To its credit though, that old laptop is still alive and functional albeit it's as slow as an earthworm trying to finish a marathon. I actually put the new and old NEOs side-by-side and took a photo (see picture above). The unit I'm reviewing is the one on the left, which is the NEO Basic B3230 netbook.
So what's the first thing you do after unboxing a new netbook? Why you turn it on of course. Here's the sad news -- that is no easy feat with the NEO Basic B3230. A light touch doesn't turn it on, you have to really press the power button down pretty hard before you can go anywhere with it. I bet that button will be one of the first parts to go on this machine.
Then there's a matter of the NEO Basic B3230's finish. I hate how the bodily oil or whatever it is on your fingers leave dark and shiny spots on the mousepad whenever you use it. Same thing happens when you touch the surface areas of the netbook. Fingerprints and marks galore. Ugh.
The NEO Basic B3230 is small and lightweight though, with a screen size of 10.1 inches. It's so easy to carry that I can hold it and take its photo at the same time, all by myself. Performance-wise, it does everything a basic computer should do: run games like Plants vs. Zombies, run software like Adobe Photoshop, run apps like Skype and let you video call your relatives abroad... oh yeah, you can also surf the net nicely with this. Everything I installed ran smoothly, I was even able to multi-task -- using Photoshop and Fastone Photo Resizer while having several browser tabs open with Facebook, Plurk, Blogger, and some other sites on all at once. Battery life is about 2 to 2.5 hours.
Oh, another thing that irked me about the NEO Basic B3230 were the USB ports. There are only two on one side of the netbook and they sort of suck because it's tough trying to fit USB connectors into the ports. They don't go in smoothly. There's a bit of a struggle trying to attach devices via USB. The NEO Basic B3230 lives up to its name. It does have all your basic computing needs covered but it's rough around the edges compared to the more established brands like Sony, HP, Acer, etc. This model retails for about P18,999 so it's not expensive but it's not exactly cheap either. I got my HP Mini 311 from the US for about the same price and there's a BIG difference in terms of overall quality and performance. If the NEO Basic B3230 is anything like its predecessor however, it's going to live and last for a long time without ever flashing the Blue Screen of Death.
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