I'm in the market for a UMPC.. which seem to have been renamed netbooks.. basically i want a tiny laptop. The specs on the Atom based UMPCs are sufficient for what i want.. which is basically a web browser, divx/mp3 player and occasional retro (like, NOID games) gaming, nothing beyond GMA950 (or even 850)graphics.

Looking at the Toshiba NB100. 8.9", N270. ram and hd are irrelevant because they'll be upgraded anyway. The base price is £180. Are toshiba laptops as quality as they used to be? anyone got experience with this model? any good? i've demoed it and get on with the screen, kb, trackpad

never really paid much attention to laptops since they're too big to be pocketable and thus too big to be truely portable (for me, a lazy bastard) but this toshiba can fit in my jacket pocket.. it's definitely not meant as a desktop replacement, for me as i've got a decent desktop.. just a bit of fun toy really.. but as it'll be on a LOT i do want a quality one..

not tried the toshiba but i use a acer aspire one running ubuntu brilliant little thing

ive also got an asus eeepc but thats too small for daily use

i use my acer all the time (only turn on my desktop for call of duty)

ive upgraded the ram on the acer to 1.5 gig wich was hard work you have to take the whole thing apart ,

id look for one with decent ram or one with the flap on the bottom for adding ram

Bazza

aye the nb100 has the flap - not that removing the lid of a machine worries me overmuch(i build desktops), as i'll likely be changing the hard drive at some point. Will be going for 2gb ram.. the one i've seen has Ubuntu, but i'll have to see if i get on with that.. like as not XP will put in an appearance too.

e2a:an

Ive got an elonex web book, dual booting ubuntu and windows 7 ,both run fine.The screen size can be a bit small for some applications and web pages,but livable, battery life is around 2-3 hours so not to bad when sitting in a field waiting for the genny to turn up.Its main use is either a remote for the touch screen pc or stand alone unit ,to control pretty lights at gigs,a job it does without a problem.However it does struggle when asked to control audio kit.

I am using a Samsung NC10 these days, and could not be happier with it. Battery life of about 6-8 hours, decent little keyboard and copes quite well with streaming video over the network, net browsing and writing stuff in Office 2k7. Best bet is to have a look at some reviews of the various makes and see which one suits you best

Bought an Acer AspireOne 531 BA-01 today, £249.00. new model, 1gb ram, 160gb hd, batt life claimed 7.3hr but the laptop reckons more like 6. got an LED backlit LCD on it, 10.1"

very happy with it so far, typing this on it.. it's light, runs cool, snappy enough for me. sound seems good, will see how good it is with some videos in a bit. Keyboard is easy to get used to, can easily maintain the same fast speed i maintain on any other keyboard even a full size, nice ibm business kb now that i've got used to it, touchpad is multitouch and just right

this is how laptops should be, little thin and light things with decent batteries, fuck this 1hr 15min shit like my samsung r20, and fuck x2 laptops over 1.2kg.. man i love this thing so far. shame it isn't pocketable but it will fit in a small sleeve in a small sports rucksack and that's good enough for me.

e2a: i'll be upgrading this to 2gb of ram fairly soon, so i can increase the graphics memory. The 160gb hd will do me until it breaks at which point i will replace it with a solid state drive, unless i become considerably less skint in the meantime . I have several tb of storage in my main pc so 160gb is enough for now.

¿What OS is it running?

We've been doing a lot of research into netbooks for our company. The Asus eee pc 1000HE is widely regarded as the best netbook available at the moment - but it's almost impossible to get hold of Anyway there is now the Asus eee pc 1005HA taking up it's mantle - can get low spec version for £250 and the higher spec ~£300.

The next best is Samsung NC10. When windows 7 is released it'll be interesting - everything moves so fast that it's difficult to actually decide when to buy because there is always something better just round the corner...

B

Windows XP. Which is what everything else in the house runs.. the Toshiba i tried had ubuntu linux. glad i didn't have to familiarise with a new OS although it did look simple to perform basic user functions... logical layout & controls

I've tried vista and it sucked on a core2duo, wouldn't want to run it on this. I played that BTCC vid last night, handled it well till i got bored and put some comedy on.. surprised how good it is actually with only 8mb shared video ram.. laptop can set 224mb though so no worries there. Sound is good although lacks a touch of weight - fine through earphones though.

I'm not much of a gamer, so i'm not sure what games it will play but i have played destruction derby on a 12" laptop with the same graphics in dosbox (vista).. the old eeepc 701 (630mhz smelleron) was all good with a lot of old retro games.. and being that i grew up with most of the classics it's all good.. games up to a few years ago i'd imagine.. the original soldier of fortune, house of the dead etc should work on this, i played them on less powerful machines in the day. i'm going to put a couple of games on this so maybe a later report to come.