Netbooks for travel?

keithinmelbourne

I've noticed that 8", 9" and 10" netbooks now have 160 or 250 GB hard-drives. Has anyone been able to use them as storage for travel? Are they able to handle large files? Maybe use Photoshop Elements? I'm traveling in September and would use something like this rather than a laptop. In Australia, netbooks are half the price of Epson's P7000, which is only 120GB.

hgernhardtjr

I bought two at Christmas for under US$350 each delivered (Acer Aspire One 8.9" netbooks with the high capacity battery for a REAL 5 hours of honest work on battery) , one for my college level daughter (pink) as a graduation present and one for the wife (blue).

Both continue to use them extensively and since they are 1gb XP machines with 160gb hard drives, they function flawlessly.

Both store photos and videos with no problems (one uses a Sony DSC170, the other the Sony T500 which also does HD video). And since they have WiFi built in, they can connect most anywhere. I bought them each the miniature wireless Brando Mouse and a over-the-shoulder bible (yes bible) cases that fit perfectly and were on sale for under US$5 ... a heck of a lot cheaper than "computer" cases.

PS Elements works fine (as does CS2, as you would expect on any basic XP machine), and Micro$oft Office 2007 Ultimate works fine also. You can connect your camera with USB or you can stick the smaller (MemoryStick, SD, etc., but NOT CF) cards into its built-in reader.

Since they do not have a CD/DVD, you might need an external drive, but it is easiest to network with your desktop and use its CD/DVD.

And remember, if you have big fingers you may find the keyboard or touchpad a bit small ... hence the purchase of the tiny Brando Mouse. And the screen can be a bit small for aging eyes, although the Aspire One has a magnification feature (which I do not know how to use, but my wife does). Oh ... you can also plug in your big LCD monitor, standard keyboard, etc. if you want.

Absolutely the ideal solution for storing backups of your photos and doing some editing while on a long shoot or vacation. Be sure to get the larger battery, though ... 5 hours (they claim 6) is very nice. The two hours you might get with the standard battery is awfully short ... that's what I get with my HP laptop, and find it restrictive.

Hope this helps.

Richard

keithinmelbourne wrote:

I've noticed that 8", 9" and 10" netbooks now have 160 or 250 GB hard-drives. Has anyone been able to use them as storage for travel? Are they able to handle large files? Maybe use Photoshop Elements? I'm traveling in September and would use something like this rather than a laptop. In Australia, netbooks are half the price of Epson's P7000, which is only 120GB.

I can't imagine why anyone would buy one of the Epson storage units these days. Netbooks are cheaper, more versatile and have greater capacity. Just be careful about physical abuse, as they are not built for rough handling.

keithinmelbourne

Thanks . . .
. . . for the info. It was exactly what I needed

keithinmelbourne

I got one . . .
I just bought a Toshiba netbook, an NP100, which hasn't had great reviews, but was on special at half price. It has a 120GB hard drive and the same Atom processor as the other netbooks. It has no CD/DVD drive, so any programs you install have to be downloaded. The good news: I connected to the internet at home (easy), downloaded and installed PS Elements 7 (reasonably quick and easy = 10 minutes) and then downloaded about 6GB of RAW photos from a 1D MkIII (this took about 3 or 4 minutes). I then played with opening and adjusting a couple of shots. The netbook seemed to handle these tasks as well as my Macbook Pro, except for the small screen and the unfriendly trackpad - these things, no doubt, I will get better at with practice. I could have got a better machine, but at double the price. Anyway, the long and short of it: I think this small and light netbook will meet my travel needs . . . for now. It's not an Apple, but then they don't make anything like this.

Grainbelt

I have an HP netbook and find it is passable for photo editing but brilliant for storage and general internet duty when on the go. The built in SD slot is an order of magnitude faster than the pmcia one in my old laptop.

I think everybody should have a netbook - they're just too fun to use, either on the couch, the back of the bike, or in an airport.

captnemo

I have an older asus which does not have a hard drive- has a 16gb SSD drive instead. I sucessfully have photoshop elements, adobe lightroom 2.0 and some canon apps running on it. I already had a small 160gb hd that I used while travelling as a back up so now I can store and edit on the go!
On a side note, while in Mexico last year my bank card refused to work at an atm. When we returned to the hotel I used my netbook to check my e-mail and found a message from my bank that they'd put a hold on my card due to suspicious activity(I forgot to tell them I was going to Mexico duoh!) Anyway neither of our cell phones worked so I resigned to buying a calling card and contacting the bank the next day, then I remember my netbook came with skype installed! I pulled up the program entered the number for my bank and minutes later had the whole thing straightened out. That right there made having the netbook with me worthwhile.

David_S85

Netbooks or a cheap laptop are no-brainers for this.

I use an Asus 1005p netbook, with upgraded 2GB RAM. The 160GB is enough for backups when I'm on the go. I used to make DVD's on the road with a dedicated machine, but the DVD capacities aren't nearly enough for today's file sizes. I've loaded Canon DPP and PaintShop Pro on the thing which are good enough photo manglers for any uploading I need for finished work to my SM site (if I have a disirefor speedy uploads on vacation - usually I don't). My PS CS2 stays on my desktop where it belongs. The tiny netbook screens and PS aren't a decent match.

The additional bonus is that its a fast enough machine for web surfing on the go, and doing my mod/admin job here. No Epson-like backup device for twice the price could ever do all that.