Next year at uni, it's going to be more vital than ever for me to be able to keep my notes in a decent order, and more importantly readable. With this in mind, I've thought of investing in a netbook to take into lectures to type my notes on, as well as access sites mentioned on the spot instead of waiting until I get home. However I'm not sure what to go for, or even how much to spend. The recommended one at the moment is the Samsung NC10, or the Dell series, however they're more expensive than an Acer model I've seen in Currys for about £135. So what's a student to do? Importat things are suitability to work with/inlcude microsoft word, wireless internet built in and lightness. Cheers.

I don't know that much about netbooks but, to be honest, I would advise you get a lappy. I get the impression from netbook specs that they're not overly capable beyond surfing unless you upgrade them.

I could be wrong though.

I would tend to agree, unless portability is paramount (ie you have a pocket big enough to carry said netbook in and are planning to never use a rucksack), a cheap laptop might be a better investment, if for nothing else other than screen size/screen resolution. I find my 13.3" MacBook screen a little uncomfortable for some things, but generally usable, certainly for note taking during lectures and viewing websites.

From what people have said, Netbooks are good if you don't mind a heck of a lot of scrolling, or if you get one that has a decent screen resolution.
Also, if there are thoughts that Windows 7 might be out this summer, you may wish to hold off and see what that has to offer on the Netbook front and what sort of hardware comes with it?

Good advice.

Maybe before you go to uni (not right before, at very least a month or so but preferably much more), look on eBay and in classifieds to see what you could get used. An old Apple ibook G3 or 4 would be adequate for note taking whilst being desirable, relatively portable and with a decent screen. You'd have to use OS X though as PowerPC processors couldn't really run Windows. There will of course, be Windows laptops, the ibook just sprung to mind as seemingly a good choice.

Cheers guys.

I'm already at uni, about to enter my final year as long (as I pass), so I'm not trying to find a desktop replacement (I already have a powerful desktop for all my student lifestyle needs). I did have a look at the cheap laptops, but really when all it's going to be used for is carrying, typing and possbile surfing, it just feels like overkill and unnecessary weight. I'll have another look of course, never dismiss things out of hand and all that, but I'm still siding towards the netbook due to it's lightness, and the fact that once I'm back in my room it won't get used and so needs to be small enough to live in a draw really.

It depends how you want to take notes. I can't imagine many would struggle to run emacs, pdfLaTeX and a pdf viewer, for example.

Edd

If you already have a powerfull desktop computer, then I'd say a netbook is perfect.

I went along this approach for my first year at uni. I've already got a pretty good computer that would be doing any serious work. So I got a Samsung NC10 for taking in and writing notes (although to be honest, I don't think theres many notes on it, , theres been alot of web browsing done on it though, )

Excellent netbook, amazing battery life, and its nice and easy to use, one of the best purchases I've made I think.
Windows XP boots up really quick, quicker than the XUbuntu install I've got on it too.

I'm in exactly the same situation but a year ahead. Got my EEEPC and since then i've not been to uni without it; don't really have call for my laptop anymore. The laptop was a little too ungainly for lectures and lugging through Hyde Park every day, and the battery life left something to be desired. Getting a netbook fixed that problem instantly. Especially on the battery life front.

I brought an NC10 for my GF a couple of month’s ago after see kept complaining about the screen and keyboard size of her Eeepc 701.

The reason we kept notebook size was weight and size, and I must admitted to being very impressed with the NC10, it’s looks and keyboard layout are spot on (keyboard is 93% full size and very well laid out for people who do a lot of typing etc. It has a 6 cell battery keeping it going for an amazing amount of time.

I found a real good review of it here – Clicky

She uses it for - Excel, word, powerpoint, emailing and internet browsing etc.

I use it for - keeping in touch with you lot whilst keeping GF happy by sitting with her during the soaps...... (Notebook is a good size for the arm rest of a sofa)

I should point out it's much easier to type on a larger keyboard.
For not a lot of extra cash you can get a full size cheap laptop that will have much better specifications that any netbook.
I know netbooks are ultra light, but smaller laptops are easy to carry in a rucksack with your books.

Bought the daughter a Samsung NC10 based on the same reasoning (she chose) and it gets a right hammering, though I suspect more browsing is done than note taking. The NC10 will easily run Office 2007 (Home\Student ) and of course that keeps it all up to spec with the College's software policy, which (like it or otherwise) is Office 2007 file formats.

The built-in Wireless is fab, (I'm told) and I receive emails from all over the place as studying is accomplished in disparate "hot spots"....

Rucksack? Books?

I'm leaning towards the Samsung should I find the money. A laptop with extra features just isn't worth the cash I'd pay for it tbh. Typing is something I could adapt to as well, seeing as most of my lectures are 1 - 2 hours long, with my current time table being a 6 hour week (God it's hard being a student). The review is pretty damn good and we have a couple of recommnedations here. Cheers for the help guys.

Yeh, my WiFi has picked up every single brilliantly. Never had any connection problems that were down to my hardware.
I've got Office 2007 professional on mine too, and it runs just as quick as it does on my desktop (Q6600).

And, it can play Half Life when plugged into the mains!! Its a tad hard with touchpad though,

I just got an Asus N10J I have been using it with an adaptor though as it came from the States, which I'm wary about, a colleague fetched it me over. Its quite thick, but still quite small and has Intel integrated graphics plus Nvidia 9300 which you can switch between (but it needs a reboot). I have upgraded it to 2GB ram. The battery seems to last about 2 hrs with the 9300M graphics, whcih I managed to overclock at bit. I've been playing Spore on it and also Lego Batman and its been fine, both 'maxed' out at 1024x600.

I don't know what the policy here is on advertising, but if you were allowed to put stuff in your sig, I might have an HP Compaq 700 Mini Netbook for sale very cheaply, with 2gb ram, 1/6 atom with HT and tweaked Vista HP on it, which for some reason, runs likes a dream.

Ah-ha so you have a main desktop so this would be a glorified note pad then. Aye that should be ok then I reckon.

The main problem, practically, I would find would be the smaller keyboard. You could always get one of these roll-up USB keyboards though, that would give you full size while saving space for carrying about.