Best Netbook available at BestBuy

[ryangarfield]

I'm looking to purcahse a netbook that has great performance/battery life and capable of doing HD video with HDMI out. The kicker is that I have $400 in Best Buy giftcards that I would like to put towards this. I would consider a Laptop should it be smaller in size and still retain a decent pricepoint. Any ideas?

[aedipuss]

[edit] notebooks, they have an hp 15.6 intel dual core for about 500 u.s. or an asus for a bit more.

[redwudz]

About all I saw in your price range (For US dollars) at BB were these refurbished models:

The first two are notebooks and the last is a netbook. If you have more to spend, then you might look to new models. Just scroll down their specifications to see if HDMI is included.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Factory-Refurbished+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Cel...&skuId=9980164

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Factory-Refurbished+Laptop+with+AMD+Athlon%26%23153%3...&skuId=9893426

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Factory-Refurbished+Mini+Netbook+with+Intel%26%23174%...&skuId=9944148

I think you should just search the BB site and see what they might have. HDMI is unusual for a netbook, as they don't have Blu-ray drives, so the manufacturers probably don't see a reason for it. Also most netbooks use the Atom CPUs and they are minimal for high definition video. My Asus netbook can't handle it. But it probably depends on the video chip inside the computer.

[ryangarfield]

I apologize, as I should have been more specific. My $400 in Best Buy giftcards doesn't have to cover the entire price, I would just like to put that towards the cost of the netbook/laptop. I would still like to keep it reasonably inexpensive, yet another 100-200 dollars is fine. Some possible options I've seen recently are the Asus Eee PC 1201N, and the HP 311-1000(or something), Which I see is the last one you listed Redwudz. Another question tho, is that if I wanted to add additional RAM myself, is that possible for netbooks? And does additional ram suck up more battery life? Thanks for the help so far!

[redwudz]

I added RAM to my Asus Netbook with no problems. Usually just remove one or two screws from the bottom of the netbook/laptop and you will see the RAM slots. Most times both slots are in use, so I would check that first. If so, you usually want to replace both RAM sticks to get a reasonable RAM amount.

The extra RAM will use very little extra power, not really anything to worry about. I still get about five hours use from my netbook, the same as before I added the RAM. You can also conserve on power by turning down the screen backlight a little and turning off the WiFi if you aren't using it.

Make sure your new netbook/laptop can play HD video. Just because it has a HDMI socket is no guarantee. My Asus Eee Netbook can't handle HD MKV video, even with MPC-HC. But it plays Xvid/Divx video with no problem. I got it for long airline flights and sitting in terminals for hours. I needed highly portable, not high performance.

[fairytale00]

How about this Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1120 AMD Athlon Neo 11.6" Netbook, 2GB/250GB/Win 7 ???

[aedipuss]

this is the hp laptop for 499.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Pentium%26%23174%3B+Pro...&skuId=9700696

worked on 2 of them recently and it's not bad, but staples had them for 399 last week.

the asus is a better buy at 450

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Pentium%26%23174%3B+P...&skuId=9700714