Buying a Dell mini

[dis2cruise]

THANKS!! This is a great thread...considering buying my kids a mini for Christmas..keeping my fingers crossed for some really good black friday sales!!

 

[jakoky]

Hi there, i JUST bought a mini yesterday...i got the asus 1000HE and i love it...actually sold my son my very good only 1 year old dell...it was just too big...loving my new little one...the size makes it awesome, i will be able to bring it along more easily when needed...we also have a desktop (and two other laptops) but this will be the one i am on most of the time...the keyboard was important to me and this one is very easy to type on, only the enter key really gets me sometimes....faster than i thought it would be, and i am going to upgrade to 2gb ram and then it will be even faster...my younger dd loves it and now wants one for herself....I did look at the dell too, but was recommended to me to go with the asus....

 

[3boymthr]

DH loves his netbook but I will say that if you want to do anything other than surf the net then you will be much better off getting a small laptop. There are some nice 12 inch ones out there with way more features for about the same money. The features on the netbook are very limiting. I wanted to get DH a 12 inch laptop because the difference in price just didn't justify the smaller size, but he wanted something really small. He has downtime at work where he's sitting in his truck for an hour or more (McDonald's has WIFI in their parking lots ) waiting to be dispatched to the next call so he wanted something he could quickly and easily tuck away and that would store in the glovebox of his truck if he was sent to an area that was a little questionable.

 

[Theta]

The Toshiba weighs five and half pounds and is an inch and a half thick.

Isn't 5 pounds in the heavy side?

 

[luvmy3]

Isn't 5 pounds in the heavy side?

Its about double a netbook, depending on the battery 3 cells will be the lightest but they only give you about 2 hours. I know you said that they small keyboard would be a problem but I just wanted to let you know that my mini 10's keyboard is 92% the size of a regular keyboard. There are netbooks that are 11-12 inches which may have a very close to standard keyboard, but I don't know how much they would weigh. A 9 inch or under netbook would have a tiny keyboard. If its not a surprise, you could always go to Walmart and check them out, they have a good selection of netbooks and laptops on display, at least at mine they do.

 

[jrmasm]

Its about double a netbook, depending on the battery 3 cells will be the lightest but they only give you about 2 hours. I know you said that they small keyboard would be a problem but I just wanted to let you know that my mini 10's keyboard is 92% the size of a regular keyboard. There are netbooks that are 11-12 inches which may have a very close to standard keyboard, but I don't know how much they would weigh. A 9 inch or under netbook would have a tiny keyboard. If its not a surprise, you could always go to Walmart and check them out, they have a good selection of netbooks and laptops on display, at least at mine they do.

The Asus 1000HE is 3.2lbs with a 6 cell battery and a 92% keyboard.

 

[Theta]

The Asus 1000HE is 3.2lbs with a 6 cell battery and a 92% keyboard.

What is the difference between the Asus 1000HE and the ASUS EEE 1005HE?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...1005e&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218092152108

 

[jrmasm]

What is the difference between the Asus 1000HE and the ASUS EEE 1005HE?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...1005e&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218092152108

Looks like it might be a newer model than the 1000HE but I'm not sure. You'd have to look at both side by side.

 

[solfan68]

The down side to the mini netbooks is that they don't have a CD drive. So everything you put on it must be downloaded from the internet.

Granted, I don't own one... But shouldn't you be able to hook up an external USB optical drive for loading purposes ? Can probably get one cheap on eBay, I imagine.

 

[boettj]

What is the difference between the Asus 1000HE and the ASUS EEE 1005HE?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...1005e&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218092152108

Sorry I mis-typed. Mine is an ASUS EEE 1000HE.


Sorry.

 

[santa's surpriz]

I am a Dell fan although many may not be. I have never had issues with the computers, just ones I caused myself. I bought a dell mini with income tax refund this year, I LOVE IT! I still rely on my larger one (Inspiron 6000) for home use but the mini is great and lightweight for travel. I got the 10, the keyboard is only slightly smaller. I use while my daughter is at gymnastics and took with me on vacation. It was awesome not lugging around my heavy laptop. I also take with me to Chick Fil A on family night, my daughter plays with her friends and I can connect on their wifi.

I did end up spending a little more than the basic model, I got a few upgrades including the external CD drive and hard drive. IMO it was worth it. I wanted to have it as investment for a new computer as well as convenience. I have to admit I only used the CD drive once to download Microsoft Office 2007. The external hard drive was a life saver, my main computer was running out of memory so I keep most of my files on it now. It actually saved my computer from crashing!

 

[eatatmidnight]

Is is lightweight? We're in the same situation and the current laptop we have is too heavy for our 13 year old to carry from class to class. Any suggestions?

Our 13yo son has profound dysgraphia and uses a school supplied laptop in every class except band and pe. We got a laptop case on wheels. It is large enough to carry his laptop, binders, lunch, etc. It is very well padded. When he did not have it, he had too much to carry into and out of school.

 

[kmvand1]

How old is your daughter? The down side to the mini netbooks is that they don't have a CD drive. So everything you put on it must be downloaded from the internet. We looked at them for DS13. We decided to go with a regular laptop. Best Buy has a Toshiba that is a pretty good system for $329. That is the regular price. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9368169&type=product&id=1218092959299

DBF is a tech geek and this is what he decided we will be getting DS. It isn't fancy but will work just fine for a teenager. I homeschool so this is for him to do his school work on too.

I LOVE my new Toshiba. We got our's at Walmart for around the same price. We had a Dell laptop that lasted all of 19 months. No more Dells for us.

 

[dex08]

I have to admit I only used the CD drive once to download Microsoft Office 2007. The external hard drive was a life saver, my main computer was running out of memory so I keep most of my files on it now.

For future reference or for others... you could have copied your MS Office cd onto your external hard drive using another computer and then hooked it up to your netbook and installed from the external drive.

 

[n2mm]

I have the Samsung mini netbook and really like it. We have as many computers in our home as we have TVs. But I got the netbook for my many trips to WDW. One nice thing about the netbook is that it fits in the safes in the WDW resorts. I've taken it on the last 2 trips and used it from the WLV and BCV. I really like how compact it is. They have some disney skins for the netbooks on the disneyshopping website.

 

[Theta]

Our 13yo son has profound dysgraphia and uses a school supplied laptop in every class except band and pe. We got a laptop case on wheels. It is large enough to carry his laptop, binders, lunch, etc. It is very well padded. When he did not have it, he had too much to carry into and out of school.

Yes, DS12 has the same problem, he desperately needs a laptop for his work, but with his binders, textbooks, lunch, etc. it is SO heavy. Bags on wheels are not allowed in the school, I should ask for special permission.

Does you son have any special programs that help him with organization?