so with ultraportable laptops similar in size to netbooks, but with better performance, what advantages are there in getting a netbook? price?

Price and battery life.

Mini311 is ok. The CPU still sux and the battery life isn't great. My Acer with gma4500 is able to play 1080p if I need it to so really the 9400 only benefits for gaming and possibly encoding.

not necessary.

I got my AS1410 at $360. That's the same price as Aspire One 10 or 11" for same battery life (5.5 hours) at about the same price. :p

Total newb here in terms of getting a netbook.

But I'm looking to get one for my dad for his bday present.

I need something that is light, good battery life and the $300-$350 range. It doesn't really need all the bells and whistles but something that last 2-3 years without it breaking down or having to repair it would be good.

Any suggestions out there?

Also do these netbooks come preloaded with the newest windows - if it doesn't how do you go about installing it the netbooks don't have disk drives.

^ for dad, u probably want 10"~11" at least.
Windows 7 usually goes to netbook like Acer A1410(timeline). when it goes on sale, it's about $400. I got mine at $350 when staples put on sale with stacking of coupons.

to install new windows, u need external usb cd/dvd drive or a flash drive made with bootable iso. i found usb drive much easier than creating a bootable iso, so never bother.

Thanks ECSW for the quick reply.

I did a little bit of research and thinking bout getting the Asus 1005 HA netbook.

I know there are a few versions out there - looks like BB/FS currently has the 6 cell battery with 8.5hrs of life at $329 - not too shabby.

Has anyone used this netbook and how does it compare to others?

^ u r welcome. :) 1005ha is a good choice. i think some 1005HA come with Windows 7 started edition.

Has anyone installed Windows 7 on their netbook, if so did you find the battery life better or worst then XP? I want to install Windows 7 but don't want to give up my 8-10hr battery life.

I have Windows 7 for my Acer A1410 (well, technically a notebook). It's not any shorter battery life than in XP.
Vista is quite a battery eater, but windows7 is much better imo.

Same battery life is pretty close. My AS1410 supposedly can get 8 hours. I average around 7.5 hours

how do you guys go about putting 7/XP on your netbooks with no optical drive?

USB optical drive.

Or. Grab HP USB formatter and format a USB stick and dump the ISO contents onto it. Boots just fine

yap, a cheap DVD rom with IDE to USB converter does the job. :)

anyone know if there are nvidia ion and windows 7 equipped netbooks available yet?

hey guys, i'd appreciate some suggestions as to which netbook or notebook to get for the gf this Christmas. something portable for school, something cute would be nice. price around 400-500 should be okay, but wouldn't mind looking at everything.

do ppl get tired at staring at 10-11" screens in class? seems kind of small but i have no personal experience. 13" would be ideal but I dont think netbooks come in that size..?

and would also prefer to stay away from HP..

haven't been in the netbook hype for a year now..but

10-11 is perfect size for ultraportability w/o straining your eyes IMO

my vote goes for the Eee..maybe the 1005 (but I'm biased tho) for relability and insanely long battery life..i'm sure other company offers better specs at cheaper prices but i could be wrong.

anything with 1366x768. ;)

!MiKrofT, I got a RMA replacement OCZ Vertex 60 GB SSD (they ran out of Core V2) after the fail of flashing firmware. It's FAST with new controller and 64MB buffer. I am getting 180mb/s+ on sequential read and 120+mb/s on write.

Thanks again for the deal. ;)

Got the 1101HA couple weeks back.
Installed W7 Pro and it seems to perform well.
Surpringly 720p is not supposed to run on this HD screen, but WMP12 plays it perfect.
I do not plan to watch HD videos. However, it's nice to know it performs above my expectations.

Just picked up a Dell mini10v and the mic's not working. I tried googling a solution, but it seems like all searches yield to the same question with no solution.

Thoughts anyone?

Much appreciated.

That's awesome. Free upgrade to a next gen drive.

^ the only trade off is it took more than a month. :p