Recoveries - Colds & Laptops (Two Great Tastes that Don't Go Together)

[jodimuse]

I was recovering from a cold right after FKO but luckily, I have wonderful music partners who are SO much better at con reports than I am.  Allison really picked up the slack and Debbie made heroic efforts even though she too, was sick.  (Thanks, guys!!)  I'll just say it was an awesome convention, FKO is like coming home, and I love you guys. :-D

Comments

[mdlbear]

I don't have any experience with any of the netbooks you've listed. Colleen loves her little Asus EeePC, but Asus was the only brand out there when we bought it so there wasn't much to compare it to.

Lenovo is the company that made the Thinkpad for IBM; their quality is still very high.

[jodimuse]

Yup. I've heard good things about IBM/Lenovo ... And I'm told their keyboard is great. But so is the Samsung (both appear to be about 92-93% of a regular sized keyboard when most others are around the mid to high 80's)... It's always so hard to make a choice in these things so I was curious about people's experiences. Thanks for letting me know yours! :)

[rinioth]

If you can wait until later in the year then ARM will be unveiling their new netbook range. Since they will be ARM based (which are very low power) they will be completely fanless. Also of course that will mean that they will not run Windoze, they will be shipped with Ubuntu Linux.

[jodimuse]

That does sound interesting. ARM? I've never heard of them. Unfortunately, I do need Windows XP (I don't have any intention of going to Vista. Like, EVER.) in order for the unit to function with the current software I'm using for my audio recording.

[catsittingstill]

No experience with netbooks, alas, but I just wanted to butt in and say that I love the Rhode NT-1, and NT-2. Don't think I ever got to try the NT-1A.

[jodimuse]

:) It has a really nice, full sound for my voice. But mics are pretty personal things. Especially for close up speaking. Condenser mics all have their unique "flavors". I really like the NT1-A for that - but the NT1 was probably pretty close to it. The NT1-A is just a slightly updated version. I don't think they make the NT1 anymore? Though I could be wrong about that. :)

[bardling]

Both sibylle and I have the Samsung NC10 - just in case N110 is a typo and impressions about this one are of interest. Afaik, we're both very happy with it. I *love* the long battery life, clear & bright screen and lightweight ease of travel.

fleetfootmike bought an MSI Wind for his wife, which again led to much happiness - battery life not as good, but this was rectified quickly, by buying a 9-cell battery cheaply/easily, and it was dead easy to get it installed with MacOS X to dual-boot.

[jodimuse]

Nope. N110 isn't a typo. :) That's the updated Samsung that isn't quite out for sale yet, I believe. It's been reviewed though by the review sites as it's "pending" - ie: it's been released to review sites and such for marketing purposes but doesn't seem to be available for general purchase just yet. Apparently, they've done things like they've made the mouse box a bit larger, kept the large keyboard, made the battery life even *longer* and made the unit *look* a bit more stylish (a red line around the casing for aesthetics, etc.). I have heard excellent things about that unit's battery life.

How do you find your NC10 in terms of loudness? Is it a quiet unit? Does the fan come on often? Does it run hot? It's a 10" unit, right? (hence the "NC*10*" in its model name... :))

Thanks for the info! :)

[bardling]

Sorry, didn't see your response due to overactive spam filter, until now.
Yes, it's a 10" unint, and I find it a pretty quiet machine even when the fan's running - I haven't done any specific testing of this, just my impression in comparison to the various work laptops I've had or desktop computers we've had in the household. When the fan isn't running it's *very* quiet, I'm tempted to say "silent"... How often... again, I have not measured anything, but my impression is that the fan doesn't come on all that often, even when I've got a copy of Firefox running with huge numbers of tabs open and the machine's not been turned off (only hibernated overnight) for >1 week (and FF can be a bit ressource hungry, in my experience).
Also, I haven't really played with optimising the performance settings for different requirements yet.

Good luck with your shopping, I hope you end up with something you really like and are happy with! *hug* :)

[jodimuse]

Thanks! And thanks for the information, too. Good to know. :)

[lord_korak]

No netbook experience sorry - just wanted to say I'm glad you're feeling better!! :-)

[jodimuse]

Thanks, Walter. :)