I've got an Advent 4211 "netbook", which is a (cheaper - about £250) MSI
Wind clone, have been very impressed with it - has a good keyboard, nice
clear and bright 10" screen (1024 x 600 resolution) and seems well made, it
runs Windows XP reasonably fast, considering its only has a 1.6Ghz Atom
processor. It comes with 1Gb RAM standard, but I've upgraded it to 2Gb, and
has an 80Gb hard drive. It has 2 USB ports and a video-out port.

On the downside - the button for the mousepad isn't great - its got one
button that acts as a left or right button depending on which side you
depressed, and the battery life is short (about 1 hour and 15 mins) unless
you upgrade to a higher capacity battery (about £50), but the latter lasts
almost 4 hours. Also the speakers are a bit rubbish, so audio quality isn't
great, unless headphones or an external speaker are used.

Hope this helps!

Paul

On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 3:31 PM, O'Neil, Jacqueline <
[log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:

> Hello all
>
>
>
> I am thinking about buying some mini laptops for use in a gallery space
> with family groups and am wondering if anyone has had any experience,
> positive or negative, of a specific mini laptop, PDA, UMPC or palm-top
> computer? There are quite a few out there and any advice about which to
> avoid or which are good would be great. The families will follow a trail
> around the gallery space, which would be a flash file. The computers
> won't need to have a big memory capacity but ideally a big enough screen
> to see properly, and speakers so that there can be audio content on the
> trail. There would also need to be at least one USB port. We already
> have Samsung UMPC trails for schools operating at one of our museums but
> I want to use different technology for the family trails if possible so
> if you could share your thoughts it would help me a lot. Thanks in
> advance!
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
> Jacqueline O'Neil
> E-Learning Coordinator
>
> Museums Sheffield
> 2nd Floor, Orchard House, Leopold Street, Sheffield, S1 2GY
> Tel:       0114 278 2653
> Fax:      0114 278 2660
> Email:   [log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]>
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-- 
Paul Groves, Project Manager
The Yousef Jameel Online Centre for the Study of Islamic and Eastern Art
Dept. of Eastern Art, Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PH. UK
T: +44 (0)1865 278289
W: http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/

For disclaimer, see http://www.ashmolean.org/email/

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Temporary closure of the Ashmolean:

The Ashmolean Museum and Café will temporarily close to the public after 23
December 2008 to prepare for the opening
of the new museum building in November 2009. The Shop will remain open for
business as usual.