£199 laptop

[TimberWolf]

Knocks spots off the Eee?

Comes with a choice of Linux with 8 GB of solid-state storage for £199, or XP Home with 80GB hard drive and lower battery life for £299.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06..._launches_one/

[Moscow Mule]

Having seen the build quality on my brothers Acer, I'm not interested.

[blacjac]

Having seen the build quality on my brothers Acer, I'm not interested.

I thought the same after my last Acer, said I would never get another.

However I was persuaded to earlier this year, and am amazed at the difference in build quality.
Admitidley the last one was about £400 2 years ago and this one was closer to £800...


So for £200, it'll probably fall to bits by the end of the summer holidays....

[Clippy]

I quite like the look of the HP MiniNote.

Better pictures available elsewhere but looks nicer - bit pricier though.

[TimberWolf]

I quite like the look of the HP MiniNote.

Better pictures available elsewhere but looks nicer - bit pricier though.

Is the HP MiniNote graphics chip carp though (i.e not even good enough to play YouTube videos properly)? That's what some of the comments in the Acer column were suggesting. From first impressions, the Acer looks to have few of these kind of weaknesses, save perhaps a fairly low graphics resolution and an as yet unknown build quality.

[miffy]

I'm all for the cheaper laptops. I've never spent above £400 on a lappy and don't believe I ever will.

Depends what you want. I just want something to write word docs on, a bit of project, visio, surfin, remote access and occasional visual studio for knocking up a utility to help me do something.

If I'm walking around with a cheaper lappy then I don't care about throwing it into the boot of the car, it getting crushed on the tube, me dropping it or it getting robbed.

£300-£400 buys you something pretty good these days. That said, I've always bought HP laptops and they've never let me down.

The £199 acer looks ok for surfin on the sofa. Not sure why it's £299 if you choose XP over Linux. OEM XP doesn't cost that much and you could buy a better lappy for £299 with Vista on it.

I can see it selling pretty well though.

[NickFitz]

The £199 acer looks ok for surfin on the sofa. Not sure why it's £299 if you choose XP over Linux. OEM XP doesn't cost that much and you could buy a better lappy for £299 with Vista on it.

It's probably due to a combination of the XP license and the hard drive - and, of course, the shorter battery life

[TimberWolf]

The inclusion of the hard drive probably explains the reduced battery power.

Does anyone own their own XP/Vista disc so they could install Windows using that? If so, would Windows Update detect and refuse to update? My last PC came with Windows installed, and no CD.

[blacjac]

Windows Update will not work if the XP installtion has not been 'activated'.

Activation requires a licence code, and if you try to activate the same licence code too many times Windows Update will stop working.

(MS allow a certain number of activations per licence for reinstalls after crashes, new hardware etc... I think the number is 3).

[TimberWolf]

Windows Update will not work if the XP installtion has not been 'activated'.

Activation requires a licence code, and if you try to activate the same licence code too many times Windows Update will stop working.

(MS allow a certain number of activations per licence for reinstalls after crashes, new hardware etc... I think the number is 3).

I imagine Windows only installs to a hard-drive (rather than a solid state storage) anyway?