If you’re looking to get a laptop for under £300 this Christmas – we recommend that you consider a netbook – a netbook is Laptop which doesn’t have a CD drive and tends to be a lot smaller and more importanly a lot cheaper than your average laptop – often up to a third cheaper than many laptops.
We’ve scoured the internet and found what we think are the best ones for around the £300 mark.
Dell Mini 10″ Price: £269
Dell’s Mini 10 is an attractive and understated netbook, with a 10 inch (hence the name) glass covered 1366 x 768 screen, Intel N450 1.66GHz processor and 250 GB hard drive. Quite impressive specs for a netbook. It’s a Dell, which is equal parts blessing and curse, though the design is appealing and the build quality is impressive. The supposed nine and half hour battery life is certainly impressive if it holds true, though we reckon you’ll probably get around eight.
The Dell is durable enough for regular travelling, but we did notice a few usability issues. Firstly the very narrow touchpad takes quite a while to get used to. Secondly the click buttons – embedded in the touchpad - can cause the cursor to get confused and behave erratically if you use one finger to control the cursor, and another to click simultaneously.
It's hard to dislike the Dell Mini 10, and a few usability issues aside, this is a great option to keep you productive on the go.
[product#580]
Toshiba 10" NB200 Price : £261
This 10 inch Toshiba netbook weilds the usual Atom N280 1.66GHz processor, though it’s 1024 x 600 glossy display is unusually bright, coupled with a superb all-round design the Toshiba excels during extended periods of use as a hardcore work machine. The addition of powered USBs allowing you to charge your gadgets while the netbook is off is a nice touch, and plants the NB200 firmly in the professional market.
Open up the 10.1-inch screen on the Toshiba NB200 and you could be forgiven for thinking this was just about the same as every other slimmed down lappie doing the rounds. Fortunately, though, you'd be wrong. You'll find everything from pics to video look absolutely gorgeous, making this undoubtedly one of the fanciest notebooks we've ever laid our hands on.
However, if you're feeling flush, the Toshiba NB200 really is one of the best netbooks you can buy right now.
[product#581]
Asus Seashell 1008HA Price: 275
The 1008HA set a new standard in netbook design. Previous to its release most netbooks’ design were dominated by an over-sized hinge and distracting gap between screen and keyboard. Asus showed netbooks could be sexy, without compromising (too much) on performance — the only major concession the 1008HA made was its built-in battery. The curving the case edges inwards and slimming things down has restricted its ports slightly; USB, audio and network ports sit recessed (and thus awkward) on the right hand side of the machine, while the VGA out functionality on the left is handled by a mini Displayport, converted with a custom dongle apparatus thoughtfully stashed within the Eee’s underbelly.
The rather ludicrous flash storage is out, presumably because Asus has realised that its flash memory solution never really provided the promised power savings, and is not adequate as one’s main PC storage.
In its place is the now-netbook-standard 160GB drive, a much more sensible solution in terms of expansion and useability.
[product#582]
Sony Vaio W Series Price: £275
We all remember the Sony VAIO P-series fondly. Sony looked at the burgeoning netbook market, and said “we’re going to do it this way”, releasing a £1000 netbook. We all looked at it politely, about three people bought them and then we all forgot about it. That little embarrasment forgotten Sony wandered back with the altogether more conventional W-Series. A nice, simple, well-made netbook that excels itself when it comes to video.
[product#583]
MSI Wind Price: £258
Despite having a name that sounds like a very complicated form of indigestion the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid is a capable all-round netbook. Though ever so slightly bulky the U115 is one of the few netbooks on the market that can handle modest (very modest) multi-tasking. This performance is in part down to a separate solid-state HD which is used to run the OS, and another conventional spinning drive to store programs and data. It can topple over though as the screen is pretty heavy.
[product#584]