Netbook recommendation: battery life + video

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rhouck

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Note: I already own a laptop that I use for daily tasks (I like having a large full resolution screen). This is purely for secondary usage (though I'd probably use it more once having it).

Purpose: I'm going to be doing some lengthy international travel in the upcoming weeks and want something for watching movies/tv shows. I'll being doing minimal web browsing/word processing and ZERO gaming.

My primary concerns are battery life and ability to play downloaded HD video (not flash). I have an extensive media collection and would like to be able to load it (and maybe an external hard drive) up for trips. Only concern is my collection is some DVDs, but mainly a mixture of 720p/1080p rips.

Being able to play 1080p would be convenient... but I could probably get by just fine if it only did 720p.

But I want loooong battery life. And ideally easily swappable batteries.

Currently looking at:
- HP Mini 210 HD: looks like it would do the trick with the broadcomm chip. Unsure what battery life is playing HD video though and haven't found many reviews. Other downer is the estimated build date means it would basically be delivered the day of my first flight... which is cutting it a little too close (unless they overly conservative in their estimates).
- Asus EEE 1005PE-PU17: great battery life, seems to be good reviews. Not so sure about HD video on it... also the display resolution (1024) is kind of a downer.

Not TOO concerned with price (although cheaper is obviously better). The HP is somewhere between I think $425-500 built the way I want it; the Asus is only $375ish.

Any other suggestions?
 
the only netbooks that handle 1080p are the ION based ones, and the acer 1410 series.
 
Don't forget DV2's with the HD3410
Asus n10j is an atom N270 with 9300m G. Might be able to find one for under $400
 
The Alienware 11Mx will also do the trick. I'm in the same boat as you and this looks to be the route I'm going to take. Check it out.
 
I have come to the same conclusions as you but I can't get past the 1024x600 screen on the Asus. Dell's new Mini10 will be available with the Broadcom Media Accelerator and a 1366 x 768 screen. I'm not sure about the track pad though. On a positive note the battery sits flush with the back which is the only thing holding me back from pulling the trigger on the HP Mini 210HD.
 
op said "But I want loooong battery life. And ideally easily swappable batteries. "

Alienware will not do the job

even with the GMA inside it can only max at around 6 hours..
but when using the 335m inside for video decode,
it down to less then 4 hours

also m11x 's battery is not swappable.
 
pretty much any atom + gma950 netbook will run 720p flawlessly, and at about 50-60% cpu usage, if you have coreAVC. i recommend kmplayer for its totally undecorated space saving design and just in general.

in terms of the screen size, it really isn't so bad. it suits most content decently enough.
 
I decided to give the HP 210 HD a whirl. It was a little pricier than the Asus I was looking at but seems more qualified to the task and hopefully will work out. HP had a discount on getting a 2nd 6 cell battery so I am hoping that between the two I will be ok (I'm looking at 11-14+ hours of travel time between charges, so I know it will be taxing on the best of solutions).

And I do have CoreAVC already for my HTPC so I'll be sure to toss it on regardless. and is kmplayer a better solution than MPC-HC? (I've only been using full frontends for 99% of my audio/video playback for the last 4-5 years now so haven't explored)

Estimated ship date wasn't supposed to be for another week but (as I'd hoped) it was overly conservative and should be here within a couple days :) I'll report back with my findings.
 
rhouck said:
I decided to give the HP 210 HD a whirl.

...is kmplayer a better solution than MPC-HC? (I've only been using full frontends for 99% of my audio/video playback for the last 4-5 years now so haven't explored)

Estimated ship date wasn't supposed to be for another week but (as I'd hoped) it was overly conservative and should be here within a couple days :) I'll report back with my findings.
Click to expand...

It's pretty sweet being able to run HD movies off a little envelope sized machine, eh? The future rules so far. The 210 HD ought to serve you nicely :D

As for KM Player, yeah, I think it's better. I prefer its interface and options, and am appreciative of the fact that I've never had to screw with a codec since installing it. coreAVC is the only external codec I've chosen to use, and that was simple to set up. Why not give it a shot on your PC and check it out?

In the skins menu, select "default (autohide)" and click the "shade" option on the controls bar at the bottom of the playback window. That nets you a completely borderless floating video window, it's just great.
 
rhouck said:
I decided to give the HP 210 HD a whirl. It was a little pricier than the Asus I was looking at but seems more qualified to the task and hopefully will work out. HP had a discount on getting a 2nd 6 cell battery so I am hoping that between the two I will be ok (I'm looking at 11-14+ hours of travel time between charges, so I know it will be taxing on the best of solutions).

And I do have CoreAVC already for my HTPC so I'll be sure to toss it on regardless. and is kmplayer a better solution than MPC-HC? (I've only been using full frontends for 99% of my audio/video playback for the last 4-5 years now so haven't explored)

Estimated ship date wasn't supposed to be for another week but (as I'd hoped) it was overly conservative and should be here within a couple days :) I'll report back with my findings.
Click to expand...

I'm on our HP Mini 210 1030NR as I write this.. Did you have an update? I increased my RAM to 2gb's, installed our copy of MS Office 2007 and it does everything we intended to use it for. Works great for our needs. The only thing lacking at the moment is we want to install the upcoming Broadcom BCM70015 (for higher res playback). Ours shipped with Windows 7 starter but that's OK. We've found a few work arounds on some of the limitations (even found a way to get rid of the UGLY HP background using Regedit and putting a new 1024 x 600 background)!
 
Asus has a new 1005 model coming out with a 1366x768 display and Broadcom BCM 70015 crystal HD chip. It's called the 1005PR. Haven't been able to find any release date info though. It looses a couple hours of battery life compared to the 1005pe, but if it lives up to it's claimed 11 hours for say, web surfing, I could deal with that. Here's the product page:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=4pE8iOzApxXWWAvF

They're also gearing up to release a 1016p and 1018p models. The 1018p has an aluminum shell. Sacrificied battery life though. Can't remember much about the 1016.
 
officermartinez said:
I'm on our HP Mini 210 1030NR as I write this.. Did you have an update?
Click to expand...

Keep meaning to post a full review but haven't had the time. Gist of it is this: it rocks!

I upgraded the RAM almost immediately to 2gb and have Win7 Starter on it (debating whether to replace). It also has the Broadcom chip.

Not sure if I got it all setup completely optimally, but running HD video in MPC-HC worked great. Played all sorts of 720p shows and movies without a hitch. If you skip around in the video or tax the cpu (e.g. multi-tasking), and end up causing it to lose a/v sync, it takes a few seconds but always comes back to perfect.

Battery life is ~5 hours chugging through HD video, probably nearly double that for just word processing needs. HP has a deal where the 2nd battery is half off so I had bought a spare. Battery swap is super quick and easy and means no worries about running out of battery on international flights :)

The screen is very nice and glad I didn't settle for a lower res. Only bothersome factor is glare in bright sun (e.g. through a plane window), but this is also the ONLY glossy screen I own (even my TV is matte) so I am sure it is more noticeable to me than people who are used to it.

Keyboard is nearly full size and allows for quick typing. I sometimes feel like I have to SMACK the spacebar a little too hard (or in the right place?) for it to register, but I admittedly haven't used the netbook for too much typing yet.

Comes in and out of sleep very very quickly. I opted for the bigger/faster hard drive.

Have had a few issues with a WD passport external drive (powered off USB) where it would sometimes drop the connection (mainly when on battery power). Bought a new USB cable to see if maybe it will help, but I blame that more on the drive than the netbook. I really hate the mini-usb standard; so flimsy.

Would be nice if it had HDMI-out for plugging into hotel TVs but minor gripe.

Anyway, I've used it on I think ~30,000 miles of air travel already, plus an assortment of hours of hotel viewing. It has performed admirably. I am quite pleased with video performance and the battery life. I haven't really tried it with 1080p video (and don't see any need given the screen res...); only real reason to would because the majority of my movie collection is ripped in 1080p for the big TV so have to make a second netbook copy. Broadcom support is still improving and hopefully will get even better.

I obviously add the caveat that my experience with netbooks is limited and so I can't really say if it is better or worse than others. I prefer the higher res screen, not just for video but for when I did have to do word processing. It's certainly not as cheap as some other netbooks but hardly breaks the bank when loaded up. Oh and I didn't like that HP required you to get Win7 Starter when opting for the larger hard drive :rolleyes: I have a TechNet sub so it was a needless expense for me; had I had more time/been less lazy, I would have just bought a bigger hard drive separately and installed it myself.

Oh and the back of the netbook is VERY easy to take off to swap memory (only one stick); it's a screwless design. However, getting to other things (e.g. the hard drive) certainly appears to be a lot of screws... but I suppose semi-expected given how compact it is.
 
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