[magnauk]

At the beginning of the year i bought a samsung netbook, it cost about £250, and it's absolutely useless. It runs on Windows 7 Starter and is constantly freezing and dithering due to long running scripts, or faltering for some reason or mainly for no reason.The only good point about it is the handy size and ... er, I think that's it. I actually hate the thing and am wondering if all netbooks are the same as I'd love to get one that works efficiently and one that doesn't get me so mad I want to use it as a football.

[Gormond]

I would always get a tablet for what mst people buy a netbook for.

[magnauk]

I always intended getting a tablet, but whilst visiting friends at christmas I was advised that tablets were not the best choice and to get a netbook and samsung was the best. How I wish I'd ignored their advice, but it was from a young chap who sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Do you think a tablet would be more efficient, what make would you recommend.

[dslrocks]

It's probably that the netbook is under-specced and has 1GB of RAM (most of them seem to have, from a google). Windows 7 is a memory hungry beast and requires 1GB minimum to run. So if your computer only just meets the minimum specs, then performance isn't going to be great at all. Most computers with Windows pre installed on come with a boatload of shite loaded on by the manufacturer that's not needed, thus exacerbating the problem.

It's like the PCs that had only 128MB of RAM and ran XP. Was semi OK booting up but as soon as you had to do anything productive with the computer, it would run slowly. Never expect a PC with a minimum spec to perform adequately.

[TheBigM]

Originally Posted by magnauk

I always intended getting a tablet, but whilst visiting friends at christmas I was advised that tablets were not the best choice and to get a netbook and samsung was the best. How I wish I'd ignored their advice, but it was from a young chap who sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Do you think a tablet would be more efficient, what make would you recommend.

Yes, netbooks are rubbish.

Depends on what you want from a tablet. iPads are the gold standard. Other ones you might be interested in include the Asus Transformer series (the Prime plus a new cheaper one, just released).

Unless you are on a very tight budget - consider Ultrabooks, they might be what you actually need - a thin & light laptop for portability but fully-featured and powerful. An Acer Aspire S3 is £600 I think, off the top of my head.

[noise747]

Best thing to do with a netbook is to scrap windows and stick on a Linux distro, windows is far too resource hungry to run on most netbooks. Saying that I know someone who got a Acer netbook with Xp on, and it runs fine, but i did update the memory from 1Gb to 2.

As for tablets, in my opinion I think they are a waste of time, but no doubt people here will say they are fine. at least with a netbook you do get a keyboard, even if it is a bit small, something which a tablet don't have, you got to reply on their touch screen,

[c4rv]

a netbook is not a laptop, difference uses. And for basic uses like media playback and basic web access a tablet can do those but there are a few areas where a netbook has uses over a tablet. Funnily, browsing forums is one of them.

[Batwing]

Originally Posted by c4rv

a netbook is not a laptop, difference uses. And for basic uses like media playback and basic web access a tablet can do those but there are a few areas where a netbook has uses over a tablet. Funnily, browsing forums is one of them.

A netbook is a laptop, just with less power. The thing that determines the uses are the specifications of the hardware as it relates to the requirements of the software being used.

I have a 'netbook' that I installed a SSD on and overall it performs much better now than the 'laptop' it replaced that had a more powerful CPU. This 'netbook' also has 4 gigs of ram where typically those little laptops had 1 or 2 at the most.

In the end they are all laptops with varying levels of power and capabilities, which are getting better and better each generation.

[psionic]

Originally Posted by magnauk

At the beginning of the year i bought a samsung netbook, it cost about £250, and it's absolutely useless. It runs on Windows 7 Starter and is constantly freezing and dithering due to long running scripts, or faltering for some reason or mainly for no reason.The only good point about it is the handy size and ... er, I think that's it. I actually hate the thing and am wondering if all netbooks are the same as I'd love to get one that works efficiently and one that doesn't get me so mad I want to use it as a football.

My daughter's netbook was significantly improved by adding more RAM. How much did your Samsung come with?

[TheBigM]

Originally Posted by Batwing

A netbook is a laptop, just with less power. The thing that determines the uses are the specifications of the hardware as it relates to the requirements of the software being used.

I have a 'netbook' that I installed a SSD on and overall it performs much better now than the 'laptop' it replaced that had a more powerful CPU. This 'netbook' also has 4 gigs of ram where typically those little laptops had 1 or 2 at the most.

In the end they are all laptops with varying levels of power and capabilities, which are getting better and better each generation.

In the same way that you wouldn't use a phone for all the same things as a tablet, you wouldn't use a netbook for all the things you use a laptop for.

It's not a question of performance but being limited primarily by the screen (small size and low resolution) and second the small keyboard.

The small screen limits the kind of software you can run on there and how long you can use the device. The small keyboard makes it unpleasant to do any kind of writing, let alone long-form writing.

Depending on what you actually do - a tablet or ultrabook are the way to go. Tablet gives a bit more flexibility as you can always add things like bluetooth keyboards to your set up.

[alanwarwic]

Netbooks had memory and screen limitations imposed on them by Intel.
You do not get this with AMD Fusion netbooks.

I'd expect ARM tablets to morph into netbooks.

[perspective_man]

I can't understand the netbook hate! I bought a Samsung NC210 in July 2011 for $650 (about £320); it runs Windows 7 Ultimate on 2GB of RAM and a 1.5Ghz single-core CPU. I absolutely love this netbook and have no complaint against it.

It weighs only about two kilograms, runs deadly silent (seriously, you hear utterly no noise from this thing), has a monstrous battery that holds at least 8 hours, doesn't get heated up like it's being fried on a pan after long usage time, and best of all, looks sleek and stylish. What is there to hate on this thing!

Maybe you can upgrade your RAM to better handle Windows 7? Mine originally comes with 1GB, then I replaced it with a 2GB bar. You'll get noticeably smoother software performance with this simple upgrade.

[Missli]

I love my netbook. Its a PB dots (intel atom n570) which I got for a bargain £199. I upgraded the RAM from 1 to 2GB immediately, as it was noticeably struggling at first.

Since upgrading the RAM (approx £10 off Amazon), it runs superbly. I use it on a logitech speaker lapdesk which amplifies the sound superbly, and it runs everything except the latest games. I play loads of games on it, so is fine for gaming (for my purposes).

I love the portability, and lightness of it. Have got an external DVD drive/writer I picked up for £20 but rarely use it, as make disk images, and mount as drives.

I stuck with the windows 7 starter, as use VLC media player for DVD playback, so am not missing anything. A fan most definitely.

[Daedroth]

My girlfriend bought an Advent netbook a couple of years ago. She used it to take to university and type up notes in lectures. For this, it was excellent. Small, light and easy to carry around. However now she's finished university the netbook has become a bit useless. It's too slow to do anything you want a laptop to do, but that is understandable, as it isn't designed for general home use.

Netbooks are good for what they were designed for, portable computing.

[Missli]

As others have suggested, it is worth upgrading your RAM. It makes such a difference. Mine is fast, and never slow since the upgrade.

I suggest anyone having slowdowns to do the same. it is worth it for such little cost.

[platelet]

It depends on what you use it for. Netbooks don’t have the grunt of a laptop, don’t multi task very well, but as a trade off are light, cheap and have long battery life. The first thing I’d look at is if you have a resource hogging anti virus package installed. I’ve an i7 laptop for work that’s crippled by having McAfee installed. Norton has similar performance impact by many accounts.

I had a sammy netbook with McAfee on it when it shipped and it ground to a halt constantly. Replacing that with MSE had a huge effect.

Secondly as many have said a lot of netbooks ship with 1GB of ram, upgrading that can give a great performance boost relatively cheaply, and is usually a simple process to replace it.

Thirdly installing an SSD can give a significant performance boost, though it’s a touch more complicated to do it would still be cheaper than replacing it with a tablet.

It’s worth searching for specifics on your model here: http://www.sammynetbook.com/forum/
There may well be other tricks / tips you can pick up.

[magnauk]

Originally Posted by psionic

My daughter's netbook was significantly improved by adding more RAM. How much did your Samsung come with?

It has a 1gb memory. Is it expensive to have this upgraded? I just feel i've wasted £250 on this netbook but I do like the handiness and convenience of it's size. Funnily enough it's behaving rather well at the moment, must have taken my comment about a football to heart!!

[c4rv]

Originally Posted by magnauk

It has a 1gb memory. Is it expensive to have this upgraded? I just feel i've wasted £250 on this netbook but I do like the handiness and convenience of it's size. Funnily enough it's behaving rather well at the moment, must have taken my comment about a football to heart!!

Its not expensive to upgrade but you will need to get a 2GB memory module and you will be left with the 1GB as spare as there is only 1 memory slot and depending on the model of network, it will only support 2GB maximum.

[platelet]

what model number is it? N120, NF350, etc

[magnauk]

[quote=platelet;58473100 The first thing I’d look at is if you have a resource hogging anti virus package installed. I’ve an i7 laptop for work that’s crippled by having McAfee installed. Norton has similar performance impact by many accounts.

I had a sammy netbook with McAfee on it when it shipped and it ground to a halt constantly. Replacing that with MSE had a huge effect.[/QUOTE]
I have Kaspersky antivirus on my netbook, I wonder if that isn't helping.

[magnauk]

Originally Posted by platelet

what model number is it? N120, NF350, etc

NF110

[magnauk]

Originally Posted by c4rv

Its not expensive to upgrade but you will need to get a 2GB memory module and you will be left with the 1GB as spare as there is only 1 memory slot and depending on the model of network, it will only support 2GB maximum.

I've just watched a video of someone changing the memory module, it looks easy, I think I'll give it a go. There's a little plate under the netbook that says memory on it, i assume I just have to undo the screws, remove the plate then take one out and replace it with the 2gb. Does anything else need to be done, or will it be ok then?

[alan1302]

Originally Posted by magnauk

I've just watched a video of someone changing the memory module, it looks easy, I think I'll give it a go. There's a little plate under the netbook that says memory on it, i assume I just have to undo the screws, remove the plate then take one out and replace it with the 2gb. Does anything else need to be done, or will it be ok then?

No, that’s it – very easy to do yourself. Just make sure to earth yourself before you touch the memory or the insides of the netbook first – touching a metal tap or an unpainted part of a radiator will be ok.

[platelet]

That’s it in a nutshell. Earth yourself by grabbing a radiator before you start. The memory should cost about 10-15 quid. You should be able find the right memory module by going to the cruitical website http://www.crucial.com/uk/

[magnauk]

Thanks - I think