Netbook limitations, recommendations

[El Moose Monstero]

Hi everybody,

I'm needing help from experts in something resembling a hurry and don't know the best place to go to google it for myself - basically I've been asked by my g/f's parents about netbooks for her birthday (imminent), in preperation for her spending several months in Japan. I know fuck all about netbooks and what they can do, so I need to find a netbook which is affordable, and preferably one that can do the following things (or I need someone to tell me what they can do, and what they can't do in general). Any help would be much appreciated.

Her requirements are:

1) Needs to be able to use skype, certainly audio and ideally video streaming.

2) Should be able to interface with her digital camera/camcorder, she might ideally be using some basic video and image editting programs if this is possible?

3) Needs to be able to plug in a USB external 1TB hard drive into it, preferably one which can draw power straight from the computer to save on having to have more than one power supply to carry around

4) Needs to be able to play dvds or movie files, possibly also running itunes or a resource friendly equivalent for uploading music and video files to said ipod, maybe also basic office packages etc

5) Cheap, less than 300 pounds, ideally less than 200 pounds (ignore this, any non-UK people)

I'm sure most people in the know will look at the list and say this stuff is obvious, but I seriously know jack shit about them and what they can do, nor what the best makes and models to go with are. To be honest, I don't really have any time on my hands at the moment to do a thorough research into this myself, so I'm appealling to the generosity of the buffs on SDN to help me out here, dreadfully cheeky, but you'd be doing me a big favour!

[General Zod]

1) Needs to be able to use skype, certainly audio and ideally video streaming.

Netbooks are basically underpowered laptops designed to be small, most should be able to do this as long as they have Windows XP or another OS she's familiar with on them.

2) Should be able to interface with her digital camera/camcorder, she might ideally be using some basic video and image editting programs if this is possible?

Video editing? Not horribly likely given their weak processors. Image editing maybe; but they'll be able to interface with anything that has a usb port.

3) Needs to be able to plug in a USB external 1TB hard drive into it, preferably one which can draw power straight from the computer to save on having to have more than one power supply to carry around

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Ahem. The onus with this is on the external hard drive maker, it has nothing to do with the netbook. Good luck finding any terabyte drive that doesn't require an external power source though.

4) Needs to be able to play dvds or movie files, possibly also running itunes or a resource friendly equivalent for uploading music and video files to said ipod, maybe also basic office packages etc

The vast majority of netbooks don't include an optical drive to save space. They should be able to handle iTunes though playing iTunes video might be laggy on most of them.

5) Cheap, less than 300 pounds, ideally less than 200 pounds (ignore this, any non-UK people)

I'm sure most people in the know will look at the list and say this stuff is obvious, but I seriously know jack shit about them and what they can do, nor what the best makes and models to go with are. To be honest, I don't really have any time on my hands at the moment to do a thorough research into this myself, so I'm appealling to the generosity of the buffs on SDN to help me out here, dreadfully cheeky, but you'd be doing me a big favour!

I'm not sure what the prices of electronics in the UK is like, but netbooks for less than £300 (conversion taken into consideration) aren't going to be horribly powerful or flexible. Something like this or this seem to be along the lines of what you're wanting, though I don't think you'll find any netbook capable of video editing under £300.

(*cue Stark ranting why we shouldn't call it a netbook*)

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Most netbooks are 1.5 kg and less. I currently own one of the latest from Asus: an EEEPC 1000HE. One of the nice things about this model is that it has a larger battery than most netbooks (I think it's a 8-9cell). Most netbooks have very similar specs, so the issue is whether you really want a very light one, like those from Sony, or you want a bog standard one. The latest netbooks have the Intel Atom N280 which uses less power than the N270. I have fidgeted around with my new netbook, installed some software like Mathematica etc. I don't expect lots of performance, since the processor is about equal to a PIII (which you could easily find in many research labs anyway). The netbook also came with some software like InterVideo which plays DVDs. Running Itunes on the netbook is also fine. I have had no problems hooking up a 2.5" external hard drive, but on that 1 TB, I'm going to assume it's one of those newer 3.5" external hard drives that can draw power from the notebook itself. From what I see, the worst case scenarios is to use 2 of the USB ports (mine is 3) to power it.

Now on the issue of a image editing software, if you plan to do rudimentary editing, and no power demanding stuff, and not too many programs running simultaneously, you should be fine. Bear in mind though, most netbooks come with 10" screens or less. The largest I have seen is 10.2" or .. something tad bit larger at 12".

On the issue of Skype, the netbook I bought comes with it, and it has a 1.3MP camera to boot. No problems there.

Cost? I'm not sure. You'd have to check your local pricing. There are other cheaper netbooks out there, so it's up to you to choose one that fits within your budget and all. Preferably, you should get a netbook with the Intel Atom N270 or N280.

[DaveJB]

Video editing? Not horribly likely given their weak processors. Image editing maybe; but they'll be able to interface with anything that has a usb port.

You could probably just about get away with video editing on an Atom, given that they're basically the equivalent of a mid-to-fast Pentium III, which should cope with editing at standard definition. HDTV resolutions, of course, you can forget about.

Is it absolutely essential that it be a netbook? For most of the OP's requirements I'd be more inclined to go for a low-end notebook with something like a Pentium Dual-Core, which should easily handle just about anything except serious gaming.

[Sarevok]

Regarding watching movies why bother with archaic DVDs ? I just make divx from DVDs I own and watch them at leisure from the SSD or a USB pen drive in the car / bus / wherever. It sure beats luggging around another piece of electronic junk.

As for the EEE it's awesome but you will need someone with some patience and tolerance to truly use it. As a linux newbie it took me months to finally customize it to the point that it is now my favorite out of all the desktops and laptops I use. I can do pretty much everything from programming to run blender 3d to pic editing to word processing. But the catch was all those frustrating web surfing hours spent looking for guides and software.

[Stark]

(*cue Stark ranting why we shouldn't call it a netbook*)

It's no more 'net' than my phone or laptop! It's a meaningless, overblown marketing term! Think for yourselves! You have nothing to lose BUT YOUR CHAINS!

Much of this has been covered, but I'd point out that even if you DID find a 1TB drive that didn't need external power, the system would still need fully-powered USB ports AND it'd murder battery life so you'd need to plug the damn netbook/palmtop/laptop/hurrr xerox machine in anyway.

[DaveJB]

It's no more 'net' than my phone or laptop! It's a meaningless, overblown marketing term!

No it isn't - it's a term that Intel (or Acer, depending on who you believe) made up to describe that particular type of product (i.e. a really small machine with no optical drive). You might as well argue that Apple were retards for calling their Intel-based notebook the MacBook when both the iBook and PowerBook were notebooks that came under the "Mac" category.

[Stark]

LOL are you serious? Apple changing the name of a single product is the same as using an intel term for all small, low-spec laptops regardless of manufacturer? Thanks for letting me know!

Amusingly the base stats of the whole range have increased so much since the crap ones came out the idea of one term without distinction and yet distinct from laptops is even more amusing. I guess intel marketers just realized 'palmtop' was taken years ago even thought that concept is near extinct now. But it's not a marketing term used to create distinction and buzz. At all!

[phongn]

Video editing tends to much more demanding on RAM and I/O than on CPU time. Unfortunately, USB HDs suck up CPU time by design, and I don't know any netbooks that have FireWire (which tends to be the standard interface for video, and is more efficient for HDs).

[Stark]

Firewire is becoming increasingly rare. Not only do iPods not ship with dual or firewire cables, but they apparently haven't made firewire cables in so long they don't even work anymore. It's a shame, really.

[DaveJB]

Video editing tends to much more demanding on RAM and I/O than on CPU time. Unfortunately, USB HDs suck up CPU time by design, and I don't know any netbooks that have FireWire (which tends to be the standard interface for video, and is more efficient for HDs).

The solid state drives that you find in most netbooks are usually fast enough for video editing; space is the real issue though, even at SD resolutions.

Amusingly the base stats of the whole range have increased so much since the crap ones came out the idea of one term without distinction and yet distinct from laptops is even more amusing.

If you ignore nVidia's IMO rather silly attempt to stick gaming-level graphics into netbooks with the Ion platform, they actually aren't a hell of a lot different in terms of overall ability since Intel coined the term in... oh, 2007 I think it was.

I guess intel marketers just realized 'palmtop' was taken years ago even thought that concept is near extinct now. But it's not a marketing term used to create distinction and buzz. At all!

Palmtops generally weren't x86 compatible, though - "Netbook" is just a way of distinguishing the things from old PalmOS and WindowsCE devices. Sure, some manufacturers probably lean too heavy on the whole internet aspect of the things, but that's no reason for the entire term to be retarded, any more than it is for "Notebook" to be retarded because it already described something that you handwrite on.

(Which was probably the analogy I should have used last night but, hey, it was late. )

[Natorgator]

Check out the Acer Aspire One. 160 gig hard drive, 1 gb ram, tiny as shit and very light. Also comes with a 6-cell battery that will last around 6 hours. Got my wife one this past Christmas for about $350. Might be able to get them a little cheaper now.