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Ask Slashdot: How Should I Replace My Netbook?
Long-time Slashdot reader Kevin108 needs to replace his netbook:
I've used and loved my Eee 701 for many years. None of the diminutive ergonomics were ever an issue. But the low-res screen, 4 GB SSD, and 630 MHz Celeron are a useless combo for current web browsing and modern software. I'm now in the market for a new device in a similar form factor.
I need a Windows device for my preferred photo editor and some other software I use for maps. It will often be used offline for writing and watching MKVs in VLC. I'm okay with a notebook or tablet and keyboard combo, but I've not found anything in a similar size with my feature requirements.
Any suggestions? Leave your best thoughts and suggestions in the comments. What's the best way to replace a netbook?
I need a Windows device for my preferred photo editor and some other software I use for maps. It will often be used offline for writing and watching MKVs in VLC. I'm okay with a notebook or tablet and keyboard combo, but I've not found anything in a similar size with my feature requirements.
Any suggestions? Leave your best thoughts and suggestions in the comments. What's the best way to replace a netbook?
How Should I Replace My Netbook? / What's the best way to replace a netbook?
Buy something new, stop using the old system, start using the new one - duh.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
We poor Slashdotters are now being asked to advise someone who wants a small Windows laptop? Seriously? Go to PC World (or your local equivalent), look at the laptops and choose a small one. How hard can it be?
Dell Venue 8 Pro 5000 series 4 GB RAM version.
Add in the matching Bluetooth keyboard and, for extra photo editing fun, the 2048-levels-of-pressure active stylus.
The problem is that it's a 'corporate' device, so Dell doesn't make it easy to buy just one of them.
The difference between a 10" netbook and a 12~13" laptop is significant. You can't replace one with the other.
One difference I've noticed from the time of Netbooks to now is that 7 and 8" screens have disappeared. Now you'll end up with a 10 or 11" screen machine, be it a laptop, a convertible or a tablet which would need an extra keyboard. How close would that size be to the ideal form factor you talked about?
Over here in the UK, there are Windows 10 tablets branded Linx, with Atom CPU and hit-and-miss reviews from buyers. Maybe there's an equivalent brand where you are. The price varies wildly with Christmas and other campaigns, making these machines nearly "disposable computing".
For a short while, I used their 8" tablet, as it was sold at a lower price than the Office365 subscription that was bundled. I conceded defeat and sold it on eBay after a short while. For me the dealbreaker was that the 1280x800 resolution on such a small screen made it really unpleasant to use unless in "tablet mode". Back then Firefox and Chrome were not working well unless we used Windows 10 outside of tablet mode. I also tried to use that tablet with a Displaylink USB port replicator, but it wouldn't send the image to the outside screen. It's probably very customised hardware to fit the small package. Good luck.
Why are you editing photos on a netbook?
Why shouldn't he? It's a perfectly valid application for a netbook. I'm doing it for many years now, including RAW development, while I'm facing the same problem, although my netbook is already more powerful than the querist's – I'd like to have a faster CPU and more RAM, and sightly more screen resolution. Everything else could stay the same. Such machines don't seem to be manufactured anymore, though.
The whole reason I went with a netbook years ago was the price. Now, though, when I need a cheapo laptop, I definitely go with used corporate - Dell frequently has quite nice extra-durable laptops that are basically leased en mass to companies that make them dirt cheap, and VERY easy to provide service to if you're giving them to relatives.
The designs are inherently rugged, can be thrown into a backpack no problem, accessories and batteries are commodity priced, and the appearance won't cause anyone to blink. I understand the appeal of light-as-possible, but there's just too many advantages to rugged cheapo-bulk laptops. And if you REALLY want mega-light, there's some models that do that too, I'm sure.
Ryan Fenton
Tablets has replaced netbooks.
From the description, you are looking for a Surface or similar Dell, HP tablet.
just order it online.
not that hard. beats the crap out of that eee.
beg for a keyboard to use at home and you should be set.
or just buy a laptop and a smartphone like everyone else. or just a smartphone and run some of the desktop-linux-on-android kits. it's still gonna beat that eee.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
There's a wide variety of products, and you won't find something that's exactly like the 701. Are you interested in something small? How small is too small? How big is too big? How much does weight matter vs. size? Does price matters?
For example the GPD Pocket is decently well specced, but it may be too small for you or too expensive. There are lots of Chinese notebooks or tablets + keyboard with low specs which should be a fit replacement for a netbook. Take a look at GearBest (store) and TechTablets (review site) as good places to start exploring that space.
If you can type well on the 701, then you'ld like the keyboard on the GPD Pocket.
High res screen, 8Gb ram, 128Gb SSD, selection of other standard stuff.
Comes in windows and linux versions.
And something around the $500 price.
It is basically a Surface knock-off for cheap. Is it as good as a Surface? Hell fuck no! However, for that price, I'm not going to complain. Cherry Trail Atom quad core, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC storage, 1920x1280 touchscreen and a valid Windows 10 license. It's no speed demon, but for casual surfing, the occasional text editing, it suffices. For that price, I'm not going to complain.
I don't really like the keyboard, but as an alternative there is the Chuwi Hi10 Pro. I don't have one, but the keyboard definitely looks better, and it seems identical except for being a bit smaller and having only "1920x1200".
Again, for the price, these 2 in 1 tablets are great. Keep in mind: this being a Cherry Trail Atom, you're not going to run Linux on it. I only found out about that after buying it.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
At least not to the best of my knowledge. Yes, I'm facing the same problem for some time now, although I'm still slightly better off with a year 2012 model netbook (1.6 GHz Atom) that I've upgraded to 4 GB (only 3 of them usable even with a 64 bit OS though) and SSD.
The last device I know of that would have fitted my needs in size vs. capability would have been the 10.6" Surface Pro 2 with the best of available options back then (8 GB/512 GB IIRC), but that was a design/lifestyle object sold for too high a price when it came out. Actually I might go and try to find a used one, one of these days, though – even if the mechanical design makes it less usable for many occasions than even the cheapest netbook.
(I need a Windows OS for my preferred photo editor, too, which unfortunately doesn't run with Wine, but with a sufficiently capable machine it does run in a Windows VM, which is how I mostly use it these days. Not on the netbook, of course.)
Lenovo Yoga 310. I replaced my netbook with this a month ago. Cheap, light, fast and touch screen. I run Fedora and Android on it.
I have not found anything like that either so...
For the size form-factor I use an iPad Air with a cover that has a built in Bluetooth keyboard.
For a larger screen and better keyboard I use a ChromeBook.
I have a Linux and a Windows VM in "the cloud" that I connect to from those devices via Apache Guacamole https://guacamole.apache.org/
I installed Debian Linux on my EeePC and I use it for command line access to the Linux VM via ssh and occasionaly I run Firefox (via 'startx' because there is not enough space to install a full window manager).
until intel and company fix their bugs.
or you can get yourself a pi-top https://pi-top.com/
Kevin108: Time for a new netbook! This will be easy, just a netbook with a better cpu than 630 MHz Celeron. I've done this on dial-up before. I'll pick one out of the hundred of results I get.
Search Result: 80,000,000 results found.
Kevin108: Oh my. What year is today?
I love my Asus UX305CA.
Cheap small laptops don't really exist on the market any more, and most that do are 2:1 devices: tablet first and laptop second. The next step up is a full-spec'd "ultraportable" laptop, and those cost a lot more.
Overall, either type don't have many ports either and with no upgrade options to be as thin as possible.
I have replaced my old netbook with a Lenovo Yoga Tab 8" Windows 8 tablet from 2015. 1920*1200 8" screen (16:10, 283 PPI), Micro SD-card reader (more storage), WiFi, BT, GPS, front and back cameras. It has a thick bulge on one side - but that only makes it easier to grip and it has got a built-in stand.
Unlike other tablets, you can use a regular pencil (or any conductive tip) as a stylus -- which is pretty darn essential in Windows if you don't have a BT mouse or trackpad.
And I got it for just over $200. The downsides are the Atom CPU, 2G RAM and 32G storage but it got a SD-card reader. There is only one micro-USB port for charging and peripherals, so a BT keyboard is necessary. There was also a 10" version and successors Yoga Tab 2, where the 10" came with a keyboard "accessory" and I think they were available first with Windows 8.1 and then Windows 10.
Unfortunately, Lenovo has discontinued the Windows versions and the contemporary Yoga Tab 3 runs Android on ARM.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
It doesn't matter what OS you use. No netbook is going to handle the modern scripts up the ass bloated web we have today. This is a form factor that needs to come back with more powerful processors and more than the 2GB RAM limit intel artificially imposed on them. Launching any modern web browser on such a machine today, the browser OS and browser is going to eat up most of the ram, god forbid actually loading any pages. I absolutely love the form factor of my old Lenovo S10, unfortunately it just is not that usable in today's world. Give me something in that exact same form factor with a modern i3 or i5 and at minimum 4GB ram and I would be happy.
The 901 is a nice machine
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
The form factor and the pricing of these netbooks is dead. For now there are no good replacements.
The closes in terms of what they set out to do are either Chromebooks or Windows tablets. As you seem to be looking for a Windows machine, the likes of Asus Transformer Mini or Microsoft Surface Pro provide a device that's faster, lighter, smaller in terms of volume, bigger in terms of surface and have a bigger and better screen than Eee 701. They are also more expensive.
pretty keyboard. Do you have it in bluetooth to transform my phablet into a laptop ?
Then the Planet Computer Gemini is worth checking out.
This place intentionally left blank
Last year, I got myself a used ThinkPad X230 (720p 12.5in screen) with Ivybridge i5 CPU, add a 250GB SSD, additional RAM stick, additional 9 cell battery and it ended up costing me around USD400. Sure it's not smallest thing you can carry around, but it's more powerful than anything I can get new for the price. USB 3.0, proper gigabit ethernet and VGA ports.
The great thing about the X230 is that you can get almost any part of its' exterior replaced. IPS screen, fingeprint sensor, WWAN connection, backlit keyboard.
On the other hand, the X230 is stuck with wireless N adapter and 720p screen. But if you're resourceful, there's guide to reflash the bios to eliminate wireless adapter whitelist, and even an upgrade kit for FHD screen
They are just about the only ones that build a serious and quality computer in this form factor.
https://www.ockelcomputers.com/
When choosing a laptop, one must first ensure that it has actual mouse buttons,
Then that they are touching (no gap between them)
Then that the screen is non glare
Then that it is properly small and light (or has hardware capability and price)
The lenovo 100s was cheap and actually works.
That said my dell mini 9's just needed new bios batteries... The ssd's are uncommon but 2gib ram and Kubuntu (with rendering eye gags turned off)
I have 16 and 32 gib ssds in my mini 9's and I love them... They can be ran off of a usb stick...
The linux was about twice as fast as windowsXP was... seriously... I disable all the eye-gags. (some people call it eye candy, but it just is horrible)
I could watch streaming video at low quality.
Now all these stupid people don't care about low bandwidth and low computing power, and my cell phone is faster than my mini9... oh.. That's what I do, I just use a 45 dollar motoe4 as a tablet!
(or pay 2 bucks to have it partially unlocked and use it with something other than vercrapzon)
Is the EeePC's processor Meltdown-proof? (ie, no speculative execution?) Install Linux and you may have one of the few secure pieces of computing equipment on earth :)
Get a tablet with a detachable keyboard/cover. A 10" unit can have a full HD display and will have about the same length/width as your netbook but will be thinner and lighter with better battery life. Get Windows 10 or Linux to run standard software. It will have an on-screen keyboard so you do not have to carry the mechanical keyboard if you do not expect serious text entry to be required. A true pen interface is very nice and necessary for graphic work but the display can be used at full resolution with an active touch-screen pen. Using a pen instead of a mouse or touchpad is a delight! A light glove makes it possible to rest your hand on the screen when using the pen. Search Amazon for "artist's half glove" to find ones made for the purpose but just about anything will do. Once we have better speech and handwriting recognition, the keyboard should no longer be necessary.
The EEE is way underpowered for todays standards, no doubt. However, IIRC, you can replace it's battery which is a feature todays handheld/ultraportable computers don't have.
Look into Microsofts Surface Line of products and look at the Windows Tablets Samsung has to offer. One current Windows Notebook I find intrigueing is the Huawei Matebook. Very neat device. Like a rippoff of the MacBook but built around Windows. Definitely check that one out.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
(when it's clearly fucking interesting new tech being used in interesting new ways)
The tech is interesting. The implementation is not.
Having to send all my questions, voiceprint included, to an advertising company that can then trace me everywhere I go and serve me ads according to the type of questions I ask and what places I go, is not something I find so "fucking interesting". Privacy anyone?
When someone creates a device that, with its own processing power, can interpret my questions into something useful, like "Hey Talky, how is the traffic to work this morning?", and get strictly what is needed from Google Maps or any other maps / traffic service, without sending the audio or text to an advertising company that would then serve me ads about businesses along the route, then I may see this as "fucking interesting"
For now, I am not "fucking interested" with this advertising device.
well, for the original EEE that's the case anyway, mine does and it is still usable for what it's intended use was.
nobody will convince me the screen was ever big enough to do image/photo editing, even back in the day when it was released the screen was already small.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Just like whatever government you have on your country, what shows up on the front-page of /. is democratic, and whoever uses it has the DUTY to change it if need be, and at the very least, the common sense to criticize only after taking action. There's a thing these days called the blockchain and PoS from which you can take some hints on. If you don't like the status quo, maybe hackernews is a better place for your high-level nerd stuff.
Now, replying to the post (because it doesn't make sense to hijack a thread simply for SJW'ing): if money is no object, I would look at Microsoft's ultra-portable lineup such as anything with Surface on the name these days. If memory doesn't fail me, there are currently 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15'' options on the Surface range and a lot of choice concerning form-factor, performance and battery levels. Wallet-wise though, they're all premium or ultra-premium devices, and surely never to be able to run any *NIX OS other than in a sandbox (thank you UEFI/SecureBoot...).
If saving is indeed a priority, I would advise on going for the very lowest tier of something that has a M3 CPU such as the Xiaomi Air 12.5. This way, you won't (or at least take a lot longer to...) face the same question you are presenting right now - a performance bottleneck-forced switch. There was a point in time Intel cared for keeping the Atom line up-to-standards for everyday web use, but no more, since most OEMs have neglected the entry-level, mini form-factor Windows in favour of touch and Android hybrid devices that can be "plannedly degraded".
Try one of these:
- HP x2 (also known as HP Pavilion x2) - 10-inch laptop-tablet hybrid with eMMC flash (not SSD)
- Lenovo Miix 320
- Asus Transformer
- Acer Switch One
I've recently bought a HP Pavilion x2 10-n140nw (V2H20EA) for about 300$, and it's fine as a secondary device (checking web and email while on the trips, video conferencing, instant messaging). It can also run some less CPU/GPU-heavy games.
Lenovo actually keeps an 11-inch sized netbook around in it's line up in a couple of flavors, but the full PC version is the ThinkPad 11e. It can ben outfitted with 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and Core i3 Processor if you like.
Info here: https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/...
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
13" screen, 8GB Ram and 128GB SSD will run you about $500 on eBay. It surfs the web with ease.
I feel with you.
My rusty EEE 901 ran for nearly a decade, expanded to 2GB RAM, 36GB Flash and a 10 hour extra large battery, running XP, LUbuntu 10,04 to 16.04 and Windows 10 all fine. Pretty much every daily work worked flawless EXPECT browsing the web.
I ended up with tihs: https://skinflint.co.uk/odys-s... - very cheap, very small and light and high resolution on a small screen gives a very crisp picture. Also using it as a tablet by flipping the screen 360 degree around is pretty nice. 32GB is a lot of space for Windows 10 32Bit which usually needs less than 10GB for itself. I also installed a 64GB SD-card to store some Movies, Musik, Steam-Games.
The Goldmont Atom x5-8350 is pretty fast, a whole different beast than the older Atoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And no, I do not think it is a good product. The keyboard is mediocre, wireless LAN substandard, no user serviceable parts, the layout is not well thought either. But the overall idea works very well. You might want to invest a bit more money into some Lenovo Yoga to avoid the show stoppers.
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
When the Eee's specs began to show their age as you describe, I bought an HP Mini 5103 (10" screen) and was never especially happy with it. When the HP's specs became insufficient, I bought a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad X230. The 12" screen is a bit bigger than I really need (I think 10-11" is the ideal), but I'm thoroughly pleased with it. The hardware is more than adequate for my purposes, despite being a few years old, and I fully expect it to get me through another ~3 years of school. 9/10 highly recommended.
I run Arch Linux, so your mileage may vary with Windows.
I still have my Eee. The form factor wasn't a problem for me either. I sometimes ponder going back to it, but that old Celeron just doesn't cut it for today's software.
This is a site for nerds. Get back over the border.
Solid point about not including the size, given that was the primary factor for me. I definitely should have included that. For me, the Eee was as revolutionary as the first iPod. I guess I assumed that most here would be familiar with them, if not having owned one.
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
Install a javascript blocker on your web browser, and you will be amazed how much faster your web browsing becomes.
Sounds like he could get a modern tablet and be happy with that as a replacement for the netbook.
I own a Dell Inspiron mini 1012, on which I ran FamiTracker, FCEUX debugger, Python with Pillow, and ca65 (a 6502 assembler) inside Xubuntu. I used it when working as lead programmer on the video games Haunted: Halloween '85 (2015) and The Curse of Possum Hollow (2016) published by Retrotainment Games. Because the laptop is so small, I could whip it out and get work done while riding the bus to and from my other job. I stopped using it when its third lithium ion battery could no longer hold a charge; unfortunately, its replacement is much bigger and thus not nearly as portable.
I need it to be x86-64, not ARM, because FamiTracker and FCEUX debugger are Windows applications that run usably in Wine, and Wine needs x86. (FCEUX works on other-than-x86, but without the debugger.) So what x86-64 tablet with keyboard do you recommend for running GNU/Linux? Or would an x86-64 tablet with keyboard running Windows 10, such as the ASUS Transformer Book, be better for work loads like this?
You could try a Chromebook
Until you need to run an application that is not a web application. Then you have to use developer mode, whose self-destruct button is too easy to trigger accidentally.
Go to PC World (or your local equivalent), look at the laptops and choose a small one. How hard can it be?
Harder than you might think. The only 10 inch laptop in a local Best Buy is an ASUS Transformer Book, and those are known to have serious problems with Linux compatibility.
I use a HP Chromebook that runs [Crouton] so I have both Linux an Chrome.
Crouton requires developer mode. If someone turns on your developer-mode Chromebook, presses Space as prompted, and presses Enter as prompted, the firmware begins a factory reset. What do you do to restore the use of the machine after the firmware has performed a factory reset?
I have a Linux and a Windows VM in "the cloud" that I connect to from [my iPad Air and Chromebook] via Apache Guacamole
How much do you pay per year to lease your Linux and a Windows VPS, and how much do you pay per year to connect to it through a cellular ISP?
If the browser can be configured to trick sites into thinking it's a phone, then maybe one can browse without getting the JavaScript-happy eye-candy version of the site that slows the browser down.
Table-ized A.I.
Then you either check Amazon or any other retailer of your choice.
Let me rephrase the original poster's question in terms of your reply: What laptop currently sold on "Amazon or any other retailer of your choice" is comparable to the Eee PC 701?
Use case that you are after has moved from netbooks to tablets. Either iPad Mini or many Android tablets are pretty inexpensive. I would pick up one and see how far you can go with functionality that you need. While you have been holding on to EeePC, both hardware and software development for this form factor has been moving to mobile. Conversely, Windows apps and desktop web pages are increasingly unusable for that form factor. While you may not be aware of this now, you will notice a big jump in productivity by using up to date solution and will probably not want to go back. You can still get a keyboard/touch pad case for a tablet and get a dirt cheap larger Windows laptop if your apps are really irreplaceable.
The LANRUO GPD Pocket 7 Inch Aluminum Shell Mini Laptop might be just what you're looking for! Pretty much exactly a modern re-interpretation of the netbook. AFAIK, most people who buy these get them as portable emulation boxes, I'm actually really excited that someone could want one for its intended purpose
typed in "Laptop" in the search line, then I checked 10.1" and under.
I got lots of results, and not all of them sucked. There was some HP and Lenovo stuff that looks like it fits your parameters.
I was a netbook fan too, I've still got a couple laying around, though I use them less in the modern day. Back when I loved using them it was a different job and a different list of requirements than I have now, I carry a Lenovo w540 beast around now and think it's great because I'm not putting it in my bike "trunk bag" like I did with the netbook.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Nope - the 701 has a Celeron M, not an Atom, so it's still vulnerable.
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
My wife seems to like her Dell Inspiron 11 2-in-1. The overall size is just slightly larger than my old Dell mini 10. The touchscreen and ability to flip to become a tablet, makes it more functional than the old mini 10. If you can upgrade to an SSD you'll get decent performance.
"We're gonna need a bigger boat"
I just bought a small laptop with an i5 chip, 2560x1700 touch screen, 4 GB ram, 32 GB SSD (I will use an SD card for more storage if it ever fills up) and a great build quality. I installed Gimp and VLC so far, can probably run Windows apps but have no need.
It's a refurb chromebook Pixel with crouton/Xubuntu on top of it. I admit to being a cheapskate, but what else do I need? Once you get over the mindset of "needing" Microsoft Windows, the world opens up for you.