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Netting the best Netbooks

Rohan Naravane, Dec 15, 2008 1417 hrs IST

These little 'bundles of joy' are ready to take over the world. We look at the best ones available today.

EXPERT REVIEW

Portability has been the mantra of the future. Beginning from computers that occupied an entire room, to desktops, laptops and finally handheld devices like smart-phones, evolution has certainly shrunk our beloved PC. In early days, laptops could never measure up to the desktops in terms of their raw power. But nowadays, the performance gap between desktops and laptops has reduced vastly.

However, in their competition with desktops, laptops had to sacrifice two important aspects; one is portability and the other is battery life. While 15-inch+ screen sizes increased the laptops footprint, the power-hungry resources (e.g. discreet graphics and faster hard drives) shortened their battery life.

For people who wanted a truly handy option, a limited number of ultra-portable laptops were available in the market since long. But they failed to become popular due to their 'ultra-high' price tag.

Here's where sub-notebooks came into the picture. The revolution was started by the Asus's Eee PC. Later we saw many manufacturers make a beeline for their own iteration of the sub-notebook. The sub-notebooks were christened 'Netbook' by Intel and it is well-known how popular they have become.

The original Netbooks had quite a few shortcomings; the keyboards were cramped, the screens were too small and they weren't really powerful to run even Windows XP smoothly. But the second wave managed to improve on the drawbacks.

So, basically a Netbook by today's definition is an ultra-portable computer with a screen and keyboard smaller than your average laptop, and is adequately powered to run specific tasks like web-browsing, multi-media etc. The only thing missing from a Netbook as compared to a laptop (other than power, of course) is an internal optical drive.

The major advantages these machines offer are;

1) Portability - With most of the Netbooks ranging from 1 to 1.5 kg, they are pretty light as compared to laptops. Their smaller footprint makes it easier to just slip them into any standard backpack and take them with you wherever you go.

2) Battery Life - Most of the current Netbooks are powered by Intel's Atom processor that is tweaked for utilizing low power. Also, factors like smaller screens, missing optical drives, use of SSDs instead of traditional spinning hard disks and high-capacity 6-cell battery options give most Netbooks a good 3-5 hour battery life. Thus, they are true road-warriors and won't make you run to that power-port frequently.

And finally, 3) Price - Unlike ultra-portable laptops that cost Rs. 80,000 upwards, Netbooks are priced between an affordable range of Rs. 20 and 25k - total value for money I'd say.

Today we are going to round up most of the currently available models and declare the 'Best' Netbook overall and the 'Best Value' Netbook.

Most Netbooks available today have a screen size of 8.9-inch or 10.2-inch. Now since most of the models have similar hardware, I won't repeat it over and over again. All of them have the following common specifications - an Intel Atom N270 1.6 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and a Memory Card Reader.

USER COMMENTS

Do these netbooks support running of photoshop, c compilers,office 07 and other heavy-memory requirement programs with much ease or do they lag ? wat's ur opinion for lg's x110....reply asap

by Vikas, Mumbai, on Mar 11, 2009 01:39 AM, Report abuse Reply

I recently bought an AAO for 14.9K net n 'm lovin' it. I just hate the color I got (Sapphire Blue) because that's the one they had...sigh!

by Prax, Patna, on Jan 21, 2009 08:45 AM, Report abuse Reply

most of the keyboards on these netbooks are crap. only the acer aspire one and msi wind have a perfect keyboard. the lenovo s10 does not have a separate F12 key dell mini 9 does not have separate function keys at all. so before you buy a netbook take a look at the keyboard properly.

by Shyla, NY, on Dec 19, 2008 09:23 AM, Report abuse Reply

Dear Shyla, Just curious as when is F12 required ?

by Prasanna, mumbai, on Jan 16, 2009 08:48 PM, Report abuse

> My take on the Netbook is that it is an extension to > your main computer. You take is wrong! No wonder why PC and Internet penetration is not much happening in India compared to other Asian regions. Let's hope for the best with all these 'Low Price' models. Still am not so convinced because Software side it sucks high in India with steep prices (read as Windows & it's Office products). Penetration doesn't happen until & unless Software prices scale down OR people tune towards Open Source movement as our great man Dr. APJ has once professed very clearly.

by Dr. Sunil, Hyderabad, on Dec 30, 2008 08:22 PM, Report abuse Reply

The article mentions review of new netbooks expected in 2009...was mentioned for week of Dec22nd.. Cannot find it on techtree... a link would be helpful Thabks

by vivek ladha, goa, on Dec 30, 2008 10:31 AM, Report abuse Reply

What happened to the mini 9.So,small that i got lost in the rankings???????

by shadeslayer, Gurgaon, on Dec 25, 2008 02:34 AM, Report abuse Reply

Oops! You just missed out on the Samsung NC10 just recently launched. Looks competitive. May be in a shoot-out next year. Also, the HP Mini 1000 (am I right?) isn't seen. Is it not available in India yet?

by five46, Bengaluru, on Dec 23, 2008 09:32 PM, Report abuse Reply

Quite an unfair comparision...the mother of all netbooks "HP 2133 Mininote" is not considered. I'll tell you the difference...1280x728 resolution, no other netbook offers, Brushed Aluminium casing is the ultimate WOW factor, 2GB of 667 MHz RAM with 800 MHz FSB....... downside...C7M processor, but its not all that bad, it walks vista easily, and zooms with XP/ Ubuntu. Compiz dosent work :( ...but im sure it wont be working on any of them.

by Ashok, New Delhi, on Dec 18, 2008 12:44 PM, Report abuse Reply

The reason the HP mini-Note 2133 was not included was because HP has informed us that they've stopped selling that model, and they're coming up with an upgrade very soon.

by Rohan Naravane, TechTree TechLabs, on Dec 18, 2008 07:17 PM, Report abuse

Any netbook with DVD drive??

by Martin, Bangalore, on Dec 17, 2008 04:28 PM, Report abuse Reply

Where is the Dell Inspiron Mini 9? That's the second best Netbook right now behind Asipre One. If I was in the market I would go like this - 1.Acer 2.Lenovo [White/Red combo has killer looks something diff!.] 3.MSI Wind.

by Samir, Mumbai, on Dec 16, 2008 01:14 AM, Report abuse Reply

Dear Samir, The Inspiron Mini 9 isn't yet widely available in India as of now. I haven't seen it even at official dell retailers like Croma. This guide is about the best Netbooks of 2008. And since 2008 is almost over, the dell inspiron mini 9 would have a chance to compete next year.

by Rohan Naravane, TechTree TechLabs, on Dec 16, 2008 06:49 PM, Report abuse

I like MSI wind becuase of chic looks and match the international standards in quality also Eee 1000H is able to run MAC OS where rest of netbooks s*cks as acer and lenovo are made for gays!

by hello, sd, on Dec 16, 2008 11:42 AM, Report abuse Reply

Oops if you have Inispiron Mini 9 in the list than that is no.2. Lenovo is no.3 then. Wind gets the boot.

by Samir, Mumbai, on Dec 16, 2008 01:15 AM, Report abuse Reply