Mini notebook

[Cougar]

Any recommendation for mini notebook & not netbook? Fast & powerful enough for presentation mainly and mail access for business purpose.

[kwchang]

Read on the internet of upcoming new light notebooks (not netbooks). Look out for new DELL Inspiron (http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090616/dell-unveils-adamo-style-inspiron-laptop.htm) and a new Lenovo T400 (http://www.crn.com/mobile/217900177;jsessionid=MKRDBGD1B3CCOQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2 JVN)

If you don't mind waiting a bit longer, like maybe end of the year or next year, the new Windows 7 will be able to support multi-touch notebooks. Which means tablet PCs are coming again with multi-touch screens very much like the iPhone or iPod Touch. Anyway, the new Apple operating system (Leopard?) hints at the fact that Apple is coming out with a tablet Macbook as well very soon.

Exciting times ... that is if you are willing to wait.

[FloWong]

I use the Lenovo S10, with the Atom N270 processor. The newer model, with the Atom N280 has just been released in the market,

For emails and presentation, it does its job decently. Chose this netbook instead of other models due to the wow factor. Performance wise, I would say all is about the same.

[LMei]

Check this Dell Latitude (http://www1.ap.dell.com/my/en/business/notebooks/laptop_latitude_e4300/pd.aspx?refid=laptop_latitude_e4300&s=bsd&cs=mybsd1) out. I've seen it. Real slim and light and runs on Intel Duo Core Processor instead of the Atoml so it's more powerful.

[fRaNkY]

I have a LEnovo S10 too :) Just bought it.

Thinking of selling my asus EEEpc.

[Laughingman]

If you have extra budget you can try vaio...i seen a vaio with quad core processor,3GB RAM...but i forgot the model....Very nice.Small,light and power.

[mlkok]

Quad Cores are rare on notebooks. All Vaios run Dual Cores or single cores. Sony is conservative.
You might be able get Quad Cores from AlienWare or Asus.

[blueginger]

What about the HP Mini 1000 or Acer Aspire One??

Anyone own any of these models??

I am looking for one too :D

[Laughingman]

Actually i also own a asus eee pc910....i think its quite good also.

[CS Chua]

I am in the market for a mini notebook. Main factors for me are battery and weight. I am giving the XPS to wifey. What is the latest about mini notebook?

[kwchang]

Mini's running on the Atom processor is OK if you just browse the Internet, read mail and maybe do a bit of Office work.

However, do check out alternatives. There are now intermediates between mini notebooks and full notebooks. These intermediates use the ultra-low power Intel Centrino chips.

Initially, Acer came out with their Timelines. These were single core chips (marked as SU) or Pentium chips ... imagine them to be like the old desktops with Pentium chips? Some of the Acers are without the DVD drives. I think Acer Timelines weigh in just under 2Kg

Then almost immediately, ASUS came up with duo core ultra-low power chips. These are slower versions of the Core 2 Duo but they give better performances than the SU chips and certainly much better than the Atom processor of netbooks. I am currently contemplating the ASUS UL80Vt which comes with a double layer DVD drive, 14" glossy screen, normal sized chiclet keyboard and battery life rated to run 12-hours on a single charge but I guess it is still impressive working on it unplugged for 8 hours. No netbook can do that! By the way, the ASUS has 2 graphic cards in them, one to use less power but an additional NVIDEA card with discrete 512 MB DDR3 RAM to help with graphic intensive applications. Weighs 2.2 Kg without the normal-sized charger

I am hoping for better intermediate machines now that Acer and ASUS had already opened the floodgate to better long battery-life notebooks.

[mlkok]

The current batch of Atoms N270 and N280 will be replaced starting Jan 2010 with the N450, which incidentally will be integrated with the X3100 graphics chipset instead of the existing GMA950. This will means a huge boost to all-round performance.

But if you need a machine soon, do check out the new 11.6" machines using the CULV chips. The SU4100, SU7300 and SU9400 are all dual cores which has much better performance than the Atoms but still able to give almost equivalent battery life. Forget about the single core as their performance are disgustingly slow. Current offerings of 11.6" are: Acer 1810T(SU4100) for 1899, Dell 11z(SU4100) for 2199, Fujitsu P3011(SU4100) for 2899, Toshiba T130(SU4100) for 2599.

[kwchang]

...The SU4100, SU7300 and SU9400 are all dual cores which has much better performance than the Atoms but still able to give almost equivalent battery life. Forget about the single core as their performance are disgustingly slow. Current offerings of 11.6" are: Acer 1810T(SU4100) for 1899, Dell 11z(SU4100) for 2199, Fujitsu P3011(SU4100) for 2899, Toshiba T130(SU4100) for 2599.
You missed out the ASUS UL series that I mentioned above which uses the SU7300.

If those 4-digit numbers you tagged to each model are the prices in RM, then the ASUS UL series costs around RM3,000 - abit pricey but if you want a machine rated for 12-hours' battery life, then it is something to consider altho' I doubt it can last for the full 12hours.

[CS Chua]

The current batch of Atoms N270 and N280 will be replaced starting Jan 2010 with the N450, which incidentally will be integrated with the X3100 graphics chipset instead of the existing GMA950. This will means a huge boost to all-round performance.

But if you need a machine soon, do check out the new 11.6" machines using the CULV chips. The SU4100, SU7300 and SU9400 are all dual cores which has much better performance than the Atoms but still able to give almost equivalent battery life. Forget about the single core as their performance are disgustingly slow. Current offerings of 11.6" are: Acer 1810T(SU4100) for 1899, Dell 11z(SU4100) for 2199, Fujitsu P3011(SU4100) for 2899, Toshiba T130(SU4100) for 2599.
Wow, lots of information from you and kwchang. All I want is long battery life, around one kilo weight and around RM1500.00. Performance is not important as this is mainly for email, document and ppt presentation. If there is an upgrade next month, I can wait. Thanks.

[Fabe18]

Am using the Lenovo S10-2... Battery can last at least 4 hours of internet and movies. IIRC, its battery has more cells compared to others...

[mlkok]

I do admit, the advice did get long-winded.

If you only want something reasonably priced and long battery life, go for the Asus EEEPC 1005HA. I think it's around RM1199-1299 now. It weighs around 1.3kg and has a battery life of 8-10 hours. Should fit your needs.

Btw, the battery life is not as claimed by manufacturer. I got it off reviews from a few sites: notebookreview.com, anandtech and also pcstat.com. You can always google the reviews. :D

Hope this helps.

[skyxis]

Yup, get Eee PC, I sold more than 20 pcs of them, none of them got problem and battery last long :D

[fRaNkY]

Lenovo S10 II also went down Rm1259 at usj it mall... saw it on a flyer... dunno true or not.

[CS Chua]

Yup, get Eee PC, I sold more than 20 pcs of them, none of them got problem and battery last long :D
I went shopping and looks like it will be the Eee PC 1005 HA but then the Eee PC 1005 PE is already launched so it should be on the display shelf anytime soon in Malaysia. It seems like a winner. I wonder how much it will costs.

The reviews:

"ASUS EEE 1005PE is the first netbook by ASUS to feature the latest Pinetrail processor. In fact, it is one of the first netbook out there to feature this new processor. The 45-nanometer processor – Atom N450 combines both GMA 3150 graphic chipset and memory controller in a a single CPU die. The ASUS EEE 1005PE runs Windows 7 starter which has already been a huge hit among the netbooks and notebooks. It comes equipped with 1GB or 2GB of RAM. Also comes with it is the spacious 250GB hard disk @ 5400 rpm which is plenty fast for any task you throw to it.

Although, the ASUS could have made the overall chassis slimmer as both GPU and processor are integrated chip, they did kept the whole chassis same as EEE 1005HA that comes with an Atom N280 processor. ASUS has included Express Instant on OS if you wish to go online within seconds. It can be launched by pressing the button just above the keyboard

There is a slim card slot too that is hidden behind the battery. This means that you will be able to enjoy broadband-class Internet even when you will be on the go.

The appealing chassis of ASUS 1005PE also incorporates a nice comfortable keyboard. The keys are chiclet type which means that you will jump starting typing on it at full throttle in almost no time.

It can run Hulu.com videos at full screen @ 30fps which look great on its 1024×600 screen. The battery life is almost God-like – over 8 hours!

Bottom Line: If you are looking for a affordable netbook with great battery life that looks handsome too, looks no further than the ASUS EEE 1005PE!"

[kwchang]

What does the new Asus EE cost and weigh? BTW, 8 hours on a Netbook don't sound like much ... I thought they go for 11 hours at least?

I am still ruminating over the Netbook-Notebook intermediates with Core 2 Duo ultra-low consumption chips like the SU types. The one that caught my eye is the Dell Vostro V13 - looks like the Adamo, very slim and weighs around 1.6Kg. It is said to run for up to 8 hours on a single charge but the battery cannot be changed. One setback is the price which for my selected configuration, it goes up to RM2,900

[CS Chua]

What does the new Asus EE cost and weigh? BTW, 8 hours on a Netbook don't sound like much ... I thought they go for 11 hours at least?

I am still ruminating over the Netbook-Notebook intermediates with Core 2 Duo ultra-low consumption chips like the SU types. The one that caught my eye is the Dell Vostro V13 - looks like the Adamo, very slim and weighs around 1.6Kg. It is said to run for up to 8 hours on a single charge but the battery cannot be changed. One setback is the price which for my selected configuration, it goes up to RM2,900
The advertised time for the battery is 10-11 hours. The 8 hours quoted is "realistic time" by the reviewers.

I was looking at the SU chips like Toshiba Protege (RM2,1++) and it is definitely faster and more powerful. However, I am not looking for more power or faster as I am also buying a desktop with a good graphic card to compliment this netbook. While traveling, there is no time to play games. Only work like email, ppt presentation and reading (document.) So battery and weight are the priority. But since the new Eee PC might be around the same price, it might be worth waiting for a few weeks more.

[mlkok]

What does the new Asus EE cost and weigh? BTW, 8 hours on a Netbook don't sound like much ... I thought they go for 11 hours at least?

I am still ruminating over the Netbook-Notebook intermediates with Core 2 Duo ultra-low consumption chips like the SU types. The one that caught my eye is the Dell Vostro V13 - looks like the Adamo, very slim and weighs around 1.6Kg. It is said to run for up to 8 hours on a single charge but the battery cannot be changed. One setback is the price which for my selected configuration, it goes up to RM2,900

The Adamo was never a favorite due to the fact that it was way heavier than it's direct competitor the Macbook Air. I believe that the Asus UL30VT is a much more powerful machine with the same dimensions. Not to mention a lower price tag. :p

I have also scoured the reviews on the new Atom N450. Aside from better battery life, it has no advantage over the Atom N280. Sigh.

[kwchang]

The Adamo was never a favorite due to the fact that it was way heavier than it's direct competitor the Macbook Air. I believe that the Asus UL30VT is a much more powerful machine with the same dimensions. Not to mention a lower price tag..
Dell V13 has a better build (Aluminium casing, anti glare screen) while the ASUS has a rather flimsy chiclet keyboard and a highly reflective glare-screen. Otherwise, I do agree that ASUS UL30Vt is better because it has the NVIDEA graphic card with 512 dedicated memory and much longer battery life. ASUS's battery is also exchangeable.... aiyahhh, decisions, decisions :(

[CS Chua]

If the Eee PC 1005PE's price is more or less the same as the current price, I am going for that. If there are others who are interested, we can pool together to get a good price.

[kwchang]

Chua,
To confuse the issue more, have a look at the new MSI U135 (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/21/msi-wind-u135-hands-on-impressions/) as reported in InTech (http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2009/12/28/technology/20091228145936&sec=technology)

I don't like it - only 9 hours and not a great screen.

[KelvC]

I have recently visited the Pyramid IT center and found out that one of the models from Asus comes with Solid State Drive (SSD) instead of HDD and with pre-installed Vista. I was interested to know more about the SSD based laptop and therefore learned that the in-built SSD has 16GB space and additional SD card slot for up to 64GB storage space. The latest retail price is <2k however you probably could negotiate it lower.

The good part of having SSD as your primary boot up drive are the improved bootup time (my current machine boots up > 5mins) and have much less heat compared to HDD laptops (my machine is too hot to be place in between my legs :) ) however lose out in terms of storage capacity when compared to standard hdd today (320GB as baseline if not mistaken), this would be resolved as the technology develops over time. I'll need to google this at the later time, I believe the SSD also consumes much less power hence lower power bill and, hey, we're contributing to lower carbon footprint (wassup Copenhagen!?!?!)

Since I've claimed a laptop purchase 2 years ago for tax relief, I'll wait end of next year to see the new tech specs (probably with Win7 by then, with DVI output please?) and which hardware providers carries SSD besides ASUS.

[CS Chua]

Chua,
To confuse the issue more, have a look at the new MSI U135 (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/21/msi-wind-u135-hands-on-impressions/) as reported in InTech (http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2009/12/28/technology/20091228145936&sec=technology)

I don't like it - only 9 hours and not a great screen.
I clicked on that link and read about it. It reads good, looks good and even seems good but I think the 1005PE still has the edge - in weight and battery life. ;)

[mlkok]

Chang, the MSI U135 uses the Atom N450 chip. So no surprises here as to performance.

KelvC, the model you mentioned must be the pretty old Asus model, the EEEPC 1000H, rite? It might be equipped with an SSD drive but it's a real slow one, nowhere close to the ones in the market that costs a bomb. Also, have you ever wondered why no manufacturer has seen fit to sell any netbooks installed with Vista? It's a memory and resource hog and the 1GB standard on the netbooks are insufficient to power it. :p

[kwchang]

...interested to know more about the SSD based laptop...have much less heat compared to HDD laptops...which hardware providers carries SSD besides ASUS.
Look at the new Sony VAIO X (http://vaio.sony.com.my/about-overview.php) - it comes with the SSD, very light (655 gm but I guess not with the bigger battery) as a result. But I am not really impressed because it uses the old SS2 RAM chips and 32-bit Win7 (prefer 64-bit) and not cheap.

BTW, SSD drives were known to be less reliable than real harddisks. Check that out before going for SSD.

If you want cool laptops, the ULV notebooks I had been talking about - for eg ASUS UL series are all very cool to touch, including the ACER Timeline series.

[CS Chua]

I just read the reviews for Lenovo x100e and Samsung N120 and N150. All of them sounds good!! Die lah. Which one to buy?

[mlkok]

The Lenovo runs on an AMD processor, which you can totally forget unless you like lugging around a machine with very short battery life. :p

As for Samsung, I been leery about them since this is their second attempt to get into the notebook scene. They failed miserably the first time and pulled out from the market. :rolleyes:

[kwchang]

If you had been reading this thread, you will see that I was looking at those intermediate machines - better than the net book but just below the notebook. The advantage was their low power usage, leading to long battery life. Initially Acer came out first with the Timeline series which promised 8 hours of juice after one charge (see post #11). Then ASUS came out with their UL series. Recently, at the CES 2010, ASUS showcased the UL30Jt Notebook with Core i7 - WOW! Luckily I hadn't bought my notebook yet.

If you may like to know, Intel has phased out the Core 2 Duos ... the new processors are the i3, i5 and i7. These are both 2-core and quad-core processors. They also have very low energy requirements and you can be sure it could run for 8 hours, if not 12 hours as advertised.

These computers would be a whole lot better than Atom based netbooks. At the moment, the new ASUS notebooks are not out yet. Once they hit the retail outlets in March, you can be sure the others like Acer and DELL will also offer similar builds.

My specifications will be i5 or i7 processor, at least 4GB SS3 RAM, less than 1.8Kg if possible, an independent graphic card with at least 800MB dedicated graphic memory (not shared), HD LCD screen and less than RM3,000 if possible and at least running on 64bit Windows 7 home premium. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[CS Chua]

Your description is enticing but the price makes it unattractive unless one is looking for a normal notebook. I am going shopping tonight if possible, and weight and battery life are still the main factors, not performance. For performance, I am getting a desktop that can blast away some of the new graphic games. :cool: While traveling, I do not have time to play computer games so performance is not important.

[CS Chua]

This link shows a comparison chart of the top 10 netbook. Very informative and helpful. I guess it is a matter of personal choice between these top 10.

http://computers.toptenreviews.com/netbooks/

[CS Chua]

I went to try out the Asus, Samsung and Toshiba today. Quite disappointed with the Asus keyboard. Smaller than the other 2 netbooks. Looks like it is between the Toshiba 305 and Samsung.

[CS Chua]

The new Asus model has a new design keyboard so I bought Asus 1005PE. Very nice white color.

[CS Chua]

I have been using the Asus for more than a week and I am immensely pleased with it. So far I have charged it fully twice and upon full charging, I will run it on battery. On average it last me about 3 days. I do not use it all the time as I have a desktop but the battery life is still impressive.

I am getting the hang of the keyboard. Quite easy to use except that Page Down and Up is not there except through the Fn key. Wireless is average. My Dell XPS shows the complete 5 bars but this Asus only shows 3 bars in the same position.

I have decided to use OpenOffice and it seems to be doing OK. Have to get use to it after so many years using MS Office. It seems like an outdated MS Office but the main features are all there. At least, it is free so I saved a few hundred ringgit. The netbook comes with Window 7 and if not, I would have tried Linux. Open source is the way to go in future instead of paying hundreds for faulty MS programs.

So, all in all, it is a good buy for this price. Light, long battery life and powerful enough for me to do what I want to do. Once I took it to town to use in a meeting and I did not even have to take along the charger since the battery life is sufficient. It is a match make in heaven.

[Mat Bruce]

Looking for a netbook or a light notebook (10-12inch) for the wifey,to surf and play facebook games , watch some DVD while travel,do some light MS office word.
I have read the threads but what is the lastest model now? Budget for netbook type - rm1200-rm1600 light notebook - rm1500-2200

[Weezy]

if you are not planning to do work, the ipad is great. seriously.

[mlkok]

if you are not planning to do work, the ipad is great. seriously.

The iPad is out of the budget range he wants to pay. :p

Asus will be releasing a refresh of their 12" netbook the 1201. It will have a dual core Atom and nVidia Ion graphics. You can get work done as well as do some light gaming. The weight is around 1.5kg and battery life 4-5 hours.