Category: NetBook

ASUS has already allocated a team of engineers to work upon an Android-based netbook and they will able to fully develop the Android-based netbook by the end of this year. It will be interesting to see the place for such a netbook, where 90% of the netbook market is using the old and trusty Windows XP as their OS. One reason that folks at ASUS may be looking upto the Android platform is the fact that it is free. Note, that even though Microsoft continues to offer the netbook manufactures Windows XP, but we cannot deny the fact it is not FREE like Android.

That said, I still believe that although the Android is meant for mobile phones. I do not underestimate Android, but if the netbook has the powerful hardware to run the full desktop OS like Windows XP/7 or Ubuntu, then why install it on a netbook. The only thing that should be bundled with every netbook is an instant on OS and I do believe that there are plenty of linux custom distros which offer full firefox even in the instant-on OS.

[via bloomberg]

ASUS has made the hardware manual of EEE 900HA available on their website. If you own a 900HA, you may download it :)

Download manual

Nvidia has already made a lot of friends, who are interested in their ION platform. Now, another digitimes rumor says that they are developing ION-2 for VIA Technologies’ NANO CPU. According to the report, Nvidia was already in talks with the VIA to develop a low cost PC.

This is a great news as this will make the competition even more interesting than we originally thought. Earlier, we heard news of only Atom processors utilizing the ION platform. Now, that VIA’s NANO are also in the game, it can assure us only one thing: release of more powerful netbooks (and nettops) is imminent

More ION related news: They have also indicated that the first ION platform product will be a Nettop and not a netbook. It will be released before June this year.

ASUS EEE S101 is the ASUS’s flagship EEE model. The S101 promises style together with function. I received the unit yesterday and I immediately put it to test which should give you an idea about its SSD performance. Here is the screenshot of CrystalDiskMark benchmark test:

Let me do some comparisons with some other netbooks that use SSD:

1) ASUS EEE 901: Clearly, the S101’s SSD is faster than the 901’s SSD

2) ASUS EEE 900: The SSD used in 900 was highly critisized for the extremely slow SSD write speed. Here are its figures:

DISK C: (4GB internal SSD):

Sequential Read: 36.61,  Sequential Write: 15.20
512K Random Read: 39.25, 512K Random Write: 5.059
4K Random Read: 7.233, 4K Random Write: 0.062

DISK D: (16GB internal SSD):

Sequential Read: 30.21,  Sequential Write: 13.00
512K Random Read: 30.95, 512K Random Write: 2.498
4K Random Read: 8.715, 4K Random Write: 0.025

Let’s talk about practical usage because sometimes the benchmarks can be decieving. The S101 feels adequately fast for day-to-day activities. It boots up quickly; shuts down quickly and perforrms well with normal tasks like browsing and office editing. These will be discussed in more detail in the full review which will be published within a week.

ASUS claims that the EEE PC S101has 62GB storage memory. Well, out of that, you get only 16GB SSD space. This may make you wonder where the rest of storage space that the ASUS claims it to it be there? Well, here is how the storage memory is divided:

• 16GB SSD
• 16 SD card
• 30GB EEE Storage

Out of 16GB, you get 14.9 usable SSD space onto which the OS is installed (in this case, Windows XP). And yes, the 16GB SSD card is included in the box. UPDATE: read ASUS EEE S101 COMPLETE REVIEW HERE.

note: EEE 901 and 900’s benchmark figures taken from ultrabookindia.info site (related post this)

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Learn more about EEE storage here.

EEE S101 and Lenovo S10 hardware overview and size comparison from Taran DS on Vimeo.

Sascha from Netbooknews.de was able to get his exclusive hands on the EEE T91. Here is the video:

It looks like even though the screen is not capacitive, it is highly responsive. Another great thing about the EEE T91 is that ASUS did not go for the Vista for it. XP Tablet is the way to go for this Atom powered tablet.

At MWC 2009, LG announced their new 3G enabled netbook. This new netbook from LG has the standard netbook specifications. It also has a Smart-on technology, which is nothing but a stripped-down linux OS which boots in mere five seconds. It will let the user to use MP3 player, photo viewer, and Internet suite without booting the Windows OS, which takes several seconds to boot.

• 160GB HDD
• 3G HSPA connectivity
• Weighs just 1.2 kg
• 3 cell battery life offers 3.5 hours and 6 cell battery offers 7 hours
• Built-in 1.3 megapixel camera
• SRS WOW HD and TruSurround XT audio
• LED Backlight display

The X120 will be made available in March 2009

[via NetbookTech]

Remember the ION platform which the Nvidia revealed about a  month back? The Lenovo is already planning to launch bigger netbooks which use the mighty GeForce 9400M GPU (GeForce 9400M GPU+Atom processor = ION). These netbooks will be equipped with 11.6-inch and  12.1-inch screens, which are becoming more and more normal these days.

That is not all, they are even planning to launch a 13-inch model too based on the ION platform. Although the ION platform will allow users to view HD movies and even let them play some of the modern games, but in the end, will they be netbooks anymore? With the bigger displays now pouring into the netbook scene, the border line of netbooks and notebooks has become even more blur than before. [via digitimes]

Instant on is a feature that almost all the manufactures are incorporating these days in their notebooks as-well-as netbooks. With it, the people can do basic stuff like do web-surfing; make Skype calls; chat on the IM client; listen to music etc. Corel’s Instant ON technology has now been adapted by the SONY which will now be included with the VAIO P-series netbook notebook.

Continue reading “SONY brings instant-on technology into its VAIO P-series”