Netbooks: Everything You Want In A Notebook, But Less?

When AsusTek Computer Inc. 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. Kids could use it. Travelers could stuff it in an airplane carry-on bag instead of lugging a second case for a notebook.

The market, including some high-profile bloggers, got its first look at the thing and went bananas. When Asus, Taipei, Taiwan, quickly sold out of its first generation of netbooks based on Intel Corp. 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 Microsoft Corp.'s 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—Hewlett-Packard Co. and Asus—have come to market with keyboards that are nearly full size, providing relief to weary typing fingers that have contended with Chiclet keys, non-standard keyboard configurations and, occasionally, cramps from uncomfortable typing.

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 Inc., Taipei, Taiwan, initially was viewed as a primary beneficiary of the buildout of a netbook market, Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., 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. They all work as they're supposed to—they provide at least baseline functionality to write, access the Web and integrate with projectors for presentations, and all have significantly reduced performance compared to notebooks or desktop PCs and have a wide range in pricing.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

The Dell Inc. Inspiron Mini 9 is a decent, nice-to-look-at, easy-to-carry netbook. It works as advertised. The unit the Test Center lab looked at was preloaded with Windows XP, built with an 8-GB SSD, a half-GB of memory and an Intel Atom processor at 1.6GHz. 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 but, frankly, that's the trade-off you make when you opt for a netbook in the first place. (And, if you can type on a BlackBerry or an iPhone, and see the screens on those devices, you shouldn't have a major protest with the Mini 9's LCD or keyboard.)

It weighed in at just less than 2 pounds, 5 ounces.