Redfly v. Netbook

[prubin]

I want something light for net browsing and email but with a bigger screen that the Treo. What ar the advantages and disadvantages of the Redfly versus one of the netbook computers? (Aside form price.)

 

[Aware]

I think the main thing positive is that the RedFly has no hard drive, no RAM, no other 'hardware', so the price you pay is the price you pay. No software costs. No setup costs. No maintenance costs. Virtually nothing to break if you drop it. No files lost if it gets stolen.

If you are not a business user, most of the above may seem kind of irrelevant, but the total cost of owning a (say) $500 laptop is more like $2,000 or $3,000 for a typical business, by the time you include software, support and maintenance costs throughout the lifetime of the device.

Also, you can **always** have access to everything, even when you don't carry the REDFLY, since you can easily carry your phone anywhere (just about).

Battery life - the REDFLY will easily last a solid 8 or 9 hours. Not sure netbooks can manage that.

Negatives?

You are limited to just what your phone can do, unless you can remote-access a desktop or laptop.
No video support on the REDFLY screen.
No peripheral support - DVD drive, printer, speakers, microphone, wireless etc etc unless it is provided or supported by your phone.
No way to upgrade the REDFLY - so no RAM or HDD upgrades, but then on the plus side, you can always upgrade your phone.
Limited video support also means limited game support, should you care.
Not so cool as a netbook, from a *consumer* perspective.

I'm sure there's more + and - on both sides, but that should help you start to weigh up the two sides.

Oh - check out this video demo http://hooktours.com/8072474/

 

[Ebag333]

Compare your smartphone/PPC to a notebook.


It's the same comparison, just the Redfly gives you a bigger screen and a keyboard. It really doesn't add much more than that. (Not knocking it, adding just that makes a PPC a completely different device. )

 

[graham.hughes]

I already have net-hd, a laptop, and a phone. So, three places to keep files. A netbook isn't going to replace my phone (too big) or my laptop (too small), so I'd end up with four places for the file I want to be.

The Redfly is small, robust and cheap, meeting all the main criteria for items I want to put in my hand-luggage.

Lack of a decent browser is a pain... here's hoping that Iris will improve without losing it's Redfly compatibility.

 

[flyemhighrockets]

I enjoy the quick start up verse using my laptop waitting for it to boot up.

Plus the fact I am charging my phone while using the redfly which is ver important to me because I talk on my phone alot so I need all of the battery juice i can have for a days work.

Also the light weight and longer battery service.

Evrything thats on your phone comes up on the redfly so no need to have the information in 2 places.

Almost the same color as my phone so it looks like they almost match each other (not important at all I just thought I would trow that in there.)

 

[Gabey8]

I used the device for a good three hours solid yesterday. Without recharging it, I used it for another five hours today, and it still has battery to spare. I don't know of any notebook out there that could have gotten me the five hours of use today, never mind eight hours and counting.

One other thing that makes the Redfly a blessing is that I only have to pay for ONE wireless broadband connection: the one for my PDA phone. I'm sitting in a bus right now posting this. If I were using a netbook, unless I wanted to pay to tether my cell phone, I would have to have a second wireless broadband account for the netbook in addition to the plan I have for my cell phone. So using the Redfly is allowing me to save some money.

And did I mention the eight hours plus of battery life?

 

[cuzlion]

Browsing

I love the Redfly with my ppc6800(aka Mogul) for email, most spreadsheets, PDF's, etc. All my work stuff, but I was having a problem browsing. PIE, Opera (the one that worked) and Netfront were hitting a memory wall sometimes on the first page or two I surfed. Admittedly the PPC6800 only has 64 meg of RAM but that isn't unusual for 2007-2008 phones and with a year on the contract I won't be upgrading soon so not being able to surf without getting that Low on Memory, System May Become Unstable! pop up window followed by a system meltdown was annoying since I often like to surf techie, sports and news sites on the road. The web experience was much worse than when the Redfly was not connected, apparently that last little bit of ROM eaten by the Redfly was crucial to browsing. And to make it worse, Skyfire, which has a low overhead didn't work. Finally I tried Opera Mini Beta 4.2, a browser that like Skyfire renders the pages on some server farm somewhere and then just sends the graphics to your phone, and it has saved the day. I can surf for an hour before I get the warning window and can pretty much ignore it if it pops up and Opera Mini renders just right for the Redfly screen. I did not like it on the small phone screen, but it is fine for the Redfly and if you have had memory limits like me I strongly recommend it. If you have a phone like mine, not Java enabled, you will have to install some kind of Jave runtime environment but usually you can find out what you need from the smart guys at XDA or Brighthand or Howard or WMExperts forums for your phone.

The only thing left I can't do without my notebook is update my ipod touch podcasts so I have fresh material when I go for a morning run. But the next iphone/touch upgrade is supposed to provide direct podcast support without going through itunes on a PC or Mac so that should eliminate any last reason for me ever hauling a notebook home or on the road. This Redfly is such a fine device for people who spend half their nights in hotels, absolutely love it. Cuz

 

[cuzlion]

Boot up

Oh one more thing, my notebook, alledgedly a fast core 2 duo with tons of RAM and a 7200 rpm hard drive and the top of the line discrete graphics option takes almost three minutes to boot up with all the network and security and other corporate bloatware added to Microsoft's normal snail speed start up. (The Redfly gets me to my inbox in what, maybe six seconds, maybe eight?) Then it takes over two minutes to shut my notebook down, including having to hit end program dialogue boxes once or twice when various software refuses to die gracefully. So that means five minutes of mind numbing loss of my life every time I whip that "state of the art" notebook out in a Starbucks or airport. Not to mention time spent configuring it for a wifi hotspot or tethering it to my phone. I just smile now when I can fire up the Redfly, read about ten emails, respond to one or two and power down in less time than my initial boot up used to take, it is hard to describe how good that feels. I realize I may just have a bad notebook set up but I haven't had a Windows PC boot up in less than a minute or two in ten years and I've had a half dozen of what were supposed to be top of the line workstations and notebooks. Not sure how fast netbooks boot up and establish broadband connectivity but I bet you it isn't in six seconds. Cuz

 

[donc36]

Oh one more thing, my notebook, alledgedly a fast core 2 duo with tons of RAM and a 7200 rpm hard drive and the top of the line discrete graphics option takes almost three minutes to boot up with all the network and security and other corporate bloatware added to Microsoft's normal snail speed start up. (The Redfly gets me to my inbox in what, maybe six seconds, maybe eight?) Then it takes over two minutes to shut my notebook down, including having to hit end program dialogue boxes once or twice when various software refuses to die gracefully. So that means five minutes of mind numbing loss of my life every time I whip that "state of the art" notebook out in a Starbucks or airport. Not to mention time spent configuring it for a wifi hotspot or tethering it to my phone. I just smile now when I can fire up the Redfly, read about ten emails, respond to one or two and power down in less time than my initial boot up used to take, it is hard to describe how good that feels. I realize I may just have a bad notebook set up but I haven't had a Windows PC boot up in less than a minute or two in ten years and I've had a half dozen of what were supposed to be top of the line workstations and notebooks. Not sure how fast netbooks boot up and establish broadband connectivity but I bet you it isn't in six seconds. Cuz

I hear that. My dual core work laptop pretty much stays in the bag when I get home. If I need to get logged in- its seconds using the redfly and my tilt.

 

[Bill R]

Old topic so I apologize in advance for bringing it back to life.

I received both a Redfly C8 and a Lenovo S10 Ideapad netbook for Christmas. So far I've used the Ideapad a couple of times for maybe a few hours. The Redfly I use daily for private internet access from work.

 

[wodin]

old topic so i apologize in advance for bringing it back to life.

I received both a redfly c8 and a lenovo s10 ideapad netbook for christmas. So far i've used the ideapad a couple of times for maybe a few hours. The redfly i use daily for private internet access from work.

x2