Netbooks are small and cheap, but can you actually work on them? Three years ago I abandoned my desktop for a 15 inch laptop, and never looked back. But transitioning to a netbook involves more sacrifice.
I chose the ASUS Eee PC Seashell (1005PE-PU17-BU)
Processing speed
The Eee PC’s CPU (Intel N450) is generally benchmarked at 1/3 the speed of my old laptop (an Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.6 GHz). That’s a pretty big performance hit and can mean a few extra seconds when loading programs. Demanding apps like anything in Adobe’s Creative Suite will run painfully slow.
Memory and Windows 7 Starter
Windows 7 Starter has been fine; it’s pretty snappy and I’ve had no issues. Running on 1GB of RAM hasn’t been so bad either. I started every large program on this netbook simultaneously and nothing died. I’m routinely running Chrome with about 15 tabs plus MS Word and a handful of resident apps with no problems.
ReadyBoost
I’m also running Windows ReadyBoost to help the memory situation. This uses any high-speed media (USB drive or SD card etc.) as a disk cache. I’ve dedicated 3GB of a 16GB SD card for this purpose (the rest of the SD card is used as a drive for all my personal files).
Smallness
The 10.1″ screen (1024 x 600) sounds small and it is, but that hasn’t been a problem. It just makes any other screen I use seem ridiculously large. The 92% chiclet keyboard is great. The touchpad supports multi-touch (2 finger swipes, pinch zoom).
Battery Life
I was skeptical about the “up to 14 hour battery life”, but it’s no lie: BatteryMon estimated over 15 hrs life when I was just reading documents with the screen at normal brightness. An impressive 8 to 10 hours looks normal with active use, which is three times longer life than most laptops or netbooks.
Total power consumption is 5 to 8 watts (my old laptop sucked 14 to 30 watts on battery). Wireless and bluetooth can be disabled for more savings (one-touch function key for this), and the LCD backlight can be disabled entirely with one click if you’re really into conservation (reading is still possible in the sun).
Conclusion: Yes
I can get most of my work done between the netbook and BlackBerry, but a more powerful machine is needed for the layout/design and photo/video editing I sometimes do.
I bought the exact same one back in April, I gave ended up giving it to my little sister after a month.
Its a good machine but it was way underpowered for what I needed it for. Plus I found myself hunched over it (I’m 6ft), not good for my back.
I spent another $1700 and upgraded to a macbook pro. Best computer I’ve ever owned.
Posted by Mike Ziarko | 29. Jul, 2010, 6:16 pmI hear you about the hunching… and the macbook. I do most of my work on the road so for now the portability and battery outweighs the drawbacks.
Hopefully the next generation of netbooks has more to offer
Posted by Alex Frakking | 30. Jul, 2010, 3:14 pmI shopped around looking at netbooks and small notebooks for about a month before I chose my Acer 4810T. It is a little larger than a netbook with a 14 inch screen, but still very light at less than five pounds. Standard use battery life meets its advertised eight hours, and it has similar CPU issues with top end graphics software. The DVD player will eat the battery quickly if gaming but the screen is a great size for informal presentations or writing which was the primary use function I was wanting to achieve.
Could I replace my desktops … maybe, but I would upgrade the CPU first.
Posted by Edward Caissie | 30. Jul, 2010, 8:33 amYes I have no real issue with the netbook form factor but the CPU is definitely the bottleneck! Looking forward to the next generation of processors
Posted by Alex Frakking | 04. Aug, 2010, 1:49 pmInteresting comparison, Alex!
Do you really find your productivity is optimal when you use just one screen at 1024 x 600 resolution? Have you tried multiple monitors? Laptops are great when you’re mobile, but when you have the chance to work from an office, many studies suggest that larger screens and multiple monitors enhance productivity, as I discuss here: http://kevkane.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/multiple-computer-screens-maybe-the-fastest-way-to-boost-your-productivity-immediately/
I know how you find it comfortable working at your laptop in your car, with the seat reclined. That’s what I call “workspace” innovation! For most users though, working at laptops with no larger external display, and no external keyboard and mouse, isn’t all that ergonomic or comfortable.
For smaller devices like netbooks to be optimally productive and ergonomic, I think we need mobile technology for large virtual screens, and large virtual input devices.
Posted by Kevin Kane | 01. Aug, 2010, 8:02 amI’ve seen your impressive multiple-monitors in action!
THe small screen and keyboard hasn’t bothered me, but it would if I spent hours on the same task (eg. spreadsheets). Since I’m often on the move, the portability makes up for it.
I get about 1/4 of my work done the BlackBerry and it doesn’t get much smaller than that!
Posted by Alex Frakking | 04. Aug, 2010, 2:00 pm