2010 the year of high resolution netbooks?
Since the inception of the 10 inch netbook in 2008 the resolution of 1024 x 600 has been the standard for netbook screens. At this year's CES I saw a few netbooks that could indicate this standard may be changing soon. In fact, I did my best to schedule meetings with all of the netbook makers to glean more info from them than the simple placard next to the netbook on display would offer. So during my meetings with the various marketing reps one thing I always tried to ask was: "When will we see a netbook from you with a 1366 x 768 resolution screen?"
In most cases I never got a firm answer, but some companies hinted that they could be in the works. My gut tells me that right now netbook manufacturers simply want to take advantage of the brand new Intel Atom Pinetrail processors to provide customers improved battery life and a minor performance boost. Then after those models have had several months to run they would consider slowly roll out more expensive netbooks with the higher resolution monitors as the year progresses if the market demands it. Currently the only two options for 1366 x 768 resolution options I found at CES include the HP Mini 210 HD Edition
and the HP Mini 210 is priced at $279.99
and the only difference in specs is the screen resolution. So with that price as a ball park figure I'd like to do a quick poll to see what you think of paying more for high resolution screens:
Loading ...Be sure you add some comments below. Like the last poll I ran here, I will leave my opinion out so as to not sway the results.
Update: I was just notified by Sony PR that their W series netbooks have 1366 x 768 screens. They are available now in a few different colors: Brown $421.25
Tagged: Fujitsu MH380, high resolution netbook, HP Mini 210, Sony VAIO W
Absolutely, it is one of the few things holding back mass adoption in our company as replacements for more than 25% of our more expensive laptops. The other hold up was a larger screen and the minimum size preference seems to be 11″
I looked hard at the Sony W but passed even though it is a very attractive netbook. Don’t think I need the ION or high resolution screens so I’ll be passing on those. I still favor the smaller 9″ and 10″ netbooks. I saw an Asus 900 and an Asus 1000HE on sale at a department store today. I used a 900 for a week last month and thought it was a good small sized netbook.
High resolution and ION will obviously have a niche in the netbook market. The larger 11.x sizes will have a following too. Acer is claiming the price conscious netbook market in Europe. Maybe there will be an up-sell of hi-res in the USA but the lower cost netbook won the December netbook prize.
I’m all for 10-inch sized 1366 x 768 displays. I only say that now after going through several netbooks with these displays, but I was kind of opposed to them when I had no hands on experience, especially after using a Sony Vaio P (that’s a different beast all together though)
I thought it’d wreck havoc on my eyes as text is quite small but you can easily zoom in on web pages or increase fonts in Windows to get around this. Only real disadvantage is less battery life as the screen will guzzle more battery life.
Yah, I would be interested to see battery life tests between an HP Mini 210 and an HP Mini 210 HD just to see how much of an effect it has on it.