What is the best netbook to buy for a college freshman?

Depends entirely on what you’ll be using it for. Mac or PC? Are you hoping for it to last you through your major, or just the first 2 years? Do you have another computer for all the heavy lifting, or do you need a desktop replacement? Does screen size matter? Would you rather have something cheap, or something really nice? What kind of battery life are you looking for? Any brands you’re partial to?

Is she looking to stay with the Mac brand? What kind of price range are you looking for? Any other specs she has to have?

She just wants something small for taking notes in class, checking email, any serious work will be on her iMac which also runs windows. Anything good under $400?

The HP mini’s and the Dell Inspiron mini’s have gotten pretty good reviews, as well as the Toshiba NB205.

I like my Acer Aspire One. Had if for about a year and hasn’t given me one problem. Which is like a miracle considering my history with computers. I got mine for around $300. It can’t play music or video at top quality but it plays stuff okay. I mainly just use it for reading.

I also have had good luck with the Aspire One. It’s at least twice as fast as most netbooks I’ve been on especially the HP Mini 1000 and Asus Eee, just as reliable, and costs considerably less.

@papayalily Last I checked, none of the netbooks you mention were under $400 whereas the Acer is under $300 in most places.

@jerv the HP mini 110 and 210, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, and the Toshiba are all under 400.

A friendly word of advice about netbook keyboards. I’ve owned (and returned) several netbooks and because I couldn’t get used to the much smaller keyboard. Other than cosmetically, all netbooks are pretty much alike, but their keyboards are all over the map touch-wise. Try to get your daughter sample different models at a Fry’s or Best Buy to see which one is most comfortable for her to type on.

And let me add, of all I’ve tried, I’ve liked Toshiba best.

@papayalily They came down then. Of course, I haven/t checked much since i got my Acer.

@Austinlad Don’t forget the trackpad! I prefer mine smooth with the buttons on the sides so I can do the right button with my pinkie, However, most people especially those who write reviews seem to prefer the bottom button and are not annoyed by a textured trackpad.

I have an Eee PC Netbook. It runs for 8+hours, it’s super light, and it’s only 200–300 bucks. I only use it for taking notes and checking my email, and I use my desktop mac to do everything else.

Keep in mind, netbooks have a smaller size keyboard. For some people this can be frustrating to switch back and forth with, but if it isn’t going to be a problem for your daughter, then a netbook is well worth the price imo. (also, make sure the comp comes with either windows xp or windows 7… I highly advise against a pc with windows vista)

@Carly The 1005 is decent enough and a vast improvement over the old 700— and 900-series.
FYI – The reason XP didn’t die as soon as Vista came out is that netbooks can’t run Vista; it’s too much of a resource hog. Win7 Starter has lighter system requirements and XP is deprecated, so it’s either 7 or Linux.

@jerv does the 1005 cost less than $400? I got my netbook used for 200 and works fine.
(thanks for the heads up about the windows info, btw)

@Carly It appears that prices on the Asus 1005 range from $225–299 new.

That said, I only spent $500 on my Toshiba T135 that is three times as powerful, not much heavier though a bit bigger due to it’s 13” screen and larger keyboard and has better battery life than my Aspire One (6½ hours even with the wifi on) so a thin-and-light full-on laptop isn’t an unreasonable alternative. Bear in mind that that price was for something a little more loaded than you would be likely to want as well; the top trim in that model.

There are 11.6” laptop models that are more capable and not much more expensive than a netbook, and if you saw how slow an HP Mini 1000 or Eee 900-series is, even your cat will notice the speed difference. While My Aspire One was acceptably quick on basic tasks, most other Atom N270-based netbooks I’ve tried had load times in the “make a sandwich” range for programs like Firefox or OpenOffice.