Pulling the trigger on a netbook
So I’ve been kicking around in my head the past couple of days of really pulling the trigger on a netbook. I have a few reasons. First, my battery life on my Powerbook G4 is 20 minutes on a good day. Weight is about 4 pounds and all I ever use it for is typing master’s thesis and some programming. So, why do I need a new one? Eh, I can never answer that question. But I think in the next couple of weeks, pending friends reviews, I might pull the trigger on a new netbook.
I’m looking at the HP 1000 series. I saw them at the store a few weeks back and really like them. It didn’t seem cheaper than the HP2123 netbook that made some waves 9 months back.
So what are the specs:
- Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz) Single core 2.5W
- Intel MA950 graphics
- 1GB DDR2
- Bluetooth, webcam, wireless n
- 16GB SSD
- 10.2″ 1024×600
- 92% full keyboard
It seems that the N270 is a 32-bit chipset which is a little bit disappointing. I could wait until the Atom 230 hits or even the 300 series (dual core) for a little hit on power, 4 W and 8 W respectively. But I doubt they will come out because they are for mini-desktops. Which don’t care as much about the power constraints.
Although it comes with a 3-cell battery I will quickly be looking for a 6-cell, for 2 times the battery life (linear?). Also soon MIE will be available which seems to be HP’s Ubuntu version. But I will be reformatting it and installing either OpenBSD or Ubuntu myself.
The bad… seems battery life. Three hours on the 3-cell and a 6-cell is in the works. This may have been tested with regular harddrive, because SSD option is new.
Also proprietary cable for VGA 
So, what do you think?
EDIT: All of this and I forgot the price. End of the day $519. Plus whatever the 6-cell battery costs.
Other choices:
Lenovo S10 - Anti-glare screen. Same basic specs $449. No SSD option (yet?).
Dell Mini9 - Same specs $20 cheaper, not sure on looks or keyboard. Ubuntu 8.10 on bootup! 4 hours battery life on 4-cell. No upgrade options noted. Glossy 8.9″ screen
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November 24th, 2008 at 1:01 am
These things are pretty sweet. One of my friends recently picked one up, I will do my best to convince him to let me play around with it a bit and I can let you know what I think…
Why are you disappointed with the 32-but chipset? You mentioned you only want it for programming/writing…unless of course you are talking about matters like wanting to use the same libraries and compilers so code you write on this can readily be moved to a 64 bit desktop and used…
3-4 hours seems really low for these things, I would have expected longer battery lifes since they are expected to almost always be in use while traveling, and rarely around some place where you can plug in. Seems like a device you would use for travel, lets say, and plug it in overnight. I would imagine the battery life scales linearly - unless your computer has to work to support the extra weight of the battery (now THAT would be a laptop - one that can lift things…) twice the cells should equal twice the available energy and twice the working time.
Either way, I agree with you that for the small size, and the small weight, I think they are good choices — I also have thought about how basic my laptop usage is, and how nice it would be to pare that down to basics and reduce it’s size. I’ll be interested to your review, when (if?) you buy one.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Yeah, 32-bit isn’t a big deal. Just disappointing. Most of my programming is Python based so it doesn’t matter what the underlining system is.
As for the battery life, most of the reviews are when it first came out with a 5400 60GB HDD. Now with a 16GB SDD the battery life might be closer to 4+.
The thing is, the laptop that is awesome cost $3k. But for $500 bucks I can get a laptop that does everything I need and then save up $3k for a nice desktop for a work horse.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Don’t do it man, you’ll regret it. Let’s take a look at the specs and what they’re worth.
* 10.2″ 1024×768 display: shitty res, pretty small area to work with
* Extra plug for VGA: when you plan to use the VGA output, do you really expect you’ll always have the plug with you?
* 4.1 lbs: That’s not any lighter than a normal 15″ laptop
* $519: definitely not cheaper than a normal laptop
* Atom proc: Sure it’ll get the job done, but it’s still pretty weak
* No express card: No expansion. USB only does so much.
My advice would be to either get a smaller and cheaper netbook or spend the same amount of money on a full-size 15.4″ laptop. You’ll get a bigger, higher res. screen, FULL keyboard, faster processor, VGA/DVI and maybe HDMI out, an optical drive and a ton of USB, firewire and maybe even eSATA. And it will cost you about the same amount of money. Sure it’ll be bigger, but it’ll weight the same and be of far more use to you.
The netbooks were cool originally. Fast, Linux, small, light, cheap. Now, they run windoze, cost too damn much and don’t give you much value for your money. That’s my take anyway.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Joe, I see your points on performance — but in interest of only basic word processing/programming, who cares what performance upgrade you’d see? And he mentions no use of windows on it…and finally, isn’t the whole idea to have a very small, portable notebook? Sure a 15″ laptop can be moved around — but it won’t slip into a small bag, it will definitely take up more room.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Talking with Joe, he has a valid point. There are a few other things that are real show stoppers, no VGA except by a proprietary link. And the Atom processor is not good for much, it seems that a CeleronM 1.8 is 35% faster than an Atom 1.6 but the atom takes a fraction of power. While an AMD septon is 43% faster than the Atom N270 and takes about the same amount of power… the problem… no one uses the Sempton and only 15+” screens have the Turon, which is the next generation.
I just took a look at an Asus EEE 1000HD with a 10″ screen and I think its on the small side. Which was the conclusion I came up with a while back looking at a Sony 11.1″. So maybe I will stick with the Sony Z 13.1″ size that I originally wanted. The only problem with that is its huge price tag.
The search continues.