As some of you may have noticed, I'm slightly obsessed with my Aspire One netbook, and actually, with netbooks in general. They are great little devices, more powerful than you'd give them credit for upon first encounter. And, but that might just be me, netbooks are what laptops should have been from day one: truly portable. El Reg has put together a buyer's guide for today's netbooks, and while the guide is generally spot-on with its assessments, it does present some odd choices here and there. Read on for some of my own thoughts grown out of experience.
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Member since:2005-07-17
It's still a mystery to me why all netbook manufacturers except Asus put 3-4 cell batteries in those when there's so much potential for those netbooks to be true on-the-go computers. Are they waiting for Intel to release less power hungry chipsets so that they can have a battery life of a current generation Eee?
This is driving me crazy because I'm looking into finally changing my 15" brickbook for something lightweight and have little choice but to buy Eee 901 even though everybody seems to hate the keyboard.
I've only had hands-on experience with 10" MSI Wind and it seemed nice. How does Eee 901 keyboard differ from the one in Wind? Except the size of course.
Member since:2005-06-28
Don't talk much about how good Asus is, because it's not. Their 701 and 900 series have only 24 hours standby. While battery life can range from 2 to 4 hours, depending how you use it, their standby time is ridiculously low. Even when you completely turn off the Eee PC your battery will be drained within 8 days.
The point is that all these manufacturers try to go cheap on them, using cheaper chips that create such problems or smaller batteries, not because they are idiots, but because people expect these devices to be cheap. Sometimes, as a manufacturer, you only have so many options to put something like this together.
Member since:2005-07-06
Because the manufacturers are lazy and risk adverse?
Remember that not so long ago, they made the users pay a premium for small laptop even though the smaller screen ought to make it cheaper..
If you look at the OLPC XO-1, it's full of inovation reducing significantly the power usage and allowing the screen to be readable even on sunny days, these could be done easily in regular laptops also, but don't hold your breath: remember manufacturers are lazy and risk adverse :-(
Member since:2005-07-06
Since, from what I see in your profile, there's a big chance you live in PL - you know perfectly well that it can be worse ;P
Like...virtually impossible to find 6-cell versions of netbooks that do have them; instead retailers prefer to sell only 3-cell versions, with a premium that brings them up in price to where 6-cell should be...
I guess consumers are just used to the idea that laptop works 2 - 3h max on battery... (and to carrying a mouse with you, like so many do; not knowing about the existence of Trackpoints, which would be perfect in netbook form factor...)
Member since:2006-06-03
I don't get it why everyone bitches about the small keyboard so much. I think most people who do are the ones who have actually never tried it. I own an EeePC 701 myself since February and although yes at first encounter the little keyboard may "seem" awkward, It takes less than an hour of using it to really get used to it. And when you are actually used to it and use it ofen, as funny as this may sound, It's when you go back to regular-sized keyboards that it feels awkward as they are big!! This might be slightly exagerated, but anyway, you get the idea. 
So I say don't listen to those who bitch about the small keyboard. Unless you've got giant fingers and hands, the Asus keyboard is just fine! I even bet that if Asus-sized keyboards become largely used, then we may even see the regular desktop keyboards shrink slightly in the future!! I, for one, could live with smaller keyboards and save some office space!
On a OS related note, I don't get it why Windows is so popular on these devices, especially when it comes to Asus' offerings... I've tried other OSes just for fun on mine, but I always end up going back to original Xandros, as it boots much faster (a little over 10 seconds!) and does everything I need from a netbook. I use my EeePC for both work and leisure when I'm on the road, and even tho Xandros is basic and limited, It just does everything I need! When I'm in a hurry I just don't have the time to wait for Windows or Ubuntu to boot up...
Member since:2005-07-06
Thing is Intel does have a low power chipset for Atom, Intel Poulsbo, which from the specs looks perfectly fine for netbook use.
But...it is used only in MIDs, or how those 7" touchscreen only decvices are called at the moment. Nevermind the name, what's important is that they're sold at much higher prices than netbooks...
Member since:
2008-03-17
"Intel's new Atom architecture. It provides you with a modern processor with hyperthreading that draws a lot less power than other platforms."
It is true that atom itself is a real power sipper, but you have to consider the platform as a whole and unfortunately the chipset intel bundles atom with consumes far more power by itself than the atom cpu.
Until the next atom platform revision this will be the case, and as a result power draw between different chips will be not as significant.
EDIT: urgh, maybe my title isn't quite so accurate... but my comment remains true
Edited 2008-09-13 00:01 UTC