Christmas is around the corner and for many people, regardless of religion, that means time for presents. With budgets very much in mind, splurging seems both extravagant and needless, but techie people and people with significant techie others can take heart because netbooks are here to save the day. Netbooks, which have been steadily increasing in popularity all year, make ideal gadgety gifts with intrinsic practical value at a very fair price.

John Morris, ZDNet, reviewed some of the best value for money netbooks to fill stockings on Christmas Eve. Not surprisingly netbook pioneers, Asus, is considered one of the strongest Christmas contenders with their EEE PC 901 which retails at around $440 (R4,415). Standard in the EEE PC 901, as with most netbooks, is an 8.9-inch display and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, from there the version splits into two models: one with a 12GB SSD and Windows XP Home, and the other with a 20GB SSD and a Linux OS. There is a 6-cell battery, which is good for 8 hours on Windows XP and the whole things weighs in at only 2.4 pounds (1.08kg).

The HP Mini 1000 offers great value for money. Starting at $400 (R4,014) these little 8.9-inch display, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 3-cell battery machines weigh only 2.5 pounds and come with the option of a free upgrade to 1GB of memory. Morris, however, recommends the 10.2-inch display model with a 60GB at only $100 extra.

The Acer Aspire One scores points for attractive functionality and performance, as well as the fact that it is lighter and thinner than the Asus PC 901. With all the netbook standard features, the Acer Aspire One costs only $329 (R3,301), but for an extra $20 you get 1GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive. For $400 you get a 160GB hard drive and a 6-cell battery that is reportedly good for 5.5 hours.

Other big brands with Christmas worthy netbooks are Lenovo (IdeaPad S10 - $400) and Dell (Inspiron Mini 9 - $350). But if you want something with a little more meat to it, you can try HP’s first multi-touch notebook, the TouchSmart tx2. While it is far more expensive than the netbooks, the TouchSmart is reasonably competitively priced for the tablet notebook market at $1,149 (R11,530).

References:

blogs.zdnet.com/computers/?p=266

blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10926&tag=nl.e539

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers My New Laptop laptops, notebooks and accessories a leading supplier of laptops, notebooks and accessories at prices to suit any budget.

Related Reviews

• Blackberry Application Development - A Latest Trend in Market (0)

Tags: Christmas, Market, Netbook