Top Netbooks Ranking Updated: February 2010
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 10.5 Hour Battery Life
532 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: The few reviewers at Amazon who gave this netbook low ratings complained about minor problems with the AC power adapter that comes with this ASUS netbook. Specifically, there were some reports of problems recharging the battery. On the other hand, there were many more reviewers who gave this netbook five stars in their review. They pointed out that this is the most expensive of three netbooks in this particular line, but that it was worth the money. The ASUS 1005HA-P is the top of the line with a great overall design, a comfortable keyboard, and great battery life. If you are looking for one of the best netbooks on the market today, this is it.
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Toshiba Mini NB205-N310/BN 10.1-Inch Sable Brown Netbook - 9 Hour Battery Life
209 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: A comfortable keyboard is high on the list of features wanted in a netbook, and the Toshiba Mini delivers in this respect. Well over half of the reviews at Amazon were for five-stars. One of the biggest features mentioned was the great keyboard. For the few that left a one star ratings with their review, one had a problem with the trackpad and another received a non-functioning unit. Overall, most people loved the size of this netbook (small but not too small), and the battery life. Good for web browsing, word processing, email and other tasks, the Toshiba Mini netbook is a netbook that is perfect for many different types of people.
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ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-VU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 8.5 Hour Battery Life
196 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: Awesome and incredible are just two words mentioned by the people who gave this netbook a five star rating at Amazon. Other features liked be reviewers were the ease of use, comfort, size and weight of the netbook. The great battery life was another thing people liked a lot. Those that left low reviews mentioned problems with ASUS customer support, but overall, this netbook was recommended for people who want a secondary computer or need something small and lightweight to travel with. If you want a netbook that has a great battery life and still has enough power to run basic applications and more, this netbook is for you. Purchasing a case was recommended by some positive reviewers.
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ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Blue Netbook - 10.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
134 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: Consumers really seemed to like that this netbook came with Windows 7 Starter and had really good battery life. Most who left a review at Amazon gave it a four or five star rating. A small number of reviewers gave it a low rating saying they received a lemon or were underwhelmed by the netbook, but they were in the minority. It was pointed out that some of the negative reviews claimed they had owned the netbook even before it was released, which made them a little unreliable. When you added that to the number of good things said about the netbook, it's easy to see why so many people loved it.
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Acer AOD250-1515 10.1-Inch White Netbook - Up to 9 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
82 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: Solid construction, good battery life and Windows 7 being included are just a few of the reasons consumers who left a review at Amazon gave this netbook a four or five star rating. People also noted that it was rather zippy. If you travel a lot or just need something small, light, and powerful, this Acer netbook might be the one for you. One person had a problem with customer service, but even they still gave it three stars, which is saying quite a bit. The large, bright screen was yet another highlight on the list of good things about this netbook. Because it is a netbook the keyboard is a little smaller than you might be accustomed to, but most people said this wasn't a problem in the long run.
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Toshiba Mini NB205-N330WH 10.1-Inch Frost White Netbook - 9 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
70 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: If you're wanting a netbook with a long lasting battery, this Toshiba Mini may be the one for you. People at Amazon who left reviews liked that it came with Windows 7 Starter. In fact, most reviews were for four or five stars because people were so pleased with this netbook. It's not a magical device that will do everything perfectly, but if you need something for light Internet browsing, email and other simple tasks, this netbook will fit the bill nicely. One person gave the netbook a one star rating because Amazon changed the price, but there were more people who were fair when rating the product. Overall, it was a highly recommended netbook for various reasons, including the keyboard, battery life, and overall quality.
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Toshiba Mini NB205-N325BL 10.1-Inch Royal Blue Netbook - 9 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
49 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: The long battery life was one of the main reasons people liked this netbook from Toshiba. Nearly all of the reviews at Amazon contained a five star rating. A few people gave it low ratings, saying they had problems with some routers and was underpowered, but they were in the minority. Most were very happy with the performance and thought it was a good deal overall. Many said they had done a lot of comparison shopping before choosing this Toshiba Mini, but said they were pleased with their decision. While the standard 1GB of RAM was said to be adequate, most recommended getting the memory upgrade for better performance.
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ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Black Netbook - 5 Hours of Battery Life
30 Amazon Reviews
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| Spotlight Review from an Amazon Consumer: "Doesn't play Crysis, but it's the best netbook on the market today" As of the date of this review, the ASUS-1201N is the best netbook on the market today. This is my first netbook purchase, and I wanted a machine with the following characteristics; - at least 2 GB of RAM - graphics processor capable of playing 1080P media - decent battery life (willing to sacrifice battery life for performance, since I'm usually close to a wall socket) - Windows 7 Premium (offers improved battery life over Windows 7 Starter) - 11.6" to 12.1" size - 1366 x 768 resolution - At least a 100 GB hard drive (SSD still too pricey and swapping out drives voids warranty) First, a little background information. Thanks to restrictions by Intel and Microsoft, the number of high performance netbooks is quite small. The See more vast majority of netbooks have just 1 GB of ram, and are too small in size (most are in the 9-10" range). However, I settled on 4 possibilities, the ASUS EEE PC 1201N, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, HP Mini 311, and the Samsung N510. I immediately discounted the Samsung because of the high pricetag ($600). The remaining three all lacked one feature of the 1201N; dual core processors. The Asus is the only netbook to currently feature 1.6GHz Dual Core Intel Atom 330s. In general, the order of netbook processors is as follows;
Dual Core Atom 330s (found mostly on nettops) >> Atom N450 > Atom N280 > Atom N270 > Atom Z520 Since the Mini 311, Lenovo, and Asus were all comparably priced, I decided to go with the newer and more powerful Asus. I should also note that the HP Mini 311 only has the Nvidia Ion LE chipset, which is not DirectX 10 compatible, although it can be hacked to full Ion compatibility. However, I suspect that mainstream users are not interested in hacking their netbooks. I had also considered waiting until CES 2010 finished to get a glimpse of future netbooks. But, based on what has been revealed so far at CES, most of the future offerings will be just 10" netbooks with a single core N450, 1 GB RAM and a new Crystal HD Broadcom chip. At best, on parity with the 1201N, and probably marked into the $400 range when all optioned out. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted a netbook larger than 10". The Amazon price for the 1201N was $482, which is at the high end of the netbook market. Why should I get this 1201N, when I can easily get a comparably priced CULV (Intel's Core 2 Ultra Low Voltage) light notebook with superior performance you ask? Well, the CULV performance is only superior with regard to the processor; GPU-wise, CULV equipped notebooks with Intel's integrated graphics GMA3150/4500MHD solutions are actually worse than the Nvidia Ion equipped 1201N. A CULV notebook with higher performance GPU would run you in the $800-1000 range. Asus has a CULV with Intel 4500MHD for about $600, but the Intel integrated graphics leaves much to be desired. As far as I know, there is no sub-$800 CULV with 9400M that weighs less than 4 lbs and is less than 13" and is ultra-mobile. The 1201N fills that gap. Nvidia Ion (GeForce 9400M) >> Intel GMA3150 (PineTrail) and 4500MHD > Intel GMA950 >> Intel GMA500 I also thought about waiting for Nvidia's Ion2 platform to hit the market, but considering that it took Nvidia and the computer manufacturers close to one year to output a netbook to take advantage of the Ion, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase. The Ion gives you the capability to play *some* games; it definitely won't play Crysis! You'll most likely have to play at 800 x 600 resolution to get any sort of decent performance, but at least there's a capability. You probably won't be able to get past the loading screen on other netbooks. While Ion dings battery life, it in combination with the dual Atoms allows you to watch 1080P content while multi-tasking on the 1201N, previously unheard of in a netbook. FIRST IMPRESSIONS of the 1201N: The size is perfect! I'm glad I didn't get a 10" netbook. It arrived pretty barebones; netbook, battery, charger, and a few software CDs. Initial impressions were very good; the glossy black cover actually seems pretty fingerprint resistant. Overall construction is very solid, be careful once you insert the battery pack, because it tips the center of mass very sharply. Make sure you have a tight grip- mine nearly slipped out of my hand. In addition, I thought the Velcro straps on the battery cords were a nice touch; they keep the wires tucked away more neatly than plastic zip ties. Some also complained of the hard drive being too noisy- I didn't notice anything unusual, just the steady hum of the hard drive that was mildly audible only if I placed my ear right on top of the keyboard. Air flow seems fine- after several hours of usage, the keyboard was still the same temperature, and the bottom was warm, but not hot. KEYBOARD/TOUCHPAD: I really like the keyboard, although it will take some getting used to the small size. Some online review sites thought it flexed a bit too much, but I didn't notice any flexing. The chiclet style keyboard appears to be very solidly made. I do have one minor complaint, whilst typing, my greasy wrists tend to leave imprints all over the nice glossy plastic wrist-rest. I have never used a dimpled one-button touchpad before, but it seems to work well. I didn't notice any differences between it and a regular touchpad, although I'll probably get a USB mouse for convenience. WINDOWS 7: Initial setup of Windows 7 took about 30-40 minutes; thereafter, boot time is about 30 seconds. There's not much bloatware pre-installed; basically only MS Works, Trend Micro Anti-Virus, MS Office Starter, Acrobat Reader, and a media-player. Response to keyboard and mouse inputs seems fast, I didn't notice any lagging. Minor quibble- how do I get the Windows Classic look in Windows 7?! DISPLAY: As for the display, I like the glossy screen, it looks fantastic, and text is clear, sharp, and very legible. Before I purchased the netbook, I was bothered by the screen not being flush with the bezel in various promotional images. Now with the unit actually in hand, I don't really notice any aesthetic issues. The whole seashell design is very nicely done. OTHER OBSERVATIONS: Maximum battery time with a full charge is about 5-6.5 hours, but that's with LCD brightness at 50%, battery saver, and very little user activity. The battery saver settings are easy to toggle, simply pressing Fn + spacebar cycles through the different choices. The hard drive is oddly partitioned into a c: drive with about 100 GB and a d: drive with about 125 GB. Note that Nvidia's ION chipset takes 250 MB of the 2 GB of RAM for its own usage. 1080P MEDIA: Aha, here's the juicy part! So I installed CoreAVC Professional, and disabled deblocking (which helped to offset some of the CPU load). I played a 1080P music video, and opened up Windows task manager. CPU utilization was at just 60%, and I was also able to open a MS Powerpoint file, an MS Word file, and play a 3D Chess game. The 1080P file played fine, with no hiccups. I was quite impressed by the multi-tasking in the 1201N. Battery life decreased a bit to roughly 4 hours, but I wasn't continuously playing high definition media. Also, I can't stress how important it is to use CoreAVC Pro for decoding HD media; the 1201N can handle 1080P without CoreAVC (using ffdshow), but CPU utilization shoots up to ~ 90%. With CoreAVC and deblocking turned off, it goes down to 60%. CoreAVC really helps boost the 1201N's multi-tasking abilities, it's also not too expensive. I think Core AVC 2.0 is selling for about $8-$10. Sorry ladies and gents, haven't gotten around to testing games on it yet. OTHER THOUGHTS: Reliability wise, all the netbooks are about the same, wh... See less
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ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-MU17-WT 10.1-Inch White Netbook - 8.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)
33 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: Some reviewers at Amazon weren't happy with the Windows 7 Starter that came installed, but that aside they were really pretty happy with this netbook from ASUS. One person complained about vibrations and gave the netbook a one star rating, but most other people at Amazon had really good things to say. People said they liked the extremely small size, but also enjoyed the fact that it wasn't too difficult to use despite its size. It was said to be perfect for college students or those on the go. It also makes a great back-up computer for the home, allowing you to easily surf the web, check email and more. The battery life was said to be good as well.
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HP Mini 311-1000NR 11.6-Inch Black Netbook - Up to 6.25 Hours of Battery Life
25 Amazon Reviews
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| IntelliReview Summary: One person at Amazon mysteriously gave this a netbook a one star rating because there was a newer model available. While that isn't quite fair, many other people gave this netbook a four or five star rating on its own merits. One person compared said this HP was the Cadillac of netbook, which is saying a lot. With over five hours of battery life reported, it has enough juice for even extended trips. The small size, reasonable price, and quality of the HP brand were also considerations many people had when giving it such good reviews. Some even commented on how well the netbook looked. If design is important to you, this netbook delivers. | |||||||











