Wed 10 Dec 2008
I have been looking at getting a netbook for some time, specifically the Samsung NC10. I have been looking around for a netbook with the best performance and noticed that the “best” netbooks from all manufacturers seem to have the same specifications (at the time of writing):
- 1.6GHz, N270 Atom processor (single core)
- 1GB Ram
- 10.2″ LCD (no touchscreen)
- 160GB magnetic/16GB solid state storage
- Windows XP Home
Have the manufacturers gotten lazy and all ended up using the same reference design? A little bit more research and found out that this is related to Microsoft’s reluctant extension of the XP availability. Microsoft has agreed to provide OEMs with very cheap ($32, $26 for developing countries) XP Home licences for “ultra-low cost PCs”. The downside is that ULCPC’s hardware specifications cannot exceed some guidelines set by Microsoft which include the list above. On one hand, these XP Home licences are every affordable thus making netbooks affordable for those who want to run XP, however, ULCPC licensing definitely caps performance for all netbooks across the board. I would rather get one with 2GB of ram and use FreeBSD or Linux.
In the end, I decided to hold off on getting a netbook and upgrade my home theater system instead. I am looking forward to CES 2009 (1/8/2009-1/11/2009), hopefully there will be some announcements of netbooks that are not bound by ULCPC standards. I would really like to see a machine with the forthcoming dual core atom chip, 2GB of ram, and 5+ hour battery life for about $500.
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[...] pointed out something that didn’t seem to get any air-time during the recent netbook kerfuffle. Part of the [...]
You can order an 2 GB RAM card for the Samsung NC10 netbook and get out the door for $500, and its 6-cell battery can deliver about 7 hours of computing. I’d say that with the exception of the dual core request, the machine of your dreams is for sale right now at Amazon.
Hi Jack,
You are absolutely correct, and the NC10 was my top choice. At the same time, I am going to wait a few more weeks since CES is almost here, maybe something better will be available soon.
Nico,
I hear you. Like you, I’ve been waiting for an acceptable–or tolerable–netbook and finally decided to say to hell with it and ordered the Samsung. Wish me luck.
Jack
Best of luck Jack. I would be very interested to know if there is anything that you don’t like about the NC10.
[...] a Day piše, mi prenosimo, da je Nick Chernyy primetio interesantsnu stvar. Netbook računari su spori i to zahvaljujući Microsoft-u. [...]
[...] pointed out something that didn’t seem to get any air-time during the recent netbook kerfuffle. Part of the [...]
Well I got one EEE PC 1000H with windows XP on it and it is atom dual core, not single core.
Hi Dimme,
They keep expanding the spec so I edited my post slightly.
I have the Asus 1000HE and I wrote a review here: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/?q=node/336
Under normal condidtions I got 7 hours and 50 minutes out of the battery. It has the Atom N280 and I upgraded it to 2GB for $17 on Newegg. The N280 is not dual core, but has hyperthreading. Apparently, that’s the reason it shows up as two cores in the device manager.