November 19th, 2008
Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Top 5 Netbooks
The biggest surprise of 2008 was the arrival of netbooks. Asus was the first in the pool with its Eee PC, and after some initial hesitation, the big guys were forced to jump in as well. Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo are all among a long list of companies now selling netbooks.
In terms of size and weight, netbooks aren’t really new–we used to call them sub-notebooks. The difference is that subnotebooks cost more–sometimes a lot more–than a typical notebook, while netbooks typically start around $400. Two things helped make this happen: Intel launched the tiny and inexpensive Atom processor, and Microsoft decided to keep Windows XP around at a cut-rate price. Put it together and netbooks are suddenly a hit with an increasingly mobile population. Already this year more than 6 million netbooks have been shipped, according to market researcher Gartner.
Since the definition of a netbook remains a bit fuzzy, I want to clarify what’s eligible for my shopping list. First, I’m only including models with displays that are 10-inches or less. I know, there are 12-inch netbooks out there, but for that price most users will be much better off with a mainstream notebook. All of these picks are based on an Intel Atom processor because, well, that’s all there is–AMD doesn’t have a netbook solution and Via’s new Nano will most likely be relegated to smaller brands in Asia. Some models offer small solid-state disks (SSDs), but most users will be better off with a good, old hard drive. Similarly, most customers have opted for Windows XP over various flavors of Linux.
John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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