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Reviews written: 268 Member since: Dec 1, 2000
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Lots of good netbooks with webcams
There are many good, VERY similar netbooks with decent web cams. Due to Windows licensing restrictions, most netbooks feature the same 10" display, Intel Atom N270 or N280 cpu, 1GB of ram, 160GB hard drive, webcam, microphone, and Windows XP. A DVD/CD drive is not included. Though you might want more memory, or a larger hard drive, those upgrades are rarely an option from the manufacturer.
My choice, early this past summer, was a ASUS 1008HA, which is the lightest, thinnest, and most attractive models available. Battery life is pretty good, 3-5 hours, but not nearly best of class. ASUS used a smaller battery (relative to other netbooks) to keep the weight and size down. I took it on an overseas vacation, found it great to use on a plane, motel, train, etc, made several video chats using Skype with the onboard 1.3mp webcam and microphone, with good results. The biggest weakness of the 1008 is that the hard drive and memory slots are NOT user accessible, unlike most other netbooks. If you do want to upgrade memory or the hard drive, you've got to crack open the case, remove the keyboard, etc to get to the hard drive. The 1008 is also a little pricey, running $380-390 street price. My son, "borrowed" the net book in August and is now using it to take notes in class at college.
I replaced the 1008HA with a ASUS 1005HA a few weeks ago. The 1005 is very similar to the 1008, except it has a user accessible battery available in several sizes, as well as user accessible memory and hard drive (easily upgraded). With the largest battery, the 1005 is about 10 ounces heavier and about a quarter inch thicker than the 1008HA. Battery life is quite good, 6-8 hours of real world use. If you're considering the 1005HA, note that it comes in several versions. The version ASUS put together to sell at Best Buy only has a 0.3 mp webcam, N270 cpu, no bluetooth, and the smallest of the available batteries, but sells for a competitive $300. Pay $50-60 more at Amazon (for the 1005HA-PU1X version), and you can get a model with a 1.3mp webcam, N280 cpu (very slightly faster), bluetooth, and the biggest battery available, which will get you 6-8 hours real world battery life. Thats probably still the model I'd buy today, if I was in the market, though there are models from Dell, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, and more, that are very comparable.
Before you purchase a netbook, try out the keyboard and mousepad. The keyboards are about 90% of the size of a normal laptop keyboard, not everyone will like the cramped keyboard. |
