The more I play around with a netbook, the more I question the need for getting a standard laptop in the future. For anybody who doesn't know, a netbook is a half-sized laptop that usually only weighs a pound or two. They're not as powerful as a standard laptop, but they excel in portability and that's essentially what a laptop is supposed to be all about.

Now that netbooks come with substantial hard drives (160 Gb on a lot of models) and Windows XP, they start heavily encroaching on laptop territory. I've installed Poser 5 and Microsoft Office on mine and both work fine. I decided to buy a nine inch model to get the smallest form factor for extra portability. The only downside with the smaller model is that it is the most difficult one to type on. I could get used to that if it weren't for one really dumb design choice for ASUS to put the "up arrow" key between the "?" and right shift key. I keep hitting that dumb "up arrow". The newest models fix this problem. I'm debating finding a program to let me reassign the keys if I cannot get used to the odd placement. Supposedly the ten inch models, which are an inch and a half wider, are more comfortable to type on. There's a tradeoff between losing a little portability for the extra width. ASUS, the first company to put out affordable netbooks, is supposed to be phasing out the nine inch models, so I wanted to get one of the last versions.

I've taken the netbook with me on travel and I cannot think of a reason to go back to lugging around a standard laptop with its extra weight and size. When I bring a laptop with me on travel, I'm not doing heavy typing. I'm mostly surfing the net and working on my Poser indexing (creating a visual index of my content for easy reference). For a person who wants to do heavy typing, either a slightly larger netbook or a laptop makes more sense. For everybody else, the simple portability of a netbook makes it a really great choice for an inexpensive portable computer.

Mac users can look into the Macbook Air (but you Macheads. like me, already knew about this!)

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

Should be more than capable of  running Poser, D|S, Cararra or Vue on.

 This is great! I'm planning to buy a netbook for my daughter the coming week and I've been debating whether to bet her a "real" laptop ror a netbook. Since netbooks are small and kawaii I'm inclined to that solution. And if they can run Poser 5 they can run anything LOL

I have a little Acer running XP and i find i never use the big laptop anymore, i can run Cinema 4d and Poser 7 on it, and with a mobile broadband dongle i can pop it in a standard rucksack so i'm always connected........OH and it fits in the camera bag so i can get a look at a photo on a bigger screen to check it.....only catch is the small keyboard......Steve

I got my wife an Asus EEE for Christmas - she loves it.  I found it so convenient for quick email or google searches around the house, that I got one as well.  They are only a couple of pounds.  Networked immediately without hassle.

We took a cross country flight in April and both watched individual movies on our own screens.  The batteries definitely outlasted a 4.5 hour flight (Asus claims 7 hours, but I think that's stretching it).

I haven't tried to put Carrara on it, but I'm tempted.

If you get an Asus, there is one oddity to be aware of.  If you immediately upgrade the memory to 2GB (costs about $25 for the memory card) you must enter bios and save.  You don't have to make any changes, but the bios will not see the additional memory until you go in and save.  Rumor has it that Asus agreed not to ship with more than 1GB memory as MS did not want people to have too good an experience on old XP.  Swap out of card is very simple.

Klebnor

i have a netbook and i rate it weellike others said only down fsall is key board butwe can get around  tht loli have poser hex on mine and with 160 gb hard drive its great  its so ahndy for wen on move id recomend to anyone who is thinking on getting one

Quote -  This is great! I'm planning to buy a netbook for my daughter the coming week and I've been debating whether to bet her a "real" laptop ror a netbook.

It's a question of figuring out how your daughter will use it. If the main purpose is portability, a netbook is definitely the way to go. If she needs to type a lot with it, on the move, the cramped keyboard is hard to get used to for a touch typist (probably less so for a two-fingered typist). The netbooks are very expandable with (at least for my ASUS) 3 USB slots, a VGA port, ethernet port, and SD card slot. If heavy typing will mostly be done in a room, a keyboard, mouse, and monitor can be attached and still have room for a portable hard drive or DVD drive. I've installed Office 2007 on mine without any problem (not counting the inherent interface problem that makes it difficult for earlier Office users to figure out--that's Microsoft's fault, not the netbook).

Netbooks are already hurting laptop sales and will continue doing so. I'm not going to use a netbook to replace my desktop. A $300 netbook is a compromise between computing power and portability. Netbooks are capable enough that I cannot imagine buying another laptop as a portable computer. Netbooks are so much easier to carry around. I'm trying to get my office to buy them so that we can have all the standards, specifications, and regulations with us at all meetings. A pound and a half netbook is easy to carry around and the purported 5 hour battery life (I'm only getting around 3-4 hrs) is long enough to last through a full day meeting going in and out of standby when not needed.

Quote - Mac users can look into the Macbook Air (but you Macheads. like me, already knew about this!)

Sure, if Mac users want to pay six times as much, have no integrated camera, a 120 Gb hard drive instead of 160Gb, no SD slot, only have one USB port, and not be able to drop it in a camera bag or purse. I'm sure that Apple will eventually have a competing netbook. Right now, the Air is a better laptop, but is not a portable netbook. If Apple doesn't have the good sense to put out a better netbook, they'll deserve losing more market share. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't brought one out yet because netbooks have been on the market for close to two years. I guess Apple, with their high hardware profit margins, cannot compete on price.

Netbooks aren't new. There have been ultra portable computers for well over a half dozen years. What's new is ASUS initially producing one at a low enough price point that it created a new market. There wasn't much demand for $2000 small notebooks. When ASUS put out a below $300 netbook, it suddenly enticed users to try something new. I wasn't an early adopter, but once they started adding a spacious hard drive, XP, and new power conserving processors, I decided to get one and do not regret the decision.

I bought my first netbook, an ASUS Eee PC 901 back in April of 2008. At that time it came with a 20 gig solid state drive and Xandros Linux installed. It was a good little machine but since it was an 8.9" model it was a little cramped for typing. Later on I moved onto the Eee PC 1000H with a 10 inch screen and a larger keyboard. It was better but it still had the right shift key, that gagnonrich talked about in his first post, over on the far right hand side. It bothered a lot of people and ASUS was listening and changed it in their new netbooks.
 
I ended up selling the 901 and 1000H and I now have the 1000HE which I honestly think is the best netbook out there. According to ASUS you can get up to 9.5 hours of battery life out of it but I'm sure you'd have to dim the screen down a lot and not use the wireless N connection to achieve that. I've been averaging about 7 hours of battery life on both XP and the Windows 7 beta. I've been considering putting Poser on the netbook just for the sake of curiousity to see how it runs. The only problem (and it's really not a big problem) with the 1000 series of netbooks is their glossy finish, especially the darker finishes. They tend to be fingerprint magnets. Luckily ASUS provides a microfibre cloth in the box so you can always wipe off the prints.

Poser works fine on the ASUS. I haven't upgraded to 2 Gb RAM, but Poser runs fairly well with 1 Gb unless a scene starts getting overly complicated. A 9 or 10 inch screen isn't exactly the best choice for building elaborate Poser scenes and renders. I mostly use Poser on it to look at items I've bought or downloaded freebies.

I'm not in any hurry to upgrade and can wait for whatever new netbooks are on the market in a few years. ASUS seems to release new models every few months.

 OK I'm convinced! On Tuesday when the shops open again I'm off to get a tinly little cutesy netbook for her. 

I'm envious already LOL

Great TIMELY discussion.  My wife wants one and has been after me to research it.  Now I pop in here and - hey! The universe answers my prayer.  Have read these posts carefully and would I be correct in concluding that the (ASUS?) 1000HE would be a great way to go?  Could it take2 GB as well?

Poser wouldn't be in the equation as she doesn't use it and my mature eyes (okay - OLD) have enough trouble with a 24 inch monitor, LOL. She wants to prepare some of her Powerpoint and Excel stuff on one when she is out of the office and/or on the road, and I guess all that would be a snap!  She might be playing music in the background sometimes, too.

At any rate, good info.  Thanks a bunch!

Larry F

Larry F, it's very easy to upgrade the memory on all ASUS netbooks. The first thing I did when I got my 1000HE was to upgrade the 1 gig of memory to 2 gigs. All you do is turn the netbook over, unscrew the back panel on the bottom and replace the memory card. Here's a YouTube video showing how easy it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUfoPMbBWtM

Attached Link: http://forum.eeeuser.com

I've provided a link to an ASUS EEE forum where you can find additional info.

Hey, thanks again, folks!  I allus do copious Googing, but it is even better to hear from actual people!  Very much appreciated!

Larry F

I agree it is very easy to upgrade the memory on the Asus EEE, however, note my earlier post - in order for Windows XP to "see" the additional memory, you have to enter setup and save out.  You can easily verify this.   Install 2GB memory.  Start up without going into BIOS setup.  Go to Start>My Computer>View System Information.  How much memory is reported?  1 GB.  Now restart, but go into BIOS setup (I think this is F2 if I recall correctly, during windows startup).  You don't need to change anything - just exit and save.  Now check View System Information - how much memory is present?  2 GB.

This may have been fixed in a newer bios revision, but it certainly was necessary on my machines.

I agree with the other comments - light weight, good battery life, reasonable power.  I bought an external DVD drive for installs and it works great.  BTW, finger prints do get all over the glossy case, try rubbing it on your belly (flannel shirts work best).

Klebnor

Attached Link: ASUS 70 Arctic Excursion

Is the memory upgrade recognition issue simply with XP home that comes with them?

I just bought myself one (having bugged the husband for a long friggen time about wanting a laptop...and then decided a cute little thing to dink with was better) and immediatly made him clear it out and install XP pro on it because I can't stand the home version, and I didn't need all the extra crap they like to put on new computers.

Haven't upgraded the memory yet, but I'm liking mine so far. (and much better when I can get office installed on it)

Asus didn't load mine up with crap, just the OS.  I added network magic pro (if you have a home network and haven't tried this - you need to - it sorts out all kinds of compatibility and permission glitches).  Runs like a champ.  I don't use XP pro, and have never missed any features.

As to the recognition, I do not know.  I would just swap the memory card for the 2 GB model and then check in View System Information to see how much memory XP thinks you have.  If it still reports 1 GB, see note above.

Klebnor