Want to buy a Netbook by November please help !

[alazar14]

Hey guys, last year I was thinking about buying a Netbook around the same time, end of summer early fall. I decided not to and to stay with my inspiron 1520 laptop for another year. The Main reason that influenced my choice to wait was the fact a new processor was going to come out for Netbooks at the time, as well as Windows 7.

Now I am reading that yet ANOTHER more faster Dual core processor is on its way for Netbooks by the mid fall of this year.

I was about to buy a Samsung N210 when I read that information online and again...I am waiting now.

This time I hope that they don't announce something ELSE to come in a few months after November-December that makes me wait yet again...

I'm the kinda person who likes to buy his machines top of the line when I do buy them, but then I don't like to upgrade until 4-5 years later.

My ispiron 1520 is currently my main computer and it does everything I want it to do wonderfully. I bought it at the beginning / mid of 2007 around April... and had it maxed out in every setting possible which ended up costing me a solid $2000 with 3 year warranty.

To this day almost now over 3 and a half years later the machine plays games perfectly fine on high-medium settings, and has more than enough power to run all my applications with ease...the main problem is its super heavy weight!

So this is why I am considering buying a Netbook later this year.

I need a machine that can do some basic computer functions and that I can carry round everywhere I go.

Things I will be doing are

#1 Microsoft word, power point, excel, and office.
#2 Internet browsing
#3 Movie watching
#4 Note taking in class
#5 carrying it around everywhere

and other basic tasks like that.

I do need a netbook that is as light as possible with about as much power as It can have for the price.

My budget at the time will be roughly

$400

Hopefully The new processor makes netbooks a bit faster than they are now, and maybe able to run a bit more complicated applications and programs than they do now. My hope is to have an ultra light long battery life portable computing solution for all my basic tasks outside gaming and editing video / photos.

I hope the new processor makes it possible.


I would like to ask you guys what do you think of the new dual core processors that netbooks will have?


Will they make a netbook much more powerful than it is now?

Will 2GB of ram still be required to run programs and applications smoothly on most netbooks once this new processor is out?

Will the netbooks finally run DDR3?

Also please let me know via comment if you have any further information you believe will be useful to me in making my decision.

Thanks

[ThisIsNot]

Right now, I only have time to discuss the new dual-core Atom processor coming out later this year. Atom processors never really increase performance when compared to older ones. The newer ones essentially give the same performance while requiring less power, that is the key there. So an Atom N450 is really no better than an Atom N270 or N280 in terms of actual raw performance but it consumes less power to achieve that same performance level.

The same will hold true for the new Atom. Actually, the new Atom isn't really that new. Intel just changed the architecture of their older Atom 330 processor so that the graphics controller, integrated graphics, and processor are all on one "chip." They are also using smaller components. Again, no performance increase over current hardware but it is able to consume less power while still reaching that same level of performance. Microsoft and IBM did the same thing for the newly redesigned Xbox 360 S.

Netbook processors are not going to be something where an extra 100-200MHz clock speed are going to make a difference in overall performance. The Atom line is really only designed to perform basic tasks while consuming less power than a standard light bulb. They definitely aren't performance centered. The AMD Neo line is different in that it actually performs rather well even when compared with desktop processors. However, it also consumes a lot more power.

You should mention other factors that are important to you such as screen size, hard drive size, amount of included RAM, ability to playback HD videos, pre-installed operating system (most netbooks come with junk Windows 7 Starter), playing back music (iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.), and anything else that isn't a "basic task." We get asked this question quite a bit but people never really state what they want. Instead they will simply ask "I want a netbook for basic tasks" and then never come back because we ask them to further clarify what they want.

[alazar14]

Well I'm back and am here to clarify what I want.

#1 Microsoft word, power point, excel, and office.
#2 Internet browsing
#3 Movie watching
#4 Note taking in class
#5 carrying it around everywhere

Will I watch some movies on it? Yes

Will I want to be able to watch youtube HD videos on it...yes

HDD space 160GB-250GB or more.

Price range no more than $400

Ram 2GB of DDR2 or DDR3 Ram...If the netbook doesn't come with 2GB of ram standard then I would include the price of an extra GB of ram in the overall netbook cost, meaning netbook can't cost more than around $360.

Battery life is extremely important to me but some decent performance is as well.

OS I really don't care which ever comes pre installed with it im going to download a version of windows xp home edition and get rid of whatever it comes with anyways. Or maybe ill get Windows 7 32bit home premium.

Obviously I want it to be able to play music...a good speaker quality is always a bonus.

Hope I get some more feedback soon.


Lastly, So your saying that the new dual core atom processors actually won't have any more power or performance than the current ones?

In a sense is netbook technology failing to evolve much in comparison to desktop and laptop technology then or is the only priority currently longer battery life...I mean we already have netbooks that can squeeze out as much as 10hours of battery life in some cases I would assume they would begin to focus more on making that same battery life with a bit more performance instead of extending it to 12-15 hours lol.

[ThisIsNot]

Netbook processors have kind of flat lined in terms of increasing performance. The new dual-core Atom is a better performer than the Atom N450 simply because the older one (N450) is still a single-core chip. However, the new Atom does not perform better than the older Atom 330. The 330 is another dual-ore Atom chip. Essentially netbook processors have increased in efficiency. According to Intel, the new dual-core Atom uses less power than the previous single-core versions. Netbooks will continue to push battery life boundaries. One thing to remember is that the manufacturer estimated battery life is NEVER what you will actually get with a netbook.

Manufacturers essentially turn wi-fi and bluetooth off, put the screen brightness below 50%, and then playback a standard definition/low bitrate video over and over again until the netbook turns off. That is not representative of how netbooks are used. A good rule of thumb is to subtract 1-2 hours off of a manufacturer's estimated battery life, that will give you an idea of what the real performance will be like.

There currently aren't any netbooks out now running the dual-core Atom but there are plenty with AMDj's dual-core Neo option. They consume more power but run circles around any Atom chip.

I also wouldn't get hung up on DDR2 or DDR3 RAM. We are talking about netbooks here where RAM clock speed doesn't matter all that much. It would be completely different if we were talking about gaming systems, servers, media powerhouses, etc. Instead, we are talking about units that barely scrape by to begin with. The speed of the RAM is something that won't affect operation, the amount of RAM will.

What type of battery life were you looking at? You have said that it is important but just what is the minimum operating time that you need? Again, what is the screen size you were looking at?

On a side note: you won't be able to get a new Atom dual-core powered netbook for less than $400. The starting prices will likely be up at around $450-$500 simply because the netbooks will feature "new" technology. Prices will come down but that won't be for a little while.

The first thing I recommend you do is visit your local electronics retailer to see which netbooks catch your eye. Play around with them for a little bit to get a feel for their keyboards, touch pads, and displays. Take note of the models numbers and then look up the specs.

Your everyday netbook is not going to be able to handle YouTube HD ideos so keep that in mind. Anything with Intel HD, Nvidia ION, ATI HD, or a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator can playback HD videos just fine though. So keep that in mind when you are looking.

Then you can come back here for any guidance, user opinions, etc. That way you have a greater hand in helping yourself instead of just relying on people saying "oh yeah, that one is good."

[alazar14]

Well for price I guess I can go as high as $450 If it does everything I want it to.

Battery life Id like to get about 6-8 hours of battery life. (Real battery life).

10.1 inch screen.

[ThisIsNot]

Well, you are going to be extremely limited right now and for a while with your specs. 10.1" netbooks feature basic hardware but they cannot playback HD videos (this includes YouTube HD), most HD capable netbooks have a 11.6" screen, most HD capable netbooks have real world battery life numbers at around 4 hours, and dual-core Atom equipped netbooks coming out this Fall will likely be up at around $499 and higher. As with others, they will also likely be at around 11.6" and not 10".

So you can either settle for a 11.6" screen and 4 hours of real world battery life now, pay a high premium this Fall, or wait another year until the next big hardware comes out. If you are going to wait a year then you might as well wait another year until even better hardware comes out. But wait, you have already put off a netbook purchase by 2 years, what is another year? Get my point?

No matter what you do, you are going to have to sacrifice something. Personally, I wouldn't get a 10" netbook in this day and age. 10" models are slowly being phased out in favor of 11.6" ones. The 11.6" models really don't take up that much more space than a 10" netbook and they weigh about 0.3-0.4 lbs more than a 10" netbook. Lastly, 11.6" netbooks feature a resolution of 1366X768 while most 10" netbooks are at 1024X600. HD video playback will look much better on a display that is actually high def in resolution.

Again, you are going to have to decide on what areas to compromise or if you want to end up waiting 2350897398457 years. As I previously stated, about the best thing you can do is go play with netbooks down at your local electronics store. It doesn't matter if you aren't going to buy one from them, at least you can see the models in person. Just know that most of the models shown off at electronics stores cannot playback HD video and are essentially bare basic netbooks.

[alazar14]

Yep I think Ill just wait a 3rd year then.

[ThisIsNot]

You will wind up waiting for forever as the 10.1" realm isn't going to feature many upgrades and will likely be phased out over the next few years in favor of 11.6" and 12" models.

Part of this has to do with the eventual success of tablet devices. Back in the day, netbooks were made at varying screen sizes from 8.9", 10.1", 11.6", and 12". Anything that was 13" or larger required the purchase of a notebook. The 8.9" models were phased out as 10.1" ones were drastically outselling them. Now there will be other devices in the 10" range to compete: tablets. These tablets run a portable operating system (such as iOS or Android), can go all day without needing to be recharged, and can perform the very basics of internet browsing (with some advanced features through downloaded apps).

The 10" range of portable computer is about to become very saturated and that is saying a lot already given the bunch of 10" netbooks already out now. Given the innovation seen in 11.6" models and future processor releases for 11.6" netbooks, you likely won't see much for the 10" screen size anymore and I wouldn't be surprised if it is completely abandoned by netbook manufacturers and replaced with Android tablets. So now Acer will offer an Android tablet with a 10" screen that will essentially replace their 10" netbooks, Asus has one in the works, HP is making one, the 7" Samsung is on the way, and the extremely successful iPad has been out for 6 months now.