lets talk (verizon) netbooks

[bucket truck]

I'm thinking of getting my wife a netbook. Verizon has a few that are free with 2 year contract. Do any of y'all have experience (good or bad) with these?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[garrett]

honestly your better off just buying one outright there not expensive at all and then you wont be stuck in a contract.

if you buy it from verizon you'll be stuck in a contract for 2 years paying one of the below.

39.99 for 250mb monthly
59.99 for 5gb monthly

ive had 5 netbooks(4 brands) and the HP netbooks are by far the best... yes there a little bit more at about 400 dollars but you get what you pay for. Ive also had EEE PC, ASUS, and dell netbooks.

in order from worst to best would be
EEE PC, Dell, ASUS, HP

just do your research on them theres LOTS and LOTS of video's on youtube with reviews and what not for just about any netbook that is publicly available.

You may not want this but most netbooks run Apple's OSX very well i ran it on all my netbooks and loved it.

 

[bucket truck]

Well what I'm looking at is we are still on our unlimited Alltel plan. So if I can add it to our existing plan. It would be great. We don't have internet at the house we use the neighbors very weak wifi that usually doesn't work or just use my rooted droid. There is a hp that is free on the verizon site and I'm just weighing options right now.

 

[gadgetrants]

honestly your better off just buying one outright there not expensive at all and then you wont be stuck in a contract.

Agreed. To put it in other words, the great "teaser" price (even free) on the netbook means nothing if you take the monthly contract fee on the netbook and multiply it by 12 or 24 months. Of course, you're also buying "unlimited" internet access, but if you have an Android phone, there are other ways to do it for much less (even free!).

in order from worst to best would be
EEE PC, Dell, ASUS, HP

Hmmm....that's an odd thing to say. Asus makes the EEE PC. Care to elaborate on what you meant? Maybe you were thinking Acer or MSI down at the low end? Really, for $300 all of the 10" netbooks are nearly indistinguishable. On the other hand, the dual-core Atom netbooks are out and about, and you can pick up a very nice one for about $350:

Amazon.com: ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Netbook (Blue): Computer & Accessories: Reviews, Prices & more


-Matt

 

[garrett]

Well what I'm looking at is we are still on our unlimited Alltel plan. So if I can add it to our existing plan. It would be great. We don't have internet at the house we use the neighbors very weak wifi that usually doesn't work or just use my rooted droid. There is a hp that is free on the verizon site and I'm just weighing options right now.

you wont be able to add it to your current unlimited plan. They are going to require you to start a new contract just for the netbook. Verizon isn't going to say heres a free netbook go ahead and use it on your current plan. They give it away for free because they know there going to get more then enough compensation from the 2 years worth of data charges.

Hmmm....that's an odd thing to say. Asus makes the EEE PC. Care to elaborate on what you meant? Maybe you were thinking Acer or MSI down at the low end? Really, for $300 all of the 10" netbooks are nearly indistinguishable. On the other hand, the dual-core Atom netbooks are out and about, and you can pick up a very nice one for about $350:

Amazon.com: ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Netbook (Blue): Computer & Accessories: Reviews, Prices & more


-Matt

Yeah i guess that does sound kind of weird but ASUS also makes netbooks that are not part of the EEE PC product line. For instance the N series Netbooks they make.

They have both N series notebooks and netbooks.

 

[bomber889]

why a netbook?

 

[gadgetrants]

Yeah i guess that does sound kind of weird but ASUS also makes netbooks that are not part of the EEE PC product line. For instance the N series Netbooks they make.

They have both N series notebooks and netbooks.

Ah, gotcha. I guess I tend to think of the 10.1" as "netbook" and the latest 12" as "thin and light"--I have an Asus UL30A 13.3" that's like the N, but an inch bigger. But you're right...Asus calls the N series netbooks too.

-Matt

 

[garrett]

Ah, gotcha. I guess I tend to think of the 10.1" as "netbook" and the latest 12" as "thin and light"--I have an Asus UL30A 13.3" that's like the N, but an inch bigger. But you're right...Asus calls the N series netbooks too.

-Matt

yeah i dont think this was one of ASUS's brightest moments but the N series netbooks and laptops are amazing.

 

[bucket truck]

why a netbook?

Because she wants something small enough to fit in her purse.