Small haulers: low-cost netbooks go head to head

Netbooks involve a bit of performance compromise - but if it's portability you're after, they're hard to beat.

Not so long ago if someone had of told me I could pick up a notebook PC for under a thousand bucks, I'd have booked them a spot at the nearest psych ward. Then along came Asus with the ultra-affordable Eee PC Netbook and many notebook buyers haven't looked back.

Whilst the first crop of netbooks were affordable, buyers paid a hidden price in the form of anaemic specifications and near-glacial performance.

The original Eee PC had a tiny 7-inch display and an equally tiny amount of data storage. Worse still, most Netbooks also came with a Linux-based operating system installed which didn't go down terribly well with consumers bought up on Microsoft products.

Since then things have improved dramatically and the latest crop of netbooks hitting the shelves of retailers are a definite improvement in terms of both specifications and price on their older siblings.

Most netbooks still use a low-power single-core processor (typically the Intel Atom), but these days storage has been amped up a 120 to 160GB hard drive (some cheaper models continue to use tiny 8GB solid state drive) and 1GB RAM. Screen sizes are also creeping up with 10.2 screens becoming increasingly commonplace.

Why bother?

Being small, light and consuming little power means there are limitations when it comes to netbook PCs, but depending on what you're wanting to use a netbook for, the pros can well and truly outweigh the cons.

With built in Wi-Fi and a web camera, a netbook has the making of a fantastic travel companion. Staying in touch with home using Skype and Wi-Fi is dead easy and holiday photos can easily be transferred off a digital camera for storage and/or be uploaded online from almost anywhere where there's Wi-Fi.

Their petite size also makes them great ultra portable media players when stuck in cattle class. Provided your netbook has a roomy hard drive instead of cramped solid state storage, carrying a reasonable collection of movies and music is definitely do-able.

The average netbook spec does however rule out any hard core gaming and its single core processor and paltry RAM makes running multiple apps simultaneously impractical. Ideally a netbook is a great compliment to an existing desktop or notebook PC. As your one and only PC however, there is a good chance that if your computing needs are likely to extend beyond basic surfing, multimedia and document editing you may want to consider a more powerful notebook PC.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10
RRP$855

Lenovo's entry into netbook game comes in the form of the stylish IdeaPad S10. Lenovo may be late, but this has allowed the company to take the mistakes made by its competitors onboard and learn from them to build a little ripper of a netbook.

Where most Lenovo PCs are clothed in that black-on-black colour scheme that only Darth Vader's mother could love, the S10 is finished in a distinctly un-Lenovo-like white-on-white and it looks pretty darned good.

In short the IdeaPad is petite, light and well specc'd. Powered by a 1.6-GHz Atom CPU, the IdeaPad S10 packs 1GB of RAM.

Where many low-end netbooks force users to make do with a cramped 8.9" screen, the S10's 10.1-inch LCD makes a big difference, giving you just that little bit more on screen real estate.

Add a 160GB hard drive into the mix and the S10 stands heads and shoulders above the pack when it comes to storing apps, docs and multimedia goodies.

The S10 might be petite, but Lenovo seems to have managed to squish in a surprisingly roomy keyboard that makes extended typing sessions a doable proposition. Last - but by no means least - Lenovo also supplies Windows XP by default rather than opting for yet another lame version of Linux.

The S10's Performance mightn't put it up there with a Cray supercomputer, but unless you're a hardcore gamer it'll probably handle most basic computing tasks easily.

Great looks, acres of storage and a solid pedigree, Lenovo's S10 is a great all-rounder that represent the best compromise between practicality and netbook computing power.

Dell Mini 9
RRP$899

Resembling a standard Dell notebook that's been shrunk in the wash, the Inspiron Mini 9 is Dell's latest entry into the netbook game. Its elfin-like form factor makes it an extremely portable contender at a very reasonable price, however there are trade-offs that need to be considered.

Dell have included Windows XP Home on the Mini 9, whilst this definitely a good thing, however it doesn't leave much room for applications or application data on the cramped 8GB solid-state drive.

Whilst this is somewhat mitigated by the addition of a further 8GB storage provided you're prepared to stump up for an SD card, you're still talking a maximum of 16GB which still isn't terribly practical and is a long way off the 120-160GB hard drive spec now typically used by most netbook vendors.
The Mini's solid state drive may be small, but it is blisteringly fast. Windows XP loaded in an impressive 37 seconds. The lack of an energy guzzling hard drive also meant that the Mini's battery life was also solid, with its four-cell battery blitzing the other netbook contenders by running for an impressive 3 and half hours.

In practice I also found the keys on the Mini's keyboard were barely large enough to make any form of prolonged typing a practical proposition without OOS rearing its ugly head. Add to this a small 8.9-inch screen and the Mini 9 is probably the best option for those to whom portability is the primary buying consideration over capacity and computing power.

HP Mini 1000
RRP $1,049

Like Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard also arrived late to the netbook game with the Mini 1000. This move has paid off handsomely with the device proving to be stylish, practical and petite. Perhaps Mini 1000's nicest feature however was its roomy keyboard which has been maxed out right to the edges of the netbook and size-wise isn't terribly far off its full-sized notebook cousins. This alone makes the Mini 1000 a solid choice for anyone intending on bashing out large amounts of text.

The Mini 1000's 10.2-inch LCD display continues the roomy theme, giving extra spreadsheet columns and rendering movies and TV shows in watchable 16:9 widescreen compared to the cramped 8-inch screens of many fellow netbook counterparts.

Thanks to an edge-to-edge screen, which compliments the Mini 1000's stylised glossy lid, the Mini 1000 was easily the most tastiest netbook in this roundup. This does however translate into it being both a finger print and a glare magnet, especially when used outdoors. The only other minor gripe with the Mini 1000 is the bizarre decision to place its mouse buttons on the left and right hand side of the trackpad. This isn't a biggie and it does mean that the Mini 1000 also had the biggest trackpad of all the netbooks reviewed, but it did take some getting used to.

Like all the other netbooks in this roundup, the Mini 1000 packs 1GB of RAM and is powered by a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, offering plenty enough oomph for basic tasks such as web surfing, editing documents, and basic multimedia.

The addition of a 60GB hard drive also means there is plenty of room for apps, docs, audio and video. Extra storage comes via the built-in SD card reader.

Last but by no means least I also managed to wring just on three hours of life out of the Mini 1000's three-cell battery, which was on par with the Lenovo Ideapad S10, which also uses a three cell power pack. Easily the most stylish and notebook-like of all the netbooks in this roundup, there's a whole lot to like about the HP Mini 1000

Toshiba NB100
RRP$999

Drawing on its Toshiba pedigree, the NB100 has a solid feel and was one of the most solid feeling netbooks of the entire round-up. Unfortunately design-wise it also had the least personality of all the machines tested here. Thankfully the NB100 more than makes up for its Plain Jane looks with great functionality.

The NB100 is also incredibly petite and you'd be forgiven for thinking it's uber petite keyboard would make for a painful typing experience. This said, Toshiba has made few sacrifices in the keyboard department, and have even managed to cram in a full set of function keys. The NB100's trackpad is also similarly passable.

Spec-wise, the NB100 doesn't disappoint. Powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU it packs 1Gb of RAM and Toshiba have added an extra roomy 120GB hard drive, three USB ports, an SD card reader plus audio jacks, a webcam, wired and wireless (802.11g and Bluetooth) networking.

In real world terms the NB100 mightn't be powerful enough to decode the human genome, but its more than up for surfing, multimedia and basic productivity applications. The NB100's battery managed to last for just under three hours which places it on a par with the HP Mini 1000 and Lenovo S10. The Toshiba NB100 is a solid choice for users wanting a solid compromise between portability and computing power.