While I was looking for a picture of my version of the AlphaSmart for yesterday’s post I came across a post touting the superiority of the Neo (that’s what they’re calling AlphaSmarts these days) over netbooks. To say I was shocked is an understatement. In these times when netbooks flow from the heavens like water, why in the world would anyone still use an AlphaSmart? I was doubly surprised to discover that this guy is an SF writer (he went to Viable Paradice). Thinking on it, I’ve probably met him. But that’s neither here nor there, my main shock remains: AlphaSmart over netbook? No wai!

He even has the same netbook I do, a Samsung NC10. Yet he still feels that the portability and usability of an AlphaSmart is far, far better. He also cites battery longevity. Though I’ll agree that years of battery life is better than a few hours, ever since I got my NC10 I haven’t felt chained to an outlet. (It’s the 7+ hours of battery life, I love it, so.) And while it is great to have a machine that allows you to concentrate on just one thing, writing, the device is just a little too unitasking for me.

One of the reasons I stopped using my AlphaSmart is that it was crap for editing. Sure, it would allow you to get some words down on the screen and drive forward. However, you certainly can’t edit really well on that thing, or go back through what you’ve written and try to take stock in a meaningful way. And only seeing 4 lines of text at a time felt like far too little. You can’t edit already-existing text. And if you’ve typed a major chunk of your novel on the thing, good luck trying to get a sense of the structure.

Not that Marko claimed the Neo could do any of these things. These were just my reasons for giving the machine up. I needed a gadget that would allow me to do all of my writing tasks, from the first draft through to the editing stage, that was easy to carry, light, and had a reasonably-sized screen. Aftre I accomplished that with my Eee PC, my next goal was a netbok with long battery life so I wouldn’t have to worry about outlets. And here were are.

Having read through his whole review, though, do you think that the Neo has enough advantages over a netbook to justify putting the latter aside?

For reasons that should be clear to everyone reading this blog, I’m usually the person folks in my circle of friends and acquaintances come to when they want advice on which netbook to buy. I am the netbook queen. Plus, I get to play with (and sometimes review) a larger sample than most. Thing is, my netbook advice hasn’t changed in many months. So I thought it would be good to put it in a post here.

If you’re looking for a netbook, these are the ones I suggest: (more…)

Sorry I’m so late posting this conclusion. Lots of stuff going on at work. But the reviews editor informed me Friday that we have to send the UL30 back to ASUS, so now seems a good time to post the wrap-up.

As I said in my last post, I am definitely a netbook person when it comes to computers I carry around all the time and use anywhere. However, my needs and experience are not necessarily everyone’s. I can see the UL30 or other ultraportables being great machines for people who travel a great deal, folks going on extended trips (particularly abroad), and people with access to tables on their long commute.

Not everyone needs or wants to carry a laptop around all the time just in case you have a spare moment to write on them. Not everyone rides a cramped and crowded subway. I fall into the realm of Power User for netbooks, so what I need and do are on the extreme end of what mainstream consumers want.

That said, the UL30 came pretty close to being the kind of machine I want for a secondary computer. Perhaps if systems like this and with this price had come along before netbooks, I would be perfectly content. It has all the things I wished for back in the day. (The Day being 2 years ago. Sad, I know.)

I’m back to carrying my NC10 around now. Seshet missed me, I can tell. She always gets a little nervous when a new, cool netbook or notebook lands on my desk. However, I can say with some authority that I still think the Samsung NC10 (and its subsequent update the N110) is the best netbook I’ve ever tried. I’m glad I own one and I won’t be trading it for a fancy ultraportable any time soon.

In the review of the ASUS UL30 I mentioned that the boot time is a slow 1 minute and 16 seconds. This slowness also applies to coming out of hibernation. In both cases it probably has to do with the number of programs running on startup and in the background. So if you do buy this notebook, I suggest you go in and do some pruning. (I can’t since this is a review unit.) This should improve both boot and wake time.

The laptop does include a solution to that in the form of ExpressGate, ASUS’ instant-on OS. This boots up in about 10 – 15 seconds and from there you can access a web browser, Skype, music and pictures. The one thing I wish this instant-on had was a notepad or something so I could do some simple writing tasks (like these posts) without booting the full OS. I can’t access the web on the subway, so even being able to access GoogleDocs doesn’t do much for me.

Boot and wake time can be tweaked, like I said, so it’s not a tragedy.

Meanwhile, I’ve taken the system to several press events this week and it’s not as convenient for taking notes as my netbook. My NC10 wakes up pretty quickly and it’s easier to perch on the edge of a small table or my lap for notes. Of course, if I had a tablet it would be even easier, but we won’t get into that right now.

So again, I find myself wishing for my NC10 instead of the UL30. I do still really like this machine in general. It’s just not a netbook.

For me, this experience reinforces what I’ve always thought: though light and inexpensive 12 and 13 inch laptops have wonderful screen real-estate, when looking for a laptop to carry around with me everywhere at all times, the 9 and 10 inch sizes are better. Even 11.6 is more than I need.

But when it comes to power, I do find myself wishing that 10-inch netbooks came with CULV processors so that I could run more programs at once. Perhaps that will happen sometime in the near future. Or the new Intel Atom “Pine Trail” will provide the power I seek.

I promise I’ll stop talking about Samsung any day now. There are plenty of other tech topics to blog about. Like WordPress.  Or keyboards. Or MP3 players.  I did want to put in a plug for a couple of communities I frequent often – SammyNetbook and Linux on my Samsung.

One thing I find interesting about the netbook craze is how netbook-specific communities pop up very soon after the netbooks are announced or come out. Back when the original Eee PC came out I found a lot of great information on EeeUser. I was unfamiliar with Linux, so the tutorials and explanations I found there on how to add programs and make my BlueTooth dongle work really helped. Now with almost every new entrant into the netbook category you’re likely to find a community of dedicated users.

I found SammyNetbook when I was attempting to make the hardware on the NC10 play nice with Windows 7.  That’s also where I found out that Fedora works on it out of the box, which was very useful in writing my Linux piece. Someone there pointed me to Linux on my Samsung and I intend to read and contribute there a lot over the next few weeks. I’m putting Linux Mint on my Samsung, but I’m waiting until the next version comes out. Ubuntu, which Mint is based on, is set to have better compatibility with netbooks, so it follows that Mint will, too.

I think it’s awesome that if you buy a netbook you’re likely to find a group of people who also have one and are dedicated to solving problems, trying new things, and extolling its virtues.

It’s sold by a third party and there’s a 2 – 3 day delay, but the product page lists the Samsung N110 as “In Stock”.  It’s just a few dollars more than the Samsung NC10 Special Edition and about $50 more than the original NC10.

If you end up getting one, tell me how you like it!

Last time on As The Netbook Turns I was patiently waiting for the Samsung N110 to become available for pre-order on Amazon.com (ETA: it’s there now). However, the more I thought about it, and the longer it went without being on Amazon, the more I kept looking at the Samsung NC10 Special Edition, instead.

For those unaware, the NC10 SE is pretty much the same as the regular NC10 except it has a larger trackpad and comes with a high-capacity battery for longer life. (It’ll probably get over 7 hours.) It came out shortly before the announcement of the Samsung N110, which is pretty much the same as the NC10 except it has a larger trackpad and a high capacity battery. …Yeah.

Okay, there are two other differences. First, the chassis (housing) of the N110 is slightly different. It has rounded corners and a glossy lid and in general a sleeker look.  Also, the screen itself is glossy, not matte.

I liked the look of the N110 and that’s why I decided to buy it. Then I started leaning back toward the NC10 SE. We even had several discussions about it over on the SammyNetbook community. The screen ended up being a big part of my wavering. I didn’t think glossy or matte made a difference to me until I spent a month using a loaner glossy screen netbook and found that my eyes were far less happy. Taking that as a sign, I decided to go for the Special Edition NC10.

Lucky for me I had a huge Amazon gift certificate to cover most of it.

I still think the N110 is a great netbook and, if you don’t mind or prefer a glossy screen, I say get it! If you prefer matte, then grab the NC10 SE. Either way you’ll have a long-life battery, a large, useful touchpad, and the best netbook keyboard on the market.

I’ve been sitting on this for weeks and weeks but now I can finally say it: I am totally in love with the Samsung N110 and I’m buying one the instant it comes out.

We had this in Laptop’s offices a while ago to review and I spent maybe 5 minutes with it before I knew I had to have it.  The NC10 was my former favorite, and the N110 boasts a slightly more rounded design, a larger trackpad, and more battery life. It has the same fantastic keyboard, thus making it one awesome netbook.

It’s not out until April (though Amazon – and I am SO there whe the pre-order page is up) so I have time to save up my pennies for it.

I’m so excited, I can’t tell you!

The Samsung NC20 arrived in our office today.  It has to go back from whence it came in a week, which saddens me.  I haven’t had a chance to play with it much, but it’s essentially a 12-inch NC10, and I love me the NC10.

Having a 12-inch system stretches the definition of netbook a bit, I agree.  My boss told me long ago (I think the day I interviewed) that he felt consumers who go for netbooks really want 12-inch ultraportables that don’t cost an arm and a leg.  Figure out how to combine the 12-inch form factor with a $350 asking price and you can go swimming in the money you’ll make.  (I’m paraphrasing here.)

Dell came out with the Mini 12, but it had a slow hard drive, 1 gig of memory, and Vista.  Yeah.  Even though you can get it with XP now, I don’t see the Mini 12 tearing up the netbook charts.  The NC20 may have a better chance — after all, the 10-inch version is pretty popular.  I think it all hinges on our review :)

As does, I suppose, my true desire for it.  We’ll see how I feel after I’ve played with it for a bit.

Last night I dreamed that I finally bought a black Samsung NC10 and showed it off to everyone. When I woke up I was horrendously disappointed that it wasn’t all true. This makes me a huge dork, I think.