Does anyone here have experience with Netbooks? I'm looking to invest in one but it seems that there are a lot of options and I have no idea what brands/models are good.

I'm looking to spend less than $300... what I mostly want is a machine that I can use to write on anywhere without having to plug it in, so long battery life is my main concern. I'd also like something to use as a portable DVD Player, but it doesnt need to have a fancy graphics card or anything.

Ideally, I'd like to purchase it from a reputable site like newegg, but the number of options there is a little overwhelming to someone who has spent much of the last 5 years hanging out in the woods and has gotten out of touch with computer specs and what they mean.

Any suggestions?

the Asus eee line of netbooks are pretty good. i have an eee 900 which i use mostly as an emergency backup in the event my desktop goes down, or if im away from my desktop. it works great, does exactly what i need it to do. the battery life is only ~2-3 hours but the newer models ive heard have upwards of 7 hours of battery per charge.

as for using it as a portable dvd player, most netbooks ive seen don't even have a cd/dvd drive.

Most netbooks don't have optical drives, so that narrows your choices down quite a bit right there...

I'm an idiot. I realize now that you're completely right! Shows how long I've been out in the woods. So scratch the dvd playing bit, but recomendations on good brands with long battery lives would be appreciated.

I'm pretty much in the same boat, I want one that isn't powerful, or has fancy features. Just a long battery life and the ability to at least play JK or DOSBox.

One thing to look out for is glossy vs matte for the screen. Glossy screens are awful in any kind of lit conditions, the glare is excessive. Matte screens can be harder to find, but they're much better and function under just about any light level.

I've got an EEE 1000HE running XP and love it. SD slot and wireless suits my needs.

Windows 7 works way better on my 1000HE than XP did.

HP DV2 with Windows 7. Benchmarks the same in Pro Tools vs. Macbook C2D 1.86 ghz with otherwise similar specs. It's slightly larger than the standard netbook, making the keyboard a lot more comfortable.

730$....
That's way out of his price range.

I paid 300 for mine. It's one of the lower-range DV2's, same CPU and GPU, but with only 2gb of RAM and 160gb HD and no HDMI output.

Link to a review or a seller? I'm interested too.

I got an HP mini, it's pretty alright.

It loads huge ass pdfs with ease, so it's perfect for school.

Trick; Go to best buy, make sure no one is looking, kick the side of the box REALLY hard. You get an automatic 15% discount.

I'm an Asus fan, and they supposedly have the lowest hardware failure rates among most portable machine makers. I think I read that on Anandtech some time ago.

The ASUS EEE 1000 or whatever they are are looking pretty good... I think I can get a refurbished one for cheap. Thanks!

All of the new Asus, Dell & HP netbooks are decent. I personally think that the older Asus netbooks are **** (I had to work on over a hundred of them) but the newer ones are decent. It should be fairly easy to find a decent netbook under $300.

I shopped for Netbooks and debated in my head for awhile trying to figure out which one I wanted. My price range was $300 - $400. The conclusion I came to when it comes to hardware was that they are pretty much packing the same **** into all of these, and for what I was planning on doing with it (carrying around school and browsing the internet - nothing else) it didn't really matter what they put in it anyway. I bought an Asus Eee for $349 and it advertises a 10 hour battery life. In reality it's about 8 hours of pure usage. I keep it in my backpack on stand by all the time and charge it every few days, similar to how I charge my cell phone. I'm on it right now, and the meter thingy says there is 29% (2 hours and 30 minutes) of battery life left. Pretty cool.

I am posting on an Acer Aspire One right now. I bought it for Iraq and it was great. The stock battery gets maybe two hours, the six cell or whatever maybe 6. Not the greatest, but it was pretty cheap, and has done great.