The average computer user is not a high-end gamer, not an engineer or physicist running complex analyses, and is not a professional multimedia producer. It's your spouse, your parents, your friends for whom convenience, portability, and connectivity makes the netbook "good enough". Netbooks use very power efficient processors, often with multimedia engines designed into the silicon so that consumer-oriented tasks like movie watching or music playing work well and don't tax the more limited processing power. Netbooks are great for the vast majority of consumer-centered activities, like reading/sending e-mail, watching Hulu or listening to Pandora. The ARM-based processors that power the netbook run circles around the "battleship" Intel and AMD processors and system components that drove cost and power consumption. An entire generation of consumers has become used to smaller screens, suffering for years with small cellphone and smartphone displays. The step up to a 10-inch (26cm) high-resolution, brilliant netbook display is a breath of blue sky. Much like what happened to GM and their reliance on trucks and SUVs, the netbook threatens major manufacturers of desktop and notebook PCs. The next few years will see huge growth in mobile internet devices, netbooks, smartbooks, connected internet companions like the Chumby and the Wayve. For the smart netbook vendor, the potential multiplication factor due to the shrinking size, cost, and complexity opens up brave new lands. For those stuck in the battleship world, there's stormy seas ahead.
Running an Ubuntu Linux derivative, several sites have compared the PC-Z1 to the fabled Sharp Zaurus.
Ubuntu is a logical choice for Netbooks and other low-cost consumer devices. Besides being highly customizable, the open-source aspect really helps. Companies can tweak the operating system to meet their needs without having to be burdened with licensing fees. But having owned a 7" Asus Eee PC for more than a year, I can safely opine that Netbooks are not all they are cracked up to be. Between the challenging keyboard and questionable battery life, their utility varies between models and user styles.
Odds are, you are better off with a smartphone, unless you really love this form factor or have very tiny hands for the very tiny keyboard. I find it hard to imagine people lugging these around as their main machine. Nonetheless, Sharp has raised the bar with better boot time and a claimed a 10-hour battery life. According to its release Thursday:
The PC-Z1 features a quick-launch function (approx. 3 seconds) similar to mobile phones, enabling users to conveniently check e-mail while on the road. Also, a long battery running time (approximately 10 hours) allows users to fully enjoy net services, such as videos or blogs.
The high-resolution, 5-inch touch-screen LCD enables intuitive touch operation while the full keyboard provides for comfortable text input. Additionally, in business settings, users can create documents, spreadsheets, presentation materials, etc., and edit them stress-free.
While the original intention of the netbook form factor may have been to have a small, cheap computer for Web surfing, the Nokia Booklet 3G appears to be geared more for the worker on the go than the cash strapped student. It also is poised to create a new class of mobile worker who eschews smartphones and uses a basic phone in tandem with a netbook instead.
While Nokia isn't yet giving us the full details of its Booklet 3G computer, we do know that it's a Windows PC inside an aluminum chassis weighing 2.75lbs, with a 10-inch screen, 12 hour battery life and a scant 2cm thickness. It has your typical netbook features, such as a webcam, Atom processer, and SD card reader. It also includes a number of premium features, including 3G/HSPA networking, a GPS, an HD display, and HDMI.
Given that it's likely to be more expensive than your typical netbook, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Booklet 3G ship with either Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional instead of the stripped starter edition. If this is the case, then this Nokia might surpass the typical 1GB memory and 160GB hard disk limitations that manufacturers using Windows 7 Starter are stuck with.
The HSPA-equipped Booklet 3G likely be packaged with a mobile data plan and subsidized accordingly. Business travelers who are frustrated with trying to use an iPhone or other smartphone as a GPS in a foreign city are likely to have a better experience on the Booklet's 10-inch screen.
Netbooks like this could create a market shift away from smartphones in general. Rather than pay for a separate data plan for both a smartphone and a netbook, it may make sense for some mobile professionals to carry a simpler phone and pull something like the Booklet 3G from their briefcases or purses when it comes time to check a map, search the Net, or write an e-mail. Certainly this would help alleviate the frustration that many experience with their smartphone's battery life.
Since Nokia's intention is to bundle its Ovi services with its netbook, I think we can expect to see some tie-ins with Nokia mobile phones. I'm sure Nokia would like to see mobile professionals carrying a Nokia phone to accompany the Booklet 3G
Nokia's netbook certainly isn't revolutionary, but its unique combination of features will meet the needs of the mobile professional better than the inexpensive plastic netbooks that are currently flooding the market.
More details will be announced at the Nokia World conference on September 2.
Michael Scalisi is an IT manager based in Alameda, California.
Nvidia’s Ion platform may be off to a slow start, but that could change once Windows 7 arrives in late October. To date Ion has been used only in nettops–including two new ones from Asus and Lenovo–but the first netbooks should finally arrive around the time Microsoft releases its new operating system.
Ion is supposed to be a performance-enhancing drug for netbooks. Nearly all netbooks and nettops currently use an Intel Atom processor and basic integrated graphics–a combination that is easy on the battery but lacks the performance to, for example, play high-quality video. The Ion chipset, which includes an Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU, promises to significantly boost performance.
Lenovo, which was the first to announce a netbook with Ion back in May, has confirmed that it will now ship this version of the IdeaPad S12 sometime after October 22 when Windows 7 arrives. The netbook was originally slated for late summer. The Ionized IdeaPad S12 will be priced at $549–$50 more than the current configuration. Similarly, Samsung will wait for Win7 to launch its N510, an 11.6-inch netbook with Ion, according to Laptopmag.com. It is expected to sell for around $599. Digitimes reported today that HP would also release an Ion-based netbook in September, and that Asustek planned to release both an all-in-one and a nettop using Nvidia’s chipset around the same time.
Earlier this week Lenovo announced a nettop that will be available with or without Nvidia’s Ion. The IdeaCentre Q110 will have a 1.60GHz Intel Atom 230 single-core processor, 2GB of memory, 250GB hard drive, Nvidia Ion chipset and either Windows XP or Vista Home Premium. The configuration without Ion, the Q100, will have 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. Lenovo hasn’t announced pricing, but the Q1-00 series will be available in mid-September. The Acer AspireRevo, which has the same configuration as the Q110, sells for $299. (Lenovo also announced a new home theater PC, the IdeaCentre Q700, and a home server, the IdeaCentre D400.)
Asus has started selling–at least in some markets–the Ion-based all-in-one it announced at Computex back in June. The Eee Top ET2002T has a 20-inch touchscreen, 1.60GHz Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor, 2GB of memory, Nvidia Ion chipset, 250GB hard drive and DVD drive.
Timing the release of Ion netbooks to Windows 7 make some sense. It’s hard to make the case for the added cost of Ion in a netbook running Windows XP, but with Windows 7 the GeForce GPU it should make a bigger difference. Some questions remain though. First, it’s not clear what Ion will do to battery life–one of the strengths of netbooks. Second, Intel isn’t standing still. Its upcoming netbook platform, Pine Trail-M will be out shortly after Windows 7–most likely January 2010–and it should offer better performance, including HD video playback. I’m also expecting to see more netbooks and ultraportables using AMD’s Athlon Neo processors and either Radeon X1250 integrated graphics or Radeon HD 3410 discrete graphics. All of which means Ion has an increasingly short window in which to prove its value in netbooks.
Nokia could follow service providers into netbook territory, by offering a machine of its own.
President and chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is reported to have said in India: "We at Nokia is [sic] actively looking at this converged market... We are looking at the netbook market to see what kind of opportunity is there."
If Nokia does deliver a device then it would join a trickle of other handset manufacturers also becoming netbook makers. So far, it's been OEMs like Asus and Dell, solidly versed in the build and delivery of PCs, who've made most of the running, building and selling netbooks.
A Nokia netbook would also mean the company enters a market that's being tested by the very service providers that typically sell its handsets.
AT&T and Verizon in the US and Orange and O2 in the UK have begun offering netbooks with data plans. These netbooks are from PC markers and consumer electronics companies like Samsung that make PCs and mobile phones.
Questions remain over what a Nokia netbook would literally look like - whether it would fit the template of a small form-factor notebook, or would Nokia opt for a tablet or a smart-phone inspired design with a large screen and soft keys.
Also, there'll be the question of operating system. Would a Nokia netbook run the giant's Symbian open-source operating system or would Nokia go with Windows or Linux?
It seems reasonable to assume Nokia would stick with Symbian, but try to make its netbook useful by running Microsoft applications. Nokia earlier this month announced a deal with Microsoft to put Office on its phones using native Symbian versions of Microsoft Office and also to extend web services such as SharePoint to devices. Office is due next year.
Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin has encouraged the PC markets in the past to become more like Nokia by selling customized and subsidized machines in this high-growth market. Zemlin has, naturally, championed the cause that netbooks should run Linux.
"Learn from Nokia - meld a kick ass, industrial design with customized software experience and have it subsidized by an alternative business model, be that subsidy or services offering, movies and entertainment - that's a better way to skin this cat," Zemlin toldThe Reg in March. ®
Gigabyte says it is now shipping a netbook that offers a swiveling touchscreen and an Intel Atom N280 processor. The T1028X/G has a 10-inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, an ExpressCard slot, a HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) cellular modem, and optional WiMAX, the company says.
Netbooks whose screens flip around into a tablet configuration are still uncommon, though Asus recently entered the market with its T91, offered with single- or multi-touch displays. As far as we're aware, it's Gigabyte that first pioneered the breed with its M912 (right), released just over a year ago with an 8.9-inch screen, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, and a 160GB hard disk drive.
Gigabyte's new successor, the T1028X/G, once again offers a touchscreen that rotates 180 degrees and folds down over its keyboard. This time, however, the display has gone up to 10.1 inches in size, and the LED-backlit screen now packs 1366 x 768 pixels. Apart from the touchscreen display, the T1028X/G has a "92 percent full-sized" keyboard and a "multi-touch" mouse pad, according to Gigabyte.
In addition, the T1028X/G now offers Intel's slightly more powerful, 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, still with the 945GSE northbridge and ICH7M southbridge. (An available T1028M configuration gets the larger display, but sticks with an N270 CPU and a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels.)
The T1028X/G's 2.5-inch, 160GB hard disk drive and 1GB or 2GB RAM are par for the course, but, unlike the majority of netbooks, the device is also said to include an ExpressCard/34 slot. Gigabyte says the T1028X/G is available with an HSDPA-compatible cellular modem and with 802.16 WiMAX on board, though there's no word on whether either of these options fills the ExpressCard slot.
Other more typical netbook capabilities include Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g/n wireless networking, a 10/100 Ethernet port, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam, according to Gigabyte. The device is also said to include stereo speakers, three USB 2.0 ports, an MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro card reader, and a VGA port.
A six-cell, 7650mAh battery is standard on the T1028X/G and is said to deliver up to six hours of battery life. The T1028M gets a four-cell, 4500mAh battery that is good for four hours of operation, according to Gigabyte.
Gigabyte says the T1028 runs the Windows XP Home operating system, but no word of any supplied touchscreen-specific addons was provided. The device is also said to run Linux, though Gigabyte warns users of that operating system they may need to "download Linux drivers from chipset vendors' websites or third party websites."
Features and specifications listed by Gigabyte for the T1028 include the following:
Processor:
1.66GHz Atom N280 (T1028X/G)
1.6GHz Atom N270 (T1028M)
Memory -- 1GB of DDR2 RAM, expandable to 2GB
Storage -- 160GB SATA hard disk drive (2.5-inch, 5400rpm)
Display:
10.1-inch touchscreen with 1366 x 768 pixels (T1028X/G)
10.1-inch touchscreen with 1024 x 600 pixels (T1028M)
Camera -- 1.3 megapixel
Keyboard -- "92 percent" QWERTY keyboard and multi-touch mouse pad
Networking:
LAN -- 10/100 Ethernet
WAN -- HSDPA cellular modem or WiMAX (both optional)
WLAN -- 802.11b/g/n
PAN -- Bluetooth 2.1
Other I/O:
3 x USB 2.0
Microphone in, earphone out
1 x VGA
Expansion:
ExpressCard/34 slot
MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro card reader
Battery:
6-cell 7650mAh battery (T1028X/G)
4-cell 4500mAh battery (T1028M)
Dimensions:
10.4 x 8.4 x 1.62 inches (265 x 214 x 41.4mm) with six-cell battery
10.4 x 7.67 x 1.51 inches (265 x 195 x 38.5mm) with four-cell battery
What are the specs? They are solid, starting with a 900MHz Intel Celeron M 353 processor (which may not be faster than the more common Atom CPU--I've read varying opinions), the Eee offers 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP Home, and the aforementioned 8.9-inch screen.
And it's red! It's pretty rare to find a cheap Netbook that's anything but black (or occasionally white). This one's downright purty.
It's also a refurbished unit, meaning the warranty is a fairly typical 90 days. I'm going to state once again for the record that I don't consider that a negative, especially considering the $60 or so you're saving on a new unit.
I will, however, direct you to the return policy (at the bottom of the product page) for the Asus. It states that this is a nonrefundable item. You can return it within 30 days, but only for a replacement.
While this would make a fine portable PC for children and students, I think business users would find it a welcome travel companion as well. It's a svelte 2.5 pounds and its four-cell battery should be good for at least a couple hours' work.
Agree? Disagree? What's everyone thinking about Netbooks these days: Getting better all the time, or still too underpowered (or uncomfortable) to be practical? Share your thoughts in the comments.
