Between a rock and a hard place

[Milkybarkid]

Mid year I had decided to replace my husband's 3 year old net book with the Inferno,which for what he uses it for would have been a bit of an overkill, but I do use it occasionally so I thought it would be worth it.

I needed 11.6 as he didn't want any larger and now the Inferno has gone. I've looked at the Apollo, which with a few tweaks would be within my budget, but I've measured for size using a newspaper pattern (well I do sew), and it is way to big for him, I like biggest I can afford, he likes small, the netbook just fits on his usual perch in the kitchen. 11.6 would have been fine, 13.3 too large.

I've looked the hybrid but I'm not sure. Does the keyboard fit round the screen when not in use, would 64mb be enough to run windows 8.1. Would it be enough to get MS word on, if nothing else. He wouldn't use it but I would and just save any documents to the NAS drive. Is the keyboard as good as a normal keyboard.

Otherwise I'm back to going for a lower powered cheaper laptop with probably poor support. We've been lucky with the MSI, it's never been any trouble.

Any thoughts?

 

[steaky360]

Howdy, I'm guessing you're talking about the "Gemeni" http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/gemini/

Looks like you can totally remove the keyboard if you didn't want to use it and then the device is essentially a 'tablet' (and will likely work similar to an iPad etc.) otherwise it looks like the keyboard would sit in what would be the 'normal' position for a keyboard on a laptop.

Pretty good image of the keyboard layout there, no numpad but other than that its an English keyboard.

The SSD that comes as standard is 64Gb, this would be sufficient for windows 8.1 and some apps (I think windows 8.1 64bit can take up to 20Gb).

 

[Milkybarkid]

I had a budget of £400 but I've stretched to £450 - The higher processor is a tad too much for me. The keyboard looks fine in the picture, does it wrap round the screen when not in use like the MS Surface?l


Chassis & Display
Gemini: 11.6" 10 Point Multi-Touch HD LED Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Celeron® Dual Core Processor 1037U (1.80GHz) 2MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
11.6" Gemini Series 9 Cell Battery (up to 8.5 Hours Media Playback)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 Small Screen Touch (£45)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
Gemini Series Dockable UK Notebook Keyboard
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Quantity
1

Price: £450.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[steaky360]

I had a budget of £400 but I've stretched to £450 - The higher processor is a tad too much for me. The keyboard looks fine in the picture, does it wrap round the screen when not in use like the MS Surface?

Not sure if the keyboard wraps around, it looks like it could but I don't know for sure.

I'd consider adding the dead pixel insurance for 1 year.

 

[Milkybarkid]

I have had a drastic rethink about this. Having had use of an MS Surface for a few weeks I know that the keyboard is not substantial so I've decided on either the Asus S200 Vivobook from John Lewis, right size, pretty looking (he likes good looking), or back to the Apollo. If I buy the Gemini I know I'll be buying it for me, which is not really what I want to do. No real comparison I know, just the right size and good looking on the outside.

Chassis & Display
Apollo Series: 13.3" Glossy HD LED Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Pentium® Dual Core Processor 997 (2 x 1.40GHz) 2MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Apollo Series 4 Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language
Apollo Series UK Keyboard
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Quantity
1

Price: £460.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[steaky360]

I'd consider adding the dead pixel insurance for 1 year

 

[tom_gr7]

i'd probably push the cpu to to an Intel I3 and if you can afford to go for 8gig of ram. That would be a very good little spec'd machine.

 

[Milkybarkid]

I'm already top of my budget. I was dithering whether to get the cheaper 120 drive but for the bit extra I thought it was worth it it. Pixel insurance I'll have to take a punt and not add, never had any problems before. No intel 3 on this model and I probably couldn't afford it. For what he would use it for, this should be fine, in fact it's more than fine, plus it should keep him happy for a few years without another upgrade. The only drawback is the size, which I'll have to decide on soon.