[pete layo]

Hi guys,

Having scrapped the gaming laptop thing i need to now focus on getting the right netbook. I'm looking for a laptop with a 10.1 screen and 16gb of SSD, as well as the longest battery life possible.

My plan is to buy a netbook with linux on it, then install tinyXP as I want to use Word. I realise by moving from Linux to Windows there will be a hit to battery life, so by getting a laptop with amazing battery life in the first place I should minimalise the damage.

Style / feel is of average importance, I'm not going to sacrifice 3 hours battery life for a better looking netbook for instance, but I'd still like it to be pleasurable to use.

My budget is around the £300 mark. I had looked at the Dell Mini 10v but the battery life is about 5 hours when I'm looking for 10+ ideally.

As always any help is greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Pete

[Tipstaff]

To be honest, most of the netbooks that come with a 6 cell battery will run a fair amount of time. If I had to recommend one or 2 right now it'd be the Asus Eee PC 1000HE (default 6 cell battery), or the Eee PC 1005HA (the 6 cell battery version). They both come with 160GB SATA drives, however you could always replace that with an SSD.

Within a couple months you will be seeing Ion based netbooks hitting the streets, with the main benefit being faster graphics. However, the biggest benefit is that most of the upcoming Ion netbooks will include the dual core Atom 330. Right now the majority of netbooks either come with the N270, or N280, all single core Atoms. If you can hold off a couple months I'd suggest waiting until the Ion ones hit the market, and either grab ones of those, or one of the Intel ones which will sure drop in price.

[BiGBrOwNPimpsta]

Toshiba NB200 is pretty good too, almost or the same as 1000HE and lighter! Also comes with N280! The keyboard layout is better and looks fancier.