In straight words, here’s my thoughts on the netbooks available at the moment. I’m not in the market for one but here’s what I’d consider if I was. Remember, these are personal opinions! Bluetooth, Windows XP, best-in-class size, weight and battery life would be at the top of my list. I also want something that looks nice, not just functional.

• Eee PC 701. Screen res too small. Doesn’t look good enough. Feels outdated now!
• Eee PC 900. Wouldn’t choose any of the versions with split flash. 16G version is a possibility. No Bluetooth would cause me problems. Slow SSD is a no-no.
• Eee PC 901. Battery life figures impress me. I like the look. Not an option for me if it has the split, slow SSD like the 900. Will wait for JKK opinion on upgrade (3G) possibilities. Price could be steep.
• Eee PC 1000. too big. Too heavy.
• MSI Wind. Too big. Too heavy. Sub 1KG and tight case around an 8.9″ 1024×600 screen is where it’s at.
• Acer Aspire One. Stylish. Good size, weight. 6-cell good. Where’s the Bluetoooth?
• HP Mininote. Stylish but too big and heavy. VIA C7 has an ‘old technology’ label in my head that I can’t get rid of.
• ECS G10L. Unknown quantity due to lack of info.
• Dell E. Reduced keyboard but stylish. Good brand. With Bluetooth could be at the top of my list. No confirmed details means its an unknown quantity
• Gigabyte M912. Interesting option due to ExpressCard/34 and touch. Pricing unknown. [*update below]

Top Choices today:

• ASUS Eee PC 901. Black. 12G XP. 6-cell. $599
• Acer Aspire. A150, 80GB XP. 6-cell + Mini BT dongle. Around $550 (est.)

Dell E, ECS G10L and Gigabyte M912 could be in the list but aren’t available to order right now. This could all change in a few hours as I’m waiting for the first Euro reseller pricing on the M912!

Update: M912 Pricing is now in and it takes the device into my top netbooks list.

One of the stories appearing last week that deserves a little bit of attention  is the news via Engadget (unknown source) that the Dell E will come in both 8.9 and 12" configurations. The 8.9" device is marked up as as a Mobile Internet Device due to it fitting into  Dell’s 30-minute Web experience pigeonhole.

We love multiple definitions of the same term here. It really helps the customers…not!

It will be Atom Diamondville based, come with a fairly standard-set of netbook features (multiple SSD options, colors, Linux and XP options, BT on high-end model) but will have two interesting features. Firstly, Dell will aim to make a V1.5 with 3G or Wimax for some markets. Secondly, they will build it around a 35wh battery which is nearly 50% more than the one you’ll find on a Wind and could return over 4 hours. A real ASUS EeePC 901 competitor in terms of battery life. Target weight is 1KG with dimensions around the 230x170x30mm mark. About the same size as the Eee PC 901. Maybe a tad thinner.

Target launch date is August at a starting price of $299 with the V1.5 models coming along in Oct. Penciled in for Q2 2009 is V2.0 but there’s no information about that yet.

No doubt there’s a heavy element of marketing included in this product so expect to see it advertised everywhere in the run up to Christmas!

Source: Engadget.

More details and links for the Dell E here.

Two of the hottest upcoming netbooks have been taken apart and had their insides revealed. If you are the kind of person who likes to mod your computers, be sure to check these out so you know what you have to work with.

The MSI Wind (portal page), which was taken apart over at bit-tech.net, has no external access slot to upgrade RAM. In order to upgrade your RAM, you’ll need to open the Wind up, while normally this would void your warranty, it appears as though MSI understands that users want to upgrade their RAM and request the following:

“If a customer wants to upgrade the memory in their Wind that they register it with the MSI Notebook support team and MSI will send them a special warranty sticker to place back on their Wind”

It is good to know that MSI is paying attention to the details; I’m sure this will please some future Wind owners. Bit-tech says that contrary to the Eee PCs, there is very little room for modding due to an intricately designed interior.

The Aspire One (portal page) had its dis-assembly shown over at itechnews.net. The site didn’t really provide any commentary on the cracked open unit so garner what you will from the images.

[via Engadget]

Yes the ridiculous acronym of ULCPC (Ultra Low Cost PC) which mostly means netbook, was a term defined by Microsoft not too long ago. They said that devices which qualified as ULCPCs would be able to get discounts on XP installations, making OEMs more likely to make their hardware fit Microsoft’s ULCPC criteria so that they could receive the XP discount. One theory explaining the XP discount move and associated ULCPC definition is to keep a Windows OS on emerging netbooks, and of course prevent Linux environments from ruling the space. The hardware limitations are possibly meant to make sure that netbooks don’t encroach on Vista’s regular home computing space. Otherwise you would have OEMs offering XP as an install option on new desktop purchases and other hardware while MS is trying to convert everything to XP.

From InfoWorld on XP pricing: “The documents show that for developed markets, Microsoft charges $32 to install XP Home Edition on standard netbooks, and $47 for netbooks with the larger screens. PC makers who meet certain requirements in Microsoft’s Market Development Agreement can get a discount of as much as $10 on those prices, the documents show.”

Many people however, myself included, were a bit upset with Microsoft for making a pretty stupid definition of the ULPCP. Microsoft said that units over 10.2″ screen size, 80GB HDD, and those with touchscreens could not qualify as a ULCPC and thus would not receive the XP discount. Maybe this is why nearly every netbook has an 8.9″-10″ screen and doesn’t have touch input?

Whatever the case, it looks like Microsoft is easing up the criteria it laid down previously. Now MS is saying that a ULCPC can include a screen up to 14.1″, and it can be touchscreen. Additionally, the 80GB HDD cap has been raised to 160GB. This is nice but there are still more restrictive limitations in place such as the CPU which MS says can only have one core and run at no higher than 1GHz, or how about the 1GB of RAM cap? If MS didn’t have some sort of super strategy behind all of this I think that defining something as a ULCPC just by its price would work fine and would not be in the way of low cost computers becoming more main stream. I wonder what MS would think about a computer running a Core Solo CPU, which is actually a Core Duo with only one functioning core…

[InfoWorld via GBM]

A few days ago I highlighted July 3rd as an important one on the netbook calendar. Aldi Süd, an important supermarket chain will have the Alkoya Mini in stock as part of one of their Thursday offers.

MSI-Wind.de now reports that not only Aldi Süd will be carrying the product. Aldi Nord has 2000 shops and will also be offering the device. If that wasn’t enough, Aldi’s Austrian chain, Hofer, will also be carrying the device.

I’m starting to wonder just how many devices are going to be available in each shop. An average of 10, which would be around 40000 units, is probably not going to be enough but even with 10 per shop it seems like quite the production-run challenge. My advise to anyone in Germany is that you’ll need to be among the first through the Aldi door to stand a chance of picking one up. I’ll be in SchwarzeWald on July 3rd and am planning to be in the Freudenstadt (Peace-town!) Aldi just to see what’s going on. I’ll probably pick one up if I see one.

The Akoya advertising is now up on the Aldi Süd website. Image from ComputerBild who have a review of the Akoya Mini

StreamMyGame is a fairly new service enables high end gaming on low end hardware by using a host computer to run the game then playing it remotely from another computer. The service, which offers a free and paid version, has been demonstrated as working well on the Eee PC among other netbooks and UMPCs. Today a news post on the StreamMyGame website says that a new version of their software has been released that targets UMPCs and netbooks, and claims compatibility with over 100 devices. Additionally they mention that similar performance should be seen on upcoming MID devices. The software is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, and even Linux.

“The Linux player has been requested by our Eee PC members and has been optimised to run on both the original and new ranges of the Eee PC. The Window’s player has also been optimised.” — Richard Faria, StreamMyGame’s CEO.

The video below shows Crysis and Quake 4 being played on an Eee 701. Crysis is an extremely graphically and CPU intensive game which requires a beefy gaming rig to run at a good framerate. Crysis runs at a respectable framerate on the 701 to say the least. Of course performance is mostly reliant on the host computer, but this demonstrates the ability of the software quite nicely.

The video is rather impressive, but I can’t seem to think of a situation where this would really be practical. I don’t know many people who have a $2k+ custom gaming rig who would prefer to play the game remotely on an 800×480 Eee 701 screen.

I suppose true remote play (over the internet, not through your home network) would make it possible to do some mobile gaming while you are on the road, but I don’t think it is a real replacement for fast paced FPS (first person shooter) games. You could make the argument that it would be convenient to be able to play World of Warcraft while away from home, or maybe a slower paced RTS (real time strategy game) like Starcraft would work well. Surely a touch type-able keyboard and USB mouse would be required for a good gaming experience with most games.

What might be useful for some (though I’m not sure if it is cross platform) would be the ability to play Windows games on your Linux based netbook or UMPC. Whatever the situation you may need to remotely play your high end games, StreamMyGame seems to have a solid platform set up to help you do just that.

I gave this a try about a week ago using my Dell desktop as a host (not a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination), and my Sony UX180 ultra mobile PC as the client. Setup was pretty confusing, and in the end I couldn’t get Day of Defeat: Source to play on my UX180, but I’ll give it another shot, maybe with a non-Steam game, and try to get some usage experience to share. Give this a shot on your own device and let us know how well it works.

Expansys have just put up their Aspire One prices in the UK (and for delivery EU-wide) with the Linux version plus 512MB and an 80GB HDD going for just 244 pounds. There’s no mention of the SSD version yet but with the 80GB version going for that price, only those looking for ruggedness or the best possible battery life will be waiting. Prices are also available for XP and 1GB versions here. (affiliate link)

As for delivery dates, neither Acer or Expansys can fill me in on that one yet but I’m working hard on it, if only for my own order! (I’m probably going for the 1GB, 8GB Linux version when it turns up.)

Thanks Phil, Expansys.

A number of Acer Aspire One articles came to my attention last week that I have only just got round to reviewing. The first article from PC Professionale includes a video showing the internals of the Aspire One. There are a couple of important points to note (that come from a translation by Blogeee.net) which are the SIM card reader and easy-to-access 3G slot module slot. The 3G module slot definitely raises the interest level for me.

The second article is a fairly detailed in-depth review from Laptop Magazine who appear to be impressed.

• Keyboard big enough for comfortable touch typing. Bigger keyboard than Eee PC 900.
• Good low-light web cam. A web-cam that doesn’t work in low-light situations is quite often, useless for most people so it’s good to see this.
• Two SD cards slots. One adds memory to system storage in a seamless way. A great idea.
• ‘One of the thinnest and lightest we’ve tested.’ For Ultra-Mobile folks, this is important.

The Aspire One is not only the favorite on the Portal here but it’s fast becoming my favorite netbook too. The design looks good, size and weight are more ultramobile than most netbooks and the Linpus Lite build is getting very good feedback.

Finally, if you’re thinking about the Aspire One and want a final thumbs-up, check out this fairly simple overview video from ShinyMedia. Its all thumbs up from them!

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