New AC user...not yet purchased, still trying it out. In Pallaitive care and will be doing home visits so need ultra light laptop but also just started practice so unable to spend too much - looking at netbook on Dell. Any suggestions, recommendations, advice, etc would be REALLY appreciated!

There are 4 issues to cosider with the Netbooks:

1) PRICE- Then consider going with the Acer, s.a. this one for under $300... $299 US- http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-aod150-1322.../211086771.html
2) BATTERY LIFE- Then consider going with the Asus (3-6hrs vs 1hr with the Acer)... $254 US here- http://cgi.ebay.com/NIB-Asus-EEEPC900HD-...3A1%7C294%3A100
3) KEYBOARD/SCREEN SIZE
4) Memory- usually limited to 2GB, but most come with only 1GB except this one, for only $250 (refurbished)... http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-EEE-PC-1000HD-N...%3A1%7C294%3A50 (THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST BUY OF ANY I'VE SEEN!)

I love Dell laptops. They are great machines. Unfortunately, I rarely see Dells reviewed in the Netbook reviews and the best deals seem to be had with the Acer, HP, and Asus models. Go for the 80-160 GB hard drive models, not the cheap, tiny solid state drive models. Refurbished is OK (I buy most of my toys that way, and I've bought about 30 laptops/desktops, Win CE devices, Palm devices, Blackberries, etc mostly that way in the past 10 years). Asus/Acer usually wins out in the reviews, the former for battery life (but usually costly except for #4 URL above), the latter for price and other amenities (s.a. overall solid machine with camera, great wifi, great 160GB HD, you can upgrade the ram easily and can make it touch screen for a simiple $70 plugin [ebay])

Good luck! I love my Acer, which I use all of the time on the floors of the hospital.

Cheers,
Al

As a suggestion ---- I own several desktop pcs, multiple laptops and a couple of netbooks. The thing you need to check is the screen resolution on the netbooks and compare to the minimum requirements on AC website - there are some workarounds noted on the boards here, but some of these would not work doing housecalls. I think that I would go crazy trying to use the netbook keyboards for real notes - not made for adult hands long term. You can go online to any number of decent sites and find laptops for under $400. I looked at tigerdirect.com and found reasonable refurbs for under $300. I would carry a little heavier laptop to get the better use.

I carry mine on vacation, to the nursing home and a variety of other places with good luck.

I currently use 4 laptops- a 17" Dell, 2 15" Dells, and my Asus Netbook. I agree that the Netbook couldn't be my only machine, but the weight factor is small, which is great! I've gotten used to the smaller keyboard and use it without issues.

Many feel the same way as Steven, though, which is why sales have been slow and prices have fallen so much. Would I buy a Netbook for $400? No. For $250? Heck, I might buy the #4 above!

BTW- the #4 ASUS model lacks a webcam (the Acer Aspires all come with one). The HD is slightly smaller (120GB) and the battery is a 4-cell lithium-ion (rather than a 6-cell which can go up to 6 hours).

Al

The laptop for 299 at tigerdirect is a refurbished 3 gb machine, Vista Basic as a downside, 160 gb harddrive and decent machine. I just think if you are on a budget and want one machine I would steer to a full size laptop first - buy a netbook when you have more disposable income - heck buy a few different ones (if you can get them by your significant other)....

You're right- the netbook is a toy. A great toy, but for a single machine, never.

On flights, though, the Netbooks rule now that the space between seats is 29-31". Try to prop up a 14" or 15" laptop- forget it. A Netbook opens wide... great to watch movies!

Al

Thanks for all the info! I do already have a Dell 17" laptop but too heavy to log around on regular basis hence considering another lightweight option. With the netbooks, do you subscribe to mobile broadband or just pay for wifi on the go? Don't really need webcam though I suppose could come handy for picture/video...Also considering voice recognition as well to speed up notes, probably should go with a laptop, huh?

Oh, what about warranty and such? I am pretty basic in my IT knowledge.

You would need some type of broadband if you want to log into office - could sync with Version 4. I think you really need to consider a full laptop - look for lightest inexpensive option. The netbooks do not have the largest amount of processing power for evertything you want.

But they are good enough for Dragon Naturally Speaking! After posting the above, I worked up 2 patients last night on the go using my less-than-2 pound Acer Aspire and it did its job well.

Can I play video games? No. My 17" Dell does, and it's used now primarily by my son. My real work horse out of the office is my Netbook. BTW, one great thing about them is that they come with Win XP rather than Windows Vista.

Al

Hmm...Acer Aspire sounds pretty good. Does yours have 2GB or 1GB? You find the speed of using AC decent? Internet surfing at same time if you are searching on epocrates or uptodate?

Actually I use a MS Access-based oncology program similar to AC which since it also has a PMS is bigger (due to the specialty portions and PMS, it has over 900 forms and reports). I may eventually switch over in the future, when the day comes that I get tired of programming to maintain one noncommercial program.

MS Access has worked well on computers going bact to the 386 (pre-Pentium) days, so the 1.6GHz speed is more than enough. My Acer has only 1GB Ram, but I may eventually add the second module to make DNS work better.

Internet surfing is a breeeze, even with the integrated camera turned on (which is a problem with my Dell 1.6GHz laptop with an add-on camera)! Using the NetBook to watch Netflix movies works well too...

Al

New best price on the Asus 1GB Ram NetBook ($229) on ebay. It has 120GB HD, 10 inch screen, 4hr battery (4cell Li Ion), but no video camera.

There are 10 available. Probably the 2GB ram mentioned above is a better deal for just $20 more...

Al

>>> Probably the 2GB ram mentioned above is a better deal for just $20 more...

Ahhh... This one is gone (I bought the last one). Sorry! I'm installing them in all my patient examination rooms.

Al

I'm pleasantly surprised with the new $250 Asus Netbook, especially with the full 2GB Ram, the extra inch on the screen, and the 4 hour battery life. It has no digicam, but I have yet to use the one that came with my Acer, so that shouldn't be a problem. Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, as with the Acer, works very well.

I now have a NetBook or laptop in every examination room, and this has worked well, saving me about 5 minutes per patient visit. I print out everything to my "hall" computer which doubles as a print server and my backend patient table data resides on another computer in the secretarial area (see below).
























For some reason, there are now numerous Asus NetBooks going for bargain prices. In fact, I bought one for my daughter for just $208 there are other Netbooks on eBay going for about the same price --

http://shop.ebay.com/items/?_nkw=Asus+Ne...=1&_ipg=100. This is simply amazing...

Cheers,
Al

Although my initial dictations using the Acer's audio card were pretty decent, I'm having difficulty getting DNS to work with the DNS headset. I started to use a USB Plantronics headset and what a difference! It works great now, with about a 98% recognition. Not bad considering this NetBook has only 1GB Ram memory. I still might boost it to 2GB thru Crucial.com when I get the chance...

Al

HP is coming out with a netbook which looks pretty robust:

HP 5101 Mini Note
2GB RAM
320 GB HD
1.66mhz processor
GOBI broadband

OK, ready to shell out some dough for the set up...considering Acer 11.6 for the screen size and resolution for AC use since the same size ASUS 1101 won't be out for another month (?) and also cheaper.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347366,00.asp
Al, which Plantronics headset are you using? Is it the hybrid wireless? Thanks.

ASUS EeePC 1101HA
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351309,00.asp