Can anyone recommend a good mini-laptop (i.e. netbooks, netpads etc)?

Asus Eee. I love mine.

My wife just got an Acer Aspire One, influenced by this thread. She loves it so far.

Both the Dell and Asus are nice. For looks, the Toshiba, Nokia and Sony are worth checking out. But whatever the brand, they all have about the same specs, and for basic stuff, they’re fine. Suggest you buy one with 2G of memory rather than the standard 1G if you can find it. Or at least one you can upgrade to 2G. I’ve owned several and trust me, they need all the memory you can get. Happy mini-computing.

I also have the Asus EEE, but I’m waiting on the Apple iTablet. So should you…

I hear Archos has some little netbooks. I’ve always loved Archos products so I recommend you check them out.

I love my Acer Aspire One.

While some people swear by the Asus Eee, you have to really watch out which one you get. The 1000-series has some good models, but the Eee 700— and 900-series were so horrid that I almost made me swear against netbooks forever. The HP Mini 1000 is likewise a bit of a slug. The Samsungs are nice, but a little pricey; better netbooks but worse value.

Personally, I am looking at going to an Acer 1410, which is a full-on notebook that isn’t much bigger than a netbook but is twice as fast and has a street price around $400; less than many netbooks I’ve seen.

Another vote for the Asus EEE. I have used it for 2 semesters of school now, and I still love it. I’m running a cool, free OS called Jolicloud, an Ubuntu mashup, and I love it, too. No more Windows!

I use an Aspire One. I surf with it and its quick enough for me. I got the largest battery available, so I had to order it online.

I use the Aspire One, too. Like you, I just wanted something to surf the net and run microsoft office apps on. It runs quick, and it’s super lightweight so I can take it everywhere (which I do!!)

HP has decent laptops that are cheap. Though i always recommend apples for those who want a good laptop! :-)

@Tenpinmaster Apple doesn’t make anything I would call “mini-laptop”. The Air may be thin, but it’s still rather large, and the Macbook is a pretty hefty hunk of machine compared to my practically pocket-sized Acer. If you want Mac OS X running on something small enough to slip into a 3-ring binder, you have to get a (discontinued) Dell Mini-9 and make a “Hackintosh” out of it.

Kind of a pity really, since I’m sure that if Apple wanted to, they could make a good (if overpriced) netbook or small laptop. However, they are perfectly content catering to a diffferent crowd. C’est la vie.

@jerv You are right, i guess i was thinking the air would play the role of a mini laptop because of its light weight and thin profile. They are rather pricey which is why I stand corrected on my choice of a HP model notebook for normal people.

I got the Lenovo s10 and I love it. The netbook is smaller than a binder, and I can bring it to and from school very easily. Takes a while to get used to the smaller keyboard though, and the right shift key is in a weird position if that matters to you.

It is hackintoshable, 3 cell battery lasts about 2.5 hours w/ wifi on, extremely portable, can be had for ~250.