Netbooks - ideal for motorhomes

[Mel B]

Been spashing the cash again! :D

 

I know there are quite a few people who take standard laptops with them in their motorhomes so I thought this might be of interest to anyone considering getting something but don't want anything the size of a fully fledged laptop.

 

As our laptop is a bit big and clunky, plus it's battery life isn't brilliant (approx an hour), we've just bought a mini laptop to use instead - a HP netbook A110-1125SA. Got it off eBay from a company (Your IT Delivered) that gets ex-demo/display stuff (not catalogue returns). It came with a zippy cover, mouse and 4gb usb stick, all for £193 delivered, and is still under HP warranty (8 months) - it is absolutely pristine and a lovely thing, the keyboard is a joy to use (some are really 'clicky' and cheap feeling) and the mouse pad has a very nice 'touch'.

 

I am amazed at the battery life of these things - it is quoted as being 7 hours, but upon checking it out before purchase, hubby found someone who regularly gets 9 hours out of hers!!!! 8-)

 

Being smaller the netbook is going to be much easier to tote around and 'hide' in a safe place, and if I need to re-charge the battery it won't take as much juice as a standard laptop.

 

I was a bit sceptical at first as to how good a netbook would be, but am very pleased with it. If anyone is thinking of getting a netbook the main advice I would give check out some in the flesh first - I did this on Saturday at PC world where we had a good shuftie to see if they would do what we needed before committing ourselves, and the difference between the keyboard and mouse 'feel' can be quite marked - some of the more expensive ones were horrible!

[GJH]

We bought a netbook a year ago this week. Much easier to take with us on our travels than the laptop.

 

Graham

[derek500]

We bought an Acer Netbook last year. Excellent piece of kit. If my wife flies back to England it fits easily into her handbag, whereas with the laptop being so much larger and needing a separate bag it breaks Ryanair's draconian hand luggage rules.

 

No CDrom/DVD player but external USB connected ones are easily available for a few quid on Ebay.

 

 

[lennyhb]

I brought a Samsung NC10 over a year ago, brilliant. Gave laptop to my daughter as once I had the netbook I never used the laptop.

 

 

[Bazza454]

Apologies for going slightly off thread, but a couple of useful gadgets that I use with the netbook are -

- a USB bluetooth dongle for transferring photos, e-mails etc from my mobile to the netbook

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=224839

- and a Polaroid PoGo printer that fits in the pocket and can be used connecting a camera direct via USB or photos from the mobile via bluetooth -

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?sku=158769&sourceid=2702&cm_mmc=google-_-Top_Deals-_-Pogo_printer_158769-_-polaroid+pogo_Exact%7C-%7C100000000000000309973&cm_guid=1-_-100000000000000309973-_-3723239274

[donna miller]

Could you install Autoroute on one of these.

 

Curry's had some ex display models @ £120. No case or packaging, but full warranty.

[lennyhb]

Yes, been running Autoroute 2007 with a GPS receiver on my NC10 for over a year without a glitch.

 

Obviously you need one with a Microsoft operating system, a lot come with Linux.

 

 

[maggyd]

We just ordered the Samsung N10 this morning so I glad to hear your pleased with yours Lenny.

 

See what you have started Mel. :-)

[Basil]

We have an Acer netbook size computer that we take with us. In addition we have a 3 dongle. Very very satisfactory and far better than a full size laptop that we used to take, easy to use, easy to store and great battery life. at least 5 hours when using dongle which obviously takes some of the power to drive it. Never used it without the dongle as that was the main purpose of getting it.

Bazza454 - 2010-03-06 3:39 PM and a Polaroid PoGo printer that fits in the pocket and can be used connecting a camera direct via USB or photos from the mobile via bluetooth -

Interested in this as I have already bought one about six months ago but never used it, (don't ask it seemed like a good idea at the time)! What do you use it for when you are away? Are the pictures not a little on the small side to be of any use? When I bought it, very cheap at £9.99, I jumped in with both feet without reserching what it was. I did not realise it was the small one so it has been consigned to the never to be used pile.Bas

[davenewellhome]

Basil - 2010-03-06 8:06 PMWe have an Acer netbook size computer that we take with us. In addition we have a 3 dongle. Very very satisfactory and far better than a full size laptop that we used to take, easy to use, easy to store and great battery life. at least 5 hours when using dongle which obviously takes some of the power to drive it. Never used it without the dongle as that was the main purpose of getting it.

Bazza454 - 2010-03-06 3:39 PM and a Polaroid PoGo printer that fits in the pocket and can be used connecting a camera direct via USB or photos from the mobile via bluetooth -

Interested in this as I have already bought one about six months ago but never used it, (don't ask it seemed like a good idea at the time)! What do you use it for when you are away? Are the pictures not a little on the small side to be of any use? When I bought it, very cheap at £9.99, I jumped in with both feet without reserching what it was. I did not realise it was the small one so it has been consigned to the never to be used pile.Bas

I too am interested as my daughter bought me one for Christmas, tried it once and it gives pretty fair quality prints but they are small. I share most of my photos digitally either via the internet or via a digital photo frame, if I need prints I have a couple of photo quality printers available. sadly the PoGo sits on the shelf somewhat unloved.D.

[Keith T]

just doing some research on this myself,as thinking of getting one,primarily to take on a 6 week trip to Canada...but it will cerainly be more convenient than the standard laptop when away in our motorhome. We currently have a 3 USB dongle, but are due upgrade shortly and will go for teh wifi version. Is there anything else we should consider, other than the best value for money? Its main use would be e-mails, internet, particularly in Canada for hotel bookings, probably downloading photos as we go, and of course keeping tabs on MMM forum!!

[GypsyTom]

I've had a Samsung NC10 for nearly a year and it's excellent. There is however one thing that you should beware of when buying a netbook, which is that some of them do not have a CD/DVD drive, presumably to save space.

This gives you two problems. The first is obviously loading programmes that you have on CD. The second, and of more interest to me, is the inability to read such as my ASCI CD, which I take with me to research camp sites, although I am aware that the latest trend is to buy these on a USB stick.

You can overcome this, as I did, buy buying a separate CD/DVD drive, which only costs about £40 for a good one, but it's something that you need to take into account when choosing your netbook.

[Mel B]

We have a portable DVD drive as the one in our PC sometimes has a 'paddy'! It was cheaper to get an external one than buy an internal one.

 

We also have a portable hard drive which we can backup stuff on to and move between machines if required, it also means if we want we can load stuff on to it to take on holiday and stow somewhere safely in the motorhome as a back-up with important stuff on.

 

It's a good job we have an external DVD drive though as one of the things that is recommended is that you back-up your netbook software etc so that you have a 'clean' copy in case you have to reinstall it for some reason - without an external drive it would be difficult to do! :-S

[GJH]

I bought an external CD/DVD drive for the netbook a couple of months ago but only because I am sometimes, on our travels, given material on CD for a Heritage web site I maintain.

 

Our netbook is not our only machine so when we first got it and I wanted to load software I simply copied the files from the publisher's CD onto a USB stick using this desktop PC and installed to the netbook from there. The same sort of procedure would also work with an SD card if there were sufficient space for the files.

 

Graham

[RogP]

I have looked at netbooks but the lack of DVD drive sort of put me off especially when most people seem to also take a stand alone drive as well which makes think a normal laptop makes better sense.

 

however the battery usage appeals to me as my lappie only last about an 1hour which means whilst enroute I have to plug in to a power socket if I want to use it when stopped.

 

Does anyone use a netbook to store films to watch while away and if so how easy is it to download these before going away. I'm looking at getting an Archos7 for my son to use while we're driving as his incar dvd player will be a bit of a fiddle to use (no 12v of the vehicle in the back and lack of headrest for the screen doesnt help!!!).

 

If a netbook would do the job as good but provide additional benefits I'd be interested.

 

 

[lennyhb]

GypsyTom - 2010-03-06 11:04 PMThe second, and of more interest to me, is the inability to read such as my ASCI CD, which I take with me to research camp sites, although I am aware that the latest trend is to buy these on a USB stick.

You can overcome this, as I did, buy buying a separate CD/DVD drive, which only costs about £40 for a good one, but it's something that you need to take into account when choosing your netbook.

Why not just copy the CD to your hard drive the NC 10 has a 160gb drive.

[Basil]

RogP - 2010-03-07 8:15 AM

 

I have looked at netbooks but the lack of DVD drive sort of put me off especially when most people seem to also take a stand alone drive as well which makes think a normal laptop makes better sense.

 

however the battery usage appeals to me as my lappie only last about an 1hour which means whilst enroute I have to plug in to a power socket if I want to use it when stopped.

 

Does anyone use a netbook to store films to watch while away and if so how easy is it to download these before going away. I'm looking at getting an Archos7 for my son to use while we're driving as his incar dvd player will be a bit of a fiddle to use (no 12v of the vehicle in the back and lack of headrest for the screen doesnt help!!!).

 

If a netbook would do the job as good but provide additional benefits I'd be interested.

 

 

Personally I wouldn't let the lack of a built in DVD drive put you off, as others have said you can obtain a USB one for very little money, the £40 ones seem a bit expensive to me our DVD writer only cost £19.99 plus vat (Samsung Super-Writemaster SE-S084). It has a very small form factor, around the size of a DVD and is very slim, as well as being powered only from the USB port so no additional power supply. The size, portability and battery life of the Netbooks alone make them so much more usable whilst away. Combine this with the use of a dongle and, for us anyway, it becomes a pretty compelling solution.

We don't use it to store films as if we wanted to take anything away to watch we would take our TV that has a DVD player built in much better size to watch than the biggest laptop (19")or our portable DVD player (10") but we don't normally watch the box whilst away to busy doing other things. However if I was going to go down the route of taking away films I would use a USB hard drive, these are also becoming 'cheap as chips' nowdays you can pick up a 1Terrabyte drive for under £50.

As always just my opinion and experience.

Bas

[Keith T]

thanks for all the comments and tips.

From my point of view, completely minimising bulk is the main requirement, and as I have both a separate hard drive and also DVD/CD at home, all I need is the actual netbook, plus mains charger. I do not want to carry round any extra weight/bulk, and if I needed anything the USB memory sticks do seem the best option.

I guess I can always copy some of the individual files from the main laptop,and assume that I can download programmes like Autoroute.

[lennyhb]

You might want to add a 12v charger, got mine for 12 quid & I don't bother taking the mains one.

 

 

[maggyd]

My main reason for buying the notebook is weight, I have an Acer Aspire laptop which is 17" and a bit bulky to cart around with me my better half has his Medion Computer, but we thought these little notebooks were ideal and very reasonable as Mel said a bargain.

 

What else do I need? I only want to maybe connect to the internet, it has wireless, but I wondered do I need a dongle? and what do I need if I want to use Skype ? I know you can download it Free as I had a go last night on my laptop but didn't finish the download as I don't need it on this laptop.

Ill take my 4gb usb storage dongle in case I want to download photo,s.

on to it. We use ITn Converter for route planning that works with Google Earth and Michelin maps .

[GJH]

maggyd - 2010-03-07 3:18 PM

(snip)What else do I need? I only want to maybe connect to the internet, it has wireless, but I wondered do I need a dongle? and what do I need if I want to use Skype ? I know you can download it Free as I had a go last night on my laptop but didn't finish the download as I don't need it on this laptop.

(snip).

If you will always be in range of a wireless hot-spot you don't need a dongle but you may have to pay to use wireless unless you have access bundled with something like a BT account.

 

Many dongle deals exclude use of Skype and the like.

 

There are some good deals around on netbooks. Worth checking what is on offer at the likes of PC World/Comet/Staples at Teesside Park, where you can compare different models. There are often good prices on the same machines at Asda and Tesco as well so worth checking there before deciding what to plump for.

 

Graham

[maggyd]

Thanks Graham :-D I was looking at these netbooks in Curry,s on Tees-side park about a month ago and the young man showed me then, a dongle that he said was £20 that he said I could use when abroad! I didnt ask details! as the netbooks there were much more expensive so I didnt go into it! Ill go back and ask. We are with NTL cable for phone and my mobile is Orange, What I was wondering did you need to be physically connected to a phone broadband to use skype!! :-S which defeats the object somewhat doesnt it? :-S

[Keith T]

maggyd - 2010-03-07 4:22 PM

 

Thanks Graham :-D I was looking at these netbooks in Curry,s on Tees-side park about a month ago and the young man showed me then, a dongle that he said was £20 that he said I could use when abroad! I didnt ask details! as the netbooks there were much more expensive so I didnt go into it! Ill go back and ask. We are with NTL cable for phone and my mobile is Orange, What I was wondering did you need to be physically connected to a phone broadband to use skype!! :-S which defeats the object somewhat doesnt it? :-S

 

There are quite a few 'deals'in the mobi-phone shops whcih included a dongle and netbook, but I guess you are often better to have a regular internet connection - whether phone line based or dongle based, and buy the computer separately. I did work out some of them, and if you want the computer for more than 12 months (and they are usually on a 18/24 month contract!) then on a simple cost calculation , buy the computer and have a separate contract for the internet!

Yes, you must be conncected to the internet, and really need a pretty fast broadband connection to get skype successfully.

I am sure the sales people would say they can be used abroad......most of them can as they willpick up a wi-fi connection, but I would not recomment using the supplied dongle...they can be VERY expensive other than in UK!

[maggyd]

Thanks Keith I think I will just look for hotspots and use e.mails or my mobie for texts. I just thought that instead of loading my orange phone before I go away I would purchase one of these dongals! I usually put on £50 to last the 6 weeks.

[GJH]

I'm sure the Curry's assistant was telling the truth when he said that the dongle could be used abroad - but not adding that it would cost a fortune :-)

 

I agree with Keith about buying the netbook and the dongle separately.

 

The thing about Skype with a dongle is that most of the deals (whether contract or PAYG) don't allow usage. It is possible - though Keith is most likely right that the speed would be against you - but would be likely to use up the data allowance quickly, especially if you use video as well as audio in calls. we are on Virgin Media for broadband at home and use Skype on that but not with the dongle.

 

Best way to obtain information as to which is the best dongle deal for you is to pop into the various shops in Stockton or Middlesbrough and ask about prices and coverage. We did that just over 2 years ago and opted for a T-Mobile dongle on a 24 month contract which has just ended.

 

As mentioned on previous threads I got the dongle unlocked in January and got a couple of free SIMS from Three (only one of which I've used so far). I've tested the unlocked dongle with both the Three SIM and the Vodafone one from my mobile phone and successfully connected with both.

 

I would have converted to PAYG with T-Mobile when the contract ended last weekend but their PAYG prices are way above those of Three and Vodafone so I didn't bother.

 

Graham