[bcab] Re: Netbooks

Hi Steve.
Specifically the advent 4211 and 4211C are definitely MSI winds. Just have a look at a few reviews for a start.
There is however a later model, the 4213 which is certainly not an MSI wind. It is somewhat more expensive, about £50 or so dearer I think and it does as you say have a different keyboard which to my way of thinking is rather spongy. a step backwards I would say. You do get built in Broadband mobile however and there is a slot in the PC for a sim card. 

Cheers

Graham
Graham Page
Home Phone: 0207 265 9493
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----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Nutt" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 10:41 PM
Subject: [bcab] Re: Netbooks



Hi Graham,

The Advent is not the MSI Wind.  They are different beasts.  The MSI Wind
has a slightly better keyboard in my view.

All the best

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf 
Of Graham Page
Sent: Wednesday 26 November 2008 10:12
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: Netbooks

Hi Tim.
Firstly, no I don't think you are asking too much at all. I have an Advent 4211 netbook from PCWorld. I use this as a note taking device while out and 

about as I currently do not have any kind of Braille note taker.  It does
take some time to boot but that is not normally a problem. I use it at home 

running Skype and  Windows Messenger.  I can still edit Microsoft Office
documents using Office 2003 while these programs are still running.  I can
also listen to MP3 files with Winamp or Windows Media Player.  I have not
tried DVDs but I am told they work Fine with an external player as you say. 

most of the netbooks for £200 such as the Asus EEEPC range up to the Asus
EEEPC 900 have 8.5 inch screens and a relatively small keyboard which some
still find to be OK.  Personally I prefer the keyboards on the slightly
bigger models with 10 inch screens such as the AdventPC 4211 or the Samsung 
NC10 or the Asus EEEPC 1000.  You can go to Curries or PC World and get a
feel of these laptops for yourself.  The staff know nothing about these
systems in my experience but at least you will be able to have a hands on.

The Advent 4211 which I have is also marketed as the MSI Wind and there is
also a modle produced by a company called Median or something like that. It
has a good keyboard and it is easy to disable the mouse pad which is a must on these machines. The only problem is battery life which is about 2 hours.
You can get bigger batteries than the 3 cell battery supplied. I bought a 9 

cell battery but this is really too big as it sticks a long way out of the
bottom.  A 6 cell giving just over 4 hours would have been a much better
compromise I think.  With the 3 dell battery the price is £279.00 from PC
World or Curries.  They also do an Advent 4213 which has built in Mobile
Broadband access and includes a slot for a sim card.  At £349.00 or
something like that it's a bit pricey and I think it feels plasticky as well 

but that's just my opinion of course.

The one that everyone is in to at the moment seems to be the Samsung NC10
which has very similar specifications to the Advent 4211 but with a 6 cell
battery and much better battery life lasting roughly 7 hours in tests. With 

speech running and connected to a WiFi network you should get over 5 hours
of battery life.
I have not yet been able to get hands on a Samsung NC10 so I can't say which
I prefer from a design and ergonomic point of view. I do know that the NC10 

is available in white, blue or black and for some reason the white model
costs about £30 more than the others which cost £399 from Curries or PC
World.

All these 10 inch models have similar specifications.  They have the new
Intel Atom processor. I've had a tempory mind blank on the exact model name
of it. It runs at a speed of 1.6 GHz and employs multithreading technology used in some Pentium processors. It is efficient and is the main reason why 

battery life has increased on laptops using it.  There is 1 GB of RAM
provided which works well for general day to day tasks.  This can be
increased to 2 GB I think. You also get 3 USB ports and an SD card reader. Bluetooth and WiFI come as standard. Most are not yet draft-n but they are 
fast enough for most purposes.

If I were you I would look at the Samsung NC10 or the Advent 4211.

Regards

Graham

The Asus EEEPC1000 is also pretty good though at £
----- Original Message ----- From: <tim.pennick@xxxxxx> 
To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 9:10 AM
Subject: [bcab] Netbooks


Hi All,

A recent reference to Netbooks on this list set me thinking.  A colleague
recently bought a netbook for round about 200£ which I though was a bit of a
bargain, seeing as the laptop I use, which is only about 18 months old, cost 

in the region of 1200.  The laptop really struggles with JAWS, and I
wondered what peoples' experiences with Netbooks had been.

I want to be able to run MS Office, or cut-dow version thereof, Outlook
Express, Wi-Fi, stream audio, possibly play DVDs, (probably via external DVD
drive), and possibly run the Nebula Digi-TV TV tuner on it. Am I asking too 

much if I'm running JAWS as well?

Regards,

Tim

Tim Pennick
Senior Researcher
BT Innovate
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