Easy To Use Netbook/Laptop

[GB72]

My mum has finally joined the ranks of the'silver surfers' and has learned how to use the net and email. Her birthday is coming up and the family are looking to chip in to get her something to use these skills on from the comfort of her armachair.

I was thinking of a netbook over a laptop for what she would use it for. Needs good, quick net access but not a lot else. Ease of use would help but as we are talking PCs here (budget will not run to Mac) then it never going to be a walk in the park. Must be wireless out of the box.

Ideally not looking to spend more than £300 but realistic about what she will use it for so if it could come in cheaper based on the fact that she will not be using processor hungry programs then that would be better.

Anybody got any suggestions and personal recommendations are better than any review.

 

[Dodger]

I have recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5742Z and it is superb and dead easy to use.

Cost me exactly £300.

 

[Farneyman]

I also use an acer aspire one.

Pretty basic but great for simple surfing, youtube, email, photos ect Wireless

Cost about £180 a year or so ago.

 

[SwingSlow]

An iPad? Easy to use. Apps are cheap. Can download newspapers, books and magazines. Watch films. Screen very clear. Slim and portable. Over budget at £399.

 

[stevie_r]

An iPad? Easy to use. Apps are cheap. Can download newspapers, books and magazines. Watch films. Screen very clear. Slim and portable. Over budget at £399.

HID has one, superb apart from the lack of 'flash' support IMHO

 

[GB72]

My wife has an iPad and it is a great bit of kit but the price is a bit high. She learned on a pc and I think a netbook will be fine for her. Acer is sounding like a good option at the moment.

 

[fundy]

I bought my wife a Samsung netbook at Xmas, she now swears blind by it and has ditched her normal laptop.

As well as the normal computing tasks it also doubles as a kindle reader for her.

If buying a netbook, one key area to look at is battery life, some last as little as 2 or 3 hours whereas the newer Samsungs and some others can last 12 hours, this certainly made a huge difference when we were choosing (most use similar processors, memory etc). Also, check that the keyboard is useable, we found several models where the keyboards were much smaller and far less user friendly.

 

[GB72]

What model samsung was it as I have looked at a couple that are getting good reviews on play.com and are in budget

 

[mally]

The Acer aspire one is a good little netbook but can run quite slow if you load too much up on it, but would be ideal for web surfing and basic office tasks (just given ours to my 7 year old daughter who is well up to speed on it)

 

[fundy]

What model samsung was it as I have looked at a couple that are getting good reviews on play.com and are in budget

Its a Samsung N145+

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Netbook-...6003&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0044...1PJ791KDE5QDFPH


The top one is slightly dearer as has a bigger HD, not sure whether thats important to you

 

[rosecott]

What model samsung was it as I have looked at a couple that are getting good reviews on play.com and are in budget

Its a Samsung N145+

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Netbook-...6003&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0044...1PJ791KDE5QDFPH


The top one is slightly dearer as has a bigger HD, not sure whether thats important to you

Bought the Samsung N150 plus some six months ago. Cracking little machine but spend another £20 on 2Mb RAM.

 

[Crawfy]

What model samsung was it as I have looked at a couple that are getting good reviews on play.com and are in budget

Its a Samsung N145+

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Netbook-...6003&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0044...1PJ791KDE5QDFPH


The top one is slightly dearer as has a bigger HD, not sure whether thats important to you

Bought the Samsung N150 plus some six months ago. Cracking little machine but spend another £20 on 2Mb RAM.

Slightly off topic : Can you load Itunes onto these netbooks then hold teh music files on an external drive ?

Anyone tried it ? If so it maybe a cheaper option as I am looking to ditch old lappy in teh New year

 

[brendy]

Itunes libraries can be held on virtually any media as you can press and hold shift key and double click the program to start. This gives you the option of using multiple libraries.