[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Looks like Elonex will be giving Asus a run for their money.

I've had a brief play with a pre-production model of the Elonex One. First impressions weren't good. The keyboard does detach but as it's not touch screen it has limited functionality without it attached. When you do want it to stay attached it tended to drop off the models I saw. The connection looked extremely vulnerable. As well as build quality the One lacks many of the nice features of the Asus. There is no camera, SD card slot, monitor out port or built in mic. The software interface is not as polished as on the Eee.

There is cheap, then there is cheap. I wouldn't spend £10 on it as I saw it, let alone £100.

Reminded me of something like this from Argos/Vtech

....except not as well built.

[slackline]

Keen to get one of the new Asus' when they come out, the better spec makes it more value for money and more functional.

Won't bother looking at the Elonex' if  they're that shite, cheers Obi.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Just taken delivery of this lot for some school projects! Unfortunately had to get the budget spent before the 9" versions were available, shame, still getting some more of them anyway.

[nik at work]

Just to briefly ressurect this thread I am currently browsing on my shiny new MSI Wind (well it's actually rebranded but it's an MSI Wind essentially) , and it's ace.
I'm no mega techie at all but it worked straight out of the box running XP, and is dinky and cute.
I managed to wangle mine for significantly less than the list price (£330 is RRP) and they are currently available in PC World (rebranded as Advent) for £270-ish
I'll report further as I use it a bit more but I would seriously consider it if you are looking for small mobile computing with a bit more storage than an Eeeeeeeeeee (well the earlier cheap ones anyway).
Seems to do well in reviews.
If anyone is thinking of getting one of these and had any questions ask away, although as I said don't expect techie levels of expertise....

[tomtom]

Just to briefly ressurect this thread I am currently browsing on my shiny new MSI Wind (well it's actually rebranded but it's an MSI Wind essentially) , and it's ace.
I'm no mega techie at all but it worked straight out of the box running XP, and is dinky and cute.
I managed to wangle mine for significantly less than the list price (£330 is RRP) and they are currently available in PC World (rebranded as Advent) for £270-ish
I'll report further as I use it a bit more but I would seriously consider it if you are looking for small mobile computing with a bit more storage than an Eeeeeeeeeee (well the earlier cheap ones anyway).
Seems to do well in reviews.
If anyone is thinking of getting one of these and had any questions ask away, although as I said don't expect techie levels of expertise....

Whats the battery life like? read a recent review and said good machine spoilt a bit by poor battery? Was thinking of getting one otherwise... T

[nik at work]

About 2 hours is what I'm getting out of it, which isn't great but to be honest I rarely use it without power so it's not really an issue for me. Otherwise brilliant little bit of kit.

[slackline]

Since the Asus Eee started the trend for tiny mobile notebooks quite a few have come out.

A recent article at the Register compared ten or so, and came with a handy PDF that compares the specs of the different models.

The Dell looks and sounds very nice and might be the one for me (when they get round to making it available without Vista )

[Drew]

I thought Netbooks only ever came with Linux, or XP?

[Bubba]

That article says it's coming with Ubuntu.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

The Dell looks and sounds very nice and might be the one for me (when they get round to making it available without Vista )

Got one sat on my desk with XP (home!) on it. Looks quite nice.

[Jim]

new one out next week, looks very nice
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/05/06/asus_eee_uk_release/

[Johnny Brown]

Shick-a-dink. Might have a close look at one of these.

[Paul B]

Damn, the last article said it was to be released yesterday!

I'm in the market for a Netbook of sorts and I'm really struggling to pick EEE pc 1000HE, Del Inspiron Mini 10, Acer Aspire D150 10.1 etc... and now the EEE Shell.

[Johnny Brown]

Yeah, not much to choose from on the specs. Anyone with hands-on experience post up please.

[tomtom]

Yeah, not much to choose from on the specs. Anyone with hands-on experience post up please.

I own a Samsung NC10. Had it for 4-5 months. Great. Cannot reccomend it highly enough. 6-8 hours battery - great keyboard - screen fine. Its replaced my previous full sized laptop (13" screen) no probs. Only £300 - 160gb HDD - upgraded the memory to 2gb.

Previously had a Dell mini9 - was 'ok' but unusable keyboard for anything more than two finger typing.

THe small form of the netbooks is great - ace for flights/trains esp when limited legroom. I can watch 4 hours+ of iplayer films on flight and still have battery left.

I use it for all my work - email, ppts, word docs etc.. and I write c# apps on it as well.

T

[Paul B]

I have to say the 1000 he looked like fischer price built it when I went into PC World. The Dell LOOKED the best but reviews are saying the 3g capability is a mixed blessing. The Acer has a great screen but the touch pads on all their models either have the keys to the left and right or are just plain shit.

PC World was quite funny, watching an assistant working out which was the lightest by picking them up. Trouble is, some didn't have the batteries in.

[Johnny Brown]

Nice one, I had been looking at the NC10. Something slimmer would be nice, though I think the screen and keyboard will be clinchers for me. Will have to waste PC world's time comparing one day before buying on the net.

[nik at work]

I've got an Advent thingy (which is a pc world rebranded MSI thingy). I'm sure the newer things are whizzier and look cooler and all that but I have had no problems at all with it and would happily buy another one. It does everything I ask of it (which is mostly web stuff but I have edited video on it, although it really isn't ideal for this obviously). However battery life is not amazing, around the 2 hours mark.

The only thing I would say is I'm not sure I'd want a slimmer case (unless it was built out of something very flash and strong, and as such expensive), it's pretty dinky as it is and any thinner would be tres snappable IMHO. But then I'm not overly concerned with appearance or bleeding edge performance, I just wanted (and got) small, cheap and works.

[Jaspersharpe]

To muddy the waters further...............

I like my Toshiba very much. The Mrs finds the keyboard fiddly but then that's cos she can type properly and really quickly on a proper keyboard. I don't find it a problem.

Haven't upgraded the memory yet but for web browsing and doing bits and pieces of work it's very quick already. Had it running through the tv watching live football from one of those dodgy sites the other day and it worked a treat.

Haven't really tested how long the battery lasts but seems to be at least 3 hours which is fine for me.

As mentioned I like the fact that it doesn't look like a kids toy as well. Really smart.

[tomtom]

I had some spam from tesco direct yesterday - which had some pretty cheap deals in it - I think Jaspers Tosh was £239 - but might be wrong... T

[Paul B]

I went back to PC World tonight and the Acer D150 is currently winning with the 6 cell battery for about the best battery life. It's 100g more than the others and slightly fatter but that I can live with. The look of the Eee Pc 1000h would just frustrate me and I didn't get on well with the Dell's touchpad. Maybe the Eee Shell is the answer but I'm doubting there's likely to be anywhere to prod one for a while?

[Drew]

I went back to PC World tonight and the Acer D150 is currently winning with the 6 cell battery for about the best battery life. It's 100g more than the others and slightly fatter but that I can live with. The look of the Eee Pc 1000h would just frustrate me and I didn't get on well with the Dell's touchpad. Maybe the Eee Shell is the answer but I'm doubting there's likely to be anywhere to prod one for a while?

Def have a look at the NC10. PC World had one in last time I wandered in.

[Paul B]

Not tonight.

[Drew]

Not tonight.

My bad. It's Curry's on Chesterfield Road:

[Paul B]

Eee Shell is the answer but I'm doubting there's likely to be anywhere to prod one for a while?

Has anyone got a clue where these might pop up first?