8.9" Netbook keyboards?

J

jshrimp3

n00b
Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Messages
15
So I'm looking to buy a netbook somewhere in the next couple of months. Hopefully now, but maybe not until May.

I'm really looking for something very small, with a HDD (120GB would be ideal) and a decent keyboard. The keyboard on the EEEpc I tried out at Best Buy was too uncomfortable, and the HP Mini had a nice keyboard, but they only have up to a 60GB hard drive or so, and I'd rather get something with a bit more.

Unfortunately the MSI Wind seems to only come with a 10.1" screen in the USA. So I've been looking at the Acer Aspire One, but I haven't had a chance to try out the keyboard, and I've heard from some that it's pretty low quality. Should I avoid the AAO, or is it just as good or better than any other keyboards I might find on a netbook that small?
 
Trust me, the 8.9/9" netbook keyboards all suck. All of them. The HP is probably the best of the bunch, and even it is not that good. You're much better off with something like the Samsung NC10 or one of its newer variants, which probably has the best keyboard of any netbook.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 keyboard isn't terrible either, but the small right shift key makes it very annoying to use for me.
 
I had an Aspire One and the keyboard was perfectly usable. Not as good as the HP Mini 1000 I had, but it was very close. Definitely the best keyboard on a 8.9" that I've tried. The EEE keyboards are all way too small. For the size, the Aspire One probably has the best keyboard.
 
silent-circuit - I know none of them are particularly good, but, for example, the HP Mini's keyboard was perfectly fine for my use.

The Aspire One doesn't have any weird key positions, right? At least for basic stuff. I know the Dell Mini 9 has the apostrophe below where it usually is or something. I can deal with slightly smaller keyboards, but I'd like most of the keys to be in the same place they usually are.
 
silent-circuit said:
Trust me, the 8.9/9" netbook keyboards all suck. All of them. The HP is probably the best of the bunch, and even it is not that good. You're much better off with something like the Samsung NC10 or one of its newer variants, which probably has the best keyboard of any netbook.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 keyboard isn't terrible either, but the small right shift key makes it very annoying to use for me.
Click to expand...

The Aspire One has a better keyboard than many 10" netbooks imo, the keys aren't quite as large as most 10" models but the layout is superb (same as the NC10 and the newer 10.1" AAO) with properly placed Shift keys and dedicated Page Up/Down keys by the arrow keys, a little mentioned perk which personally adore ('specially viewing pages at 1024x600). None of the keys are slimmed down either like on the Wind/S10 'cept for the tilde.

The touchpad buttons are a little stiff and the touchpad is small compared to the newer EEE models, but the size is perfectly usable and I use touch to click more than I use the buttons so it's never bothered me. The Synaptics touchpad on the AAO also allows for some gestures, which I rarely see mentioned on reviews (yet it's almost always mentioned about the EEE PC models, dunno why, though I guess the EEE's do have more gestures). There's the pinch to zoom/stretch like on the iPhone and there's a swirl motion for scrolling that's very useful and natural.

Altho I love my 8.9"/160GB/6-cell AOO I dunno why you'd go for an 8.9" netbook at this point, the 10.1" version is only like $20 more at $350, best value amongst netbooks by far imo, the only one anywhere near it in price is the EEE 1000HE at $375 last I checked.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top