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Let's try this again - Windows 10 Netbooks / Tablets / Laptops?


Phil O'Keefe

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Well, for me... as one who vehemently refuses to buy "new" computers for my daw farm slaves etc, I have the same mindset for laptops. So, what I recommend based on now owning two of them is to buy a $2000 HP Elitebook.... for $200....off lease.

 

My 8460p i5 for example is a little tank. I have it loaded with 12gb of ram at the moment, two hard drives, ports include usb3, separate usb2, firewire, esata, and a bunch of other i/o. I also have a third drive that's always nearby to often connect via esata or firewire.

 

One Elitebook is running win7 64bit Pro and my other is running (beautifully) win 10 Pro. I'm moving the win7 to win10 in the next few weeks.

 

I see zero downside to getting an off-lease machine. You can buy them all over the place, they look and work like new, several upgrade paths, built like an aluminum tank (I said that already), and lots of power for daw work when you're on the go.

 

I fail to see anything for $200 that can touch it. And I certainly would never pay the normal $2000 price.

 

I personally don't think tablets are completely blurred into the laptop universe yet. I give it another five years or so.

 

Wait a minute... what server crash? Did I miss something by not coming around the past week?

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Yes... there was a crash at the server farm and HC went down on Friday afternoon. Apparently it took out the server and the two RAID backups. Most of the posts after January 10th were lost, although we're trying to manually restore articles, Pro Reviews and the NAMM show coverage.

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My wife got a Surface Pro and loves it. I have to admit it's a slick package. Might not be up to whatever you plan to do with it, but will beat the pants off any tablet. I'm a bit envious; I'd like one to run VSTs on live! Sadly, no Firewire so I couldn't use my MOTU, and no idea if it has a decent line output. It's great how portable it is. She used to love her iPad but is going to donate it, no longer has any use for it.

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I bought an Asus netbook for $350 a while back, and really like it. It is perfect for traveling, as it is about the size of an iPad (only thicker and heavier), runs a full version of Windows 7, has an SD slot and has ample HD space for my photos. Fantastic.

 

On a completely different note since I doubt you're looking for this, the cheapest Kindle Fire is surprisingly great for only $50. It's a little slow, but it's really quite useful.

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Hi Phil ! The problem with Tablets is hard drive space. I have Win 10 Home Prem 64 on a desktop and it used 85gb for the install, but 13 gb was old windows files which I could delete.

So in my opinion a 16 gb tablet is too small, 32 gb stil too small.

 

So how do they get 10 on tablets? They use Windows 10 with Bing and file compression.

 

See

http://www.thurrott.com for definitive details on 10, as he has written a bunch of books on 10.

 

The best deal I know of is a refurbished Dell E6230 12.5 screen , I5 with 4gb ram and a 128 gb SSD for $279 at Microcenter.

 

http://www.microcenter.com

go to computers/laptop and sort by price.

 

Windows 10 is a great operating system in my opinion.

 

I would recommend quickly uninstalling Norton antivirus, as of their 12 versions of it 4 are incompatible with windows. Just use windows Defender, works well.

 

I would also update the Video card driver on any Win 10 install asap.

 

to compare cpu processing power, I suggest

using the searchable cpu list at

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net

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Bookumdano -- where do you find these off-lease deals? I mean' date=' you can't beat a bargain like that. I'm a big fan of using what was hot 2 years ago and saving a bundle of money![/quote']

 

I bought my two via local LA dealers advertising on Craigslist. Since I wanted to see what I was buying. But you can also do a google for example of "amazon, 8460p." That brings up a bunch of em.

 

 

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I own two Toshiba 8.1 hybrids and one 4 year old Toshiba laptop w/Windows 7. Poster (Happy w/12strin) is generally but not entirely correct about disk storage space and tablets.

 

My Toshiba Click 2 has a 500Gig hard drive. Nice - but it's not an SSD drive. It also has a 13.3" screen that completely detaches. It cost $499 at Best Buy. I tried installing Windows 10 on it and it was a near complete failure. The touch screen function was lost. There were many other problems. But that was the biggest. I no longer had a 2 in 1. I had a just a laptop.

 

I have a newer Toshiba Portege 8.1 hybrid. Cost $650. Smaller (appx) 11" or 12" display and only a 128 (upgradable) SSD drive. Neither have given me problems on 8.1. I won't try upgrading to W10 on the Portege.

 

Which do I use more? The Portege. Which do I like more? a 500 gig drive is nice to have on a tablet. So is the big screen. But the Portege ironically has a better keypad. It's a nice UI too. So I don't know which one I prefer. The Portege cost about $150 more than the Click 2.

 

Concerning the Surface line by M$-they are very sleek and impressive. But considering M$ recently apologized to current Surface 4 and Pro owners for a "less than ideal" transition to W10 - no thanks Windows 10. If Microsoft can't even get its software to run right on its own hardware, what kind of experience should users expect who own and rely on competing brands?

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I use one as a tablet to read news or watch movies in bed.

My 500G / 13.3 " screen is handy for that. I'll probably use it for music too one day.

 

The other I use,as a straight biz computer even though the screen is much smaller, the keyboard is much better. The 128 SSB drive means I have to keep a SD card in it for backup all the time.

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Phil:

"Could you tell me what your recommendations are for an inexpensive Windows 10 laptop / netbook / tablet?

 

The original thread got lost with the server crash, so if you posted previously, thanks - I appreciate it!

 

1. First and foremost, you should buy W10 installed at the factory. Don't go the upgrade route.

 

2. Second of all, a laptop w/W10 installed would be your safest bet. A tablet or hybrid with it factory installed would probably be a safe bet. But I am not so sure. There have been many problems, even w/M$ own Surface Pro (Which BTW, is not inexpensive). My most expensive hybrid is a Toshiba Portege. It costs half what a Surface costs. And it finished at the top of either ZD net or CNet's quality tests.

 

But the Surface Pro is a nice, professional piece of gear. Very well-made and PRICEY.

 

My own experience informs me W10 is not ready for tablets or hybrids yet. I'm not the only one who thinks so.

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/micros...owners-2015-12

 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...tablet-2-in-1/

 

Surface 3 total failure on Wndows 10. http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinio...-3-tablet-mode

 

My own experience was bad. I upgraded my Click 2 and lost all touch screen functions. My 2 in 1 reverted to a laptop. Windows 10 is probably a good Mouse and mouse pad system. I won't use it on tablets until they get these bugs out. I switched back to 8.1.

 

BTW, we have two iPads in the house, an Air 2 64G and an old iPad 2 64G. I don't use either of them except for Auria recording. I use the Windows tablets all the time. I like a tablet you can do serious work on.

My main biz computer is a Win 7 w/a 750 Gig hard drive.

 

Not upgrading any of them.

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Phil:

 

My own experience informs me W10 is not ready for tablets or hybrids yet. I'm not the only one who thinks so.

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/micros...owners-2015-12

 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...tablet-2-in-1/

 

Surface 3 total failure on Wndows 10. http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinio...-3-tablet-mode

 

My own experience was bad. I upgraded my Click 2 and lost all touch screen functions. My 2 in 1 reverted to a laptop. Windows 10 is probably a good Mouse and mouse pad system. I won't use it on tablets until they get these bugs out. I switched back to 8.1.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply. :cool2:

 

What are the biggest areas of concern - the upgrading issues / lack of touchscreen functionality, or are there other issues too?

 

How does Windows 10 do if you use a mouse instead of a touch screen? Did you try it that way?

 

I think part of the issue would be the size of the things you'd want / need to click on. I imagine trying to click on something small like the File menu in the menu bar would be challenging without a mouse. I think my stubby fingers would be accidentally hitting whatever is on the menu bar next to it as often as not...

 

 

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Thanks for taking the time to reply. :cool2:

 

What are the biggest areas of concern - the upgrading issues / lack of touchscreen functionality, or are there other issues too?

 

How does Windows 10 do if you use a mouse instead of a touch screen? Did you try it that way?

 

I think part of the issue would be the size of the things you'd want / need to click on. I imagine trying to click on something small like the File menu in the menu bar would be challenging without a mouse. I think my stubby fingers would be accidentally hitting whatever is on the menu bar next to it as often as not...

 

 

I was forced to use it with a mouse. W10 was a good mouse system.Lousy touch screen system in my experience. But Windows 7 was a good mouse/pad system too. Concerning the size of fonts and icons, you can change them in both 8.1 and 10, maybe 7 too.

 

8.1 was supposedly a failure. But I think it's a good touch-screen based system, definitely better than Win 10. The problem might have been not enough Windows users had touch screens.

 

The size issue is also addressed in my Portege w/2 styluses, a large one and a small one. The small one is inside the screen. The large one is separate. Also, dig through some menus and you can change font/icon side.

 

If you buy any new Windows device, you get W10. If you plan on using a mouse, buy any Windows 10 device you like. But if you intend to rely on a touch screen. Don't expect much.

 

I think a new device/factory installed W10 device, would be the way to go. Not everyone has had tablet problems w/upgrading to 10. But I have and so have a lot of others. The iPad to me is still the benchmark tablet to me. But I like Windows tablets. You can get serious office work done on them.

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Great suggestions everyone - thanks! :philthumb:

 

Ken, is your netbook a laptop style, or a "2 in 1" style? Do you remember the model number offhand?

 

Phil, it is basically a really tiny laptop and does not function as a tablet. It runs a full version of Windows 7 (remember, I bought this almost three years ago), and has ample storage, something that tablets often don't have.

 

Netbooks are going the way of the dodo bird. But if you want a functional mini-laptop, they work great. Mine has an SD card slot, 320 G HD, a full version of Windows 7, and is barely more than 10". It's fantastic for traveling and works great. This is the link for the exact model I have, but it is discontinued.

 

http://www.adorama.com/AS1011CXBK.html?discontinued=t

[h=1]Asus Eee PC 1011CX-MU27 10.1" LED Netbook, Dual Core Intel Atom N2600 1.6 GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Intel UMA Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium[/h]

There's a bunch of these available on amazon.com, though.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1005PE-PU17-BU-10-1-Inch-Netbook-Battery/dp/B00322PYZY/ref=sr_1_40?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1457396762&sr=1-40&keywords=asus+netbook+eee+2+GB+RAM

 

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The photography podcast that I listen to mentioned something about Windows 10 not functioning super well with Surface tablets, and to wait a while before installing that if you can. They report a lot of different issues. I don't remember what those are, but do a search on those if you are considering one.

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[h=1]Windows 10 Update Latest Build Freezes Microsoft Surface Pro 4, Pro 3, Book[/h]

Windows 10 is supposed to be MS' last operating system. After that it will be mandatory updates and patches in perpetuity.

 

Think about that. It is a 'product' that will never be complete. Each new mandatory update or patch, may cause its own problems. And the different versions of Windows 10 will have names, "Redstone" version of W10 is coming this Spring, supposedly. It will be followed by patches and plugs.

 

Microsoft wants the OS to be a 'service'.

 

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[h=1]Windows 10 Update Latest Build Freezes Microsoft Surface Pro 4' date=' Pro 3, Book[/size'][/h]

Windows 10 is supposed to be MS' last operating system. After that it will be mandatory updates and patches in perpetuity.

 

Think about that. It is a 'product' that will never be complete. Each new mandatory update or patch, may cause its own problems. And the different versions of Windows 10 will have names, "Redstone" version of W10 is coming this Spring, supposedly. It will be followed by patches and plugs.

 

Microsoft wants the OS to be a 'service'.

 

That's the kind of stuff that scares me. It would mean not being able to use it for web stuff, and having to do any DAW software updates via sneakernet, but isn't it possible to turn off the modem / wifi once you get the system stable and avoid the updates that way?

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First of all, the real model number for my Laptop is 80K4001MUS . This is a practice that all of the laptop manufacturers seem to be using....selling several FLAVORS of the same "Model". They call mine the Lenovo IdeaPad 500, but there is also an Intel version called the same thing. So first off when you are shopping, you will need to look very closely at the model number....the real model number.

 

Ok...setting that aside, YES I would highly recommend this unit. Best Buy has been advertising this for $380 all week.

 

I have a Laptop with 8 gigs of ram here, 1TB of hard disk space FOR DOING REAL WORK such as audio/video editing.

 

The video built in is an AMD Radeon R6 with 1080P 15.6" screen. The screen is NOT SHINY!! GREAT I LOVE THAT! My OLD Lenovo was getting warnings when running Blender about 3D rendering not working properly, but this computer spins my 3D objects around easily. 512 mb DDR3 assigned to the video card now. I haven't played with it though.

 

We have TWO USB 3.0 ports on the left side here and ONE USB 2.0 port on the right side (which I use for my thumb ball) I have the touch pad shut off most of the time. I also have a FULL SIZED HDMI PORT on the left side. There is also a VGA port as well.

 

There is also BLUETOOTH and Optical Drive (TypeDVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, CD-R, CD-RW)

 

This comes with Windows 10, but you will need at least 1/2 hour for updates the first time you power up.

 

If you want to put Linux on here, it is not too easy. You must get into the bios and turn on Legacy Booting. Oh, and did I mention that you must use a paper clip to get into the BIOS? This is the only thing that I don't like about this unit.

 

This also has a Ethernet100/1000 Mbps port.

 

There is a full size SD card slot and standard mini phone plug for headphones. The sound is very good. (JBL and Dolby symbols on the surface.)

 

This has a 4 cell lithium battery which should be good for up to 4 hours. (my guestimate)

 

This is running at only 1.8ghz with an AMD A-10 "series CPU", so I'm not sure whether I have 2 cores or 4 . Windows SYSTEM lists AMD A-10 8700P 4C + 6G (4 cpu cores and 6 graphics cores?) The RAM is almost as fast as the CPU ...1.6 GHZ.

 

I like it !!

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I like 2 in 1 hybrid laptops. I like detachable tablets. I like touch screen better than mouse.

 

Windows 8.1 and W7 both suit my needs. I've never had a problem w/8.1. And I use it a lot. Never had a problem w/7.0 either.

 

I still have Windows 7 on my main DAW computer.

 

Did you try Windows 8 before going to 8.1? If so, what did you think of it?

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