Netbooks: before and after

Prior to what other tech analysts say, I can safely say that (here in the country) the Netbook is here to stay for a few more years. These have to do with various factors:

• Its cheap, thus democratizing the portable computer market to the masses.
• Asians have smaller hands and fingers, thus making the smaller keyboard less of a problem to deal with.
• More portable than ever, enabling companies to buy it for their on-the-go typing and internet on-the-field employees (and its much cheaper to replace)
• With media floating in the internet (movies and music) and increasing popularity of flash drives as a storage medium, not having a CD/DVD drive is not much of a minus-factor for netbooks

With those in mind, I look at the popular netbooks I have touched and recommended to people in the past and my current stand with them. Note that the netbook is already a category in itself and manufacturers have various models with various performance specs.

Asus EEE PC:

Almost two years ago, Asus seized the opportunity to make a new market of ultraportables that together with the prices, slashed the features, giving birth to the netbook.

Having used one almost a year before (a 4GB SSD version), there was plenty to frown about. The Linux distro that came with it bombed, while installing Windows was a pain. The small screen size did not help the small resolution it came with. The keyboard, most of all was a pain in the ass.

Today, Asus has managed to keep up with the game they started, and I’m impressed with their new line. I got to use one the other day for an event, it was snappy, keyboard was better to type around, and it has a really, really impressive battery life (lets just say we were streaming video, using wifi, typing away, and it managed to run around for six hours with energy to spare). I think I’ll buy one of these in the near future.

HP Mini-note

HP mini quickly became one of my favorites when it came out more than a year ago. It was glossy and metallic. It didn’t have the “HP Price”. It used Via’s C7 processor, which was (at first) cool. The Linux variant came with a much-more acceptable Novell Suse distribution. But most of all, what made me recommend it to everyone was its nearly-full-size keyboard.

Today, with almost all netbooks stepping up to the bigger keyboard game, HP still is a likeable unit, with its aesthetics still unmatched with the other plastic-looking netbooks (though they have released their own plastic-looking models as well to keep up economically with the others in the category). It still is a good buy, but most of the people I know who own it have had their share of problems, which resulted to bringing it to the HP service center in most cases.

HP has long dropped VIA for the more acceptable Intel Atom platform, but it still tends to feel hot at times. The glossy screen may seem troublesome for a few, especially in outside working environments.

MSI Wind

MSI’s netbook offering got its own limelight in the press some months ago for its ability (along with the Dell Mini 9) to run Apple’s OS, thus giving it the ability to be a “Hackintosh”.

This is an-OK netbook. Aside from the potential of being a Hackintosh, there isn’t really much going in here but that. It is reasonably priced along with the rest, and it seems to do the job of typing and emailing pretty well. Keyboard’s average, as well as its battery life. Its someone I’d recommend to a regular Juan.

Acer Aspire One

I personally and professionally don’t recommend Acer (because of their after-sales service), but since this one is pretty new and I haven’t have hearing problems from people who own it, what the heck.

The current Acer One model is a decent upgrade from its predecessor, boasting a sleeker look that can actually match the HP mini in the aesthetics department. The keyboard is at par with the new ones out there, though the unit I tested fared dismally with Vista (I think all netbooks would, its Vista!). Battery life is ample (there are options for the 6-cell and 8-cell batteries) and the glossy screen isn’t too reflective. The glossy finish of the body, though, makes it smudge-friendly.

Toshiba NB-200

Though pretty late in the netbook market (the NB-100 wasn’t really seen here in the Philippines), Toshiba doesn’t fail to impress with its chiclet-keyboard, which really look good to type on. The entire notebook seems to be light too.

But, sadly, physical looks seem to be its only redeeming qualities. Specs are the same (or even fall short) than others in the market. And being so late in the game, its price doesn’t help it get any new netbook users: selling for nearly 30k pesos. With that price, you can save yourself some thousands buying from Asus or HP, or better yet, buy a real entry-level laptop.

Lenovo S10

These guys have been late in the netbook game as well, but unlike Toshiba they’ve seem to get their cards right. First, the looks are far from the IBM-era Thinkpads, giving a refreshing view of things. Next, they still have good support (also inherited from the IBM era). Lastly, the prices are competitive enough, and (with the advent of the S10-2) have gotten advantageous facelifts.

This is not to say that its the best time to get these netbooks. With the trends shifting next year (first to Windows 7, next to more powerful GPU’s such as NVIDIA’s Ion platform), things will surely be different the following months.