Dirt Cheap Netbook

If you are intrigued by the notion of a small portable computer that is very travel friendly, but didn't want to drop the typical $300 to $450 for a mainstream netbook PC, here is an only slightly behind the times Acer Aspire One netbook for just $199.99 from NewEgg.com. The regular NewEgg price is $100 more, but during their Memorial Day sale, they are knocking $100 off if you use promo code EMCYSNS69 when you place an order. The downside is that this netbook uses the prior model Intel Atom processor (N270) and has a three-cell battery providing perhaps 2.5 to 3 hours of life instead of the more robust 6 cell battery you will find in top-line netbooks. For most standard mobile tasks such as email, web browsing, remote access to your office PC or network, or word processing, you should not notice a performance difference between an N270-based netbook and a newer one using the "Pine Trial" N450 processor. Also, this Acer Aspire One is the cheapest non-refurbished name-brand netbook I've seen. It runs Windows XP Home, so there should be little or no learning curve for any user. I used a client's Aspire One and found it to be a nice netbook. I still prefer my Toshiba Mini, but I paid twice as much for it.