   I need a Netbook
  Without being too picky, I basically want the best Netbook I can get for $400-$425. Battery life and size are probably the biggest issue for me, since I'll be lugging this thing around often. After searching around online a bit, the new Eee PC Seashell by Asus seems like a good bet, but I just want some opinions from others here as well.   
  The Seashell does look pretty good, as well as a few others out there.  I think the EeePC 1000HA (I think that's the one) also has decent battery life.   ;  Yeah, I've looked at the EeePC 1000HA, but I'm mostly leaning against it relative to the seashell due to its larger size (the battery for the seashell is about the bare minimum for me, so it should be ok). Apparently its difficult to upgrade the RAM for the seashell, which I would be looking to do, so im trying to find a guide for that now.EDIT: It looks pretty likely that the seashell is what i'll end up getting, but is this thing a little expensive? I guess i'll only get the nice size and form factor if I throw out that extra $75 or so.[Edited by - Faze111 on June 9, 2009 11:44:56 PM];  See if you can try one in person. I have a 702 and the keyboard is not excellent.   ;  a friend of mine has one of the Asus EeePCs. The keyboard is okayish, but the trackpad button (yes, singular) sucks. I don't think I've ever gotten it to successfully click, I usually have to tap the trackpad.   ;  I've been happy with my MSI Wind U100.The Good:- Ubuntu runs well on it, including suspend and wireless.- It is pretty easy to upgrade the RAM- It has a nice keyboard- It has built in bluetoothThe Bad: - The trackpad leaves something to be desired.  I hear it can be replaced with a nicer one without taking out too many screws, but I'm a console warrior and that didn't matter to me.  When it does matter, I have a Logitech mouse in my backpack.- It took some fiddling to get native resolution on the framebuffer (I usually don't run X, which runs just fine at the right resolution out-of-the-box) and to keep the hard drive heads from parking too often (bad default power settings, fixed by fudging hdparm settings).- The battery life is often exaggerated.  I can get about 5 hours with the 6-cell battery if I'm careful, 3.5 hours if I'm not.  At least that's what my power manager says, I've never pushed it to shutting down due to low power.All in all, I'd recommend it.-Joel   ;  I hve had the opportunity to sample gazillions of various netbook models.  My fave at the moment (assuming an x86) is the Asus 1002HA.  Just the right size, fit, and finish.  My first netbook was an Asus 701 and the keys broke within hours.My only complaint is with the battery life:  a couple of hours tops with wireless disabled.  The upcoming ARM-based smartbooks are much better on that front (8-12 hours) but I have yet to see one with a keyboard, or even a case, so I don't know what to recommend there.   ;  I'm typing this from an ASUS 1000he.  At the time, the seashell wasn't out and I don't know much about that model.  I chose the 1000he because of the battery life (better than the 1000ha) and the proper shift key placement (an issue with the 1000 and 1000h ASUS netbooks).  I think the main complaint about the 1000he is that it's on the heavy and thick side of netbooks.  Since size is one of your chief concerns, the seashell may be better, but I think the 1000he does a little better with the battery it's paired with (they claim 6 hours for the seashell and 9 hours for the 1000he, which can get 5+ hours of battery life in practice).  For me, the battery life of the 1000he would still beat the size/weight of the seashell, but your mileage may vary.  Also, I think most of the extra size is from the battery, but it's designed well and it's used to angle the keyboard a bit, which is actually nice.;Quote:Original post by BregmaI hve had the opportunity to sample gazillions of various netbook models.  My fave at the moment (assuming an x86) is the Asus 1002HA.  Just the right size, fit, and finish.  My first netbook was an Asus 701 and the keys broke within hours.My only complaint is with the battery life:  a couple of hours tops with wireless disabled.  The upcoming ARM-based smartbooks are much better on that front (8-12 hours) but I have yet to see one with a keyboard, or even a case, so I don't know what to recommend there.The TouchBook looks promising, 10-15h batterylife, 3-5h in tablet mode (The keyboard is removable and houses a second larger battery), Its supposed to ship in the US this summer, its fairly weak though and the manufacturer isn't that wellknown so i can't say anything about the expected quality especially since they'll be using their own custom linux based OS for it and the manufacturer claims that the software will be in the beta stage when the machines ship).