I'm heading to Peru (for about 5 weeks) in a couple of weeks and am considering buying a netbook to take along. I'm a Mac user but am thinking that I'd rather not take my Macbook Pro for size, weight and security reasons. This is a tough decision for me as I haven't owned a PC in over 10 years, I just don't have time to wait for Apple to come out with one right now.

So, since I'm sure there are alot of people out there taking netbooks along for their rides, I'm hoping to get some great recommendations for options to consider. I've looked at it quite a bit and think the HP Mini 1000 would be a good option - but should I consider the Mi Edition or the Windows version? What other netbooks are out there (preferably sub-$400)?

I'll be using this for the obvious; internet use, email, music, movies and most importantly as a place to put photos (from a DSLR) and possibly upload to various sites if I have decent internet access.

Thanks in advance for your help. I need to get this figured out pretty soon and get something ordered.

Cheers!
John

John,

check this thread out on Lightstalkers

http://www.lightstalkers.org/laptops-fo ... tographers



One guy mentions that the MSI Wind 100 can run Lightroom if that program is your cup of tea, though I suspect pretty much any other netbook with the same specs can do it (I'm not sure how something like CS4 would run on one). There're also a bunch of netbook buying guides online to get you familiar with brands and their products. I'd say just pick a brand with good customer service! Coincidentally MSI has been rated with really good customer satisfaction.

I was considering buying one but figured since I'll only be traveling for ~2months $350 saved would get me a long way (going solo! and super cheap lol). I do plan to buy one if I go on longer trips though... for now I'll stick to a portable harddrive card reader. I'd strongly suggest the same if you're only staying for five weeks, unless you have the spare $ to spend in which case it would be a great buy!

Best of luck
JP

We are using a Samsung NC10. The reason why we chose it were that it has a good keyboard layout and it's battery life is fantastic (5.5 - 6 hours in normal mode, 4.5-5 in fast mode). Now, this might not be relevant to you, if you are checking into a hotel every night - but for us who are cycling and spend nights in the wild, battery life is essential to download pictures from camera and video cam.

So far we're very happy with the netbook itself. However, we did have some spillage over it which impaired the keyboard and currently it's a bit difficult to deal with Samsung to get it fixed under the International Warranty we have (keep being passed on from Costumer Support Center to Costumer Support Center).

Hope it helps.
a.

JP and a. Thanks for the info. I'm finding this little search for a netbook pretty interesting.

I think the weight and size (and affordable price) are all leading me towards getting a netbook still for this trip (and others - i may be in Australia/NZ for a couple of months next year) vs. a hard drive card reader. I do have an iPhone that does 90% of what a netbook will do, just not the photography part which is very important to me.

I'm finding that the Asus eee 1005ha and 1008ha are good options. The 1008 is slightly thinner and lighter but more expensive and a shorter battery life than the 1005. The 1005 claims up to 10.5 hours max. vs. 6.5 for the 1008.

I purchased a Asus 701SD (no longer manufactured I believe) along the way on Boxing Day in Australia for fairly cheap. It came with linux, and unless you want to get to some real usefulness out of it (in advanced mode), a model with Windows XP may be best.

One down side of the unit I had was that part of the keyboard and track pad basically melted with extreme heat and extended use in the Phillipines, and some of the keys and pad no longer work. Just something reliability wise to search for when buying.

For about $350 CDN, you can get a decent Acer Aspire One with 10" screen and 160GB hard drive built-in, much preferable to carrying around an extra HD. I've heard lots of good things about these models..

For entertainment value, it's great setting up the laptop and watching a movie or a TV show when you're feeling tired or whatever.

I have an ACER Aspire with a 9 in screen & it works great for me.

the Dell looks like a good option for an OS X install. I just wish Apple would come out with something small, that would solve my issue. I don't have a problem giving a Windows machine a try though right now.

I'm leaning towards the Asus eee 1008ha or 1005ha. Just trying to convince myself that 0.4 inches is not going to be noticeable and to go with the higher battery capacity (and cheaper) 1005ha.

As a touch typist, I've found that its often better to have the fullest keyboard possible. A small screen I can work with. A tiny keyboard tends to cramp my fingers and tire out my typing more.

Thats why I am leaning towards the HP.

I just picked up an HP Mini 110. Got it for the keyboard alone — going to give it a week or two and then will post a review!

After evaluating the keyboards on every commercially available netbook, I settled on the Toshiba NB205. The HP was a close second though. As a bonus, the Toshiba's battery life is substantially longer than all other netbooks.

LyndenC wrote:For about $350 CDN, you can get a decent Acer Aspire One with 10" screen and 160GB hard drive built-in, much preferable to carrying around an extra HD. I've heard lots of good things about these models..

I have one of these. Bought the 6 cell battery, and so paid a touch more, but it was worth it for the 8 hours of battery life. Ran Lightroom 2.0 at a reasonable speed and worked well enough for the most basic of image retouching and exporting for flickr. I liked being able to catalogue my photos as I went, rather than dealing with a multi-thousand frame import when I got home.

Then, 12 days into my 40 day trip, the hard drive crapped out. Complete drive failure. Spent a morning trying to troubleshoot it using Damn Small Linux, but no joy. I then carried around the dead netbook for more than three weeks rather than finding some place to fix it. I'm going to pop a new hard drive in it sometime in the not-so-distant future, but the thing is basically a paperweight right now. I don't know if the low pricepoint of netbooks leads to poor build quality, or if I just had a bit of hard luck, but having a backup tool or two (a portable linux distro that you know is compatible with your wifi card etc... which DSL is NOT), is worthwhile.

We've bought a Macbook Air for our upcoming rtw trip. The Asus line is cheaper, but they seem to have distribution (a lot of places were sold out when I was looking) and reliability issues. I did like the features and the size of the eee pc 900 though.
Ultimately I felt the macbook air was a better fit for us personally, but maybe after a year or two with it I might have a better/worse opinion of it.
I would recommend something with a solid state drive though, if possible. There's a cost premium for it, but moving parts are not your friend when it comes to electronics.

Thanks for all the input here. Interesting to hear what other travelers are thinking.

After reading through reviews and specs, I ordered the Asus eee 1005ha today. I like the additional battery and looks of the machine. I also upgraded the RAM to 2GB, which may or may not help with performance.

I'll try to add a quick review here once I get it and have a chance to use it a bit.

I'd really like to wait for Apple to come out with one (and you know they will since I ordered this one!), but the Asus should get me by for awhile.

I don't think apple will do a NetBook any time soon. They're sticking with the Air and the new miracle tablet thingy that's supposed to be launched any day now. Maybe. Probably.

More RAM is definitely good. It's fairly cheap for those little guys.

Edit: corrected table to tablet