# Recommend a cheap netbook for watching Flash/iTunes content

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-cheap-netbook-for-watching-flash-itunes-content/543329>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 15, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-cheap-netbook-for-watching-flash-itunes-content/543329 "2010-06-15T18:44:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-cheap-netbook-for-watching-flash-itunes-content/543329/1 "2010-06-15T18:44:58Z")

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My wife’s cousin is in the market for a cheap laptop or netbook and I was wondering if someone could point me to a relatively cheap one that would be able to stream video. She spends about 75 percent of her time watching TV shows from Hulu, Netflix and iTunes, and she has lots of shows, some in HD, that she’s already purchased through iTunes. The remaining 25 percent of her time is spend playing Flash games like Farmville on Facebook. I’m a Mac guy, so I don’t know what to recommend for her. Suggestions?

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**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-cheap-netbook-for-watching-flash-itunes-content/543329/2 "2010-06-16T19:41:29Z")

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One bump just in case… Or should I take the silence to mean that there is no such netbook?

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**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-cheap-netbook-for-watching-flash-itunes-content/543329/3 "2010-06-16T19:46:22Z")

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I have [one of these](http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AO532h-2588-10-1-Inch-Onyx-Netbook/dp/B0030LTLRO), and got it on sale for about $250 or so about 4 months ago. It’s perfect for what I want, was cheep, and works very well.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-cheap-netbook-for-watching-flash-itunes-content/543329/4 "2010-06-16T20:20:26Z")

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Oddly, you’ve hit on the one thing that many netbooks do not do particularly well. Streaming flash video is quite computationally intensive and many netbooks based on the the low power Intel “Atom” chipset will stall or jitter video intermittently if streaming wirelessly. Most netbooks are sold in stores that have wireless internet. Try before you buy.

If you can find a netbook at a decent price with the 'Neo" chipset it should not have this issue, but the battery life will usually be considerably shorter.