Any powerful netbooks?

Monotype

Budget: Undecided. Less than mini laptop pricing, but more than standard netbook.

Intended use: I'm looking something with a bit more oomph than the mainstream atom.

Mobility: Netbook size. Smaller the better. Less than 12''.

Warranty: Not really important.

What Operating System do you use? Anything is fine.

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Here's the situation: I'm going to the US this week and was hoping to pick up a reasonable netbook. A lot of the netbooks seemed underpowered (they're not really for anything more than browsing), but I was wondering if there was anything else on offer. I see pineview is out now with the N450 atom, which looks a bit better with 64-bit etc., so I'll go for one of these if nothing else is around.
All the AMD and ion solutions seem to be in sizes larger than 12'', but is there any I missed?

Voodu Child

There are plenty of 11.6" laptops with more power than a netbook. They wouldn't be called netbooks though, that is pretty much reserved for the very low-power Atom based machines.

They'd be called ultraportables or similar. They pretty much take off where netbooks finish, often with single and dual core CULV processors, better graphics, etc. They'd still be underpowered compared to a good mid-range laptop, but to be honest, there's only so much power you can fit into a small chassis.

There's too many to list, but most manufacturers have models. Use 11.6" as a search term on amazon or google.co.uk shopping and you'll find loads of models. Acer Aspire/Timeline, Dell 11z, HP DM-1, Samsung Xsomething..loads of 'em

forbairt

I like the looks of this puppy ..

http://gizmodo.com/5442711/dell-alienware-m11x-is-their-first-ultraportable-gaming-netbook

but haven't checked the price on it .. probably a bit ridiculous

Alanstrainor

What is the intended use? The samsung N510 is quite nice, it's got an atom though...but is helped by the Nvidia Ion graphics chip. It's probably not what you need, but we have no idea what apps you'll be running so it's hard to suggest something.

pontovic

I have the Acer Aspire 1810tz and I love it and would highly recommend it. Good for everything except playing most modern games so if gaming is what you are after, you can't go far wrong with the upcoming Asus 1201n.

The 1810tz ticks all the right boxes for me, including:

-- Good battery life
-- Not too clunky to carry around and only slightly larger than a netbook
-- Really good screen resolution so not restricted like most netbooks
-- HDMI port to hook it up to TVs
-- Ability to play high def content
-- Can play some slightly older games, like half life 2
-- Good size keyboard that's easy to type on
-- decent trackpad
-- windows 7 home premium (as opposed to starter)
-- plenty of RAM
-- dual core processor is well able for my development work
-- has received excellent reviews

Good luck with the search!

Monotype

Thanks for all the replies.

I saw the alienware one there alright. Think people were saying it would be about $799, which wouldn't be outrageous especially given alienware brand tax. It probably won't be released within the next two weeks, so that puts it out of the running for me.

pontovic wrote: »

I have the Acer Aspire 1810tz and I love it and would highly recommend it.

Yeah, I saw the 1810tz and thought it looked really nice, especially well... really everything that you listed. I don't see it for sale much in the US shops for some reason.

I basically just want something lighter and smaller than my current laptop. Which is reasonably small and light to start with, as it's an m1330 (13'' screen), but it's still too much of an inconvenience to take around.

I'm not really looking for something to run Crysis 2 or doing video conversions, I just want to maximise my flexibility to run 'anything' I want to put on it. But the atom and the GMA 950 or whatever's going with it now seems to be a bit incapable of much - and all the smaller ones all seem to have the exact same specs. There's some nice variability in the 11.6'', I have to say after looking through (thanks for the search tips). I'm probably asking for too much here as was said, there's only so much power that can be crammed into something. I think I'll try to weigh up the odds of the more powerful 11.6''s vs the lighter netbooks.

pontovic

Monotype wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

I saw the alienware one there alright. Think people were saying it would be about $799, which wouldn't be outrageous especially given alienware brand tax. It probably won't be released within the next two weeks, so that puts it out of the running for me.



Yeah, I saw the 1810tz and thought it looked really nice, especially well... really everything that you listed. I don't see it for sale much in the US shops for some reason.

I basically just want something lighter and smaller than my current laptop. Which is reasonably small and light to start with, as it's an m1330 (13'' screen), but it's still too much of an inconvenience to take around.

I'm not really looking for something to run Crysis 2 or doing video conversions, I just want to maximise my flexibility to run 'anything' I want to put on it. But the atom and the GMA 950 or whatever's going with it now seems to be a bit incapable of much - and all the smaller ones all seem to have the exact same specs. There's some nice variability in the 11.6'', I have to say after looking through (thanks for the search tips). I'm probably asking for too much here as was said, there's only so much power that can be crammed into something. I think I'll try to weigh up the odds of the more powerful 11.6''s vs the lighter netbooks.

In the US I think it's called the Acer Aspire 1410.

Monotype

pontovic wrote: »

In the US I think it's called the Acer Aspire 1410.

Aaaah! Thanks. I had seen the 1410 and was thinking that it looked pretty good design as well, but the particular variation I was looking at had a single core.

pietromas

The EEE PC 1201N has just gone on sale in the US for $400. Seriously considering ebaying one for myself. All reviews have been good the main caveat seeming to be the reduced battery life (4 hours of wireless web surfing) due to the (unique?) presence of the graphics card.

You cant go too far wrong with $400 though!