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Teeny Lap Tops


Damer
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Thinking of getting my daughter (10, going to secondary school next year) one of those teeny lap tops for Xmas. They seem to be dead cheap now, are they any good though?

All she does is basic games, web browsing and homework.

Thanks

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a friend of mine has an Asus eeePC 901... and its excellent, although i wouldnt probably try to run games...

And i think that if your gonna let her have a laptop alone then it may be worth investing in a copy of spysure http://www.spysure.com/

I run it at work to monitor what people are doing, and its really easy to use etc and will help you make sure that she doesnt get into trouble, it allows you to monitor from a distance (i.e. your personal laptop/comp) and nobody is the wiser

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a friend of mine has an Asus eeePC 901... and its excellent, although i wouldnt probably try to run games...

And i think that if your gonna let her have a laptop alone then it may be worth investing in a copy of spysure http://www.spysure.com/

I run it at work to monitor what people are doing, and its really easy to use etc and will help you make sure that she doesnt get into trouble, it allows you to monitor from a distance (i.e. your personal laptop/comp) and nobody is the wiser

Thanks, when I say games I mean daft little Flash games, making cakes, dressing up rather than stuff like World or Warcraft, so hopefully that will be OK.

Thanks for the Spysure tip I'll look into it.

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We bought the 'kids' one each - both Acer one with Linux and one with XP. If she's going to do homework etc I'd suggest the XP version as its a lot more 'word friendly' :)

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The Register recommends the Asus eeePC 901

But I'm partial to the Acer One, but it has poor battery life.

You may find this useful

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/reviews/umpc/

Its the Acer One I was thinking of, at £180 its less than I paid for my PSP when they first came out. Battery life shouldn't be an issue as wil stay in her room mostly and I will hook it up to a spare flat screen monitor I have for longer stints on it.

I know it runs on Linux but will I be able to load MSN on to it for her?

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Its the Acer One I was thinking of, at £180 its less than I paid for my PSP when they first came out. Battery life shouldn't be an issue as wil stay in her room mostly and I will hook it up to a spare flat screen monitor I have for longer stints on it.

I know it runs on Linux but will I be able to load MSN on to it for her?

Yep ours have msn on :winky:

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They're simply excellent. They're useless for graphical games but for a tedious airline journey or any time you need a computer without the hassle they're right on the money. Plus you can buy them for the same as a Wii which makes them remarkable value.

I think I am sold.

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Been looking again on the web, think I might go for the Asus eeePC 901 instead. For an extra tenner, more memory and runs XP, so I can install MS Office etc.

Will check out PC World tonight.

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i will be getting one in the new year, best my friend has had out of it was 7 hours and 42 mins... we were bored so charged it and put it on a countdown timer! lol

So light, screen resolution is awsome.. although invest some money in some 16gb+ SDHC memory cards (now from £16.99) and there are 32gb cards out there for £80..

This will make your memory over double and allow you to move things around quickly

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Yep as above they're pretty good if you just need it for web browsing, word processing, etc.

It's amazing how cheap these things are, but I guess when you consider that some phones nowadays are more powerful than PCs from not that long ago it kinda makes sense.

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DONT DO IT.......

GET HER A PROPER LAP TOP !!!...... sorry for shouting.... Ive got a 10 year old daughter and also an eeepc 901. My daughter has a full size lap top and when I got the 901 she wanted one like kids do...however the real purpose of the 901 is the fact that its small and portable, you said your daughters would be plugged in..

Firstly you will be limited on the game front due to the awful graphics, there is also no disc drive so they cant pop in a dvd or whatever without you bolting an external one on, the keyboard is so fiddly the kids really do struggle with the layoutl, its jusy not kid friendly. The sound is poor the screen quality leaves alot to be desired although that may not bother her.

A full size, Vista enabled lap top that can play dvds / cds, simpson games etc is much better for kids...and cheap as chips from ebuyer,my daughter doesnt bother with the 901 because its so limited... trust me on this one

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DONT DO IT.......

GET HER A PROPER LAP TOP !!!...... sorry for shouting.... Ive got a 10 year old daughter and also an eeepc 901. My daughter has a full size lap top and when I got the 901 she wanted one like kids do...however the real purpose of the 901 is the fact that its small and portable, you said your daughters would be plugged in..

Firstly you will be limited on the game front due to the awful graphics, there is also no disc drive so they cant pop in a dvd or whatever without you bolting an external one on, the keyboard is so fiddly the kids really do struggle with the layoutl, its jusy not kid friendly. The sound is poor the screen quality leaves alot to be desired although that may not bother her.

A full size, Vista enabled lap top that can play dvds / cds, simpson games etc is much better for kids...and cheap as chips from ebuyer,my daughter doesnt bother with the 901 because its so limited... trust me on this one

Really appreciate your view.

PLEASE don't take my following comments as a go back, I do hear what you are saying these are my thoughts.

Went to PC "shop" tonight the tiny Acer looked really good and the Linux system seemed ok too, though the staff said I'd struggle setting parental controls, external drives etc. The only eeepc in stock was £60 dearer, sorry but I am not spending nearly £250 plus all the other trimmings on a laptop for my kid that I know will moan its be out of date in 12 months. I have a spare screen I would put in her room, as I realise the built in screen is small.

Part of the reason I was looking at small lap tops was that:

1) they look cool

2) We have 2 other "proper laptop" and portable dvd for watching movies.

3) every other weekend she see her "real" dad (long story best told over a few beers, but I have raised her for the last 10 years, and she is 10) and I want her to keep up with school work.

4) try and stop fights over the family PC and let her chat to frineds on MSN.

I think I might still get one but one that runs in windows that I kind of understand better and can better link an external drive to.

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DONT DO IT.......

GET HER A PROPER LAP TOP !!!...... sorry for shouting.... Ive got a 10 year old daughter and also an eeepc 901. My daughter has a full size lap top and when I got the 901 she wanted one like kids do...however the real purpose of the 901 is the fact that its small and portable, you said your daughters would be plugged in..

Firstly you will be limited on the game front due to the awful graphics, there is also no disc drive so they cant pop in a dvd or whatever without you bolting an external one on, the keyboard is so fiddly the kids really do struggle with the layoutl, its jusy not kid friendly. The sound is poor the screen quality leaves alot to be desired although that may not bother her.

A full size, Vista enabled lap top that can play dvds / cds, simpson games etc is much better for kids...and cheap as chips from ebuyer,my daughter doesnt bother with the 901 because its so limited... trust me on this one

Really appreciate your view.

PLEASE don't take my following comments as a go back, I do hear what you are saying these are my thoughts.

Went to PC "shop" tonight the tiny Acer looked really good and the Linux system seemed ok too, though the staff said I'd struggle setting parental controls, external drives etc. The only eeepc in stock was £60 dearer, sorry but I am not spending nearly £250 plus all the other trimmings on a laptop for my kid that I know will moan its be out of date in 12 months. I have a spare screen I would put in her room, as I realise the built in screen is small.

Part of the reason I was looking at small lap tops was that:

1) they look cool

2) We have 2 other "proper laptop" and portable dvd for watching movies.

3) every other weekend she see her "real" dad (long story best told over a few beers, but I have raised her for the last 10 years, and she is 10) and I want her to keep up with school work.

4) try and stop fights over the family PC and let her chat to frineds on MSN.

I think I might still get one but one that runs in windows that I kind of understand better and can better link an external drive to.

no problemo i know where you are coming from. It does look 'cool' and the chances are she will love it. Linux is great for browsing the net, its so quick....but i struggle to even download basic programmes on it..just cant get to grips with Linux...you can download xp if you have a spare key however so may work out cheaper to do it that way

this is good forum

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=48

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DONT DO IT.......

GET HER A PROPER LAP TOP !!!...... sorry for shouting.... Ive got a 10 year old daughter and also an eeepc 901. My daughter has a full size lap top and when I got the 901 she wanted one like kids do...however the real purpose of the 901 is the fact that its small and portable, you said your daughters would be plugged in..

Firstly you will be limited on the game front due to the awful graphics, there is also no disc drive so they cant pop in a dvd or whatever without you bolting an external one on, the keyboard is so fiddly the kids really do struggle with the layoutl, its jusy not kid friendly. The sound is poor the screen quality leaves alot to be desired although that may not bother her.

A full size, Vista enabled lap top that can play dvds / cds, simpson games etc is much better for kids...and cheap as chips from ebuyer,my daughter doesnt bother with the 901 because its so limited... trust me on this one

Really appreciate your view.

PLEASE don't take my following comments as a go back, I do hear what you are saying these are my thoughts.

Went to PC "shop" tonight the tiny Acer looked really good and the Linux system seemed ok too, though the staff said I'd struggle setting parental controls, external drives etc. The only eeepc in stock was £60 dearer, sorry but I am not spending nearly £250 plus all the other trimmings on a laptop for my kid that I know will moan its be out of date in 12 months. I have a spare screen I would put in her room, as I realise the built in screen is small.

Part of the reason I was looking at small lap tops was that:

1) they look cool

2) We have 2 other "proper laptop" and portable dvd for watching movies.

3) every other weekend she see her "real" dad (long story best told over a few beers, but I have raised her for the last 10 years, and she is 10) and I want her to keep up with school work.

4) try and stop fights over the family PC and let her chat to frineds on MSN.

I think I might still get one but one that runs in windows that I kind of understand better and can better link an external drive to.

no problemo i know where you are coming from. It does look 'cool' and the chances are she will love it. Linux is great for browsing the net, its so quick....but i struggle to even download basic programmes on it..just cant get to grips with Linux...you can download xp if you have a spare key however so may work out cheaper to do it that way

this is good forum

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=48

Thanks don't want a row just exchanges views and advice.

At the moment all she does is play girly web games, dressing up, cooking mamma clones etc. Speed is essential kids are very impatient. I was dissapointed that PC"shop" server was down so couldn't see how it handled. I have spare keys for MS office, but does that change the whole operating system?

Found even cheaper ones from another website but windows is £60+ dearer?

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I have a Asus eeepc for one purpose only, to use with my obdII reader. Had to install XP over the Linux though. The obdII reader is always connected to the car, so all i have to do is plug in the Asus. Personally, i would go for the Acer aspires one rather than Asus as it's got way more HD space. I mean, my asus has 20gig HD space, which means i can't upgrade xp to SP3 lol, but theres no real need for me. N series phones almost have as much memory space as the Asus lol

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I've had a 701 since they came out, can't fault it for what it is and what I do with it. It was invaluable when I was travelling through Florida this year (where to eat where to stay etc) and copes fine with browsing in bed. I have skype on it so was able to kill a few hours in the airport chatting to my 5 year old nephew back in the UK with video.. It's a great gadget, but I suspect not the best thing for kids to do their homework on. Seeing as I run Linux on all but one of my PC's, the linux side of things is great for me :)

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the acer ones we have have 120gb hard drives

loadsa room !!

Ahh old tech.. lol

the 901 has a SSD... solid state hard drive so uses less power, doesnt get damaged if dropped.. etc etc.. kind a big flash drive really..

the best bit is that technology is getting cheaper every month.. i think £80 will get you about 32gb now... so wont be long before 120+ will cost in the £100 bracket

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Well last night managed to get an Asus eeePC900 with a 12 GB hard drive, running XP, for £185. Well chuffed 'cos everywhere was showing out of stock. Charging it and gonna get it ready for her for Xmas.

Almost went for Linux because they were in stock but lack of MSn, iTunes, and doubts over Flash pushed me down the XP route.

Can't wait to play with it! :blush:

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