Mini laptop recommendations?

[poohmomof3]

I am considering buying a mini laptop for my daughter's 15th Birthday. There are four of us sharing one regular laptop at home, so I know she would enjoy it.

She will not use it to watch movies and such, but will use it to access facebook, research homework on the internet, etc. It would be nice if she could type homework assignments as well.

Any advice?

 

[SaraJayne]

I bought a Dell netbook recently and really enjoy it.

 

[piglet33]

I suggest a Sony Vaio. We got one for my DD after we sent the Dell one back, because of the OS not being installed and horrible customer service.

I will never buy another Dell again. When I need a new laptop, I'm definitely checking out a Sony.

 

[Brynne]

We have 2 Minis from Dell. One is black and one is red. We bought them through the Dell outlet. Both work great. My son uses one and my DH uses the other. No problems whatsoever with them.

 

[mrsmom]

I have a gateway and love itand it has a 6 hour battery,all my kids want to use it.

 

[SkinsFan76]

I own a Gateway and love it.

Honestly there is very little difference in the tech specs of the mini laptops. Get a 6 cell batter so you have extended battery life and try to get one with Windows XP so the Atom processor isn't bogged down by Vista or Windows 7. You can also get the RAM upgraded to 2gb. The cheapest machine you find will do all the items you want it to do. These are great for surfing the web and doing microsoft office items. The one area that the limitations of these shows through is on video streaming.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I have the HP mini and love it. I got it a year ago and it was the best purchase I ever made. I can pay my bills online, surf the web, stream movies via Netflix, and I even filed my taxes on it, all from the comfort of my La-Z-Boy.

Suzanne

 

[puffkin]

I have a Toshiba netbook and I really like it. The key for the netbooks is the keyboard and touch pad. Go test them out because they vary greatly. No way was I going to get one without both Shift keys. I really like my Toshiba, especially with the 9 hour battery life that comes standard. It really does last 9 hours!

 

[Miska]

I second the Toshiba netbook-got mine for Christmas and just love it. Great Keyboard. Dont know how I everdid without it.

 

[lisaross]

i bought as ASUS Eee from Bestbuy.com a few weeks ago. It was 299.00 and i am enjoying it very much...

 

[tiggger1]

i bought as ASUS Eee from Bestbuy.com a few weeks ago. It was 299.00 and i am enjoying it very much...

we have that one also!

 

[monarchsfan16]

If she's going to be using it for homework and research, get a regular laptop as opposed to a netbook/mini. There are a LOT of deals out there, and you can get a full sized laptop for roughly the same price as many of the minis. I'm a grad student and I have both, a 4 1/2 year old 15.4 clunker, and a mini that I got this fall. I use the big laptop as my primary computer for homework, research, normal web surfing, etc. I use the mini when I travel, for taking notes in class, and for playing on when I'm killing time between classes on campus. I greatly prefer using the regular laptop for schoolwork.

The minis are great inventions, but the screen really is too small to be staring at for long periods of time for homework. Also, she would need Office on it to do homework, and unless you buy a downloadable version, it's a process to get it onto the computer without the CD drive. If she plays any games on facebook (farmville, etc), unless you get the netbook with extra memory, it will not process the way she is most likely used to. She'll also need to put any printable homework onto a drive, then transfer to another computer to print it. You won't be able to install a printer on it, unless you buy her an external CD drive.

If you're really sold on a mini, I have the HP mini, and have been happy with it thus far.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I recommend getting a netbook with XP, as well. There was a period of time when Dell sold netbooks with Ubuntu as the OS and that may have confused some early purchasers. XP and 7 are the de facto standards now.

Netbooks are fine for websurfing, pictures, facebook, etc. They typically come with Microsoft Works installed, so using the word processor to type out assignments is doable. No need for the full-blown Office suite. I have a regular laptop and the netbook, both from Dell. There was an adjustment period with the smaller screen but now I use it more often than the 15 inch laptop. It's SO much easier to travel with!

Also... programs and movies can be put on memory sticks and installed on the netbooks quite easily.

 

[luvdisney00]

Just got my daughter (14) a dell netbook and she LOVES it! She uses it for FB, homework, ovoo and general surfing. She has no problem emailing her homework assignments to my desktop and printing them out and finds that much easier than hooking up a laptop printer . It is very light and portable and works really well with windows 7 as the OS.

Some of her friends have bought the Acer netbooks and seem to have a lot of problems with them being slow and freezing. We would highly recommend the dell.

 

[girlandboy]

these three willl be great:

Asus EEE PC: http://eeepc.asus.com/global/index.html

Acer Aspire ONE: http://www.acer.com/aspireone/

MSI Wind Netbook: http://www.msimobile.com/windhome.aspx

 

[solfan68]

Also, she would need Office on it to do homework, and unless you buy a downloadable version, it's a process to get it onto the computer without the CD drive.

To netbook users seeking an office suite (or anyone really)... check out Open Office v3. It opens and writes to the Microsoft formats(Word, Excel, etc), can be downloaded straight to the mini from the internet, works with XP, Vista, or 7, and best of all... its free. We've been using it successfully at home and in my workplace.

 

[Leajess99]

these three willl be great:

Asus EEE PC: http://eeepc.asus.com/global/index.html

Acer Aspire ONE: http://www.acer.com/aspireone/

MSI Wind Netbook: http://www.msimobile.com/windhome.aspx

I would recommend against this one. We have had 2 defective ones and it is really is very annoying.