Best Netbook Bang for the Buck

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://jkontherun.com/2009/01/05/whats-the-best-netbook-for-the-price-right-now/#more-27215' target='_blank'>http://jkontherun.com/2009/01/05/wh...now/#more-27215</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Of course, all I can do is offer an opinion: that and a buck will get you cup of coffee at McDonald&rsquo;s. But that&rsquo;s what he asked me for, so here&rsquo;s my opinion on the best netbook for the money right now. I ruled out any device with an 8.9-inch display in my thought process. Not that there&rsquo;s anything wrong with those, but the larger 10-inch screens represent nice &ldquo;bang for buck&rdquo;. You can always upgrade some components, like memory or storage capacity, but you&rsquo;re generally stuck with a screen size for the life of a device. This pushed the current Acer Aspire One, the Dell Mini 9 and some of the Asus Eee PCs out of contention."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1231372284.usr10.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>Great article.&nbsp; I was looking at the HP 1035NR at $450 as a replacement computer for my wife.&nbsp; She currently has a 5 year old Compaq laptop, so about time for an upgrade.&nbsp; While not quite as sexy looking as the HP, the ASUS Eee PC 1000HA is quite the bang for the buck.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

[David Tucker]

The article should have really been titled "Best Netbook for your Buck If You're Only Looking for a 10" Model". It really doesn't help anyone that's looking at the 8.9" models. It just seems strange to me to throw out the 8.9" screen devices. Maybe they aren't for everyone...but they seem pretty popular!

[Chris Gohlke]

I totally agree with your point, but I think the conclusion was still spot on at $388 for a 10 inch screen, 6 cell battery, 160 GB drive, XP, and 1GB of ram, it is hard to go wrong with the Asus 1000HA. It is only $19 more than a similarly equipped Aspire One with 8.9 inch screen. Or $29 more than the MSI Wind with the 10 inch screen but smaller hard drive and 3 cell battery.

They are all great buys, but it is going to come down to personal preference at that point. For example, given the above, I'm going to go for the Aspire One (which I have) since the physically smaller size of the overall unit is more important than the larger screen. Just the opposite for my wife, she'd rather have the larger screen, but since she does not need the larger HD or longer battery life, the Wind might be for her (well better for me since I'm buying).