Tech Focus
The Netbook test
By Edward F Moltzen & Brian Sheinberg
When Asus first unveiled its Eee PC in late 2007, it was intended to be a sub-$300 device that could provide basic Internet access and productivity software in a very light form factor. Travelers could stuff it in an airplane carry-on bag instead of lugging a second case for a notebook.
When Asus quickly sold out of its first generation of netbooks based on Intel processors, other manufacturers saw a new market taking off and didn't want to be left out. One of technology's newest product segments was born.
And that's when complexity began to set in. The simple, popular equation that the Eee PC first embodied has shifted dramatically in a very short amount of time, about a year. The netbook pipeline now includes everything from inexpensive, but adequate, Web access devices to what might be confused as cheapened-down notebooks. The Test Center has evaluated a number of netbooks over the past year and has seen several key trends begin to emerge:
Devices that have been preloaded with Ubuntu generally have come to market cheaper and score higher benchmarking results than similar systems preloaded with Windows XP.
"Feature creep" has begun to show itself, with manufacturers stuffing more into netbooks, including biometrics, wide-screen displays, higher-performing Webcams and better acoustics. Some of the earlier features of netbooks that drew the most complaints appear to be on their way to being phased out. Two manufacturers whose netbooks we've recently looked at—HP and Asus—have come to market with keyboards that are nearly full size, providing relief to weary typing fingers.
Battery life in netbooks is rarely able to beat battery life in full-blown notebooks, defeating a large purpose of the new segment of mobile PCs—that they can be taken around and used remotely much more easily.
While VIA Technologies initially was viewed as a primary beneficiary of the buildout of a netbook market, Intel has been very aggressive with its Atom processing platform—even though the Atom may actually be better geared for smartphones or household appliances than PCs.
Pricing is all over the map, to the point where some netbooks are priced higher than lower-end (but full-function) notebooks. In the end, VARs may often find themselves having to explain to confused customers differences in performance, use patterns, pricing and life cycles, all with the industry at large not yet providing a clear definition of where netbooks stop and notebooks begin.
What follows is a look at some of the netbooks we've evaluated in the Test Center lab over the past quarter.
Dell Inspiron Mini 9
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 unit the Test Center lab looked at was preloaded with Windows XP, built with an 8-GB SSD, a 512 MB of memory and an Intel Atom processor at 1.6 GHz. It rang up a score of 869 on Primate Labs' Geekbench 2—putting it on par with other netbooks we've looked at this year.
Using the Test Center's standard battery-life test, which is to turn off all power-saving features and run a video from the hard drive until it shuts down, the Mini 9 ran for 2 hours and 40 minutes before it turned off. The 8.9-inch LCD was fine, as was the small keyboard, which is a little clunky. It weighed in at just less than 1 kilogram.
The Mini 9 grew a little warm after a couple of hours. While the keyboard and touchpad were fine, the bottom of the unit heated up to about 103 degrees. It's not a deal-breaker, though.
The real problem with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, as is the problem with other netbooks in this class, is that it's not a full PC even though it looks to be in the same species. It's slower. Trying to do more than two things at once—like type a document while listening to Internet radio—is really pushing the system's limits. The Mini 9 has a built-in 1.3-megapixel Webcam. Activating that Webcam on Skype took 11 minutes.
High-end, dual-core or quad-core systems with 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM allow us the luxury of being inefficient. PCs with those hardware specifications can allow you to have 10 applications running at the same time, including a browser with 72 tabs open and music playing.
With netbooks like the Mini 9, you're not allowed to be inefficient. Click on a browser and open two tabs, click open a word processor and the Mini 9 throws a warning at you that you're out of virtual memory. So you must learn to be efficient all over again: Open up and allow it to set cookies; make good use of bookmarking and cache in your Web browser; and if you're going to use multimedia, really, keep it to one application at a time.
Dell is now pricing the XP-based Inspiron Mini 9 at $399 (the Ubuntu Linux version is about $50 less).
HP Mini 2140
Netbooks continue pouring into the market at a brisk pace, and the market's leading notebook maker—HP—is making sure people know it's not sitting on the sidelines.
The vendor's new Mini 2140 Notebook PC is an aggressive entry into the space.
HP provides a netbook with a number of key features that other manufacturers have had difficulty delivering: a nice, comfortable keyboard, decent performance and wide-screen viewing.
In addition, HP brings the Mini 2140 to market below the $500 price point (listed at $499), ensuring it will fight and claw for every point of share in the mobile PC space even as it scales down to the netbook space.
The Test Center reviewed a Mini 2140 that came to the lab loaded with Microsoft XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2 and built with an Atom processor at 1.60 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. The system also came with a 160-GB hard disk drive. Using Primate Labs' Geekbench 2.1 benchmarking software, the Mini 2140 scored 877—not the best-performing netbook we've seen but far from the slowest, either. We installed the six-cell battery that came with the system rather than the three-cell and ran our standard battery life test. Under this test, the six-cell battery lasted a full 5 hours almost to the second. That's among the best we've seen in this class.
The six-cell battery, it should be noted, is designed to tilt the unit slightly up toward the display. That's not really obtrusive and, actually, the slight angle makes typing a little easier. HP lists the weight of the Mini 2140 as 2.6 pounds, but we found that it came to 1.3 kilogram with the six-cell in. That still makes it light and comfortable enough to carry around all day or slip into a carry-on bag for air travel. The keyboard is one of the areas where HP engineering makes a noticeable difference. Compared with other netbooks, the Mini 2140's 10-inch-wide keyboard is nice and comfortable. It's not missing any shift keys, nor are any traditional English keys placed in a weird spot to make everything fit. HP says it's 92 percent of the size of a normal, QWERTY keyboard, but it's hard to notice the missing 8 percent.
HP also added what it calls DuraKeys engineering: a clear coating over the keys to preserve them and keep the lettering from wearing over time. It also gives it nice feel. Since tiny, uncomfortable keyboards have been a major complaint of first-generation netbooks, HP's effort pushes it to the head of the class in this segment.
Other features include sound through its built-in speakers is fine, as is its built-in Webcam. Neither is overwhelming, but both are enough to get the job done on the go.
Though HP has preloaded Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2, yet the system was unable to immediately log onto wireless networks that presented WPA2 encryption. The problem was solved by downloading and installing Microsoft's hot fix for that OS. It's not a deal-breaker, but it is an annoying step HP itself might have taken before shipping the systems.
If HP and other vendors continue to improve netbooks at their current pace, netbooks could really start doing what they failed to do last year, which is eat into sales of full-blown notebooks.
Asus N10Jc
Asus should get credit for inventing the netbook space, as it was the first manufacturer to officially hit the market with its Eee PC in late 2007—and saw it take off in sales and become a smashing success. Since then, one manufacturer after another has raced to get to market with similar devices and get a piece of the action. Asus’ N10Jc netbook features both higher performance than previous versions and—with street pricing between $630 and $680—a higher price tag as well.
The Test Center had an opportunity to take a look at the N10Jc. The system came to us with an Intel Atom N270 chip at 1.60 GHz, 1 GB of RAM and preloaded with Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2.
It has a 10.2-inch screen and on our scales weighed in at around 1.6 kilogram. That makes it bigger and heavier than other models.
What do you get for $630 or so?
You get a mobile PC that performs OK; it scored a Geekbench 2.1 rating of 888, which is on par with systems in its class. It also provides the option of boosting performance with an Nvidia GeForce 9300M graphics card and several software-based options for regular, "super" or gaming performance. Its screen is one of the best, brightest netbook displays the Test Center has ever seen and, combined with the graphics capability, makes movie viewing or delivering multimedia presentations (it also has a VGA port) a wonderful, top-notch experience.
The N10Jc ran for 2 hours and 40 minutes on the standard battery test.
For a consumer, the device seems fine but expensive. But Asus is billing this as a corporate netbook; examining it through the prism of business use requires a separate checklist. It's heavier than most netbooks, but its finish make it as easy as carrying a textbook. Battery life is a drag, though, even with the capability of turning on power-saving options. Asus says the warranty goes a step beyond what we've seen for netbooks in that it provides accidental damage coverage. It's also one of the first netbooks we've seen with biometric security (fingerprint reader and face recognition), and has an Express Card slot and Webcam.
It's fashionable with a glossy, gold- and chrome-colored clamshell with rounded corners. At the vents, it runs a hair less than 90 degrees, which is noticeable but not uncomfortable. Were the N10Jc closer in price to previous netbooks, it would be a home run. Were it closer in performance to similarly priced notebooks, it would be great. But the device fits into an awkward place in the market that makes it difficult to recommend.
The bottom line
Of all these vendors, HP has done what seems—to us—the best job of differentiation between netbook and notebook. The Mini 2140 provides reasonable performance, new engineering and features to eliminate first-generation netbook annoyances, and a sub-$500 price point that nicely avoids a big problem with feature creep. All of these netbooks are fine for limited purposes, with Dell offering the most sensible combination of functionality and pricing. Asus, which will eternally get the credit for developing this space, seems to have been caught in midstride with its N10Jc and is just a hair out of step. We think there's a good chance that will change with Asus' next generation of devices and we look forward to putting it to the test. |