"Netbooks"

[VonErichLives]

so, the major cell companies sell these "net books" they're 3lbs or less, have 160gb hd's, built in cameras, wifi and bluetooth.

I don't do a lot of "major stuff" on my laptop... check e-mail, a database program for work, surf the net, quickbooks for work...

Can these things handle a reasonable load?

Here's the one I was thinking of.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5068

I'm thinking with a 1.6ghz it's going to choke on bigger programs.

anyone's thoughts?

[Triple A]

They run beautifully. I have one and it's unbelievably smooth. Only thing it will maybe lag on is "graphics intensive" stuff like Adobe programs or newer games, but you wouldn't be doing that stuff so it will be more than fine.

[VonErichLives]

sweet, I'll have to check system requirements for the database i use, but sounds like a good mobile solution...

[Soda Popinski]

If you can live with a smaller screen then I think you won't have any problems. It's got the Nvidia ION gpu (9400m) that also speeds up transcoding and takes the load off the processor for watching HD videos.

I hear Atoms are like half the processing power of Intel Celerons. They've got Hyper-threading though which shows up in the task manager as having 2 cpu's. And that's a really good price if you can get it for $200 since they go for $400 normally.

[Droford]

Keep in mind that the $200 price is a 2 year contract at like $60 a month for a measly 5 GB a month on the mobile broadband card with overages costing 5 cents per megabyte.
I use sprint EVDO as my main connection at home and plans are currently capped at 5GB though as it stands right now Im grandfathered in under the original unlimited plan, but I burn through 10 GB a month easy doing nothing but basic web browsing and youtube videos. If they ever decide to put me in the capped bracket I'll probably have to go back to dialup (nothing else available) because $60 for 5 GB is pretty fn ridiculous.

[G]

yeah you will eventually be paying more for it, one way or another.

[VonErichLives]

ouch, I had a verizon card for my laptop a few years ago and there was no cap... yeah, that would suck.. looks like tethering to my blackberry would cost the same.

[Beauser]

I can't stand how slow my laptop can be as it is. I am not personally going any smaller.

That, and the tiny screens bug the piss out of me.

I use Adobe design software, and it would lag it down.

Trips is right, as long as you aren't doing anything to graphically intense, you should be fine.