Netbook recomendations for a developer [closed]
I am thinking about getting a netbook for a secondary laptop. Ideally it would mainly be used for surfing/email/travel, but I would like it to be good enough to be able to run Visual Studio for when I am at conferences and the like.
I as thinking it would be nice to be able to put a 16-32GB SSD in it, as well as 2GB of memory. Do you have any recomendations? Will a netbook even suffice, or should I upgrade to a small-form laptop?
Edit: I don't need to be able to build software on it. It would just be nice to occasionally be able to try out new tools, APIs, or what have you without getting frustrated due to limited computing power.
Solution 1:
If you're really after a netbook, then I would recommend the Samsung NC20. I have owned one for the last month and have found it quite satisfactory for coding on, but I probably wouldn't want to do so all of the time. I run Windows 7 on it and upgraded it to 2GB RAM.
The keyboard is large enough for touch-typing and the screen is sizable (for a netbook) and sharp. It's surprisingly fast, and light, and it runs cool. All in all it's a surprisingly sweet little computer, and quite visually attractive as well.
I made the decision to purchase based on the very favourable reviews for it:
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-12-1-inch-Mini-Notebook-1-3GHz-Windows/dp/B001PQG6E2
- http://techreport.com/articles.x/16773
- http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39030093,49301783,00.htm
- http://computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/samsung-nc20
Solution 2:
Before buying one, try spending some time coding on one. The small, rearranged keyboard might kick your productivity in the face. For instance, I have a Dell Mini9 and I would never code with it. Its keyboard is hard to do home-row typing. The trackpad mouse is too close to the spacebar and I keep tapping it as I type, moving the focus to wherever the mouse cursor happened to be.
Solution 3:
Those specs with a decent processor should be sufficient to run VS. I recommend ASUS' netbook offerings, particularly the Eee PC EPC1000HE, which has garnered fantastic reviews all around.
If you're intent on 2GB RAM, you may have to spend a little more.