NETBOOKs

krc1995

krc1995

Donor
I am not up on the lastest technology, but daughter would like a laptop. So I began looking into different types and ran into a netbook from my cell provider (alltel=verizon). It's pretty inexpensive compared to a laptop- WHY? WHat is different, will it work for college? I am sure my cell provider is going to some how get more money out of me, but how? Does it somehow replace a cellphone?

 
Man I might be able to help you out. My wife and I just bought a second laptop. I'm in school and she plans on returning to school next semester. I knew the two of us would be fighting over our laptop if that were the case.

A netbook is just a scaled down version of a laptop.

Originally, we bought a netbook we found at Best Buy for about $230. Thought it was a pretty good deal and I figured since all I need is internet for research and Huskerboard and some word processing for doing papers, a net book would be fine. The one we picked out had Windows 7 on it and had a 160g hard drive. not bad for such a little computer. It was pretty small so carrying it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It was fairly portable. The problem I found is the one we picked out had no CD-ROM on it. I have Microsoft Office 2007 that I'm able to buy thru work at a re-donk-ulous price so I wanted remove the trial crap they always install and install my stuff. No can do. A decent external CD-ROM was going to run us about $70. So now we're looking at $300. We had also bought a sleeve to put the netbook in that was another $20 because I didn't want it getting messed up in my book-bag. So total we were looking at spending $320. We bought my son a Toshiba laptop for $350 that would be perfect for me. Larger screen (easier to read), larger keyboard (netbook keyboards are uncomfortable because of their size), larger harddrive (250 compared to 160), had CD-ROM and came loaded with Windows 7. We promptly returned the netbook and bought another laptop for myself for $350. When we returned it, the lady at Best Buy said they've been getting a lot of returns on those things for the very same reasons I mentioned.

My opinion? Netbooks are handy, but their probably not as practical as a regular laptop. Right now you can probably get a good deal on laptops with the holiday season here. Save your money and find your daughter a good laptop.

 
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
Man I might be able to help you out. My wife and I just bought a second laptop. I'm in school and she plans on returning to school next semester. I knew the two of us would be fighting over our laptop if that were the case.

A netbook is just a scaled down version of a laptop.

Originally, we bought a netbook we found at Best Buy for about $230. Thought it was a pretty good deal and I figured since all I need is internet for research and Huskerboard and some word processing for doing papers, a net book would be fine. The one we picked out had Windows 7 on it and had a 160g hard drive. not bad for such a little computer. It was pretty small so carrying it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It was fairly portable. The problem I found is the one we picked out had no CD-ROM on it. I have Microsoft Office 2007 that I'm able to buy thru work at a re-donk-ulous price so I wanted remove the trial crap they always install and install my stuff. No can do. A decent external CD-ROM was going to run us about $70. So now we're looking at $300. We had also bought a sleeve to put the netbook in that was another $20 because I didn't want it getting messed up in my book-bag. So total we were looking at spending $320. We bought my son a Toshiba laptop for $350 that would be perfect for me. Larger screen (easier to read), larger keyboard (netbook keyboards are uncomfortable because of their size), larger harddrive (250 compared to 160), had CD-ROM and came loaded with Windows 7. We promptly returned the netbook and bought another laptop for myself for $350. When we returned it, the lady at Best Buy said they've been getting a lot of returns on those things for the very same reasons I mentioned.

My opinion? Netbooks are handy, but their probably not as practical as a regular laptop. Right now you can probably get a good deal on laptops with the holiday season here. Save your money and find your daughter a good laptop.
Click to expand...
thanks- I knew there had to be a glitch

 
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
Man I might be able to help you out. My wife and I just bought a second laptop. I'm in school and she plans on returning to school next semester. I knew the two of us would be fighting over our laptop if that were the case.

A netbook is just a scaled down version of a laptop.

Originally, we bought a netbook we found at Best Buy for about $230. Thought it was a pretty good deal and I figured since all I need is internet for research and Huskerboard and some word processing for doing papers, a net book would be fine. The one we picked out had Windows 7 on it and had a 160g hard drive. not bad for such a little computer. It was pretty small so carrying it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It was fairly portable. The problem I found is the one we picked out had no CD-ROM on it. I have Microsoft Office 2007 that I'm able to buy thru work at a re-donk-ulous price so I wanted remove the trial crap they always install and install my stuff. No can do. A decent external CD-ROM was going to run us about $70. So now we're looking at $300. We had also bought a sleeve to put the netbook in that was another $20 because I didn't want it getting messed up in my book-bag. So total we were looking at spending $320. We bought my son a Toshiba laptop for $350 that would be perfect for me. Larger screen (easier to read), larger keyboard (netbook keyboards are uncomfortable because of their size), larger harddrive (250 compared to 160), had CD-ROM and came loaded with Windows 7. We promptly returned the netbook and bought another laptop for myself for $350. When we returned it, the lady at Best Buy said they've been getting a lot of returns on those things for the very same reasons I mentioned.

My opinion? Netbooks are handy, but their probably not as practical as a regular laptop. Right now you can probably get a good deal on laptops with the holiday season here. Save your money and find your daughter a good laptop.
Click to expand...
Buy a Toshiba all the way! We have 4 laptops, only one was a Toshiba and it is still working great. the other 3 (HP,Dell, and Sony) have now all been replaced by Toshiba's. Watch for sales at Office Depot. They have great prices on the Toshiba laptops and we have always had free goodies thrown in with them.

 
Some don't have hard drives. Great for traveling when you want something small and rugged (but bigger than a phone), and just need internet access and maybe a few docs stored on flash memory, but very doubtful it's enough for college.

 
dizzturbedNUfan said:
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
Man I might be able to help you out. My wife and I just bought a second laptop. I'm in school and she plans on returning to school next semester. I knew the two of us would be fighting over our laptop if that were the case.

A netbook is just a scaled down version of a laptop.

Originally, we bought a netbook we found at Best Buy for about $230. Thought it was a pretty good deal and I figured since all I need is internet for research and Huskerboard and some word processing for doing papers, a net book would be fine. The one we picked out had Windows 7 on it and had a 160g hard drive. not bad for such a little computer. It was pretty small so carrying it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It was fairly portable. The problem I found is the one we picked out had no CD-ROM on it. I have Microsoft Office 2007 that I'm able to buy thru work at a re-donk-ulous price so I wanted remove the trial crap they always install and install my stuff. No can do. A decent external CD-ROM was going to run us about $70. So now we're looking at $300. We had also bought a sleeve to put the netbook in that was another $20 because I didn't want it getting messed up in my book-bag. So total we were looking at spending $320. We bought my son a Toshiba laptop for $350 that would be perfect for me. Larger screen (easier to read), larger keyboard (netbook keyboards are uncomfortable because of their size), larger harddrive (250 compared to 160), had CD-ROM and came loaded with Windows 7. We promptly returned the netbook and bought another laptop for myself for $350. When we returned it, the lady at Best Buy said they've been getting a lot of returns on those things for the very same reasons I mentioned.

My opinion? Netbooks are handy, but their probably not as practical as a regular laptop. Right now you can probably get a good deal on laptops with the holiday season here. Save your money and find your daughter a good laptop.
Click to expand...
Buy a Toshiba all the way! We have 4 laptops, only one was a Toshiba and it is still working great. the other 3 (HP,Dell, and Sony) have now all been replaced by Toshiba's. Watch for sales at Office Depot. They have great prices on the Toshiba laptops and we have always had free goodies thrown in with them.
Click to expand...
We love both our Toshiba's. We bought our first one last year over T-Day weekend. Paid a little more than we wanted but the keyboard has 10-Key which my wife wanted/needs. But it's a great laptop. Never have had any problems with it. All 3 of our laptops (2 my wife and I own and our son's laptop) are Toshiba's.

 
krc1995 said:
I am not up on the lastest technology, but daughter would like a laptop. So I began looking into different types and ran into a netbook from my cell provider (alltel=verizon). It's pretty inexpensive compared to a laptop- WHY? WHat is different, will it work for college? I am sure my cell provider is going to some how get more money out of me, but how? Does it somehow replace a cellphone?
Click to expand...
To answer your other question, I'm pretty sure that if you get a netbook from your cell provider that you HAVE to get a data plan for Internet which will run you at least $50/mo, that's why they're so cheap.

 
krc1995 said:
I am not up on the lastest technology, but daughter would like a laptop. So I began looking into different types and ran into a netbook from my cell provider (alltel=verizon). It's pretty inexpensive compared to a laptop- WHY? WHat is different, will it work for college? I am sure my cell provider is going to some how get more money out of me, but how? Does it somehow replace a cellphone?
Click to expand...
I just asked this question at verizon today. Right now you can get one for $30 if you go this weekend. The catch is you have to pay 60 bucks a month for the internet but that does mean you get wifi anywhere you get signal on your phone which is real nice. The $60 a month is expensive but if I didn't have a laptop already I would have gotten it.

 
oooh- I knew there was a catch

I did end up buying a Toshiba from Amazon, but then I was thinking "Why don't I get myself a $30 netbook." I am fairly sure I would have caught on, but having the math in front of me sealed the deal.

Can you buy some sort of mobile device so you can have computer access anywhere on a pay per minute or hour deal without a plan? Kinda like a prepaid cellphone? I travel some and having internet access on my laptop would be great.

 
Most, if not all, major airports have free wifi. Same with hotels. Unless you're planning on hitting some deserted beach, there probably isn't a need for mobile wifi. But to answer your question, yes there are mobile wifi devices that plug into your computers USB port.

As for the hourly or pay-per-minute deal, you'd probably pay with your arm, leg and left nut for that program.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
krc1995 said:
oooh- I knew there was a catch

I did end up buying a Toshiba from Amazon, but then I was thinking "Why don't I get myself a $30 netbook." I am fairly sure I would have caught on, but having the math in front of me sealed the deal.

Can you buy some sort of mobile device so you can have computer access anywhere on a pay per minute or hour deal without a plan? Kinda like a prepaid cellphone? I travel some and having internet access on my laptop would be great.
Click to expand...
You can always pay by the MB used, which will get expensive quickly if you're surfing the web or downloading a lot of information. Like Okieland said, most airports offer free Wifi in the terminals, most hotels have Wifi for pretty cheap and some airlines are offering Wifi access on a per flight basis.

 
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