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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 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
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.
Even better, the GPD Pocket! 1920x1080 in a 7 inch screen! 8GB RAM. What more could you want? https://www.geekbuying.com/ite...
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
An 11 inch Macbook air also has the same sort of form factor with a bit more grunt
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
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
(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.
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.]
The closes in terms of what they set out to do are either Chromebooks or Windows tablets.
Lenovo also makes "Winbooks", i.e., Windows versions of their most popular Chromebooks models. I've bought a 11.6-inch "Lenovo N22 Winbook" that has pretty much the same hardware as the "Chromebook N22": a modern Celeron that can run 1080p/h264 videos, 32GB SSD (replaceable), 2GB RAM.
It is not a perfect device, but was a good replacement for my old Atom netbook for classroom purpose.
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?
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.
They cheaped out on the power management too so it is almost always running on battery power. That means that when plugged in and fully charged it will switch between Battery & Mains power profiles in the OS which is annoying as I tend to have no power management when on mains and very aggressive power mgmt when on battery. I'm not really sure what this is doing the battery either, battery life is still fine but the cycle count is showing well into the hundreds just from leaving it plugged in and asleep. I think the way it manages charging has a negative impact on the life but I can't see it being as bad as the cycle count reports. If you want to use USB C to a video out then you need to change a BIOS setting which has some side effect (essentially increases power consumption during sleep).
The GPD Win had the same charging issues, the GPD Win 2 has been announced with this being one of the fixed issues so one would hope that any GPD Pocket 2 will have the same fix. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely looking machine and aside from the above, it works beautifully in Linux (Mint) and Win 10, performance is incredible for something you can stick in your pocket. If your use case is that you will generally be on battery power anyway then most of this shouldn't be a problem for you!
Congratulations, you got it on the first try.