MSI Wind U123 and ASUS 1000HE Show Netbook Evolution
by Wesley Fink on July 17, 2009 12:02 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Evolution of the Netbook
While it has only been about a year and a half since the ASUS Eee first defined the netbook market, the netbook has quickly evolved and has become one of the hottest items for sale in the computer market. No doubt part of that appeal has been the worldwide economic downturn, which has made a complete cheap computer a much more attractive purchase than it might be in good economic times. The appeal, however, is arguably more than just a low price, and every US computer company, with the exception of Apple, has quickly jumped into the netbook market.
The new competitors have tried to offer more features, bigger screens, more powerful processors, and longer battery life than the original ASUS Eee. As a result the latest netbook models now sport 10" screens, Intel Atom processors (Instead of the earlier Celeron), and generally the promise of a computer system that sips power to provide longer battery life.
| Netbook Feature Comparison | ||||||||
| Model | CPU | Chipset | Screen | Mfg. Battery Life | Weight as tested |
Battery Capacity | Wh Power | Resolution |
| Asus 1000HE | Atom N280 | 945GSE | 10.1" | 9.5 hrs | 3.16 lbs | 7.2v-8700 mAh | 62.6 | 1024x600 |
| MSI Wind U123 | Atom N280 | 945GSE | 10.3" | 8 hrs | 3.24 lbs | 11.1v-7800 mAh | 86.6 | 1024x600 |
| Asus 1000HA | Atom N270 | 945 Express | 10.1" | 7 hrs | 3.19 lbs | 7.4v-6600 mAh | 62.6 | 1024x600 |
| Asus PC 901 | Atom N270 | 945 Express | 8.9" | 8 hrs | 2.50 lbs | 7.4v-6600 mAh | 62.6 | 1024x600 |
| Asus PC 4G | Celeron M900 | 915GM/GMS | 7" | 2.8 hrs | 2.04 lbs | 7.4v-5200 mAh | 38.5 | 800x480 |
Comparing the developing ASUS Eee line and its competitors you can see the processor has evolved from the original Celeron M900 to the Intel Atom N270 as the netbooks moved to larger screens. The two netbooks we are comparing today both feature the slightly faster Intel Atom N280, which is replacing the N270 in most netbook designs. The N280 is essentially the same CPU as the N270 running at a slightly faster 1.66GHz compared to the 1.6GHz of the N270. The N280 bus speed is also slightly faster at 667MHz instead of the 533MHz of the N270. For more information on the Atom processors see Intel's Atom Architecture: The Journey Begins and the recent look at the Atom of the near future in Intel Unveils Next-Generation Atom Details.
The original Eee PC 4G (far right) featured a 7" LCD screen with a resolution of 800x480. Most users longed for something larger and LCD technology was rapidly driving down the costs of LCD screens at the same time. The next generation of netbook, the Eee PC 900/901 featured a 9" screen at 1024x600. Current generation screens are generally around 10" with the same 1024x600 resolution. Several manufacturers have recently introduced or announced netbooks with a 12" screen. The Acer Aspire One ZA3, with an 11.6" screen and 1333x768 resolution, has just arrived in our labs for review.
As screen size has grown, so has the physical size and weight of the typical netbook. The 2 pound PC 4G of 2007 is now more typically around 3.2 pounds. However, the extra weight is not really screen or CPU as much as it is increased battery capacity. Manufacturers are keenly aware of the extra weight in the newest netbooks, and ASUS offers 6-cell and 3-cell versions of the 1000HE. MSI similarly offers both 9-cell and 6-cell versions of the Wind U123. This allows the buyer to determine which is more important to them - longer battery life or lighter weight.
There is also no doubt that the original 9" x 7" of the PC 4G has now grown to 10.5" x 9" in the larger screen 1000H series. This will likely continue as manufacturers try to provide larger screens, more computing power, and even longer battery life in future netbook models.
Almost all current netbook models now feature a 1024x600 screen, an Atom processor, around 1GB of memory, built-in LAN, WiFi, and in some cases Bluetooth connectivity, a webcam ideal for Skype communications, Windows XP, and a hard drive typically providing around 160GB of storage. Some netbooks ship with Linux and Unix-family operating systems as the standard OS or as an option, and the recent announcement by Google that they will develop a Chrome OS for netbooks promises even more OS variety in the future. None of the netbooks tested so far offer an optical drive option although all feature the necessary USB ports to install an external DVD (or BD/DVD) drive.
None of the currently tested netbooks included an SSD drive. The SSD seems an ideal match to a netbook computer, but cost is still relatively high for Solid State Drives compared to the low-power 1.8"/2.5" drives currently used in most netbooks. A few manufacturers like ASUS and OCZ do offer SSD options and more SSD drives may appear in future models.
Prices for the tested netbook models ranged from $300 for the original ASUS PC 4G to $400 for the two recent models from ASUS and MSI. That is an extremely tight price range for a computer and demonstrates the price sensitivity of the netbook market. A few netbooks reach into the $500+ range with added features, but for now netbooks are clearly an "under $400" market in the United States.
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crimson117 - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
Where can I get one of these with Linux pre-installed?rad999 - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
Visual is right on the money with his comments. Based in Taiwan I watched first hand that Asus tested the market and it paid off. Now they try to bleed the distinctions between a regular notebook and a netbook by offering old chipsets , larger displays and inferior specs amd rake in the cash.What is an atom CPU but a rebranded cpu from say five years ago.
Hav4e you ever tried to play a 3d game on a netbook, maybe upload video or make a DVD from a camcorder. It's a painful experience at best.
rembo666 - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
Atom CPU is ANYTHING BUT a re-branded older CPU. It is using a collection of older and newer Intel technologies in a combination to get the best performance vs. power consumption vs. price balance. They chose to go with an in-order architecture (which is a lot older than 5-years, you're talking Pentium II as the last Intel in-order CPU here) with hyper-threading (which is about 5 years old, but it's re-appearing in the latest Core i5 and i7 CPUs), with the latest or recent manufacturing process. It's a completely re-designed CPU for the specific marked to Netbooks and MIDs. The chipset could use updating though...On AMD front, they are using the old Athlon XP designs with their "new" mobile CPUs, so you get proven performance from 8-10 years ago multiplied by manufacturing process advancements; which allow the CPUs to be clocked higher with lower power consumption.
Do research before you flame please.
And why would you even dream of playing a 3D game on a $350 netbook? They're not made for performance or gaming. They are essentially designed to run Internet Explorer or Firefox, nothing more. Come on...
swaaye - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Atom is actually sort of a failure really. I believe that it's actually meant to compete with the popular embedded CPUs, such as the Arm and MIPS archictectures. But it consumes too much power for those applications and it's not nearly as flexible (the Arm and MIPS chips are sorta cut and paste "what u want" designs.)Atom is lucky that it found the netbook area, but it's definitely not exciting outside of its relatively low power envelope. Relative to other x86 chips that is.
Atom was born out of the Larabee project too actually. It's an offshoot of one of those cores if I recall correctly.
agent2099 - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
While I agree surfing the web is probably one of the most common things a netbook is used for, it isn't the only one. As the article admits, people also buy netbooks for those long plane or train rides. Considering internet access is not available on most commercial airlines, I think the battery testing should be a bit more broad.In particular I would like to see testing for divx and h.264 playback, or even mp3 playback while web surfing.
goinginstyle - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
I agree. I travel a lot and usually watch movies or TV shows on the plane, if not I am listening to music. I am tired of lugging around a rather heavy 15" notebook and want something easy to carry and use while traveling.The majority of people I see on the plane or waiting in the airport are either doing work or watching video/listening to music, sometimes both. I would think doing a test with video playback would be a given as would using Office.
I am still bummed about the lack of wireless testing and was hoping for a reply today.
Lifted - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
Just had an idea reading this article with respect to the battery power and performance tests.Put both the battery life and "general" performance results for each netbook/laptop in a horizontal bar chart as you have in this review, then have a slider at the top that lets you specify in percentage of importance (to the reader) battery life vs performance. When you slide it to the left, for 100% battery life and 0% performance, it would order the horizontal bar chart in order of performance for battery life alone. Slide to the middle and you have 50-50 for battery/performance and the chart sorts accordingly.
Yes, people will argue about the relevance of the battery and performance tests to their specific needs, but they will do that regardless. At least this tool would help to find a balance that is important to the readers using the results provided.
Visual - Friday, July 17, 2009 - link
This is just terrible. Don't post any more articles like this. You'll convince the manufacturers that they actually have a decent product, and then they will not bother improving it ;)But seriously now, I am really disappointed by the slow rate of progress in the netbook area. They are all still using the same old crappy intel chipsets with terrible igp performance. Still on the crappy 1024x600 resolutions. Still no rotating screens and touchscreens. That is not evolution, that is milking the same old cow over and over.
I have the Gigabyte M912X tablet-convertible netbook, it is a model old as the world now, and yet it hasn't been surpassed by anyone yet. Even the fresh new tablets by Asus T91 and T101 are a step back, again with the lower resolution.
And here I was hoping we would even have multi-touch tablets by now. The initial misleading advertising of the Asus T91 as multitouch (which turned out to be about the touchpad and not the screen, damn Asus) had hyped my expectations way high.
Ion or at least the faster Intel GMA X4500, dual-core Atoms or Via Nano, are all getting old already without even appearing in a netbook product yet. If even existing tech takes so long to be adopted by the industry, how can I even hope for some future tech? At this rate I'll probably grow old and die before OLED displays, Moorestown, external/dock graphics, usb 3 or bluetooth 3 arrive.
AstroGuardian - Sunday, July 19, 2009 - link
I agree. Totally! I am waiting ages already to see OLEDs and Ions in a netbook. But things look boring at this time.KeypoX - Sunday, July 19, 2009 - link
agree agree... this is total bs. Netbooks run flash like crap too. I dont care who's fault it is. Try to play two or more youtube at once your screwed.Also 400 for a netbook is about 200 to much. You can get 400 notebooks core 2 duo almost everyday now.
I remember this site a few years ago, every article was gold, it was interesting and seemed honest. What happen?