For the past two years, virtually every netbook released has shipped with an Intel Atom processor and integrated graphics. A few mini-laptops with 12 inch displays shook things up a bit with NVIDIA ION graphics or Broadcom HD video accelerators, but the truth is that if you look at the performance section of most of my netbook reviews over the last few years you won’t find a lot of surprises.

We’re starting to see a change this year.  For years, Intel Atom processors, sometimes with Nvidia Ion graphics, ruled the insides of netbooks.  So much so, that it was virtually impossible to find a netbook without an Atom processor.  Now, we’re starting to see 10 and 12 inch mini-notebooks with AMD processors and ATI graphics. Engadget has posted the first detailed reviews I’ve seen of the Acer Aspire One 521 and 721, with 10.1 inch and 11.6 inch displays respectively, and one of the latest AMD chips for low cost, low power ultraportables.

One drawback of the current AMD processors is battery life.  Neither model got spectacular battery life, each laptop was able to run for 3.5 hours or longer on a charge.  But the biggest difference between these notebooks and most Atom-powered netbooks is performance. Engadget’s benchmarks show that the new Acer netbookss outperformed Atom models in every single one. They’re not quite as powerful as the Intel CULV processors, nor do they get the same kind of battery life, but with prices ranging from $350 to $430, the Acer Aspire One 521 and 721 are a lot cheaper than most CULV-powered notebooks as well.

Announced just a few weeks ago at CES 2010, the new Lenovo Thinkpad x100e slots nicely into the niche of ‘Business Netbooks’ and today Netbooked has gotten their hands on one to put up a review.  The 11.6” Lenovo ThinkPad X100e seems to have made a good impression with Pete, and he raves about the  design and the ergonomics “best keyboard and trackpad so far on an 11.6-incher and a matte display to boot”.

Here are some of the other highlights from his review:

- Easy to upgrade
- Great Matte display
- 1080p Video Playback
- Very quiet operation

On the negative side:

- Battery life only about 3-4 hours.
- Bottom gets quite hot, and the battery juts out.
- No HDMI video output

Read the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Review.

Arrington review the HP DreamScreen - Crunchpad makes a cameo appearance

Michael Arrington, of Techcrunch.com, went out and bought one of the first HP DreamScreens and has reviewed it on video.  While some blogs touted this as the Apple iTablet killer, it quickly becomes apparent that Arrington does not buy into this point of view.  Arrnington himself is quick to point out his conflict of interest – his company is currently developing the Crunchpad tablet which is due out in November and , conveniently, makes a cameo appearance on his desk during the review(see image above).

Among the faults that Arrington points out:
- No Touchscreen (navigation is by some touch sensitive buttons on the side of the screen)
- No battery.  (the HP does not function without being plugged in)
- No internet browser.

Those are some serious drawbacks, and I agree with Arrington.  It we look at the HP DreamScreen as a netbook/tablet it falls far short.  It really just is a glorified digital foto frame.

Check out the full review after the break.

Some more videos of the Touchbook by Always Innovating

A little while ago the first Touchbooks, from Always Innovating, started shipping and arriving on customers’ doorsteps.  The Touchbook is a sort of 2-part nebook where the screen can actually separate from it’s keyboard base and act as a stand alone tablet.  We covered the first unboxing here.  Now, the company itself has published two more videos to give you a better look at the Touchbook’s functionality.

One video shows the tablet part stuck to a refridgerator, due to a magnet inside.  A movie is watched, and it even stays put when the fridge door is slammed closed.  The other video shows the Touch Book in tablet mode. You can rotate the device and the screen will re-orientate.

Click ‘Keep Reading’ to see the two videos.

1000HE is the new Netbook from Asus with 10 inch LED backlit display and the new N280 processor which clocks at 1.66Ghz and has FSB of 667Mhz. Other than that, It’s basically the 1000HA except with a chiclet keyboard, 802.11 draft n support, Bluetooth and a toted 9.5 hour battery life.

Asus 1000HE has a 92% sized keyboard with a new layout. The right Shift key has been placed where it should belong to. Asus boasts of delivering 8.7 hours of battery backup with integration of Super Hybrid Engine on a 6-cell battery. I am sure it will not be more than 7 hours in practical life.

Now that the plastic-clad, Atom-powered HP Mini 1000 has become a hit, HP is taking another crack at the netbook market with the Mini 2140: a drastically updated version of its first netbook effort, the 2133 Mini-Note. The 2140 updates the 2133′s components from an underpowered Via C7-M to an Intel Atom CPU, also adding an accelerometer for the hard drive and a full ExpressCard/54 slot — a first for netbooks.

The 2140 will be available in February, starting at £379.

Read the full Review Next:

Design
The 2140 keeps the 2133′s big keyboard and aluminium construction, which makes it a bit heavier than the plastic 1000. The trade-off may be worthwhile, however, as the metallic 2140 feels as if it’ll stand up to the rigours of the road better than a plastic netbook. The 2140 also shares the same basic silhouette as the 1000 and 2133.

The biggest selling point for HP’s netbooks has always been the great keyboard, which, according to HP, is 92 per cent of the size of a full-sized laptop keyboard. Other netbooks have been plagued by tiny keys that make typing a pain and result in plenty of typos. By expanding the keyboard right to the edges of the system, HP has been able to fit larger keys into the tray than those found on other netbooks, and even ultra-portable laptops. The result is a comfortable typing experience. The keyboard still takes a little bit of practice, as the keys are very close together, but it is, thus far, our favourite keyboard on a sub-12-inch notebook.

The touchpad has an unusual shape. It’s stretched into a letterbox-like wide rectangle, and the mouse buttons have been moved to the left and right sides of the touchpad. This means the system has a minimal amount of wasted wrist-rest space, but it’s a somewhat awkward compromise, especially if you do a lot of vertical scrolling or right clicking.

The 10.1-inch widescreen LED display has an unusual 1,024×576-pixel  resolution, which is a few pixels shy of the 1,024×600-pixel resolution typically seen in netbooks. The end result is largely unnoticeable, but a Windows XP pop-up window expressed concern that we weren’t running at a standard resolution.

Besides its large keyboard, the 2140 has one major selling point that no other netbooks currently offer: a full ExpressCard/54 slot. Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10 has a smaller ExpressCard/34 slot, but there are fewer options for add-on peripherals in that size. We rarely find that we actually need an ExpressCard slot for anything, but some people rely on them for mobile-broadband modems, memory-card readers or TV tuners.

The version we tested ran Windows XP and had a 160GB 5,400rpm hard drive. HP also offers the choice of a 160GB 7,200rpm hard drive, an 80GB solid-state drive and Windows Vista, but how those options affect the base price is not yet clear.

Performance
Intel’s single-core 1.6GHz Atom CPU offers enough computing power for the basic tasks for which netbooks are designed — Web surfing, working on documents and some basic multimedia playback. During testing, Lenovo’s IdeaPad U110 dual-core ultra-portable was clearly faster, especially when multitasking, but the 2140 offered better performance than Sony’s new Atom-powered Vaio P-series Lifestyle PC, thanks to the P-series’ Windows Vista operating system.

The 2140 ran for 3 hours and 12 minutes on our video-playback battery-drain test, using a six-cell battery. That battery sticks out from the back of the system slightly. The basic three-cell battery lasted only about 35 minutes less, so you’ll have to choose between longer battery life and greater portability.

Conclusion
The well-designed HP Mini 2140 combines solid construction with the computing power needed to handle typical netbook tasks. A large keyboard and full ExpressCard/54 slot, together with the fact that HP has managed to keep the price down, mean the 2140 is near the top of our list of most-desirable netbooks.

So you want a tiny laptop, Netbook, UMPC, whatever you want to call it, but you’re not sure which. It all seemed so clear in the beginning — you had your mind set on an Eee PC 701 or 900, but then it seems all the laptop manufacturers in the world started making netbooks.

As you can see there’s a fair bit of choice. Click on the link below to read the reviews for the top ten Netbooks.

Apricot Picobook Pro

Most of you are probably too young to remember Apricot. The company shot to prominence in the 1980s with innovative computing platforms, but eventually had its backside handed it to it by just about everyone. Fast-forward a couple of decades and the Apricot brand is back — its mission: to cash in on the hottest trend.
The good

The Picobook has a relatively large 8.9-inch screen with a native resolution of 1,024×600 pixels, and that’s large enough to view the majority of Web pages in full. It has 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a quite spacious — for a netbook — 60GB hard drive. It’s also very portable thanks to its 1kg chassis, and its 4,400mAh battery should deliver a half-decent battery life.
The bad

Where do we start? The Picobook uses a super-lethargic VIA C7-M, and it’s not even the semi-tolerable 1.6GHz version, either — it’s the pull-your-hair-out-slow 1.2GHz model. This might not have been so bad if Apricot also used a Linux operating system with low system requirements, but it had the audacity to pull its Linux offering, because it was ‘too complicated’.
When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

Now. £299.
Should I buy it?

No.

At number 9, we have the little chap that sparked the miniature laptop revolution. The original Eee PC drove yet another nail into the already air-tight coffin of ultra-mobile PCs and inspired the entire computing world to follow in its diminutive footsteps.
The good

The Eee PC 700 is among the smallest of all netbooks. It still packs some decent features, though. Its 900MHz Intel Pentium M CPU and 512MB of RAM (1GB on the 701) offers enough grunt to run Windows XP or Linux operating systems, the 0.3-megapixel webcam lets you take self-portraits and video chat with friends, and it’s cheap — in its RM Asus miniBook guise, you can buy one for as little as £169.
The bad

That 7-inch screen has a pretty rubbish 800×480-pixel resolution, which means many Web pages don’t fit properly — you have to scroll sideways to read bits that fall off the edges. The keyboard is pants, too — unless you have the fingers of a small child (and you should probably give those back), you’ll struggle to enter text accurately. The storage on offer isn’t great either. The 700 is available with 2GB, while the 701 gets a maximum of 4GB of solid-state storage, which really isn’t a great deal to play with.
When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

Now. From £169.
Should I buy it?

Newer netbooks make the Eee PC 700 look rather pointless, but its super-low price means it’s still a contender. Get this if you’re looking for something to tinker with, or if you’re looking for a cheap second laptop dedicated to Web browsing and watching movies in bed.

Michael Dell once hinted that his company wouldn’t be taking netbooks seriously. That Dell has forged ahead, however, and made not one, but three mini laptops shows the company is taking the market more seriously than it lets on.
The good

The Mini 9 uses an 8.9-inch screen, making it slightly larger than the Eee PC 700. Its best attribute, however, is its built-in HSDPA modem. Buy a Mini 9 with a Vodafone mobile broadband contract, or place your 3G SIM card in the slot beneath the battery, and the Internet is your oyster. The Mini 9 uses an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM, so it’s faster than the two previous entries, and can be bought with either Ubuntu or Windows XP. Battery life is a decent, if hardly mind-blowing, 3 hours 21 minutes.
The bad

Though it’s larger than the Eee PC 700, the Mini 9′s keyboard is ultimately just as fiddly and the 8.9-inch screen isn’t as comfortable as those on larger netbooks. Dell allows users to configure most of its laptops at the point of purchase, not the Mini 9. This is a shame, because the Mini 9 would have ranked more highly if it was possible to replace the mediocre 16GB of solid state storage and its four-cell battery.
When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

Now. £269.
Should I buy it?

The Mini 9 is great for go-anywhere Internet access. There are better netbooks available if 3G access isn’t a priority, however. Read more in our full Dell Inspiron Mini 9 review.

Eee PC 901

In at number 7 is the 901: the Eee PC 700 on steroids. It’s Asus’ attempt to iron out all the problems associated with the 700, and — in light of stiff competition — keep the Eee PC brand at the top of the netbook food chain.

The good

The 901 ditches the geriatric 900MHz Intel Pentium M in the 700 in favour of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM. That’s good news, since the Atom CPU is both faster and more power-efficient than its predecessor. In our tests, the 901 lasted a whopping 4.5 hours on its six-cell battery — over an hour longer than most of its rivals.

The bad

Most of the 901′s other specs are identical to the 900. It still uses an 8.9-inch screen, which some users — although probably not that many — will find a strain on the eyes. The keyboard’s also rather small, so unless you have tiny fingers, it’s not the sort of machine you’ll want to type long documents on.

When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

Now. £275.

Should I buy it?

If you want something relatively cheap with long battery life, and you don’t intend to write lengthy word-processing documents, the Eee PC 901 is a winner.

HP Mini 1000

We could barely stifle a yawn when we first heard about the Mini 1000. That’s because its predecessor, the 2133 Mini-Note, failed spectacularly to impress us. HP, however, seems to have learned from its mistakes and its latest effort is right up there with the best.

The good

The Mini 1000 has lost none of the aesthetic appeal of its predecessor. The chassis is now plastic instead of metal, but we love the pretty patterns on the lid and the fact it now weighs 1.1kg, not 1.3kg like its overweight grandfather. More significantly, HP’s ditched the super-slow VIA C7-M CPU found in the 2133 Mini-Note and hopped on to the Intel Atom N270 bandwagon, so the Mini 1000 is genuinely quick.

The bad

There are a number of things we don’t like about the Mini 1000. Why, for instance, has HP gotten rid of the video output port so we can’t connect it to an external monitor? Why has it turned one of the machine’s three USB ports into a proprietary socket that only supports HP’s elongated USB key, the Mini Mobile Drive? Why does it not have separate headphone and mic ports? Why is it nearly £400?

When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

January 2009. £399.

Should I buy it?

We’ll have to wait and see. Provided the Mini 1000 has a long enough battery life and you know for certain you’ll never need to connect it to an external monitor or projector, then sure. Otherwise, choose something else. 

Samsung NC10

Samsung once said there wasn’t any money in netbooks, and that the market as a whole was potentially damaging to its laptop business. Within a month of that statement, however, it unveiled the NC10 — an attempt to make extra cash and prop up its laptop business. Who’d have thought it? Well, us, actually.

The good

Samsung hasn’t tried to do anything too clever with the NC10. It uses the same base specification as pretty much every 10-inch netbook (1.6GHz Atom, 1GB RAM), but it does have a large 160GB hard drive and integrated HSDPA modem for go-anywhere Internet access. It should also have one of the best keyboards on the market, since its layout is almost spot-on and the keys are 93 per cent the size of their full-size counterparts. The dirtier members of society should also be pleased the keyboard sports ‘Silver Nano’ antibacterial technology to minimise the chances of contamination from dirty, er, hands. An 8-hour battery life is promised.

The bad

The NC10′s mouse trackpad is pretty small. Worse still, it has a strip on the right side dedicated to vertical scrolling, which leaves you even less space for ordinary cursor movements. Word on the street is that it’ll support multi-touch gesture inputs, but whether they’ll be a help or a hindrance remains to be seen.

When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

November 2009. £299.

Should I buy it?

We can’t see any reason why not. It’s affordable, the keyboard looks as if it could be one of the best in its class, and it packs integrated 3G. There really isn’t an awful lot more we could ask for.

Acer Aspire One

Acer makes a splash at number 4 in our countdown with the Aspire One, a machine that has the potential to become the Neo of the netbook world. Neo? The One? Never mind. Anyway, Acer isn’t content with simply making up the numbers — the One’s aggressive £199 price point, TV advertising campaign and massive list of features shows it really means business.

The good

The One has most checkboxes ticked. It has a nippy 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, up to 1.5GB of RAM, a non-glossy 8.9-inch WSVGA screen you can use even outdoors, a great keyboard, plus an optional HDSPA/3G module for go-anywhere Internet access. Storage starts at 8GB — thanks to a solid-state drive — but can be upgraded to an 80GB unit if you need more space.

The bad

This could easily have been the perfect 8.9-inch netbook, but Acer went ahead and fitted a rubbish mouse system, where the selector buttons live on either side of the trackpad instead of below it. You’ll get used to it, but only after you’ve torn all your hair out. It’s also worth noting the standard battery pack is a 2200mAh unit, which only gives 3 hours of life.

When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

Now. From £199.

Should I buy it?

Yes. It’s only £199, but if you do, you should splash out on a six-cell battery to go with it. 

Eee PC 1000

When the Eee PC 1000 was first unveiled, its relatively large size and weight led many to question whether it was a netbook at all. Not us, though. It has ‘Eee PC’ in the title, and that’s all we need to know.

The good

The 1000 series’ girth allows it to have a 10.2-inch screen, running at 1,024×600 pixels. Its keyboard (the bane of the Eee PC 700 and 900) is much larger than before — 92 per cent the size of a full laptop keyboard. Inside, it benefits from a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and up to 2GB of RAM — making it among the most powerful in its category.

As you may have guessed, it comes in two versions: the Linux edition gets a 40GB solid-state drive, and the Windows XP model — dubbed the Eee PC 1000H — gets an 80GB mechanical drive. Interestingly, users will also get up to 20GB of Web-based storage included. High-definition audio, 802.11n Wi-Fi and a battery life of 3 hours 56 minutes also make it well worth looking at.

The bad

The 1000 series is obviously larger and slightly less portable than the 900 and 700 series. It weighs a not-insubstantial 1.33kg, so if your manbag is rather bijou, you may want to consider one of its smaller brethren. Also, when will Asus pull its corporate finger out and supply these things with integrated 3G? MSI, Dell and Acer have done it. Sort it out, Asus.

When’s it out, and what’ll it cost?

Now. £322.

Should I buy it?

The Eee PC 1000 series is awesome. Many have argued it’s strayed too far from the Eee’s core principles of being small and cheap, but if you subscribe to that belief, you’re probably going blind and suffering the early symptoms of arthritis from typing on a small, cramped keyboard and looking at a tiny screen. Give us 10 inches, or give us death! 

MSI Wind U120

We’ve already fallen in love with the MSI Wind U110, so it stands to reason that we’d go banoodles for its successor, the U120. It’s not out yet, but we can pretty much guarantee that come January 2009 you’ll be buying one.

The good

Say goodbye to unsightly USB dongles; the U120 will sport its own integrated broadband adaptor. That, friends, means you can surf anywhere you damn-well please, any time you damn-well like. The Wind U120 is set to have a slightly more sophisticated look than the U110, but will probably feature the same 10.2-inch display, Windows XP, a 1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom CPU and hard drives up to 160GB in size. Add all that to battery life of 3 hours 39 minute and you’ve got a real winner. Booyah!

The bad

We’ve yet to find anything wrong with the Wind U120. Sure, pedants might moan about the relatively small mouse trackpad, and the fact the 160GB hard drive might get damaged if you drop the machine, but you’re not a pedant, are you? Good.

When’s it out and what’ll it cost?

January 2009. £TBC.

Should I buy it?

Buy one. Sell a kidney if you have to. Hell, sell both and buy two. It would have been all too easy for MSI to deliver a cheap, nasty Eee knockoff, but the Wind really is growing into something special.

Eee PC S101

We thought the S101 was going to be a flop when we first heard about it. Not only was it expensive, it was aimed at suit-wearing business types and people who know what a cravat is. After taking a closer look at it, however, we’ve decided it is — hands down — the best netbook on the planet. Probably.

The good

The S101 is the most attractive netbook on the market, without a doubt. Brown isn’t the sexiest colour in the world, but Asus has chosen just the right shade and the right level of glossiness — the S101 rivals a Snickers bar for lickability. The Swarovski crystals on either edge of the hinge might seem misguided on paper, but again, the implementation is absolutely spot-on. The whole thing is thinner and lighter than most netbooks, yet remains supremely usable.

The bad

The S101 has the misfortune of launching at a time when the most common spoken words are ‘credit’ and ‘crunch’. Also, it doesn’t have integrated HSDPA, but that’s something you can learn to live with. Its 3 hour 23 minute battery life isn’t spectacular either, but it’s long enough to watch a couple of full-length movies — and that’s good enough for us.

When’s it out and what’ll it cost?

Out now, £449

Should I buy it?

If you’ve got the cash, absolutely. The S101 is gorgeous, easy to use, lightweight and will make you the envy of your friends.