Customer Reviews

Disney Netpal by ASUS - 8.9-Inch Princess Pink Netbook - 5 Hour Battery Life

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We got this for my Daughter for her 4th birthday and it is just her size and working out great. It says for 6-12 years, but she is responsible with computers and used to working on them. I decided on the Disney Netbook instead of a regular netbook because it says it has a spill resistant keyboard and supposed to be sturdier. I can't say if this is true as this is the only netbook we currently own. We like the ASUS brand of computers so that was a plus.

I thought I would like the parental program that is on it, but that is totally worthless. It is cute, but makes it impossible to add anything or do anything on the desktop and the internet pretty much. My daughter likes to play Jumpstart and some other online games and it ended up being much easier to use the regular desktop for all her stuff. You can still turn the Disney desktop on to go and play those games so it works out ok.

It is a fast machine and so far has had good battery life. We are very pleased with it so far. I only wish Netbooks had room for an internal optical drive as my daughter has several games that require the cd to be in to play. But that is solved easily with an external one.

I did a lot of research before deciding to purchase this product Disney Netpal by ASUS - 8.9-Inch Magic Blue Netbook - 5 Hour Battery Life for my family. One of the reasons I bought this over the Nickelodeon/Dell netbook - or another netbook brand - was that it is advertised that the RAM can be expanded up to 2GB. Asus does not offer factory upgrades. When I got the Netpal in this week, the warranty states that it needs to be serviced by an authorized repair shop. So I called to Tech Support and asked them about the upgrade. They said they don't recommend the 2GB RAM upgrade, won't do it in their service centers, and that it would void the warranty. EVERYWHERE on the internet it is advertised that it can upgrade to 2GB RAM. Make sure you consider this before purchase. I am not really happy with this purchase. I can't even get the some of the links on the Disney site to work. [...]. is very content rich and many of the links to videos and games just won't load.

I bought this for my 7 year old niece, and she really likes it. The set up for the new users is a little confusing. Parents should first create only their user account, and then afterwards create the account for the child using the parental control tool. The manual is sparse, and there isn't any online help at Asus's site yet. As the other reviewer stated, it is somewhat difficult to add programs to the Disney platform. We are still trying to figure out how to add Windows Media Player. The Disney media player is limited in that the screen size is approximately 3" and cannot be expanded. A DVD drive isn't necessary, just use one of the DVD rippers and converters, and save the files to a SD card. Just remember you are paying for the Disney name, because there is no way that I'd buy a 9" netbook for almost $350 for myself when there are better alternatives for that price. Oh well, it is very cute.

We purchased this for our 14 yo and he is very happy. We don't have to monitor him and he doesn't resent asking for access for new websites. Before he had to be in a public area of the house so we could monitor him and he had to wait until we got home to use the computer. Now we approve the game sites he wants to go to AND it won't let him go to "suggested" sites, some of which are VERY unsavory (as we found out). The computer also allows us to set the days and times he can get online. so we can easily reward good work at school with extended hours of play. Disney quality is evident. It is REALLY easy to use. Parental controls work very quickly so I can approve a site in just a couple of clicks and a password. cant say enough good about it. Plus made by Asus known for good quality netbooks. I have an ASUS for myself that i love.

bought this for my 8 yr old daughter ....NICE computer she LOVES IT..... windows XP doesn't max out RAM usage so one gig IS PLENTY nice sized hard drive and wonderful battery life of 5 hrs ...WOW..... you just want to use the browser in full screen (F11) so it isn't all toolbar on the screen...just bought one for my 10 yr old son (he doesn't know) ANY drivers for games can be downloaded online ...just installed drivers online for the Barbie all dolled up nails, UB Funkeys, added ToonTown plenty of room..looked at the Acer and the Nickelodeon but battery life was lame enjoy your purchase....

Bought this for our 6 year old son for Christmas. It was easy to set up, and it is easy for him to run. I recommend getting a mouse for it...kind of hard for him to control what he is doing with out it....Over all huge hit!!!

I bought this computer for my son as a back-to-school present (August 2010). It's a nice first computer that does everything a "real" computer should (games, internet, school stuff). The Netpal is very durable; it's been dropped a few times and gets banged around in my boy's backpack--he takes it everywhere--and has hardly a scratch on the case. The 1024 x 600 display hasn't been an issue, my son says all the games he plays (Club Penguin, Neo Pets, etc) all work even on the little screen. The "5-hour" battery life is more like 3 hours in real life, though.

Update 7-23-11 (warranty service):
In June the Netpal's keyboard stopped working and I contacted ASUS for a warranty claim. I received no response for several days, then a rep informed me "the warranty expired in September 2010". After several e-mails stating that I had only bought the computer in August 2010 and that ASUS's website lists that the computer has a one-year warranty, I was finally issued an RMA. I sent the computer in and three weeks went by with no word from ASUS. Finally yesterday FedEx came by with the repaired Netpal. My little boy is happy and in the end ASUS did their job, but I expected a little less resistance and more communication from the service department.

I needed a little netbook, quick and fast, just something to get on the internet and save files, with a low price tag. To get all of these qualties, I knew would be a daunting task yet I was so pleased when I found it in this one. This little netbook is a treasure. I have yet to have any problems with it. Its adorably cute and it gets the job done. What more could I ask for?! I hugely recommend this product to anyone. Its just a great little netbook!!

I'm only giving this 3 stars because I assume when I ever get a working model, it will work as well as my ASUS EeePc. We had a big bummer Christmas morning--charged up our new Disney Netpal overnight, then invited the 7-year-old to turn it on, and kept getting an annoying reboot message. Called customer support, and they walked me through several attempts to get the computer started, and then ultimately suggested I mail it back to a tech center for "possible replacement." They dang well better replace it, this was a $350 Christmas gift that didn't work for even one second! We'll keep our fingers crossed.
UPDATE: They replaced that first unit with a Netpal that works, though it took a few weeks. My daughter is enjoying it so far (she's just had it a few days). I find it a little harder to use than my old reliable Asus; the fancier OS adds a lot of steps to everything. But I appreciate that it has age-appropriate games she can use off-line; Radio Disney, which she likes a lot; and that it has all those parental controls.

We bought this for our daughter's 7th birthday. We bought it in August for her birthday in November. We didn't realize that Amazon has a 30-day return policy and did not boot it up until her birthday. We could connect to our network but could not connect to the internet. After spending 2 days on the phone with Asus support the problem could not be corrected and we sent the computer in to get fixed. My husband is an IT professional and he could not fix the issue. We were under the impression from Asus that the network card would be replaced. We received the computer back 2 weeks later and nothing had been done to it. All they had done was reinstalled the operating system, which my husband had already done twice. The problem persisted. After another very long conversation with Asus support, we sent the computer back again. We received the computer back yesterday and it still would not connect to the internet even though they claimed to have replaced the network card. Today when my daughter when to use the computer with the external network card that we broke down and purchased because we were sick of dealing with Asus, it would not even boot up. My husband called Asus yet again to be told that they do not replace faulty units and that we could send it in a third time to get it fixed. Our hands are tied at this point because it won't even boot up, so we need to send it back in to see if they are capable of making this overpriced paperweight do anything.

This has completely ruined my daughter's birthday and has created an enormous amount of stress for us for the past month. As of now it is completely lost money and we are likely going to have to replace the machine with something else and just eat the cost of this one.

DO NOT BUY THIS COMPUTER, and if you do, make sure you boot it up immediately so you can deal with Amazon when it doesn't work.