[jmdeegan]

also, some alluded to a mystery apple netbook...in the meantime, don't discount the Air, if you want light weight and nice power and have to have a mac.

however, if you want netbook + OS-X, many netbooks have been turned into hackintoshes....

and, relative to the aspire one screen, i forget which review site, but someone reviewed laptop screens for photo purposes and actually ranked the Aspire One screen higher than the late 2008 MBP (having seen them side by side, i can't say i agree, but the aspire screen is very nice)

[johnmflores]

I just took deliver of an HP Mini 2140. I chose this model for the following reasons:

- 10", 1366 x 768 screen option is higher resolution than most other netbooks.
- brushed metal case should withstand the rigors of motorcycle travel better
- RAM upgradeable to 2GB
- ExpressCard slot

I've installed FastStone Image Viewer and GIMP and have just started playing with it. A simple level adjust in GIMP, however, was so slow that you could see the level being applied in slow motion, block of pixels by block of pixels. I've only got 1Gb RAM so I hope that a 2Gb upgrade will make it more usable.

As it stands, I should be able to quickly review and export DNGs from FastStone Image Viewer with a little PP. That will fulfill my needs to provide FB and Flickr updates to friends and family while I travel. When I get home, I'll do the real PP for publication and print.

Ultimately, it was between the HP and a dedicated portable image storage drive. The choice was easy. The 160Gb drive sealed the deal.

[raoulzg]

I own an Aspire One and user it almoist only for photo backup as it has an SD card reader integrated. The screen is to small to do some other jobs then fast and small processing. It is small and portable. It finds great it place among my lensens and K20D in my backpack It is a great companion for travelers like me, but to do some serious work, I do it on my home PC.

[rparmar]

you have to be speaking about the older Aspire One.

I bought the more recent release, February 2009, 160gb hard drive, now only one card slot (reader) and 8 hours battery life.

Oh yes, the older one. Got it in September which I am sure makes it ancient by now. The two slots are handy since it has no hard drive. One can be used to permanently expand the storage while the other for swapping files. I would definitely give up one for 8h battery life!

[Pentaxor]

haha... ya know, I'm starting to realize just how old my computer is...when I run Live Messenger and Photoshop Elements at the same time... well, it's pretty slow. I guess I'm so used to it I don't even realize how slow it is. It's been a while since I've used a faster computer.

it sounds like the netbook is decent for what it is, but not fantastic for what I really want now.

I didn't know they made such small laptops (12"). This sounds like a very viable alternative and possibly what I may be looking for. And I'm thinking they're not going to be that heavy either, eh?

well, I would rather suggest a light 12" laptop rather than a netbook. I mean if you could have portability and performance rather than portability alone, I'd choose the former.

I'm also contemplating myself on whether to buy the Neo 64 now or reserve my money til the new and better ones arrive this 3rd quarter and buy them during X'mas. let's hope that they put a more powerful processor and graphics on those netbooks. til then, I'll wait.

[jmdeegan]

i actually got lucky, the initial batch of that was due to have a 5 hour battery, but there was a shortage, so they shipped with the better battery instead.

i was thrown tho, because i thought it was going to keep the 2nd sd slot. not that i needed it, with a 160gb hard drive and my portables....

FWIW, unless you are doing this for a living, I would just try and buy one you can tolerate/be happy with, and use it to simply offload the files and peep a little, but save the work for when you are home and have bigger screens, etc.

then again, if you do this professionally, theres a chance that you might just need to email the file back to some editor for them to do the PP....

[Pentaxor]

Oh yes, the older one. Got it in September which I am sure makes it ancient by now. The two slots are handy since it has no hard drive. One can be used to permanently expand the storage while the other for swapping files. I would definitely give up one for 8h battery life!

you just need a spare batt pack or a 9 cell Battery upgrade. that would increase the battery operation to 9 hours. a piece of advice, always take notice of the battery type .

another thing for increasing your battery operation is underclocking your netbook's cpu and minmizing or limiting multi-tasking operations. avoid downloads or video streaming, that would save you a lot of power.

[Pentaxor]

i actually got lucky, the initial batch of that was due to have a 5 hour battery, but there was a shortage, so they shipped with the better battery instead.

i was thrown tho, because i thought it was going to keep the 2nd sd slot. not that i needed it, with a 160gb hard drive and my portables....

FWIW, unless you are doing this for a living, I would just try and buy one you can tolerate/be happy with, and use it to simply offload the files and peep a little, but save the work for when you are home and have bigger screens, etc.

then again, if you do this professionally, theres a chance that you might just need to email the file back to some editor for them to do the PP....

that's a sound advice. though there is also another trick that I wan't to share. buy yourself a 12-14 inch fully loaded laptop, then also buy a 32 inch separate lcd monitor that you could plug your laptop into. atleast you could do serious work using the same laptop for travel purposes.

[rparmar]

anyway, I heard a lot of good things about the HP dv2 Neo64 coupled with 4 gigs of ram and an ATI 3410 graphics unit with a dedicated memory of 512mb.

This looked like a good compromise between a netbook and a larger laptop, especially for those who need the graphics horsepower. One weakness is the battery life: at 3 hours quite low for a 12".

But then I noticed it has no ExpressCard and no FireWire. Useless for me, then. Damn. I need TI FireWire for my audio interface.

Anyone got another recommendation? I need CPU horsepower more than I need GPU speed. So, something like the HP dv2 but with a faster processer and Expresscard and/or TI FireWire. I can do without the dedicated GPU. At about the same price.

[dugrant153]

I ended up picking up an Acer Aspire One D150 (10") but the silly store gave me the French version. I don't particularly mind having a french version, but all of the warning windows and important stuff is in French, and my french language skills are very very poor. Back to my anglais!

The Acer Aspire One D150 has a 6-cell battery, so it's a bit heavier than the 3-cell versions. However, battery life way more usable (approx. 6 hours or so) vs the standard 2.5 hours. Also, having a 10" screen is nice and still very usable.

I ended up with a Netbook because the cost for me to get a laptop that I would really want would be too expensive for what I was looking for. The Netbook looks like it does all the "on the road" things I need. The savings I get from buying a Netbook will go into a VERY nice photo editing desktop when Microsoft releases Windows 7.

Also, the fact that the netbook is small and light makes it VERY ideal for travelling. It may not have major processing power, but it definitely makes up for it for compactness and convenience. I figure it's best for me to be in a nice home studio computer setup for full on photo editing (coming up in the future). On the road, this makes a neat little companion.

I seriously considered the HP DV2, but my bro's laptop (an HP) died quite recently. I have not heard too many good things about HP laptops, which stinks cuz they appear to be the best value for the money.

[Pentaxor]

This looked like a good compromise between a netbook and a larger laptop, especially for those who need the graphics horsepower. One weakness is the battery life: at 3 hours quite low for a 12".

But then I noticed it has no ExpressCard and no FireWire. Useless for me, then. Damn. I need TI FireWire for my audio interface.

Anyone got another recommendation? I need CPU horsepower more than I need GPU speed. So, something like the HP dv2 but with a faster processer and Expresscard and/or TI FireWire. I can do without the dedicated GPU. At about the same price.

would you mind a 13"? check this out >>> Dell Vostro 1320

[Pentaxor]

I ended up picking up an Acer Aspire One D150 (10") but the silly store gave me the French version. I don't particularly mind having a french version, but all of the warning windows and important stuff is in French, and my french language skills are very very poor. Back to my anglais!

The Acer Aspire One D150 has a 6-cell battery, so it's a bit heavier than the 3-cell versions. However, battery life way more usable (approx. 6 hours or so) vs the standard 2.5 hours. Also, having a 10" screen is nice and still very usable.

I ended up with a Netbook because the cost for me to get a laptop that I would really want would be too expensive for what I was looking for. The Netbook looks like it does all the "on the road" things I need. The savings I get from buying a Netbook will go into a VERY nice photo editing desktop when Microsoft releases Windows 7.

Also, the fact that the netbook is small and light makes it VERY ideal for travelling. It may not have major processing power, but it definitely makes up for it for compactness and convenience. I figure it's best for me to be in a nice home studio computer setup for full on photo editing (coming up in the future). On the road, this makes a neat little companion.

I seriously considered the HP DV2, but my bro's laptop (an HP) died quite recently. I have not heard too many good things about HP laptops, which stinks cuz they appear to be the best value for the money.

every computer/notebook manufacture have their share of bad ones, that includes branded manufacturers from HP, Sony, Dell and so forth and so on. now the reason why people go for branded or well-known products is mainly due to warranty and service. but what's entirely good for buying a well known cpu/laptop is the fact that the average ratio of computer failure or defects is at minimal as compared to other brands.

I had a branded laptop which lasted for 3 years and it could had gone further if it didnt got busted due to constant travel and banging. that caused my laptop to develop dead pixels and the cpu fan stopped functioning. but anyway, that is the life expectancy of laptops, and I saved enough cash to buy a new one, so that's fine with me.

now, I bought an MSI (bad choice) because I was talked into it. my original choice was to go for an HP. the MSI I have, has the ugliest construction design for a laptop. the plastic body is as brittle as a nut. anyway, it worked well for a few months before it develop this annoying fan noise that is too or overly distracting. lessons learned,I would never buy a product made by MSI again.

my choices would stick to Gateway, HP, Dell, Toshiba.

[rparmar]

would you mind a 13"? check this out >>> Dell Vostro 1320

That does seem like a decent no-frills computer with all the ports one could need. Unfortunately once you add in tax and shipping it comes close to 1000 euros here in Ireland. I think it might be a better deal in N.America.

[Pentaxor]

it's a good deal in north america and kinda aware on how insane are the prices there. I dunno how your import taxes work there but if you could find a way to buy a cpu system overseas with low or no import taxes and minimal shipping costs, I think it's worth buying overseas rather than buying the same product locally but twice the cost.

maybe you could ask someone or if you knew if your national postal service there charge less, or whether USPS, EMS and courier firms such as DHL, UPS and Fedex would deliver the item there with no extra charge. there are situations that you don't have to pay extra and sometimes you need to pay a minimal charge which is nothing. another alternative would be to have it shipped by someone and disclose it as a gift. that would save you from paying import taxes. maybe you could try shopping at evil bay from a reputable store and probably ask the seller if he could send it to you by that means. I usually do that sometimes to save me some cash and usually the seller would be happy to agree. just be careful though.

[rparmar]

I have bought many times from abroad but would not do so with a computer, where the chance of DOA features is much higher. Also, anything over about 30 euros is assigned duty here, whether it is a gift or not -- totally crazy! Lenses i have bought on this forum from Canada and USA -- this works out fine.