Best Net Book!

[wings421]

I'll echo the 13" MacBook Pro. Probably the best purchase I've ever made. Get the Booq Bag Viper case for it and it will fit in your flight kit and be safe.

 

[dojetdriver]

The Macbook is an excellent piece of equipment. Personally, for me it's just a tad too big. However, when I had my12" powerbook that thing fit my needs nicely. Especially if you NEED to have an optical drive.

They can be found on various used/refurbed online outlets for less than $500 in most cases, with a warranty.

 

[N813CA]

ok who likes their netbook better than a laptop on trips? I have been told by some that I would be unhappy going from my laptop to a netbook. I just like the idea of being able to throw it in my flight bag or suitcase.

 

[adisk811]

my 13 inch macbook in a sleeve fits nicely into the flight case

 

[N813CA]

Thanks I know they will fit, but do you like it as much or willing to sacrafice not a full sized laptop?

 

[dojetdriver]

Thanks I know they will fit, but do you like it as much or willing to sacrafice not a full sized laptop?

Yes..

 

[Carl_Spackler]

Since I got my netbook, the laptop stays at home and handles some P2P duties. I have never missed it on an overnight. It is small so it fits nicely in my duffel bag in the cockpit and not in a roller bag in the cabin. Works great for commuting and you don't have to half-fold the screen when the person in front of you reclines their seat like you do with a regular laptop. Most of the pilots I see now in the crew rooms using computers are using netbooks.

I know macbooks are nice, but considering the price you could get a net book and an ipad for the price of a netbook and have money left over.

 

[Flyin2low]

I know macbooks are nice, but considering the price you could get a net book and an ipad for the price of a netbook and have money left over.

Just get an iPad and be done with it then.:laugh:

 

[CoolSidePillow]

D. oes not
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l. ast
l. long

I switched to apple a year ago. Best move I ever made... Ipad is a lil high but a 12-17 hr battery life???? That's alot of movies..

Dell isnt that bad. I have a 5 year old inspiron 2200 that works fine. All I had to do was get a new battery. I want a new laptop but I have no idea what to get so this will do for now.

 

[huncowboy]

For years I used to drag around my old '03 Dell. 6.5 lbs 15.6" used to be gaming laptop. It makes you look old in the TSA line. After that it was all about size. I got the ASUS Eee PC model 1018P.

It did everything I wanted. Surfing, netflix, bidding in FLICA, and accessing crewtrack. 10" screen, very light, and very small. 6h+ battery. No more fighting for the outlets. All this for $379. The built in webcam and the mike was kind of shady and the two buttons on the touch pad are hard to press but you never use those. Overall very good quality. I was happy with it until suddenly during a BIOS update it bricked itself. Today I was called to pick up a new one or get store credit.

So now I have the chance to do it again. Although I have only good things to say about this Eee PC, I am fairly sure I am not getting another 10" one, or one with the Atom N450 processor. I found I was scrolling a lot with the 10". I can do that on my iPhone. The CPU and the 1 gig ram was ok most the time but a simple skype video call made it cough.

Now I think I will pay extra and get an ultralight laptop. iPad is not a contender because it has no camera, and crewtrack does not load fully on Safari. Also many websites redirect you to their mobile version. Not sure if that can be turned off or not. Plus my wife wants one so we will get that regardless

I agree with the guy who said 12" seems the way to go. I wold check out the Lenovo X100e as well. 11.6" screen. On sale right now for $399. Comes with the full version of win7 btw but still the Athlon Neo which is about the same as the Intel Atom. Or the Lenovo S12.1 which comes with the Atom.

I think I will go for the 13.3" screen Toshiba Protege laptop for $779. Mostly because my local bestbuy has it right now. Comes with a 2.4Ghz Core i3, 4gig ram. It is 1" thick. My Eee PC was 0.9". Only 2" longer, and 0.8 lbs heavier. But for $400 more than a good netbook.

 

[Data]

So what'd you go with 813CA?

 

[Rekks Inbound]

Macbook Air. $999.00. Does everything a regular Macbook does, just no Superdrive. Aluminum case, so way more durable than ANY netbook out there.

Peace.

Rekks

 

[Caveman]

Dell isnt that bad. I have a 5 year old inspiron 2200 that works fine. All I had to do was get a new battery. I want a new laptop but I have no idea what to get so this will do for now.

Ditto. My wife and I both have Inspiron notebooks we bought in Jan 2005 and they still work just fine. Performance wise they are a little dated, but they still do everything we need them to do. Since it's been 6 years since I last bought a computer I had better start to re-educate myself on current technology. The iPad looks pretty cool but no USB and no Flash is a nonstarter. I guess I'll wait and check out Google's version.

 

[dojetdriver]

The iPad looks pretty cool but no USB and no Flash is a nonstarter. I guess I'll wait and check out Google's version.

That was the show stopper for as well. Coupled with no camera, no SD card support, and prolonged use of the touch keyboard drives me nuts. Even though you can buy the external components, I'm a commuter, so the smaller, lighter weight, less amount of crap I have to carry the better. Dragging around and bunch of peripheral extras just defeats the purpose.

I just picked up a Macbook air 11". Marginally bigger than a ipad but way more functional. I wish they would have gone for a more compact L x W dimension and made it thicker, but I think I'll live.

And just like my linux SSD netbook, it's hard to beat the 30 second boot up time.

 

[N813CA]

ASUS Eee PC 10 inch. Happy with it but it is slower than my old Dell.

 

[RCA]

Ipad no thanks. Not going to spend that much money on a half laptop. thanks though..

Your loss. Try laptop x10.
It's difficult to explain. I'll just say this type of computing should be the future.
Laptops will seem cumbersome and archaic in a few years.
If your not convinced. I have a nice toshiba net book for sale.

 

[CA1900]

... it's hard to beat the 30 second boot up time.

I never shut down my MacBook. Just put it to sleep, and it'll have about a one-second boot-up time! It's much more convenient that way, and it doesn't use much battery in sleep mode at all.

 

[dojetdriver]

Your loss. Try laptop x10.
It's difficult to explain. I'll just say this type of computing should be the future.
Laptops will seem cumbersome and archaic in a few years.
If your not convinced. I have a nice toshiba net book for sale.

I'd agree that it's the future of mobile computing, but not in it's current form. For most of the reasons I already mentioned. Toss in the PITA that is file/data transfer complexity compared to a standard netbook/laptop.

When it has peripheral capability, as well as a more sophisticated OS then it will definitely be a game changer.

EX, with my netbook or Macbook air, I can plug in something as basic as an SD card reader or flashdrive and transfer media over, and play that media with a host of programs. As opposed to having "synch" and convert it over to a specific format, or download apps to play the media.

I never shut down my MacBook. Just put it to sleep, and it'll have about a one-second boot-up time! It's much more convenient that way, and it doesn't use much battery in sleep mode at all.

Sometimes it's just too much fun to show off your stuff to people stuck using conventional hardware ;-)

 

[psysicx]

Ipad is coming out with the camera and usb port edition in January. Anyone have any experience with the Mac Air?

 

[Mike man]

The best netbook is the one that a flight attendant took out of my overnight bag while I walked out of the crewroom for 20 minutes.

Which sucked for me but I actually laughed so hard I cried a little because my camera bag with $3000 or so of camera stuff was left untouched.