Gadgets: Decided to go for a Netbook

I have been looking at Netbooks for a while as I wanted something I can use at home for playing poker on (apart from when in my office), something to use as media player - particularly for my digital photos (so I can bore the parents and in-laws with my collection of snaps) and also to use for the poker games up the club

Thing is I could never really justify the expense, but having had a bit of luck on Ladbrokes.com Blackjack and Roulette (OK a lot of luck!) found myself with some spare cash so have treated myself to one !

In the end I went for Advent 4211-C with Windows XP (due to most poker clients only working with Windows) and the Logitech V220 Cordless mouse for Notebooks.  It has 1GB RAM and 160GB disk which should be fine for the intended use

The great thing about the Netbook is it's small size and light weight (and pretty cheap as well !)

The thing  had to be very careful about was the size and layout of the keyboard... as they vary quite a bit in feel, layout, size of enter key and very importantly the ease of use for the mousepad and mouse buttons.   If you are thinking of getting one, you really have to go and play with a few to be sure you can cope with it.

I ended up getting mine in my local Currys shop as the prices seemed on par with what I had seen on the Internet

The screen resolution is the other downside for Netbooks, but once you get used to it, it is OK actually.  Most applications will adjust to the screen resolution and are can be used with a bit of scrolling here and there.  The Advent also allows you to se the screen res to 1024x768 (rather than 1024x600) so any "awkward" applications (like "Tournament Director" in my case) can still be used successfully.  

The only thing annoying me so far is that it seems to get the Home/End buttons to work you have to turn on NumLk which is really frustrating, but otherwise no real issues so far and am really pleased with my purchase. 

I need to get an external DVD r/w (as you don't get one as standard) and might look out for a small case to carry it in, but otherwise nothing else I am planning to add to it.