Are these inexpensive Windows CE Netbooks on eBay even worth looking into?

Kim,

I was set to buy a pair of "open box" units from the internet for $80 each. I was so bold as to post it as an answer to a question on Yahoo Answers. Wow. I got my eyes opened. The complaints were primarily against the seller, but I have a feeling I was saved from a fate similar to death, especially since the eBay offereing offers "no returns". Here's the link to my enlightenment http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuXfzxJzfffp84YKhJL3XvDty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20110310022621AAvAhZP

Carl

Hi:

I hope that you have read Dana's post (#19). She does a fine job.

I would like to point out that many (most?) of those "mini-Netbooks" have a note similar to "* Note: These USB Ports support Keyboards, Mice and USB Memory Sticks etc. but don't support Hard Drives, Optical Drives or Printers." They won't be installing and programs from CD's!

Also think about "Customs duty is obligation and liability of a citizen in your country, so buyer should be responsible for any tax and custom?? will NOT be responsible for any failure delivery related destination customs issue."

The first time I had to go through the Customs process took me days.

Your first thoughts should be about how the new Netbook or Notebook is to be used. I suggest you read Netbook vs Notebook vs Laptop by Gray Pilgrim at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/netbook-vs-notebook-vs-laptop.html to help you decide if you really want a Netbook.

Then look at his Netbook Vs iPad at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/netbook-vs-ipad.html.
Bhakti Satalkar's Best Laptop Computers 2010 at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-laptop-computers2010.html and Kundan Pandey's Best Netbook 2010 at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-netbook2010.html should help guide your decision.

I hope this helps you decide.

-- Fred

Just offering that as another tidbit of where they're sold, but my reply concurs with the majority here: stay away from them for all the reasons mentioned above.

Another reason beyond the child slave laborers and who-knows-what toxic chemicals were used: China has been caught imbedding malware in their computer chips in recent years, so any time you can, avoid. I know that's getting harder by the way, just saying - at least have an OS you can have more control over and a system on which some decent security software can be installed.

Just junk, pass and continue to GO.

If they are reliable they would have been OK 15 years ago. For now not worthwhile even if free.
Everything is wrong about them for todays portable computer market.
Save your money for a at least a $300 10" screen netbook, with a 160GB HD and 2GB of ram.
Better still look at Apple's iPad, but expect to wait a while to get one.

Depends on how realistic your expectations are. I paid over

I fell for one of these from some outfit in Florida. I knew something was wrong when they promised "next day" shipping. Took almost 3 weeks for delivery. Upon arrival in un-padded box, I feared it would be damaged but for once, the post office delivered with care. I never could get the unit to work on the internet (dsl or Wi-Fi)and that's what I wanted it for - a cheap unit to take with me when I travel. NO technical support whatsoever & company ALWAYS placed me on hold & NEVER answered. After about a week, I gave up & "dumped" it on E-Bay at a loss. I wouldn't even recommend this for a five year old.....

Windows CE is a bare bones internet capable version of Windows. This is meant to be used in a travel-type/ leisure time/ do surfing the internet type laptop. It does not have all the features for a regular laptop, and usually works fine for not doing any office type work. I have one of the ebay specials,niece plays with while I am on my laptop. She surfs and plays games on it. We have not had problems with it.

I would only recommend these as devices for those who love to tinker instead of rely. I would only consider the ones that the android development community have came up with a rom for otherwise it's an end of life landfill trash. If you can't find a youtube video on how to install android on it don't get it.

Windows ce is the same limited os used in the older pocket pc and pocket pc phones, most of these "smartbooks" may not even use the latest version. This thing runs on vastly inferior hardware that competes against the pocket pc phones about 4-6 years ago. What makes it worse is that most people complain about being unable to load programs on it or even finding any for it. It's browser identifies itself as ie6 and we all know sooner, rather than later that browser won't be supported on future websites as well. It speaks volume about the device when you go to the manufacturer's website and don't see any updates or even basic instructions on how to add and remove programs from it. If this was launched about 4-6 years ago when windows ce had a pretty active community and presence this may have found itself a niche and made strides since most people wanted a pocket pc with a larger screen, but most of these devices are pure junk and it's a shame the manufacturer used such an outdated os on it.

Lots of folks are talking about Ipaqs, Jornadas, etc. I, myself had a Dell version. These were good things that worked very well.
These Chinese CE netbooks are truly different from those devices. Those were quality, with tech support if needed. These netbooks are not quality and should you need tech support, or any documentation for that matter, you are out of luck. As the person qusetioning these items is obviously trying to save a few bucks, the answer is not a $500.00+ laptop. I have seen, in reputable stores such as Micro Center, factory refurbs of the early generation netbooks with Atom 270 & similar chips for $200.00 and under, with a windows operating system and a decent sized HD.
While not the ultimate, they work well and are cheap enough for someone on a strict budget to step up and buy a usable & reliable machine. As a matter of fact, this response is being typed on an Acer Aspire one with Windows 7 starter that I bought as a factory refurb for like $180.00 about 8 months ago. I also have an ASUS which I did not get as cheaply new and they're both just fine for the purpose intended...good luck, I hope you get something you like Kim!!

Spent three months out of town and needed a easy solution to email and light web browsing. Decided to purchase a Toshiba Mini NB255-N245 netbook at Best Buy for $329. Then I shelled out $100 for Word and paid Best Buy $49 to install the software, A few days I realized there was no email program so paid $139 for Outlook. Then because a Windows platform, I needed to purchase virus scan. This little $329 netbook quickly became a $700 computer. It is clunky and slow and the screen resolution is poor. If I had to do over again I would definitely buy an iPad with the optional keyboard. All the software I needed comes with the iPad. Major buyer's remorse. Don't buy a netbook.

I agree with other poster's on this one, CE will be a major frustration & overall a slow, & miserable experience unless you enjoy devices that hang, crash, and burn.

Direct answers to your questions are:

1. These are usually devices for the very lowest end needs, kind of a cross between an early Palm PDA and a laptop. They lean much more to the Palm PDA end of that spectrum.

2. 2GB hard drive is almost always an embedded flash memory drive.

3. Windows CE is the renamed evolution of Pocket PC used in hand-held PDA's back when Microsoft wanted to take that market over from Palm. Pocket PC and Windows CE were often used on devices like the HP iPaq handheld PDA.

4. The hard drive on these devices usually cannot be upgraded. Often, the operating system is burned to a ROM chip and also cannot be upgraded (even to a newer or patched version of Windows CE).

I strongly suggest you consider what your friend needs this device to do before buying one. If they need it to run office applications, edit video, or view web sites with Adobe Flash content, this type of device is usually incapable of the tasks. If it's just to check email, run it's very limited pre-installed applications, and very light web surfing, it may be OK. Either way, tailor the purchase to the tasks for which the device will be required and keep asking questions. The only stupid question is the one you're afraid to ask!

I will assume you and your freinds are not tech savvy, especially since you ask this question.

The reason people pay $500~$850 for an iPad is becuase it is very easy to use, it is very light, extremely easy to operate, and most important has a vast libaray of software, many titles are FREE!
(usually demo)
And they are HAPPY they invested extra money for a great product!

Yes, spending more will result in your friend being a really, really close friend!
Computer more then anything else show how perforamce is directly proportional to money spent.

At best Windows CE is difficult to use, is limited, and is almost a dead product.

Besides that, the iPad, Galaxy Tab, or Xoom tablets are much, much better then WinCE, so check those out before you decide on one.

Firstly I had an HP Jornada 720 over 5 years ago which was a Windows CE device with 206 mhz processor. It comes with Office 2000 or whatever version and is more than fast enough to play full screen movies though it's old DSTN screen isn't great.

Firstly you need to realize desktop software will not run on Windows CE unless a CE version is also made (which is the case for lots of programs). So if the software you need is available for it then I say yes consider a CE device, but not those cheap questionable ones.

I also noticed many replies bashing CE are from people who clearly don't know what it is. One reply said the 2 GB hard drive is actually a memory chip. Firstly, unless it's a bad chinese translation, it probably has a hard drive which explains the absurd 3 hour battery life (CE devices normally have 8-30 hours of battery life). Secondly, on any proper branded model like the NEC MobilePro series, you have 2 expansion slots so you could for example add a Wifi card and a 32 GB memory card which uses practically no power so you can have long battery life. These are handhelds but with full seize keyboards but are discontinued though, you can still find them on ebay for $30-150.

I actually just bought a MobilePro 700 grayscale device from around 1998 to work outdoors since grayscale screens are the only ones to become more visible in sunlight as opposed to color screens which mostly become blank in sunlight. It still supports all the software I need to work (Internet Explorer, Outlook, Office, FTP software, etc.). I also got the much more powerful (400mhz) and color MobilePro 900 for indoor use to have a more powerful machine.

It's important to note these have MAJOR advantages over any laptop:
-Long battery life from 8-12 hours on color models and 1-2 weeks of daily use on 2 AAs for grayscale models
-Instant on/off
-Rock solid OS, the only time you need to reboot Windows is if it hangs, and in 12 years of using Windows CE I don't think it has ever hung, perhaps once 10 years ago due to a buggy program I installed
-Lighting fast for it's CPU speed, since Windows CE is a compact version of Windows, it runs lighting fast even on computers under 100 mhz, in fact I have an old grayscale palm size PC (like a Windows CE handheld without a keyboard) which has a 69mhz cpu and 16mb shared ram and when I reboot it it takes 2 seconds before it's in Windows, and another 5 seconds for all programs in startup and the desktop to load, and programs load almost instantly except like media player which takes about 3 seconds to load (remember, this is with a 69mhz cpu).
-Almost all have a touchscreen (the only I saw without is this chinese knock off), which is a breeze compared to those thouchpads that make you want to smash the laptop to pieces after 10 seconds of use (that's always been my experience and the reason why I never have and never will have a laptop)

I hope this helps you decide if a CE device is the right choice for you, it certainly was for me.

Hi i've been looking to at the netbooks for a few years and with my research i can tell you that 128mb of ram can't do alot this means it will be slow.And the 2gb hdd is rubbish with an avarge netbook's hdd at around 250gb and the netbook's hdd can be upgraded to 8gb or better models 16gb or even 32gb but be carefull sometimes thay lie.The win ce is from the mid 90's and is very low budget and can't be upgraded but its used on most old tablets.When i frist saw this i was amazed but my mum would not let me have one.but im glad because the screen is smaller than a dvd
box omg! PLEASE READ IF YOU WANT ONE THEIRS A EDITION WITH 2GB HDD 256mb of ram and 800mhz processer but running android 2.2

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=android+notebook&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Have been unable to get unit connected to wifi network that many other devices use successfully. After much online searching, have found many others with similar problems using Windows CE devices, all without resolution.