Advent 4213

[solo12002]

Well after much debate. I brought a Advent 4213 Netbook. Im off to Portrush tomorrow for a week so it be good to see how it performs with a three BB sim etc.

Thanks for adding the netbook page onto the fourm

[Hands0n]

LOL, nice one I'll be interested in your comments and findings. Just remember, it is an Atom-powered Netbook. It does a lot okay, but video (i.e. iPlayer and the like) suck dreadfully. But all of these Netbooks do, so no real hardship.

I use a Vodafone £15/3GB contract Mobile Broadband SIM in mine and it rocks!

[gorilla]

Well lets get the big question out of the way first: did you get nice weather in Portrush?

I'm going to buy the missus a netbook for surfing the web while she watches the tele, for no other reason. I don't want mobile broadband, I'm not interested in doing anything demanding with it, just normal browsing / email / shopping etc.

Is the advent a good option for this? I had been toying with the idea of an MSI Wind, but they seem pricey and they have a new one coming out soon.

I also don't want windows, I'm happy to go down the ubuntu route or OS X (tut tut!!), I'm toying with an SSD even if it is tiny, I can't really see what we'd oops I mean she will want to store on there. I know Ben says his Dell mini is pants, but there must be more netbook owners on here. Of course I could just wait for the £1k Apple netbook that they deny all knowledge about

[Hands0n]

Well you know I have the Advent 4213 - but if you don't want built-in 3G then it is a bit pricey compared to the non-integrated Netbooks. And seriously, if you are only looking for something for the Mrs to put on her lap then you probably wouldn't go far wrong with any one of these here --> http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Laptops/

[gorilla]

I've now acquired one of these. First impressions are really good. However, XP? That should not be sold to anyone these days. I'd forgotten how annioying it is. After 30 mins of playing I got fed up and installed windows 7 (not that I was ever going to keep XP on it!) which was a breeze. I was going to get a PAYG 3g sim, but when iPhone 3.0 is released, tethering will be allowed (correct?) so I should be ok.

Straight out of the box windows 7 works really well on this netbook. Far better than the installed XP.

Has anyone bought a replacement battery or increased the ram?

[miffed]

I must admit it is bizarre that new machines are still coming with XP - OK I understand it is the best thing MS have to offer ATM , and am not suggesting that it is BAD OS , but could you IMAGINE 2-3 years ago buying a brand new machine running Windows ME ?

Funny old situation really !

[solo12002]

At long last an update

I love the advent even if the keyboard is a bit small for my fingers. Its been useful to have when Ive been at hotels and down at the Skerries Caravan Park in portrush. And in fact ive brought my Bro in Law one for travelling.

I intend to take mine to Poland for the week in August, with the removel of like three and I know they will be chargeing 10p MB from june to end of jan 2010, the best deal I can find other wise for data is on metor:http://www.meteor.ie/bbtg/payg/pricing/ €.99 a day for up to 500 MB

A few things not so much about the advent but mobile BB. I came prepaired in that I brought my contaract 3 Dougle along, a O2 and vodafone PAYG one.

Firstly Three. Mobile phone coverage on 3G was good even in the caravan, the dougle was crap most of the time I was informed that I had no sim in the thing, funny enought it worked ok off peak, but there were ares in portrush etc I could no use it. So be aware.

Tried the vodafone one in the caravan site best I got there was GPRS or at times if I was at white rocks Vodafone IE so be aware.

O2 tried it again best I got was EDGE, was hiting another caravan sites WIFI but would not let me access it.

So the netbook was a god send able to access emails and the net by taking a light weight device with me.

One other thing clearly i now have the three, vodafone and O2 software all installed, going to remove it, be aware that I was at hilton hotel Temppatrick last week and it would not pick up the WIFI - Why because I have to go through the o2 manager that the dougle installs. Point to note.