I’m ready to consider an 11.6 or even a 12 inch screen now and its based on my requirement to run some more complex software on a device that has a higher resolution. The problem is, while I can bear a bigger footprint, I can’t bear much more weight.
My Gigabyte Touchnote with its Runcore SSD and 2GB upgrade has served me well for 2 years but with the extended battery I’m down to 4hrs so it really is time to think about something new. The Touchnote weighs 1.45KG in its current form and there’s no way I want to go above that; In fact I’m looking to get as close as I can to 1KG. I’m also looking to stay with ‘just enough’ CPU which keeps the price down and allows me to stay in the low-power, long-battery life bracket. For me though, ‘just enough’ means dual-core Atom N550/N570 or AMD C-50 and if I consider my video editing project, it could be higher than that.
As I look at devices like the ASUS EeePC 1015PN and the Samsung NC210 I see Windows Starter, 1GB and 1024×600 screens but weights below 1.25KG. There’s also the AMD C-50-based Toshiba NB550D and the EeePC 1015b which at 1.3KG offers 2GB and, we hope, Windows options. The Fujitsu Lifebook PH530 is an interesting 1.33KG option with Core i3 and an 11.5 inch screen but in the 12 inch range you really are looking at 1.5KG unless you are prepared to pay serious money.
With my Android tablet PC taking over some of my netbook work now (many of my shorter posts last week were done with the Galaxy Tab) I’m not worried about having 8hr battery life. A solid 4-5hrs is fine so perhaps that means I can go up with the CPU and down with the battery life.
I get the feeling that there are a lot of you out there that are in the same position. You’ve had your netbook for a year or two and you’re looking for another mobile productivity solution. So what’s your preference? Do you want to keep it small or light? Do you want to break out of the Intel netbook restrictions or are you happy to carry on inside their restrictions? Feel free to comment below and of course, if you have buying tips, lets hear them.
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I like my old panasonic r4 because it’s light and has a thin screen bezel.
The panasonic j9 is much more powerful but its screen bezel is a little bigger. Can be had for about 90000yen in japan + import fees through pricejapan or other importers …
Really? What online store sells the J9 for 90000 yen ($1100) + import fee? I would love to get one if it’s relatively cheap (both conics and dynamism has it for a min of $1500).
J10 currently available for 89660yens : http://kakaku.com/pc/note-pc/ma_65/p1001/s5=10-11/
Then there would be a 5% fee through pricejapan + shipping & possibly custom fees
Priced it. Comes out to be roughly $1300 with shipping. Still a bit expensive.
I’d say have a look at the 11″ MacBook Air, it’s a small premium price to pay, but should fulfill your needs perfectly. Small, light, fast (considering space constraints).
I have some issues with the MBA although I have a lot of respect for the engineering that has gone into it.
Price is one issues but because i’m also considering video editing I see the iMovie import process as a huge barrier for my mobile work. Cost of alternative software seems high too. I’m also having a problem commiting to a new OS and am personally not a fan of Apples ‘there’s only us’ approach to its marketing. It all adds up to a ‘NO’ to me.
first of all comes weight (and price), then battery, and only then everything else
right now i’m using an old dell d420, it’s 1.5kg, but battery is nearly dead. looking for something else, but right now i’m in the same position ;)
the PACKARD BELL Dot_U/S-001FR can still be had for 349E in some shops in France, it’s only 1.328kg with a 6cells battery giving it up to 10 (!) hours of light use (4 hours video streaming) according to this reviewer : http://www.blogeee.net/2011/01/des-photos-du-packard-bell-dot-us-par-tech/
well i went for the hp mini 5103 with win7 home premium, atom 550, high res screen, 2gb mem, fast 320 gb hd and modem. hp provided a 7-10 hrs battery pack with an excellent standby management that integrates well into the machine’s design. weight is about 1.4 kg. the device is very compact.
I’ve also been looking at the new Asus 1215b with AMD Fusion E-350 CPU.
http://www.umpcportal.com/2011/02/asus-1215b-comes-with-amd-e350-apu-video-w7-performance-index/
It should easily outpeform the 1215N in both CPU and GPU tests and, because it can speedstep, might provide some nice standby/idle battery life figures. At 1.3KG it seems like a great compromise. Price should be very competitive.
Also, it’s about time I did some detailed work with Fusion!
I had my eye on the Samsung NF310 it has the dual core cpu Atom D550 and extra 1366×768 resolution. But at this point I really can’t justify to get a new netbook.
I have a 1215n which I use for long trips and the t91 for a day or out of the house. Plus the galaxy Tab and the Ipad 3g 16gb, which specially the last one gets me easily through the day of my internet needs. To be honest I just got the ipad mainly because it would fill my needs of having a device that could carry all my music score pdf files around and that I could read on it ;) but in the end I end up finding it to serve me more than I ever expected. And it was a good second hand deal! :D
As a pro i would choose only Thinkpad products everything else is unacceptable.
I hear you. The Edge 11 looks like a good low-cost option.
Don’t know how much this will weight..
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/07/lenovo-posts-thinkpad-x220-specs-online-includes-ips-display-s/
:D
Eh, I’m going to get a tablet this summer, so if I can use that for long battery life, I really seem size and power in netbooks as a priority. I would want something that I could throw in my backpack (like maybe a 12 inch screen) and would have enough power to do some small 3D gaming (Like the NVIDIA ION platform), watch movies, type reports, and surf firefox and youtube with ease. I was kind of looking at that new 12 inch ASUS with the AMD platform for all this (Cant remember the name)
The 1215b. See the article I just posted on UMPCPortal.
wow Chippy, have you completely forgotten about the HP dm1z? probably the best Fusion laptop out right & with great 6hr+ battery life, not too mention goodlooking too. I’m not sure why you would consider the 1215 & not this.
also, I always see you mentioning the ugly Toshiba, why not go for the Acer 522? same power but with a higher rez screen.
No. Haven’t forgotten about it at all. Its in my list.
I tested the acer. Also one for the list. There will be more I’m sure!
I’m currently using a Motorola Milestone, a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and a Samsung NF310 for my mobile computing needs.
Lacking a service like gazelle.com here in Germany, I keep a HP tm-2 convertible in case I could use pen input during a PowerPoint presentation again – well, my only foreseeable future PowerPoint presentation is a year away from now, so it seems kinda ridiculous. ;)
Due to my needs I have to look for portability (I can only take into our library what fits into my hands, no containers big enough to hide a single book are allowed) and battery life (I have no guarantee I’ll be able to plug my computing device in at all times).
A device like the Sony Vaio P11S1E could replace everything except the smartphone for me, if I’d order an extra battery for it. Everywhere I go I’ve some kind of bag with me. Yes, the single core processor would make it more sluggish compared to the NF310 – but TBH, when I updated from the NC-10 it was rather the higher resolution than the processing speed that made the difference for me.
So given the option I’d switch the Milestone for a newer 4″ Android phone (the Nexus S perhaps) and switch Galaxy Tab, NF310, the HP tm-2, and my mobile WiFi-hotspot for a Sony Vaio P11S1E plus an extra battery (most likly the double sized one). For real computing needs I’d still have my desktop system at home, which is to stay no matter what.
Given current ebay-Germany prices the whole update would cost me €500,-. Added benefit, it would be less devices, i.e. less stuff to carry, less stuff to sync, and last but not least less clutter at home. Oh, and it is still not factored into it, that the NF310 does not deliver my desired battery life without an extra battery available, yet, i.e I’m forced to shut it down while not actually working on it. While it still is only a minor inconvenience, it still is one.
So, if I’d exclude the extra battery pack from my math, and added the savings of not having to upgrade to SSD myself, my costs would be down to €270,-… Oh crap, I’m considering the switches right now. *g*
The 11 inch MBA is by far the best piece of consumer electronics that I have ever laid my hands on. Everything else you consider Chippy feels and is at least two generations old in comparison. This is a true mobile powerhouse. With an emphasis in both words. Yes, Apple’s marketing strategy is sometimes annoying. I agree. Get over it…
For everyday tasks this thing is insanely fast (speed implemented the right way: no excessive heat that kicks in throttling and long battery life). Feels like an iPad in many respects. The OS has become almost completely gesture oriented and the transition will be pushed forward further with Lion. For me this was also the first mac. Took me a few hours to grasp the basics. I am now discovering the true power of OsX via the automator. You can automate all kinds of processes and build your own context specific services throughout the OS. Wonderful stuff!
I agree that the engineering on the mba is amazing. I have a lot of respect for that.
As for getting over what I consider a big-headed, anti-competitive, anti-personal-choice strategy and sometimes offensive, incorrect marketing statements its not that simple. A few years ago I was happy with Apple being a choice in the market but after last weeks ipad circus, I’m not just about to ‘get over it.’
Chippy I don’t feel like defending Job’s presentation style; I share the same feelings with you on this. But for me there is a clear distinction of style versus substance. No matter what his style is, it is not false advertising at least not for me. False advertising is when you promise things you can’t really deliver. On this respect, I hold almost everybody else in the industry responsible for false advertising. I got way more offended by Sony when they promised me a great mobile pc with the P series, only for me to discover some $1300 later that they simply could not deliver. This my friend is entrapment. This is false advertising. And this is standard practice throughout the industry. Throw a short list of specs to blur the picture and let everybody discover the truth later on…
Back to Apple, they are far from perfect. Worst part their arrogance. But they are leading the pack right now when it comes to mobility and convergence of desktop/mobile platforms. You will be in a much better position to offer constructive criticism if you look passed semantics and concentrate on substance. Just my $0.02 of course…
It would be really nice if a blog like umpcportal compared apple and non-apple ( windows, android?) workflows for video editing. Blogging is almost journalism, and so I think it is a pity that too many bloggers take strong positions in being pro/ anti apple, instead of just investigating the devices at hand…
I know Ben does some apple stuff over at carrypad, but those writings seem so unrelated to your writings that it is as if there are two blogs going on on the same site. That is not the same as comparing the products.
So, I really hope that one day you’ll try an apple product for a long deep testing period. I can understand that you don’t like the way Apple talks, but that shouldn’t be a reason for not testing the devices extensively. On the contrary: if apple propaganda needs to be corrected, it is best corrected with tons of detailed journalism, *facts* and not just opinions and statements.
I tried iMovie on my MacBook and found editing videos hard, always had problems with getting the start and endpoints quickly right with a mouse. Really wondering if iMovie works better if you can do it by touch on the iPad. I hope there is a way to get the syncing done with dropbox, because apples file management sucks.
Oh I totally agree. Please don’t misunderstand. I respect that Apples products are a valid choice and although I don’t want to buy an mba myself i would be more than happy to test one as part of my ultra mobile video editing project. I’ve tested the ipad and reported over at Carrypad before now so I hope you don’t think I’m avoiding them on personal grounds. The MBA has always fallen outside the umpc category so there has been little reason to test it in the past.
Once again, I have the utmost respect for Apple solutions. Their engineering is amazing.
There is the Toshiba R630/R705 I mentioned the other week, I just bought one recently. Again I know this is slightly bigger than you are looking at with a screen of 13.3″ but for what it is it really is stupidly light weight. Although I see that in Germany the price has not come down as much as it has the in the UK, about 729euro vs about £550 for the 2.4ghz Core i3, 4gb RAM version I bought.
The magnesium alloy 1.43kg chassis gives you 13.3″ screen, dvd-drive (which can be powered off, most useful that), full core i3/i5 options.
With the software on there, Toshiba has put on a utility which switches the processor down in almost ULV mode by letting the processor drop to around 500mhz up to the normally idling speed of 1.2ghz. Even has a nice button on the chassis to push to turn this on.
Most oddly of all it feels lighter than my friends NC10 (most just be the weight is spread over a larger area). I am quite happy with my purchase so far.
Maybe install a non-Apple OS on the mba ?
… looks like it’s doable : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8ImBAbZ0I&feature=related
Just to re-literate my desire though – it’s to head toward 1kg. Weight is #1for me and I would rather tailor my processes towards something in that category rather than more up to 1.5kg just because it would be easier to edit 720p videos. I’m also quite sure I want to stay in the low cost bracket with sub 600, even sub 500 bracket. Power efficiency is also important (which is why I have respect for the mba solution)
There’s only one choice I can see at the 1kg level (min 10″ screen size) right now and that’s the Samsung N350.
Otherwise its a battle at the 1.2-1.3 kg level with the 6-cell 10″ variants.
Keep the tips and thoughts coming. It’s great to have your input here.
Fair enough, I got my bonus recently so I had a bit more money to spend then I had budgeted for, I was looking at £300 – £350 ish. What I was looking at and had I not bought the R630 then I would almost definitely be getting an AMD E350 based device such as the HP DM1z or Asus 1215b (when they became available).
The E350 should have just about enough CPU grunt over the dual core Atom in all but the most heavily threaded stuff (which could take advantage of Hyperthreading) so it should be worth the slight power consumption trade-off. Also if AMD could sort out the GPU processing stuff to the level Nvidia has that might help the video encoding performance.
I too would have bought a MBA (probably the 13″ version) it really is a nicely engineered device but cost is too much and I too have a dislike of vegetable products.
Was previously thinking of a non-Atom convertible (Fujitsu T580 or Gigabyte T1125), but now likely to get 2 devices, a Galaxy Tab and a AMD Fusion notebook (DM1, X120E, or 1215B).
A quick question – were you previously a umpc user?
Not really; was using a Asus Eee PC 4G together with a Nokia E71.
Eee PC is now relegated to desktop use (battery starts at 60% even after a full charge), and I swapped the E71 for a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro.
Galaxy Tab will be great for my daily train rides to work, plus a backup to the X10 Mini Pro (poor battery life)
Notebook is rather more optional, to be used to show PPT, in situations where full windows apps are needed, or when the full internet experience is needed…
Same here. I’m looking for a more powerful laptop to replace my P1620 and Toshiba T115.
IMO it’s probably better to buy a more expensive but powerful laptop like J9/10 or S10 than to buy a zacate/atom netbook and find out that it doesn’t offer enough power. The J9 is also perfect in every way except the price. It’s small, relatively high res screen, and fast. Also, battery life is very good if you get the large battery.
i wonder if price is not a factor, which is the notebook (non-Atom & non-Fusion) with the longest battery life? 12-inch screen and below, that is.
Probably J9/10. There may be others but they sure don’t come even close in performance.
If you get the highest end J10 it comes with core i7 sandy bridge CPU, which means that its IGP rivals low range dedicated GPUs.
the Panasonic N10/S10 battery life is rated a little bit higher than the J9/J10, see conics.net for example.
and the Panasonic has 2 swapable batteries so you could go on as long as you have spares ;)
oops, meant Panasonic C1
If u go for 12.1″ u can get an hp 2540 with a slice battery.
The Acer Aspire TimelineX series (i3, i5 and i7) all look good to me as for power and weight. Anyone know much about these and would you recommend one?
i cant stress enough, its just despicable when comes to screen size of tablets.
plan and simple, Americans have fucking big fat fingers and hands, therefore it wouldn’t be so comfy if squeezing in on a 6” screen or so.
Albeit, its more popular in Asian markets, evidently smaller screen-devices over there.
another crucial factor, eyesight. cant see shit much if the the screen is so small…
ironically, we can get by just fine on our 3” cellphone screen.
conveniently, screen size is not small enough already, the actual display area is squeezed in another .1′ or so on each side(go figure why).
now, theres another scenario, three are sizes ranging.. 3” to 4.8”.. skipping 5 or 6 inches, and then 7”
but the freaking cow, why skipping 5 or 6 or 6.5 inches?
shouldn’t 5 or 6 inches size be pocket-able or so?
yeah yeah i know the saying, blah blah blah, it’s just mainstream logic-ratio display settings..
but where is commonsense, wouldn’t it be nice to have a not-so-big / not-so-small device in your hand or pocket?
it’s just stupidity all around, no excuses.
case in point, an 8” Sony Vaio P, it’s possible, logic-able to produce such a size device, but not for that price any-who.
but never the less, i know it’s just matter of time, they’ll triggle down to various sizes.
recent rumored, Apple might come out with a 6” pad or so…
by then we can kiss it all we want, sons of bitches.
just a thought apart …. video editing software is a crucial point too. some applications are terribly processing power hungry without great benefits.
other not …. you might have an eye on that too. means a well chosen app could make up more than buying a powerhouse. e.g if video eidting means mainly clipping the stuff virtualdub runs very well on netbooks, even the old ones. if your videos are not to long (as it mainly is the case for internet) even transforming and recoding runs acceptably well. above 720p and with a lot of sound editing in parallel things are quite different. there in any case my experience says you need at least a processor with 4 cores above 2 ghz clock speed and a powerful graphics card. no way else.
the most important thing to me is that it runs a full version of windows