Laptops & Desktops

June 30th, 2009

Desktops aren't dead (yet)

Posted by John Morris @ 2:06 pm

Categories: Desktops, PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: Hard Drive, Hewlett-Packard Co., Memory, Configuration, HP Pavilion, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Graphics, Intel Corp., Dell Inspiron, Aspire M800 Series

Laptops have long since overtaken their desk-bound brethren in terms of revenues, and more recently unit sales. In the first quarter, desktop unit sales dropped 23 percent, while notebook sales actually increased 10 percent compared with the same period last year, according to iSuppli. Gizmodo even penned an obituary for the desktop this week. But rumors of the desktop’s demise are premature. Take a closer look at iSuppli’s numbers: Desktops still accounted for 47 percent of all PCs sold worldwide–more than 30 million units–in the first quarter. Desktops are still big business.

Over the past week or so, PC makers have been rolling out their Back to School boxes. The laptops and netbooks get more coverage, but these new desktops are still worth a look, especially to see the sort of features you can get in systems ranging from $300 to $900.

HP has announced several new models. As usual, all of the HP-branded desktops have an AMD-based configuration at the low-end as well as slightly high-priced configurations with Intel processors. The Slimline s5000 is a small form factor desktop that currently starts at $290 (s5100z) with a 2.8GHz AMD Athlon LE-1660 single-core processor, 2GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce 6150 integrated graphics, and a 320GB hard drive. The $370 s5110t has a 2.50GHz Pentium E5200 dual-core processor, 3GB, and a 320GB hard drive; the $450 s5150t has a 2.60GHz Pentium E5300, 4GB, and a 500GB hard drive. The Pavilion p6000 is a low- to mid-range mini-tower desktop that starts at $270 with a 2.3GHz AMD Sempron LE-1300 single-core processor, 2GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce 6150 graphics and a 320GB hard drive. The p6110t and p6150t have the same basic configuration and pricing as the Slimline series.

At the high-end, the HP’s Pavilion Elite e9000 series starts at $600 (e9100z) with a 3.0GHz AMD Phenom II X2 545 dual-core processor, 4GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce G210 graphics with 512MB, and a 500GB hard drive. The $700 e9110t has an older Intel Core 2 Quad chip and the top-of-the-line e9150t starts at $900 with the newer Core i7-920 quad-core processor, 6GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics with 1GB, and a 750GB hard drive. Finally, the Compaq Presario CQ5110F is a basic mini-tower available in only one $350 configuration with an AMD dual-core processor.

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June 25th, 2009

Netbook or notebook? Confusion reigns at 12 inches

Posted by John Morris @ 8:38 am

Categories: Notebooks, PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: Memory, Microsoft Windows, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Laptop Computer, Netbook, Gateway LT3100, Dell Mini 12, Notebook Price, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Notebooks

Market researcher NPD says that consumers are confused about the difference between a netbook and a notebook. It’s no wonder.

In the world according to Wintel, the distinction would be fairly clear: Netbooks have 10-inch or smaller displays, use Atom processors and 1GB of memory, and run Windows XP. Notebooks are bigger, use “real processors,” have 2GB or more, and run Windows Vista. But PC makers have refused to stick to the script. Nowhere is this more evident than in 12-inch category, where things are getting more muddled by the day.

The latest example is the Gateway LT3100, a 12-inch netbook that first caught my eye at Computex in early June (Acer had apparently been showing it off even earlier), but has only just been released. From the outside the Gateway LT3100 looks like any other 12-inch netbook. It measures less than an inch thick, weighs a little more than three pounds, and comes in a couple of colors (in this case, black and cherry red). But inside this model is completely different. Here are the specs for the $400 base configuration, the Gateway LT3103u:

• 11.6-inch WXGA (1364×768) LED back-lit display
• 1.20GHz AMD Athlon 64 L110 processor
• 2GB of memory
• ATI Radeon X1270 integrated graphics
• 250GB hard drive
• Windows Vista Basic SP1

The Acer Aspire One 751h has the same display size and resolution, but looks a little more like a typical netbook with an 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520, 1GB memory, a 160GB hard drive and Windows XP for about $380 (with a 6-cell battery). The Dell Mini 12 uses the same processor and 1GB of memory, but it starts at $400 with a 12.1-inch display (1280×800), 40GB drive and Ubuntu Linux. A Windows XP version with a slightly larger hard drive is $100 more. Asus refers to its 12.1-inch model, the S121, as a notebook, even though it uses the same Atom Z-series chip and is basically a scaled-up version of the Eee PC S101 netbook.

Why exactly all of these use the Z520 rather than the Atom N270 found in smaller netbooks is a mystery. PC makers claim the Z-series results in all-day battery life, but the performance falls short of even the N270. The new Lenovo IdeaPad S12, on the other hand, has all the “proper” ingredients of a 12-inch netbook: 12.1-inch display (1280×800), Atom N270 processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive and Windows XP starting at $500. That sounds straightforward enough . . . until Lenovo releases an S12 with Nvidia’s Ion chipset, which swaps Intel’s GMA950 graphics for the GeForce 9400M GPU. That configuration will cost more and have shorter battery life, but it should offer better performance.

The Gateway LT3100 is also a bit of a surprise because AMD had previously indicated that it was not going after netbooks. The Athlon 64 L110, which did not appear the company’s roadmap, is a 1.20GHz single-core processor with 512KB of cache paired with the M690 chipset. Instead AMD has been focused on its Neo processor for low-cost, ultra-thin notebooks. The HP Pavilion dv2z, a 12.1-inch laptop, is currently the only model that offers this processor. It starts at $599.99 with a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40, 1GB of memory, Radeon Xpress 1250 chipset, 250GB hard drive and Windows Vista. The Pavilion dv2z is now also available with two dual-core Neo processors: the 1.6GHz Athlon Neo X2 L335, which has 512K of L2 cache, and works with either the Xpress 1250 chipset or the MS780G with Radeon HD 3410 graphics with 512MB; and the AMD Turion Neo X2 L625, which operates at the same frequency but has 1MB of L2 cache, and is available only with MS780G and the more powerful graphics. To further confuse things, AMD says this Neo X2 is a custom chip, not the standard “Conesus” dual-core Neo processor the company plans to release this year as part of the platform previously known as Congo. I expect to see that platform on more 12-inch laptops.

Of course, Intel has its own solution for this niche: its ultra low-voltage (ULV) processors. This isn’t really a new area for Intel–the company has been selling low-voltage and ultra low-voltage chips for years, but they were typically only in premium laptops with displays of 13-inches or smaller. What is new is that you can now find these chips in laptops such as the MSI X340 or Acer Aspire 3810 Timeline that cost well under $1,000. Right now, these are mostly 13-inch laptops, but there’s no doubt that Intel’s lower-cost ULV chips are designed to compete directly with AMD’s Neo in this emerging category. Both provide an alternative to 12-inch netbooks for a bit more money.

The bottom line: there are a lot of choices at 12-inches, arguably more than in any other laptop segment. There’s a good argument for the latest 10-inch netbooks–they’re highly portable, have nearly full-size keyboards, offer sufficient performance for basic communications and productivity tasks, and cost around $300. Notebook prices are dropping fast, but still no laptop can match that price. But there’s a real difference in performance, and most users who want a 12-inch display (and Windows Vista) will be better off spending more for a true notebook.

June 23rd, 2009

New Acer Aspire laptops start at $480

Posted by John Morris @ 5:57 am

Categories: PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags:

Everyone knows that PCs get faster and cheaper every year. For a while the shift to laptops seemed to slow things down a bit, but those days are over. Laptop prices have been dropping fast as computer makers vie for a bigger piece of the industry’s only growth area. Even Apple has been forced to cut prices.

Acer is among the companies that have been most aggressive with notebook prices in retail, and its latest Aspire models show just how far prices have fallen. These 15- and 17-inch mainstream laptops remain big sellers. They may not have the sleek good looks of the ULV-based Timeline series–and they weigh about the same as two Aspire One netbooks–but mainstream Aspire models offer a lot for the money. In fact, the 15.6-inch Aspire AS5536 is closing in on the price of a 12-inch netbook.

All of the new Aspire models have 16:9 widescreen displays, Dolby Home Theater surround sound, a multi-touch touchpad, and a one-button backup utility. Here are the details:

Acer Aspire AS5536

• 15.6-inch LED-backlit display
• 2.1GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 dual-core processor
• 3GB of memory
• ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
• 320GB hard drive
• 8X DVD drive
• Available now starting at $479.99

Acer Aspire AS7735Z

• 17.3-inch LED-backlit display (16:9 aspect ratio)
• 2.0GHz Intel Pentium T4200 processor
• 4GB of memory
• Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
• 250GB hard drive
• 8X DVD drive
• Available now starting at $599.99

At the end of June, Acer will also release an Intel-based 15.6-inch model, the Aspire AS5739G, with a 2.1GHz Core2 Duo T6500, 4GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce GT130M graphics with 1GB, a 250GB hard drive and an 8X DVD for $749.99. The original version of the press release stated that this configuration also included a Blu-ray drive, but that turned out to be too good to be true. Nevertheless this looks like a very nice configuration for the price.

[Read the Acer Aspire release.]

June 15th, 2009

Five big issues with ARM and Android netbooks

Posted by John Morris @ 12:46 pm

Categories: Notebooks, PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: Google Android, ARM, Smart Phone, Qualcomm Inc., Netbook, Tech Industry, Hardware Compatibility, SSD, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Linux

The tech industry is always looking for the next big thing: Bing is gaining on Google, the Palm Pre will dethrone the iPhone, and so on. One of the latest “next big things” is the duo of ARM and Android which, if you buy the hype, will wrest the PC industry from Wintel’s grip.

Because it has the DNA of smartphones–most of which are based on ARM designs–this new type of netbook is supposed to offer many advantages over Intel Atom-based models including a fast boot time, always-on wireless broadband and all-day battery life. Qualcomm–one of several wireless companies developing chipsets with ARM cores for this new market–has coined the term smartbook to distinguish these devices from netbooks.

Smartbooks were the talk of the recent Computex show in Taiwan. Qualcomm said 15 companies–including Asus, Compal, Foxconn, HTC, Inventec, Toshiba and Wistron–are working on 30 different devices using its ARM-based Snapdragon platform. The first Snapdragon product, the Toshiba TG01, is actually a smartphone for Japan, but the company showed several smartbooks as well including an Eee PC running Google’s Android. In its meeting room, ARM was demonstrating smartbook and nettop prototypes using application processors from Qualcomm and Freescale with various Linux distributions. Acer announced it would be the first to ship an Android netbook, albeit using Intel’s Atom, sometime next quarter. Competitors such as HP and Dell have previously said they are experimenting with Android as well (now HP may even be working on Snapdragon-based Minis).

But don’t run out to Best Buy looking for a smartbook just yet. Despite all the announcements, there are still major technical and business challenges to using both ARM and Android in netbooks. Here are five big ones:

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June 5th, 2009

Computex 2009 slideshow: ARM smartbooks, Android netbooks, ULV laptops, Moblin and more

Posted by John Morris @ 4:09 pm

Categories: Notebooks

Tags: ARM, Slideshow, Laptop Computer, Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, John Morris

Despite all of the hype about ARM-based smartbook and Android netbooks, you had to look pretty hard to find them at Computex 2009 in Taiwan this week. Ultra-thin laptops based on Intel’s new ULV processors, however, were all over the show floor. More suprising, there were numerous notebooks, netbooks and even all-in-ones running Intel’s Moblin V2 mobile operating system. This photo slideshow from the world’s second-largest tech trade show includes shots of all of these new products.

Slideshow: ARM smartbooks, Android netbooks, ULV laptops, Moblin and more from Computex 2009

June 3rd, 2009

Computex: AMD previews first DX11 GPU, Nvidia focuses on mobile

Posted by John Morris @ 4:32 pm

Categories: PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: Computex, Mobile, NVidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Graphics, GPU, John Morris

AMD has many challenges, but lately its ATI graphics business has been on a roll. Now the company is trying to capitalize on the momentum. At Computex, AMD demonstrated the first GPU to support DirectX 11, Microsoft’s next-generation graphics API (AMD’s DX11 press release).

Microsoft first demonstrated DX11 at PDC2008 and WinHEC2008 late last year, and the API Windows Vista and Windows 7 could be release as early as July. AMD’s new GPU will support major DX11 features such as tessellation, a technique for improving the quality of games, and the compute shader, which is Microsoft’s approach to using the GPU to accelerate applications in much the same manner as Nvidia’s CUDA and AMD’s Stream.

Though they didn’t give any details, AMD said graphics cards based on the new GPU will be available by the end of 2009. This is significant because Nvidia isn’t expected to have DX11-compatible GPUs until well into 2010.

That’s not to say that Nvidia hasn’t been busy at the show. Its Ion platform, which combines Intel’s Atom with a more powerful GeForce 9400M GPU received a Best of Computex award. I recently wrote a post on the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, which is the first major netbook to use Ion. At the show, Nvidia announced 20 additions products that will use it including nettops, all-in-one desktops, notebooks and motherboards (Nvidia Ion press release). Acer, Asus and MSI all plan to release nettops based on Ion, according to Nvidia, but the continued lack of notebooks or netbooks from major OEMs on this list is conspicuous. Similarly, Nvidia continues to demonstrate prototype mobile devices based on its Tegra chipset here at Computex, but far as I can tell, there’s no news on major design wins.

Nvidia did announce that it was working with Adobe–as part of Adobe’s Open Screen Project–to support GPU acceleration of video and graphics in the Flash Player on mobile devices that use Nvidia GPUs including Tegra. This could be a nice advantage for Tegra-based devices, but it may take some time to implement. Finally, back in the U.S. at the E3 gaming show, Nvidia and Alienware announced a 17-inch gaming laptop, the M17x, with three GPUs: two GeForce GTX 280M high-end GPUs and a GeForce 9400M. The SLI configuration supports a hybrid mode–9400M only–to save battery life when not gaming.

June 2nd, 2009

Intel finally announces ULV, drops the "C"

Posted by John Morris @ 4:02 pm

Categories: Notebooks, PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: C, Laptop Computer, Intel Corp., Chip, ULV, Semiconductors, Network Technology, Notebooks, Hardware, Networking

Intel announced its latest ultra low-voltage (ULV) processors at the start of the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week. The announcement was no surprise: Intel and computer makers have been talking about the chips (previously known as CULV for “consumer”) for months, and in April MSI even announced a laptop, the X-Slim series X340, supposedly based on one of the new ULV chips.

Nevertheless the announcement is significant because these ULV chips will support a new class of ultra-thin laptops that will cost anywhere from $399 to $2,000. The processors use a maximum of about 10 watts, compared with 25W-35W for a typical laptop, which means computer designers can easily squeeze them into laptops less than an inch thick that, Intel says, will have all-day battery life without resorting to an extended battery that juts out the back.

Though the announcement refers to “ULV processors,” Intel announced only one new ULV chip, a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700. In fact, Intel already sells several others. The other chips in the ULV lineup range from the 1.2GHz Intel Celeron M 723 ($107) to the Core 2 Solo SU3300 (1.2GHz; $262) and SU3500 (1.4GHz; $262) and the Core 2 Duo SU9300 (1.2GHz; $262), SU9400 (1.4GHz; $262) and SU9600 (1.6GHz, $289). Here’s Intel’s micro-site on ultra-thin laptops, which shows the entire line.

As these prices suggest, up to now these ULV chips have mainly been used in relatively high-priced ultraportables and thin-and-lights such as the such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X301, which starts at $2,000 with the SU9400. The real news here is that Intel will be selling lower-priced ULV chips to broaden this market. The company hasn’t announced the pricing for the SU2700, but it will obviously fall somewhere between $107 and $262. I wouldn’t be surprised to see lower prices for the existing ULV chips sometime soon as well.

Along with the new chip, Intel announced a “value” chipset, the GS40 Express, for ULV laptops that supports Windows Vista Home Premium and the Aero interface, HD video playback and HDMI. These capabilities clearly distinguish ultra-thin laptops from netbooks, nearly all of which can’t handle these tasks today (though Nvidia’s Ion platform could change that). This slide shows how Intel sees this new class of laptops fitting in between netbooks and other notebooks:

AMD is also going after this in-between segment with its AMD Athlon Neo chip, which is currently used in the 12-inch HP Pavilion dv2z.

The fastest growth in laptops has been not only in highly portable ones with displays that are 14 inches or smaller, but also in laptops with displays measuring 16 inches or larger (basically the mainstream 15-inch model is gradually being squeezed out). With that in mind, Intel also announced several new standard voltage chips. These include the 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo T9900, 2.8GHz P9700 and 2.66GHz P8800. Intel hasn’t announced the pricing on these, but several sites have speculated that they will have the same prices as current top-of-the-line chips (which will get lower prices) including the $530 T9800, $348 P9700 and $241 P8800.

May 29th, 2009

New alternatives to netbooks (and pricey laptops)

Posted by John Morris @ 6:45 am

Categories: PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags:

Intel thinks business may be starting to pick up, but computer makers aren’t as optimistic. Sales are slow in all categories and even Intel now concedes that one bright spot, netbooks, is cutting into sales of higher-priced laptops to some degree. That’s bad news if you are, say, Dell. But it is good news for customers, who seem to be getting more choices at lower prices, as computer makers compete for fewer shoppers.

A couple examples from this week:

Yesterday, Dell began selling a thin-and-light laptop, the Studio 14z, with an interesting configuration. To reduce the size and weight, as well as the cost, Dell dumped the optical drive. The result is a budget laptop with a 14-inch 720p LED display that is only 0.8-1.2 inches thick and weighs 4.3 pounds. The Studio 14z starts at $649 with a 2.0GHz Pentium Dual Core T4200, 3GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics and a 250GB hard drive. The GeForce 9400M graphics explains why Nvidia issued a release on the Studio14z (”up to five times faster graphics performance than Centrino 2 notebooks”), rather than Dell. Like other Studio laptops, this model also has an attractive design and comes in several colors. I suspect many users won’t miss the optical drive, but Dell does offer an external DVD for $90.

I haven’t seen this model yet, but based solely on the specs and price, if I were buying a budget laptop, especially for a student, I would take a close look at the Studio 14z.

The other interesting laptop to ship this week is MSI’s X-Slim X340, which MSI says is the first laptop to use a lower-priced version of Intel’s low-voltage processors for ultraportables (MSI announced it last month, but it is only now becoming available.) In terms of portability and features, the X340 is similar to premium 13-inch laptops such as the Apple MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad X301, but it costs less. The X340 is measures 0.8 inches thick and weighs only 2.9 pounds with a standard 4-cell battery. The base configuration includes 13.4-inch WXGA (1366×768) display, 1.40GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500, 2GB of memory, Intel integrated graphics, and a 320GB hard drive. In its release, MSI said it starts at $900, but at least one site is selling the X340 for $100 less.

In addition to the X340, MSI announced that it will be showing two new members of the X-Slim series, the 14-inch X400 and 15.6-inch X600, at Computex in Taiwan next week. I expect to see several affordable thin-and-lights based on Intel CULV processors at the show.

Both the Studio 14z and X-Slim X340 are examples of how computer makers are quickly filling in the gaps between netbooks and notebooks–in terms of both portability and price–with novel designs and configurations.

May 26th, 2009

Lenovo IdeaPad S12 pushes netbooks in new directions; Intel, Microsoft push back

Posted by John Morris @ 1:09 pm

Categories: Notebooks, PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: Lenovo Group Ltd., NVidia Corp., Microsoft Corp., Netbook, Intel Corp., Ion, GeForce 9400M, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Chipsets, Hardware

The battle over the role of netbooks appears to be escalating. Computer makers, aided by Nvidia, are broadening the features and performance of netbooks–adding larger displays and more-capable graphics. The latest example is Lenovo, which just announced a 12-inch netbook–the first from a major computer maker with Nvidia’s Ion platform. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Intel seem to be doing their best to keep netbooks in their place.

The IdeaPad S12, which Lenovo announced today, has a 12.1-inch WXGA (1366×768) display and a full-size keyboard. Though it isn’t the first 12-inch netbook–Acer and Dell already sell them–the IdeaPad S12 is the first to use Ion. (There are several nettops that use Ion.) This platform uses the same processor, the Intel Atom N270, but swaps the Intel 945GSE chipset with an Nvidia chipset including the GeForce 9400M GPU.

The GeForce 9400M is obviously a significant upgrade over Intel’s GMA950 integrated graphics–in its release Nvidia claims it will offer 10X better performance. Both Nvidia and Lenovo state that the IdeaPad S12 will be able to handle the Aero interface in Vista and Windows 7, HD video including 1080p and Blu-ray, and some 3D games. There’s no doubt that laptops equipped with the GeForce 9400M can handle those sorts of tasks, but since I’ve never seen tests with an Atom N270 and 1GB of memory, we’ll have to wait and see what this combination really delivers. Having tested many netbooks with the Atom N270 and 945GSE, I can say that current models struggle even with 720p video playback, so enhanced video playback on 1366×768 displays–either at 10- or 12-inches–should be a desirable feature.

The other question mark with Nvidia’s Ion is battery life. Lenovo states that the IdeaPad S12 will have a running time of up to six hours with a six-cell battery, which sounds better than I expected. But again, we’ll have to wait and see.

The IdeaPad S12 won’t be available until June, so the company hasn’t announced specific configurations. Lenovo said it will start at $449, and will have 1GB of memory, up to a 160GB hard drive and an ExpressCard slot for a 3G data card. The IdeaPad S10 also has an ExpressCard slot, but an upcoming model, the IdeaPad S10-2, will instead have an optional internal 3G radio. This 10.1-inch model will eventually have the higher-resolution (1366×768) display as well, though the first ones available later this month will max out at 1024×600.

Ion has reportedly been the source of much friction between Intel and Nvidia. At a tech conference last week, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang complained that Intel was selling Atom a la carte for $45, but offering OEMs both the processor and chipset for only $25, presumably to discourage its customers from using Ion–a charge that Intel denies. Around the same time, Intel revealed plans for an updated netbook and nettop platform, known as Pine Trail, with both better processor and graphics performance. Rather than using a separate chipset with graphics, the new platform includes a processor (Pineview) with an integrated GPU and memory controller. In addition, Broadcom is reportedly working with Intel on an optional chip for Pine Trail that will offload 720p and 1080p playback.

Conspiracy theorists view all of this as a plot to kill Ion: If you want Atom, you’ll have to buy Intel’s graphics as well, even if you plan to use someone else’s chipset. But Intel is planning to do the same thing with its mainstream desktop and notebook platforms at 32nm, so there are both technology and business reasons behind this product roadmap. In addition, Intel will soon offer an alternative for 12-inch laptops: a line of CULV (Consumer Ultra Low-Voltage) chips. Laptops based on these should offer better performance than netbooks, but cost significantly less than premium ultraportables–well under $1,000. I expect to see several of these CULV notebooks at Computex in Taiwan next week. (AMD already has a similar product, the Athlon Neo, which is used in HP’s Pavilion dv2z.)

What seems certain is that both Intel and Microsoft prefer to draw a clearer line between notebook and netbook based in part on screen size. Microsoft already has a set of maximum specs for netbooks–including a display that is 12.1 inches or smaller–in order to qualify for a version of Windows XP that sells for as little as $15. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley thinks Microsoft is preparing a similar set of maximum specs for Windows 7 netbooks, which could cut the screen size to 10.1 inches or smaller, in order to get the low-cost license. As widely reported, Windows 7 Starter Edition will also support only three concurrent applications. Strictly speaking, computer makers can put any version of Windows 7 that they’d like on a netbook, but from a practical standpoint, to remain competitive on price, they will have to meet Microsoft’s requirements.

• Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12 release
• Nvidia’s IdeaPad S12 release
• Intel Pine Trail presentation (PDF)

May 19th, 2009

Living with a netbook: The performance penalty

Posted by John Morris @ 11:10 am

Categories: Notebooks, PCs, Peripherals, and Software

Tags: Performance, Netbook, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, John Morris

No one claims that netbooks can match the performance of laptops that cost hundreds or even thousands more. The real question is whether the performance of a netbook is good enough.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some testing on five netbooks with 10-inch displays: the Acer Aspire One, HP Mini 2140, Lenovo IdeaPad S10, and Samsung N110 and N120. These five netbooks have nearly identical specs–1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 1GB of memory, Windows XP–and consequently they turned in nearly identical performance scores.

It’s no surprise that they can’t match the performance of a premium thin-and-light such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X301. But I also wondered how they would stack up against more direct competitors such as the HP Pavilion dv6 series, a mainstream laptop, and especially the Pavilion dv3, a low-cost 13-inch thin-and-light. Though these both cost more than netbooks, they still come in well under $1,000 and offer significantly more features.

There are several reasons why netbooks don’t perform like notebooks. First, the Atom chip has a single processing core and it runs at a slower frequency (1.6GHz) than most mobile processors. (The exception would be some of Intel’s low-voltage and ultra low-voltage chips, such as the 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, used in relatively-expensive ultraportables.) Atom is also based on a simpler microarchitecture–it has about the same number of transistors as the Pentium 4 circa 2001–so it lacks many of the enhancements in later designs such as the Core microarchitecure. Second, netbooks top out at 1GB of memory, while the average PC has around 2.3GB of memory, and even low-priced laptops often include 3GB.

Compare this typical netbook configuration to a mainstream notebook such as the Pavilion dv6. You can get the dv6 for as little as $580 with an AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processor, but the retail model I used for comparison, the Pavilion dv6-1030us, has a 16-inch (1366×768) display, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400, 4GB of memory, Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics and a 320GB hard drive. At $750, it costs significantly more than a netbook, but it also offers a lot more. The Pavilion dv3z, a 13-inch thin-and-light, is closer to the netbooks in terms of portability, if not price. The $980 configuration used here included a 2.3GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 ZM-84, 4GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics and a 320GB hard drive. Recently HP seems to have shifted to an Intel-based configuration of the Pavilion dv3 which currently starts at $650 (after rebates) with a 2.0GHz Pentium T4200, 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive.

My first set of tests involved relatively large Excel 2007 spreadsheets performing tasks such as Monte Carlo simulations (used to determine pricing of stock options), pivot tables (for visualizing data), and other common arithmetic and statistical analysis functions. Some of them are custom tests and others were provided by Intel for use in benchmarking processors. On most tests, the netbooks took more than twice as long as the dv6-1030us and dv3z to complete the same calculations.

Multitasking is another area where the performance of netbooks pales next to notebooks. In this basic test, Word 2007 compares two versions of a large document in the background while PowerPoint 2007 saves a presentation as an XPS file, a Microsoft Office 2007 file format similar to Adobe’s PDF. I’ve also run this test with other tasks, such as image editing and audio encoding, going on in the background, but in this case, it’s unnecessary. The difference is already pretty clear. This lends some support to Microsoft’s assertion that Windows 7 Starter Edition will only run three concurrent apps because netbooks don’t have the muscle for heavy multitasking.

Finally I compared the audio encoding performance of netbooks to a premium ultraportable, the ThinkPad X301. The simple test measures the time it takes for iTunes to convert 20 audio files (a total of 527MB) from MP3 to AAC format. Despite its relatively high price ($2,000 and up), the ThinkPad X301 isn’t an especially powerful laptop because of its low-voltage processor, the 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 and integrated graphics, but it still handily beats netbooks on this test. (By the way, the fastest system I’ve tested, a $999 Dell Studio XPS desktop with a Core i7 processor, was able to encode all 20 files in less than 10 minutes, compared with more than an hour for a netbook.)

In the past, I’ve also run some tests using Adobe Photoshop CS3 to auto-correct a batch of high-resolution images and convert them for use on the Web, as well as benchmarks such as CINEBENCH and POV-Ray that take advantage of multi-core processors and discrete GPUs. Netbooks aren’t designed for these applications, of course, and I didn’t even attempt to run these tests, but this gives you an idea of some of the limitations. Then again, you may be able to find workarounds for some tasks. For example, you can run Adobe Photoshop Elements on a netbook, or use an online photo editing package such as Picasa, Picnik or Photoshop Express, and these probably meet the needs of most users. But anything involving real 3D graphics or gaming is pretty much out.

Granted, these are all fairly intensive tasks, but they illustrate the real performance difference. More anecdotal testing is probably closer to typical netbook usage. I’m sure that all of these netbooks are a bit slower to boot up, shut down, and open and close applications, but not to the extent that I really noticed it during weeks of regular usage. I did, however, notice that it took netbooks longer to open large spreadsheets or Word documents. Aside from that, all of these netbooks felt sufficiently responsive on basic productivity tasks using Office 2007, as well as e-mail and Web browsing. They also handled standard-definition video using both Adobe Flash (YouTube, Hulu.com) and Microsoft Silverlight (CBS Sports, NBC Olympics) just fine, but immediately choked on high-definition video. As far as editing video, technically netbooks can run entry-level editing packages such as Windows Movie Maker (included in Windows XP), Corel VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you’ve already decided on a netbook, performance is a non-issue. Since nearly all netbooks use the same Intel platform, there is virtually no difference in performance. But if you are choosing between a netbook and a laptop–even a budget laptop–you should know there’s a significant performance penalty. That’s on top of all the other differences such as display size and other features.

Having said that, it’s overstating the case to argue–as Intel does–that netbooks are for viewing and sharing content, while notebooks are for creating content. The reality is that the performance of netbooks is “good enough” for the documents, spreadsheets, blog posts and even standard YouTube clips that most users need to create or upload. That’s one big reason for their surprising popularity.

Go back to intro: Living with a netbook: Toy or tiny notebook?