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Is the price too cheap for a laptop?

#6
Hawaii Islander said:
This laptop is basically for surfing the net and emailing, etc. It doesn't have the Operating system and applications software to do too much. I didn't see a hard drive listed either. You can get a much more versatile lap top for $50 to $100 more.

Checkout Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy or even Dell.

Tiger Direct is a good place to look too.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/
Click to expand...

Looks like it may be a 20G HD, although they snuck that in in the Head Line. Pretty slow, only good for the net as most people have already said. ASUS used to make a good Motherboard, but I have never liked or had much respect for there laptops. Even ones that pretended to be "uptodate".

Seriously, look for a used IBM/Lenovo or an HP/Compaq on sale or used, you'll spend between $300 and $400 but endup with a useable machine that will last.
 
#7
I got my HP brand new 6/2008 for 600$, its been alittle over a year and still running fine. Its survived 4 terms of college and there was some drunkeness , it got a chip out of the side but i love it. Its being used right now:)

btw i used nortons system doctor or whatver its like 60$ a year and keeps viruses out.
 
#8
The Asus EEE was originally designed to be a low cost laptop for schoolchildren in third world countries to be a better educational tool. It was designed to be cheap for the schools to purchase, and to be able to run low-resource usage software for learning, as well as have internet and network access.

As previously mentioned, it makes a good surfing computer for travel, but that's about it. Check out a low cost Acer notebook, price vs. features should be comparable to all other similarly priced brands, if not a little better in some areas, and tend to have a little better reliability overall.
 
#9
I have an Acer aspire netbook that I bought for about 350 that's worth every penny.
It has a larger 10.1 (.1, who cares?) a larger 6 cell battery(9hrs) , a 160 GB hard disk, 1 GB of memory, runs XP on Intel's new Atom processor and motherboard which is specifically designed for this application. I have replaced XP with Ubuntu and use it for school as is lighter and runs longer(than a full size laptop) and does all the things I need it for word processing spreadsheets etc.(open office) an to access the internet.
 
#13
The Eee is great little machine, but if you're going to do anything more than network work, surfing the infonet or word processing and stuff you might want to look at other netbooks that are a little more robust.
The Acer Aspire comes to mind (which is also a little badass machine)

Eee with a 250gb USB hardrive and pretty much anyone is good to go for everyday use, or for what most people use laptops for. People tend to way over pay for options they will actually never use.

Too cheap? is there such a thing?
 
#15
musicguy123 said:
Will it be very slow?
Click to expand...

It'll run standard tasks nearly as fast as any other computer. Internet, Office/productivity suite, e-mail, etc. will all be just fine. Playing games, rendering 3d images, etc. are a bit more of an issue.

FWIW, I recommend waiting until you can get Windows 7 put on one. I haven't kept up on the whole upgrade process, but you'll be getting a substantially better OS. PC manufacturers should be able to start installing it soon on their computers, or at the worst you can get it bundled in for cheap.
 
#16
The issue is NOT the laptop - it's the site.

There are a number of bait-and-switch and fraud websites out there. I nearly placed a $2600 order with one this week before I decided their prices were too good to be true. It was SkyPointDigital.com. They also appear on the web as Bingo Cameras, aka Sonic Cameras, aka Highpointcameras. I found enough reviews to know this bunch of crooks has at least 10 websites under different names.

BEFORE BUYING: Google the website name followed by the word 'reviews"...as in "Website.com reviews" before making any purchase. Check out the online vendor...you are bound to get hits, positive or negative. This saved me from making a very expensive mistake.

This is called doing your homework, and it's important!

Laptops are commodities. ANY unit you consider buying will appear at dozens of sites. Choose a reputable vendor with positive reviews. I don't care what you buy - just don't get taken doing it. The website you linked looks like something a high school kid put together in a weekend - I'd be very suspicious.
 
#20
Auzzie-Phoenix said:
The Asus EEE was originally designed to be a low cost laptop for schoolchildren in third world countries to be a better educational tool. It was designed to be cheap for the schools to purchase, and to be able to run low-resource usage software for learning, as well as have internet and network access.

As previously mentioned, it makes a good surfing computer for travel, but that's about it. Check out a low cost Acer notebook, price vs. features should be comparable to all other similarly priced brands, if not a little better in some areas, and tend to have a little better reliability overall.
Click to expand...

Ish. You're thinking of the OLPC project which sort of started the whole 'netbook' thing going this time around. There have always been devices like this from psion and others.

I have an Eee 900 (the one listed there) and absolutely love it. The form factor is low-powered and designed around running web browsers, word processors and the like. Don't be expecting Crysis.

If you decide you do want a netbook (and it's not a laptop or a desktop and so wont replace either of those things) then look for one with an Atom processor such as the Eee 901 or a competitor. The 900s have Celerons and are quite slow. The Atom processors rule and can keep up with pretty much everything you can throw at it.

My Eee goes with me everywhere, places where I couldn't or otherwise wouldn't take a laptop. It goes to uni every day, on planes, trains, in cars (passenger obv) and the like. Would I want to type an essay on it? Use the GIMP? Have it as my only pc? Nope, but it does what it does well.

Edit - Forgot to add that mine runs Ubuntu, and has sported Crunchbang, Puppeee and even (shhhhhh) Windows 7 in the past year and a bit. But it's got to be Ubuntu for day-to-day use.
 

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