

Ask HN: Do any netbooks still exist? - andrewcooke

I guess I missed the boat here.  It seems everyone stopped making netbooks, and now I could really do with one.  The only thing I can find is made by Asus - http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;ASUS-1015E-DS01-10-1-Inch-Laptop-Black&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B00BQH8QTI - but it uses a (power hungry) Celeron.  Asus have other (Atom) versions on their site, but they all seem to be unavailable (at least for online purchase).  Anyone have any suggestions?  I want something that is cheap and small, with keyboard, for travel.
======
scholia
It depends where you live. There are certainly new netbooks available in the
UK from, for example, Amazon.co.uk. Asus and perhaps others still supply them
in markets where there is demand, but I guess those are mostly poor countries.

Asus Eee PC X101CH 10.1-inch Netbook (Purple) - (Intel Atom N2600 1.6GHz, 1GB
RAM, 320GB HDD, LAN, WLAN, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 7 Starter)
First available 30 Oct 2012 [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-X101CH-10-1-inch-
Netbook-Purple...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-X101CH-10-1-inch-Netbook-
Purple/dp/B00A15DDKS/)

However, the netbook specification is very limited (by Intel and Microsoft),
and you get better screen resolution and more memory by buying a very slow
laptop. This very slow laptop may even be called a "netbook". However, if it
uses an AMD chip (ie not an Atom), then it is not bound by Intel's netbook
specification.

This is basically a netbook with an Atom-speed AMD CPU:

Acer Aspire V5-121 11.6-inch Laptop (Blue) - (AMD C70 1GHz Processor, 2GB RAM,
320GB HDD, LAN, WLAN, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 8) First available
17 April 2013 [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-V5-121-11-6-inch-
Laptop/...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-V5-121-11-6-inch-
Laptop/dp/B00CFHP6FU/)

The price difference is £13 ($21) which gets you Windows 8 instead of Windows
7 Starter, and 2GB instead of 1GB of memory. Weight is the same (998g vs 1kg).

Microsoft basically killed the netbook market when it stopped selling Windows
XP Ultra Low Cost PC edition for peanuts ($15 or less). Windows 7 Starter was
offered very grudgingly at much higher cost, and I suspect most netbook buyers
would prefer XP.

All the OEMs knew this was coming. Microsoft said the ULCPC offering would be
"available until the later of June 30, 2010, or one year after general
availability of the next version of Windows." (ie Windows 7)
[http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/features/2008/apr08/04-0...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/features/2008/apr08/04-03xpeos.aspx)

~~~
nkorth
Silly computer manufacturers still haven't figured out that they can preload
Ubuntu for $0 per device... :P

~~~
sheng
Silly customers won't buy them, unfortunately. It has to be Windows7 or OSX,
everything else seems to be a deal breaker.

No offence here, i'm a linux user myself. Everywhere i go and look all i can
see are macbook{air,pro} and i can't really understand why anyone would go
with such a cage.

~~~
jodrellblank
How is it a cage? What can't you run if you owning a Macbook {air,pro}?
(Especially with VirtualBox + Linux on it(!)).

------
gte910h
A used 11" macbook air also fits your requirements. It runs windows or linux
just as well as mac os x

[http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBook-Air-11-120GB-
Flash-4GB...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBook-Air-11-120GB-Flash-4GB-
RAM-1-6-GHz-Intel-Core-2-Duo-
Late-2010-/181201945728?pt=Apple_Laptops&hash=item2a307a4480)

------
happycube
Don't write the Celeron 847 off - it is actually quite efficient! Sandy Bridge
has quite good (not Haswell good) idle power consumption, and it's performance
is much better than Atom.

And if you're running Linux, you need to avoid the Atom N2xxx at all costs,
the graphics are useless. The C847 graphics are good for desktop use (but not
for anything more than light gaming)

If you're worried about battery life and heat, trade out the HD for an SSD
right away. I did that with an Acer Chromebook and it's quite nice - and the
trade will probably make up for any increased CPU power draw at idle.

------
carbocation
What about a Chromebook? The Samsung version costs $250 (and there is an Acer
model for $199).

[http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/](http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/)

~~~
andrewcooke
the ubuntu on chromebook thread is what made me ask here, but the chromebook
isn't a 10" screen, is it? i thought it was much larger. but i will check your
link - i didn't realise there were multiple models.

[update: the acer and samsung are 11.6" and i can find a bunch of similar
notebooks with that size screen. what i really wanted was a 10" screen. but
thanks!]

~~~
dragonwriter
Okay, if you want 10" screen that's a bit hard to find, but "netbooks" were
never limited to 10" screens (11.6" was a fairly common screen size for
products sold as netbooks.)

The role seems largely to have been taken over by Chromebooks -- Microsoft
never really wanted the market to exist and the hardware vendors seem to
prefer having an OS vendor to work with. But among notebooks (including ones
that are similar to netbooks, whether they are sold as "netbooks" or not) 10"
screen size seems to have died off because at that size, the preference is for
tablets (possibly with keyboard cases to let them be used like a netbook)
rather than traditional notebook form factor.

------
PaulHoule
I have an HP Mini that I absolutely adore. I've upgraded it to Windows 8 (thus
losing the limitations of the Starter Edition 7). I also upgraded the ram to 2
GB which was cheap.

I started using it to do wearable computing experiments and found that the
self-protection system of the hard drive would go into action whenever I went
faster than a slow walk, so I replaced the HDD with a SSD.

The new Windows 8 store and all of those apps don't work on it because the
screen size is too small, but the desktop is fine for web browsing, Cygwin,
etc.

If I fold the machine up and use it to play music, do GPS navigation and some
other data collection in the car, it runs 6-7 hours. I get 4-5 hours of
tablet-like service if I use it to watch video. Even though the screen is not
HD resolution it plays HD files just fine.

------
mikecane
There are bound to be overstock netbooks that never sold available on ebay.
But if you're asking does anyone make them anymore, No. Tablets killed them.

~~~
discostrings
> No. Tablets killed them.

I'd argue that Microsoft and Intel killed them with their arbitrary
restrictions on what could be a netbook.[1] I imagine they realized netbooks
would put a huge dent in their sales of more expensive systems, so they
effectively put a stop to them. I'm sure tablets didn't help at all, but the
limits kept netbooks just below the edge of usefulness in many cases. So they
developed the reputation of being slow and people stopped buying them.

[1] [http://www.itexaminer.com/microsoft-adds-to-atoms-
restrictio...](http://www.itexaminer.com/microsoft-adds-to-atoms-
restrictions.aspx)

~~~
charlesray
I highly doubt that had much, if anything, do with the netbook's decline. From
the beginning it was just a cheap, small laptop. Tablets are as cheap,
smaller, and run operating systems that are designed for low-power systems, so
they feel faster. The few people (e.g. me) who actually wanted a keyboard
moved on to low-end ultrabooks.

~~~
jljljl
MSFT certainly didn't help. For example, a lot of netbooks were packaged with
Windows 7 Starter, a seriously limited version of Windows.

I'm skeptical that the hardware couldn't handle full Windows (because Starter
also provided an Anytime Upgrade option), so it seems likely this was an
intentional decision to reduce the features of netbooks at the software level,
in order to avoid cannibalizing larger PC's and laptops.

EDIT: link to feature limitations for W7 Starter:
[http://answers.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/forum/windows_7-w...](http://answers.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-starter-what-are-the-
limitations/422801d5-89de-494d-8cc1-6f4fc21c2ac0)

~~~
scholia
The netbook manufacturers were free to install a full copy of Windows 7 or
Ubuntu or anything else they wanted (except Mac OS X, obviously).

They didn't want to install a full copy of Windows 7 because they would have
had to pay the full price for it (after the usual discounts etc).

After much argument, they came up with a compromise that had acceptable
functionality (to Microsoft) at an acceptable price (to the OEMs).

So Microsoft was helping, rather than "not helping".

But you're right: the aim was to sell netbooks without having too big an
impact on more profitable sales of laptops.

------
D9u
I'm still using my 5 year old Acer Aspire One, and I've seen them for sale in
a few of the big box stores. I paid $99 for mine. (Intel Atom N270, 1GB RAM,
160GB hdd, built-in 3G modem, WiFi)

I've been really happy with this netbook, and the price was unbeatable.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=Acer+Aspire+One+for+sale](https://www.google.com/search?q=Acer+Aspire+One+for+sale)

------
froseph
I think most new "netbooks" have been converted into 11.6 form factor to
include a proper full sized keyboard. The only real reason netbooks had 10"
displays was because intel required it when purchasing an atom (along with
their 2gb memory limit). Atoms haven't gotten any real architectural (IPC)
changes since their release and Intel has been repositioning the
brand/hardware towards tablet/phone devices. Since manufacturers have been
freed from the 10" constraint, such most manufacturers have been building
larger screened low end laptops which is really what the market wants. As such
you might want to reconsider your options. Depending on the architecture of
the Celeron, it may actually be faster and more battery efficient than an
Atom. The options seem to be:

1/ Deal with an extra inch of real estate

2/ Buy a 7/10" tablet & add a keyboard. Some like the Asus transformer pad
includes a keyboard dock. You can also try rooting/chrooting a linux distro
onto the tablet all the bells and whistles.

3/ Buy used from e-bay

~~~
captainmuon
An extra inch of screen diagonal is great, of course. But it usually means an
extra inch of notebook. They should just take the old netbook form factor and
build in a screen that goes to the edge (keeping the bezel very thin).

Also, I think vendors used the switch from 10" netbooks to what we have now to
raise the price tag unproportionally.

They could probably build something with a touch screen, detachable keyboard,
HD video playback, all day battery life, that could run circles around every
netbook, and sell it at around $350 (or even cheaper without touchscreen, and
with a fixed keyboard). Instead, they slap in a i7 and 8 Gigs of RAM, that
most people won't use anyway, and sell it for twice as an "ulrabook", because
there's more money in "premium"...

------
eksith
The tablet has pretty much taken over the netbook niche, it seems, so your
options are fairly limited.

I have a Sony Vaio E series 11.6" that I take around, but it's not a great
option. For what I do on the road (email, some VS work and Photoshop), it's
OK. Unfortunately, it too seems to be going out.

You can still get a fairly decent Acer :

[http://www.amazon.com/B007582KGM](http://www.amazon.com/B007582KGM)

    
    
      Acer AOD270-1375 10.1" Netbook (Intel Atom Processor N2600, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, 320GB hard drive
    

Or Asus (still with Celeron):
[http://www.amazon.com/B00COQK8QY](http://www.amazon.com/B00COQK8QY)

    
    
      Intel Celeron 847 1.1 GHz 2 GB DDR3 10.1-Inch Screen and Ubuntu

------
awda
Yep, my girlfriend's mother still has one. It's... slower than you'd want,
unless you're used to a pentium 4.

------
SamReidHughes
Instead of worrying about how power hungry the CPU is, worry about the actual
battery life numbers. The 1015E gets more battery life than some other
netbooks, and maybe less than others.

------
nkorth
I actually just recently looked in to the 1015E, and I almost bought one but
then decided to get a Samsung Chromebook. My top requirements were battery
life, portability, and at least a 1366x768 screen (so that ruled out most 10"
systems). The Chromebook is working out really well; its 7-hour battery life
is awesome. The 1015E probably would have been OK too, but its battery life
wouldn't have been as great. Kudos to Asus at least for loading Ubuntu on the
1015E-DS02.

------
keithpeter
As the Chromebooks are too big, UK ebay shows plenty of second hand and some
new/refurbished 10" netbooks (usually 1024 by 600) around with XP.

Linux works fine on most makes. I have a Samsung NC10 with mechanical hard
drive and a surprisingly good keyboard that just chugs away endlessly, but the
NC10 seems to develop screen 'jitters' as the hinges age.

------
ucha
There are still a few netbooks available on amazon. For example this Acer 10".
[http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOD270-1375-Netbook-Processor-
Esp...](http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AOD270-1375-Netbook-Processor-
Espresso/dp/B007582KGM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377441864&sr=8-2&keywords=netbook)

------
SkyMarshal
These might help:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/netbooks](http://www.reddit.com/r/netbooks)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/suggestalaptop](http://www.reddit.com/r/suggestalaptop)

------
thu
I am pretty sure I have seen a 10-inch netbook recently (less than one/two
months ago), maybe on Engadget.

Otherwise there is still the tablet/keyboard combo.

I liked the netbook form factor; I am still using my Samsung n220 everyday.

------
rtcoms
Check Sony vaio pro 11. It's weight is even less than 1kg with 11.6" full HD
display.

[http://www.sony.co.in/product/svp11213sn](http://www.sony.co.in/product/svp11213sn)

------
BerislavLopac
I'd like to try Lenovo Yoga:
[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/yoga/yoga-11s/](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/yoga/yoga-11s/)

------
mikecane
Somewhere in Redmond, someone is gnashing their teeth, muttering, "Why isn't
anyone mentioning Surface?" [typo edit]

~~~
captainmuon
Because the Surface RT 474 € with a keyboard cover+, and it only runs silly
Metro apps, making it useless for many people.

(+ Quick check on Amazon Germany (where I live), probably cheaper in the US
but still around $450.)

------
devb0x
Get an hp mini. I have a 210 and i love it. Running ubuntu in case you want to
know.

I'm writing this comment on my mini.

------
gregjor
Plenty of netbooks for sale in Asia.

------
6ren
Maybe android tablet + ubuntu + keyboard?

------
area51org
iPad with a keyboard-case?

~~~
lucb1e
The iPad is a consumption device, not good for work. Even with a keyboard,
most available applications are geared towards touchscreen and consumption. I
much prefer laptops for this reason: they run a desktop OS.

------
dchest
Acer One?

~~~
keithpeter
OP wants 10" screen. The Acer _Aspire_ One that I can see seems to be an 11.6"
screen machine.

~~~
D9u
The Acer Aspire One comes in different sizes and configurations.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=Acer+Aspire+One+for+sale](https://www.google.com/search?q=Acer+Aspire+One+for+sale)

