web or making a skype call. Asuss' unique component power control system also stretches battery life when doing low demand tasks -- like word processing and business application use. Unlike many netbooks this one's available with a six cell battery. For professional use the biggest challenge in using laptop/notebook computes for client meetings is that they physically get in the way. This unit is small enough to sit on a table and be looked over without intrusion.
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(4 Comments)For a student this could be an awesome computer for classroom use. Add a few accessories such as a full size keyboard and it can become a solid work horse at home as well.
As a bonus it the N10J is delightful and performs wonderfully attached by HDMI cable to a high def TV -- As more programing of DVD and better is available for download -- this little laptop deserves a part time job feeding the content through for big screen viewing.
It is true that this unit is thicker than either Asus's EEE S model or some of the other units on the market - but its a true laptop not a Color screen version of Amazon's Kindle.
Best wishes to all in the new year -- I can't wait to see what 2009 has in store.