Id say try to get one with a SSD - you would get more battery life due to less moving parts in the whole machine - would be faster too

I didn't realise that the Acer Aspire One's battery life was so bad. I thought around 3.5-5hr would be expected. That being said at £150-175, they are priced very well!

You can't go wrong with the EEE PC's. It also comes down to how much you value features that make the machine more convenient to use or more portable. Personally I'd stretch the budget closer to the £300 mark and get yourself a Samsung NC10. I've had one of these since November and really appreciate it's six cell battery, which has seen as much as eight hours of use. It's keyboard is also close to the size of a conventional keyboard so it doesn't require much adjustment when using a desktop keyboard and then a netbook or vice versa. There's also aftermarket 9 cells available and it's possible to swap out the HDD with an SSD if you wish to. It also comes with a large 160GB HDD hard disk drive and Windows XP Home. It is on the upper end of the netbook price range though, but it's certainly one to consider :)

EEE PC 901XP - 8 hours battery life :)

£240, perfect.

I didn't realise that the Acer Aspire One's battery life was so bad. I thought around 3.5-5hr would be expected. That being said at £150-175, they are priced very well!

You can't go wrong with the EEE PC's. It also comes down to how much you value features that make the machine more convenient to use or more portable. Personally I'd stretch the budget closer to the £300 mark and get yourself a Samsung NC10. I've had one of these since November and really appreciate it's six cell battery, which has seen as much as eight hours of use. It's keyboard is also close to the size of a conventional keyboard so it doesn't require much adjustment when using a desktop keyboard and then a netbook or vice versa. There's also aftermarket 9 cells available and it's possible to swap out the HDD with an SSD if you wish to. It also comes with a large 160GB HDD hard disk drive and Windows XP Home. It is on the upper end of the netbook price range though, but it's certainly one to consider :)

As it's a present that isn't really an option :)

Looks like I could pick a 6 cell battery for the A150 for £35. Would that be worth it?

If there's a six cell optional battery, then I think for a smidge under £200, I'd say that that's a pretty good proposition :)

Just a word on battery useage, I find on mine that facebook and forum browsing sucks the battery fairly hard. Other websites bbc, newsbiscuit etc seem kinder on battery life, as I guess they should with thier lack of flashing adds etc.
Using open office and typing, my EEE doesn't go much below half battery after a 3 hour train ride of using it.

Which EEE do you have? :)

Is that 2 hours of just web browsing?

Everything really, browsing net, or watching a film and the battery wont last two. Writing up an essay will hold 2 hours just about.

Why i didnt get and after market battery for it, is because it makes it look so chunky and bulky (basically the sticking out part i didnt find appealing), and i am sort of perfectionist, so its sort of put me off a lot

I will be looking to change it to one of the Samsungs or Asuses once i get some money to play with.

Thanks for the feedback kataras :)

Slowly edging towards this EEE:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/655/862/-/8076922/Asus-Eee-PC-1000-H-Atom-N270-1-6GHz-1GB-160GB-10-XP-Home-Netbook-Black/Product.html?searchtype=genre#

The 1000H is an excellent buy. Try it out in person at the usual high street stores along with the similarly priced Samsung NC10 and see which of the two you prefer. They're both very much the same aside keyboard size, layout and touchpad size :)