Need a netbook on the quick

Drez

So I'm getting swamped at work and I lose about 3 hours each day to commuting. I can't get a laptop through my job, even though my boss would like to procure one for me, so I'm just going to buy my own.

Before anyone cautions me against using a netbook for productivity - I've already had one and it worked out just fine for me, felt comfortable and everything. I'm primarily going to use Office. Though in the future I may like to set up some games on the netbook.

I rather like the Asus Eee PC, which is what I had before. I'm also looking for the super-long battery life ones. Something in the $300-400 range. It doesn't HAVE to be Asus. I'm mainly looking for suggestions. Anyone have any? Again, I need to be able to (in order of importance):

a) Use Office (Excel/Access) without pulling my hair out at macros taking too long to process.
b) Some minor photo editing.
c) Programming (I had Visual Studio 2007 installed on my last one with no problem, and the netbooks should be more powerful now. SQL Server was slow as hell, though.
d) Some gaming.

As to point D, I guess I'd like one of the "HD" display netbooks, but I'm more interested in an excessively long battery life.

So, any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

edit: To clarify, when I say "gaming," I'm talking about clicky games like Torchlight, Faster Than Light, Frozen Synapse, Secret of Monkey Island - nothing that requires a powerful rig to run.

amateurhour

Here's the most recent netbook roundup I could find online, there's a few options there, but ASUS is still in the top running.

http://www.hardwareinsight.com/the-best-netbooks-of-2012/

This list doesn't really review much, but it shows what the top sellers are on amazon so you at least know what people are buying if you want to read some reviews from them personally.

http://www.squidoo.com/netbooks-2012

For counterpoint, here's an article on how a lot of big manufacturers are doing away with their netbook lines in favor of tablets (which doesn't help you, but it's something to think about if you're going to have this thing for a few years, you may want to see which company is going to be making the last one off the assembly line)

http://liliputing.com/2012/09/is-2012-the-end-of-the-road-for-netbooks-as-we-know-them.html

Hope that helps.

Drez

Thanks! I'm deciding between the Asus 1225B and the Acer AO722-0022. The thing is, the Acer is a dual core 1 ghz chip which seems slow. But many reviews say it is super fast. Any thoughts?

Drez

Fuck it. I ordered the 1225B.