Netbook with windows 7 starter

[Fuerza]

I just purchased a Gateway netbook to use for the following, Facebook, Skype, surfing the web, email, netflix, youtube and reading and PDF files. Its a Gateway that is pretty cheap, it comes with an Aerial Atom process 1.66GHz, 1GB of RAM, 250GB HD. It includes MS Office Starter, but I don't think I'll install it, as I already have another key for Office 2007. I won't be doing all that at once but I was wondering if I'll have any issue with doing the above with only win 7 Starter operating system? I was looking at other netbook operating systems, Ubuntu or possibly going with Android on a Netbook. Should I just leave it factory?

Gateway - Netbook / Intel® Atom™ Processor / 10.1" Display / 1GB Memory / 250GB Hard Drive - River Black - LT2802U

 

[Hmbre97]

That thing is going to be slow as balls honestly. I test drove an HP Mini 110 with about the same specs (N450 vs N455) and it struggled graphics wise, especially with Netflix.

IMO, if you can increase your budget another $100-150, you can get such a better machine. I recently scored a Samsung Series 3 11.6" notebook. It has an actual sandy bridge core i3 proc in it, 4GB of ram and Win7 Premium. It would leave that netbook in the dust and I only paid $375ish for it. There will be tons of stuff on sale with the holidays coming up.

 

[quik6]

I have a netbook with practically identical specs. I bought for the same reasons and it sucks with video. Sucks on youtube, sucks on netflix, even if an ad with sound and video pops up.

 

[Fuerza]

I actually got everything for $350. Netbook, sleeve and 1 year accidental coverage. I would have went with a more powerful and a little bit more money but then I'd be looking at regular laptop prices. I want a compact system because I'm deployed and don't want to have to lug around a 12-15 inch laptop. I want to be able to watch video. Do you still think it would struggle with that being the only program running?

 

[68thoroughbred]

I have an HP 110 Mini, and it works just fine for streaming netflix. I use it for exactly what you plan to and don't have any serious issues. The video quality may not be the greatest, but it's also a ~13 inch screen, so I don't find it to be that big of an issue. My one suggestion, restart the computer every day. I even pull the battery once a week and push the power button several times and that seems to help significantly.

 

[Fuerza]

Does the video freeze or something? I'm not expecting 1080p HD quality but I don't want it to be grainy like TV from the 70's. lol

 

[68thoroughbred]

Does the video freeze or something? I'm not expecting 1080p HD quality but I don't want it to be grainy like TV from the 70's. lol

It gets choppy if the computer has been on for more than a day, and it's not bad quality at all, just not as sharp as some people are used to. It's at least vhs quality if not better.

 

[xXGadfly09Xx]

What is a "vhs'?

 

[mustangless]

What is a "vhs'?

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS]VHS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[fishin-nole]

I have the same machine. Mine died 2 weeks after purchase, motherboard and something else died. Got it back and it flashes acer when you turn it on. The speaker sucks when playing videos. Never used the camera. It is as fast as my desktop with vista was before it died. The battery last about 6 hrs with just one program open. It is light weight which is a plus.

 

[Fuerza]

Well I'll report back and let other know how it runs. I'm having Geek Squad delete all the unnecessary add on software and install my MS Office 07. Hopefully it doesn't take a shit on me, I need it to last untill July...

 

[CobraBob]

If you're mainly downloading video, why didn't you consider an iPad or or Tab device vs. a netbook? My wife watches videos all the time on her iPad. She loves it. And battery life is outstanding. Or are you wanting to download and save videos to the netbook's hard drive?

 

[Satyr]

If you're mainly downloading video, why didn't you consider an iPad or or Tab device vs. a netbook? My wife watches videos all the time on her iPad. She loves it. And battery life is outstanding. Or are you wanting to download and save videos to the netbook's hard drive?

Even if he wants to download video, you can still do that with the iPad. There is the problem of storage, but you can still hold 10 or more videos at ~700 mb/ea.

 

[Fuerza]

If you're mainly downloading video, why didn't you consider an iPad or or Tab device vs. a netbook? My wife watches videos all the time on her iPad. She loves it. And battery life is outstanding. Or are you wanting to download and save videos to the netbook's hard drive?

We don't have WIFI or 3G here. I need to be able to plug into a LAN cable.

 

[CobraBob]

Ah, now I understand why you bought the netbook.

 

[Fuerza]

Just wanted to give a little review encase anyone was looking for a netbook. I got mine in the mail about 3 weeks ago. First it came with bloatware products and the guys at bestbuy added their crap too it as well. I deleted off everything I could without getting into the operating system and hardware. The processor is on the slow side, but I wasn't expecting too much. Internet explorer is slow on this system. I was looking online and downloaded Firefox and it runs the internet much faster. Multiply tabs of different webpages have never been an issue. Firefox works! I actually prefer Google Chrome but my understanding is that Chrome uses a lot of RAM and this little machine would slow down even further. The sound quality is weak, the speakers just don't cut it. I crank the volume up to 100 and it still dead quiet when trying to watch a movie. Headphone work just fine but I hate wearing headphones. It plays movies just fine, no issues with image quality. I think the picture is very good. I also use Skype on it, so far that has worked perfectly, no issues with the camera and built in microphone. It seems to run Office fine, no issues there. I don't multi task with it, that's not what I'm using this system for. It does get pretty warm, I have heard the fan kick on one time when I was downloading a movie while another one was playing on Media player. Weight and size are fine, its small like I wanted. It has plenty of USB ports and an SD card reader with is useful, no CD drive but I don't need them anyway. Overall I'm okay with it and with only $350 invested into it. It's cheap if it craps out, so I'm not too worried.

 

[CobraBob]

Thanks for posting your follow-up. I expected pretty much everything you wrote. I tried a higher end netbook (Asus) over a year ago and while it was satisfactory (ran full version of Windows 7 Home Edition) it just wasn't enough so I ended up buying a nice Dell notebook. I'm still using the Dell.

 

[kevinatfms]

grab a 2GB stick of RAM, it will help in the video department. and see if you can try to remove most of the bloatware that comes with those machines. i bought an asus eeepc last year and it has been running great. i actually play half-life on it while in trips which is not the newest game but still fun as a shooter.

also make sure you turn it off once in a while, most netbooks dont have the cooling profile of the bigger laptops and can really heat up and you will notice a huge performance decline. i usually turn mine off in the evening and then power it up during the trip so i start with a fresh "cool" computer.

oh and i also forgot, i got my netbook, case and 2GB stick of ram on newegg.com for $245 shipped. it was a hell of a deal and the only regret is that its a magenta red color which is not the best looking, as i would have prefered black...

 

[fishin-nole]

I brought this back up to report that my battery is dying. It'll be 2 yrs old in June and after charging over night it's only at about 40%.

 

[CobraBob]

Do you ever deep charge the battery? When did you typically charge the battery? Two years is a bit early unless you use the computer daily and have pretty much charged it daily. I've had my Dell notebook for about two years and the battery is as strong as ever, charge wise.