The debate about Netbooks, which are very small and very cheap laptop devices, is beginning to heat up. The category is only about a year old but sales are expected to top 5 million this year.
Lots of people think Netbooks are the next big volume market because they allow people who previously couldn’t afford computers to own one. People got so bullish on the devices that sales projections reached 50 million units by 2012.
I’ve had a chance to test many of the units, though, and I can say that the promise is much bigger than the payoff. Perhaps that’s why Intel is rethinking whether the devices are as great as everyone’s expectations.
A typical Netbook has a 7 inch screen, an Intel Atom or Via Nano processor, a solid state (flash) hard drive and a keyboard that’s 80-85% standard size. Most have Wifi. Some have other bells and whistles like bluetooth, a camera, etc.
I find Netbooks unusable for three reasons: they’re underpowered as PCs, the screen is too small for web surfing, and the keyboard is so small that effective typing is impossible.
The basic problem as I see it: Netbooks are designed to appeal to two very different markets – the price sensitive and the size sensitive. The two are really mutually exclusive.
Too Little Horsepower
Netbooks use Intel Celeron, Intel Atom, or Via Nano CPUs. All are x86 compatible, and they have great power usage. At best the devices have 1 GB of memory, and some make do with as little as 256 MB.
Most of these machines are running Windows XP or Vista. A few have some flavor of Linux. Combining that UI, even the lower end XP and Linux, with normal computing is a heavy chore for these machines. If you have an email application open and a couple of tabs in a browser, there’s a lot of slow down. One Vista machine I’ve been testing tends to crash after a few minutes of use.
This is not the computing experience that most people are familiar with. The Atom just can’t compare to a dual-core laptop when it comes to performance Anyone with an alternative will quickly be unhappy at how sluggish these machines are.
Then There’s The Screen
These machines have screens ranging from 7 inches on up. The worst thing about the screens is vertical resolution, which is generally 600 pixels. Even if you aren’t using a lot of toolbars and plugins on the browser that take up vertical space, they annoyance factor is high. This is, at best, how much of a web page you’ll see on the screen:
You are constantly scrolling down on these devices. You have to scroll down just to see the title of the first article on the NYTimes, for example. And unlike the iPhone, you can’t just swipe your finger. You have to use the keyboard or trackpad to scroll down, and it means taking your eyes off the screen. It’s annoying and, again, if you have a different device, you are going to stop using your Netbook.
Remember that the iPhone has 480 vertical resolution, and you can resize text to fit a lot of it on the screen. The image above shows 8 lines of text in the post (net of title, etc.). The iPhone shows 22 lines of text.
In other words, the iPhone or iPod Touch, with a tiny 3.5 inch screen, has a vastly better browsing experience than any Netbook (it’s faster too).
The Keyboard
Then there’s the keyboard. It’s tiny – most of them are just 80% of regular size. Any normal adult can’t type fast on it without constantly hitting the wrong keys because there is no space between them. It isn’t much better than a Blackberry-type mobile keyboard when it comes to speed and accuracy of input.
Convergence Of Mobile And Laptop
There is a big fat hole in the market between mobile devices like the iPhone and regular laptops. But smaller, underpowered laptops aren’t the answer for the mass market. Most of the Netbooks aren’t much cheaper than very low end laptops (and those laptops have normal keyboard and much bigger screens).
The problem with Netbooks is they are trying to address two markets at once: emerging markets where price is very important, and developed markets where people want a second computer. The emerging markets don’t care about size, they just want it at a low cost – so offer them something that’s bigger and works better at the same price (remember, bigger = cheaper for most computer parts except the screen). Developed markets don’t care about price as much as performance, and Netbooks cut too many corners. Perhaps that’s why Netbook screens are starting to inch up to 10 and 11 inches. Which doesn’t really make them much different from normal laptops (and the prices are about the same).
So what’s the answer? Well, we have our own ideas. When you ditch the operating system and all it’s weight and focus on a device that runs a browser only (a true netbook), you can make do with mobile phone level hardware. Give people a big screen to really experience the Internet. Make it a touch screen or add a normal keyboard. And keep it really inexpensive. That’s a device people will want.
The sub notebooks can get bigger and more useful without sacrificing cost, which is great for emerging markets and students. Tiny notebooks that perform well will be higher cost, and there’s a market for those, too.
Update: There has been a fair amount of criticism of this post. Instead of doing a follow up, I’m copying a comment I left at one blog post that says I didn’t research properly:
I should have been clearer in my post for those people, like you, who really know the space. I’ve tested a ton of these, and I have definitely done my research.. They litter my office. A lot of them are older 7 inch models. I have a Nano device that I guess hasn’t hit the market yet, running vista. not so well. I’ve got one of the Dells. I’ve tested 10 inch, 8.9 inch and 7 inch machines on every OS they offer (XP, Vista, Linux). I’ve even scraped machines and put my own stripped down version of linux with a browser…
and that’s when things start humming. The screen still sucks, and the keyboard still sucks, but the machine works well. as in as well as a desktop, at browsing the internet.
Well you have outlined all of the problems, now what is the solution? Tablet Netbooks? More powerful cell phones? Integration with Swype?
yes. yes. and yes.
Wouldn’t Swype be a bit of a pain on what would ostensibly be considered a forme a prom of laptop? It looks like a promising technology for phone input, but I think you’d be able to type significantly faster on even an undersized or virtual keyboard.
I can type 50 words a minute on Swype.
That was supposed to read “considered a form of laptop”, no idea what I did…
Had no idea it improved speed to that extent, I stand corrected.
Perhaps you typed it on a Netbook?
the weird thing about Swype though is that it doesn’t get better as it gets bigger. It has an optimal size of 3.5 inches wide I think, after that the increased time it takes to move your fingers to the different letters actually slows things. down.
Just watched a video on Swype…had not heard of it before ..but
wouldnt a semantic robot typing assistant be better?
Application on device learns your use of your language and after a month of learning it starts responding for you. Before hitting send to send the message user makes edits as needed.
Maybe this exists already?
I have a netboook hp mini 1000, it’s usable for me. Certainly i will consider a tablet netbook.
I really love my hp mini 1000 , it’s awsome . and i’m a mac guy
are we all FORGETTING the original Sony VIAO????
Pentium 2 233mhz. 10″ screen, smaller keyboard, everything such as floppy and CD ext was external with PCMCIA cards… weighed like 4 lbs and was about 1″ thick with a 800X600 resolution and I LOVED IT… now due to my new job it requires another ULTRA portable computer, i have a custom hand built desk top, a 17″ hp with 10 key that weighs a TON, and it needs a couple repairs that will cost the same as one of these little netbooks….. the netbook has the ability to have 160 GB of SATA HD… hell my top of the line for its time ubber expensive desk top only has 120 GB…. and is no where near full… the screen while small isnt horrid… LIKE AN I PHONES IS!!!! my GPS has a bigger screen than a iphone..
the net books advantages are this..
small
INEXPENSIVE!!!
for me it will fit and lock into my center console on my truck ( security)
equal power (save for video) to my desk top.
built in EVERYTHING
with my unlimited data plan through Verizion I have a UBBER Cellphone on steroids that can intigrate via USB to my Kenwood sterio. so it will Also serve as my Ipod, basicilly IDENTICAL to the set up I had 11 YEARS ago with my little Sony VIAO!!!
it used to be the viao, a RCA adapter on the head phone jack and Napster!!! feeding the amplifers on my truck…. 11 years of advancement in technology and the only thing that changes is 1 its faster, 2 cleaner sound via USB, 3 more storage space… THATS IT!!!
so i am not spending 300.00 to fix and format my 17″ HP.. i just ordered a new Netbook… about damn time the computer industry went on this level again… finally a way to feel 16 again…
I just bought an Aspire One to replace an 8 years old IBM Thinkpad X20.
The IBM had a P3 chip, 320-something megs of RAM, a 20GB drive (I back up to an external 80GB drive), a 12″ screen, external wifi, external CD and Floppy drives and …
… it worked great. MS Office, Web & Adobe Lightroom ran perfectly. Only had to retire it because I spilt coffee on the keypad and the motherboard burnt out.
As I am a photojournalist I am on the road a lot and a low-priced compact laptop is key to my getting the job done in the field.
I partially agree… The S330 dual core Atom is more than enough for any luser though…
I agree that graphics processing isn’t that great but hey Ion is now available!
And as for screen rez. The next gen will mostly been between 11″-12 inches and show 1280 x 720 or 800. This is more than enough rez for most lusers…
So in the end all I can say is give it till the end of the sumer and you’ll have a notebook even you Michael would want !
Hi Arrington, On the one hand, I do agree with you that note books aren’t good enough when it comes to the Human-Computer physical interaction, and, on the other hand, I still think that the NEED is the driving force that encourages us to use what is obviously not usable. I think it’s a way to accommodate our self in a path that satisfy our pockets. For me I would use any device regardless its size, properties and functionalities in order to read a TC article or watch a YouTube video, etc.
So, it’s fruitfully great to rethink about those devices and redesign them in a way that fits our needs and objectives but this doesn’t prevent us from using them at that time. Its also the responsibility for both users and manufactures to collaborative together aiming to settle the issue.
ok, but is it size or price that’s driving this? You can have cheap and still have a big screen. You just have to sacrifice other things. I bet most people would sacrifice the full OS and OS applications if they got a wonderful browsing experience in return.
Right, so what about the Web Tablet that TC was to build. I think it deals with both price and size ! Did you give up or still stick ?
Hi, that’s exactly what Johnatan Zittrains The Future of the Internet is about. He’s affraid internet will lose its generative aspect when users sacrifice the openess of computers and rely on tethered (closed) appliances. More here http://futureof...heinternet.org/
I think sacrificing the speed is fine, unless you’re a gamer. As for screen size, boohoo Mike has to scroll, life is so hard.
Agreed, but it’s not just speed. The functionality of the OS, storage space, etc. Many netbooks are good for things like light browsing and email, but completely lacking in other areas (like media capabilities).
It really depends on a particular user’s needs. For average computer users, a previous generation or used laptop can be had for a comparable price and delivers more functionality for the dollar.
* to collaborate
I think Netbooks are ok for traveling, but I would use a MacBook Air for traveling instead of a Netbook.
And about the tablet netbooks-That would ramp up the costs, and of course, be hard to use: Sometime you might want to type, sometimes you want to view a website/comment on a blog and then you would have to switch between the options, and in the end, because you keep on switching modes, you break the screen.
Sounds like most of this could be improved with better software. Eventually many pcs will be the same size as these netbooks or smaller. It really comes down to the software and how you habituate to using it. Most of these netbooks can be docked. I think that would give you a best of both worlds approach.
you have to use one extensively before you realize how underpowered they are.
I’ll try to do a video next week showing typing speed relative to say a Macbook Air, and show how poor the browsing experience is, particularly video.
They are more powerful than iphones, thus this is a software problem in many ways. The netbook people got lucky in the fact that people hated vista and xp seemed like ‘a real os’ on these things. Similar devices have been made in the past with software like windows CE and others, but never really caught on. Even off the shelf linux distros may be too resource intensive for these things, but most of the companies making these devices aren’t ready to pony up and get serious about the software.
Don’t count out the Dell Mini 12 Mike. Brings keyboard size back to real life and the screen is as big as a standard laptop.
“extensively underpowered” requires one take into account the context within which most people use computers. I think you are out of touch with what most people are doing on these netbooks… surf the web (hit F11 to go full screen, thats what I do), email, office suite, listen to music, watch some video. I do all of these on the Asus EEE 1000HD.
To say “I will compare this to a macbook air” ummm at 4-6 times the cost? OK fair enough, I will compare my honda accord to a low end ferrari… fair comparison, right?
Yes.
I think the haters of netbooks are those who would try to make a desktop out of it. The point is that I don’t want to lug around an 18″ battery-sucking screen everywhere. 7″ is rather small, but 10″-12″ seems reasonable to me.
I think the post is missing the point, and that the comment I’m replying to has directly succeeded in illuminating the smoke and mirrors of the blog’s post.
So you agree that netbooks are good for surfing the web, checking email, watching YouTube and … not much else. I want something more useful and a 16.GHz Atom CPU will not cut it. Dell best Mini 12 cost about $449 with 12 inch screen 1GB RAM, 60GB PATA HD, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and no optical drive.
For $100 less, Dell will sell you a notebook with a 13 inch screen, a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, 2GB RAM, and a 160GB SATA HD.
Small cramped keyboard? Underpowered processor? The netbook does not seem like a value proposition.
What ever happened to the Techcrunch Netbook/Tablet thing?
I use my Blackberry to type rather long texts (drafts for articles, e-mails) and I must say my speed is rather decent. So I think you could use to it. I take small, real keyboard over virtual on iPhone (or N800 I own) anytime. I can’t type without looking at screen.
And do you have to look on keyboard to hit PnDown or space to scroll text on page?
Screen size. From what I see, 7′ is out. 9′ and 10′ are in. Also, when I was browsing Allegro (Polish auction site) I saw that nice chunk of them has 2048MiB or RAM and 160GiB HDDs.
Since I don’t travell that much, ThinkPad + N800 is what delivers normal OS and portable, Internet enabled, device. I think I’ll wait a bit more and get me some netbook action next summer.
yeah, the netbooks are getting bigger and adding more horsepower. But they’re really just becoming normal laptops in size and price.
Still, $500 for ‘10, 1Kg laptop is better for me than 17′, 2.5Kg laptop for $1000. I would fancy them more if I would need to carry my laptop all day.
We need something in-between.
yeah, most cheap laptops are in that 6 lb range. On the upside though, they work.
I didn’t know you could still buy anything with a 7″ screen. It seems a bit petty to trot out old stats in order to belittle a product. Same with RAM- most netbooks come with a gig these days- only the really cheap ones (sub-$300) drop RAM to save costs. Speed is also related to storage methods: early models used cheap flash rather than hard drives or decent SSDs for storage (like my first-gen EeePC).
I think your complaints about performance are weak, since you are assuming every person has an insatiable appetite for uberspeeds and instantaneous everything. Anyone with a brain in their head knows that if you pay $430 for a computer, you’re not going to get Macbook Pro performance out of it. Saying the netbook is a poor concept because it doesn’t keep up with the Jonses is fallacious logic: and your conclusion that small and cheap are two different markets is simply ludicrous. I can’t afford a UMPC, but I do like to carry a small computer aorund with me when I travel overseas (and don’t want to lug my MBP along), or for riding the bus, or any number of other mobile activities. It’s nice to have a wide range of sub-$500 machines out there that will actually do productivity tasks, as opposed to a PDA, which is fine for scribbling notes or texting someone, but useless for watching a video or editing a spreadsheet. Furthermore, the extra hour or two of battery life compared to most laptops is a nice thing when you’re mobile.
Calling down netbook users is as foolish as calling down non-MacBook Pro users. I could easily throw together a couple hundred words about how the MBP is the pinnacle of portable computing technology (I’m on one right now, thank you very much) and how all these people buying Dell Inspirons and Lenovo Thinkpads and Acer TravelMates are foolish for buying underpowered laptops with less than 512MB of dedicated video memory. But then I’d just be showing off what an elitist, arrogant prick I was, rather than doing something constructive with my time. Just because there’s something “BETTER”, doesn’t mean what you have is not good enough.
These are some good points when we want to use this type of device to do most of the work same as on PC.
I love to work on PC but problem is mobility this is the only reason that all other moveable computing devices sales is jumping.
Can I offer a different perspective?
The average desktop has become much stronger, faster and more convenient than the average laptop. This is why as a general statement I prefer a desktop to a laptop, especially if you take into account the price difference.
Problem is I’d look a little funny if I sat in the subway or in the lobby waiting for a meeting and start pulling out my desktop (assuming I also a carry a 110v battery, like most people do).
So I need an interim solution for when I don’t have my desktop.
Now, there was a time when having two personal computers was kind of impossible especially for software developer types like myself. With the advancement of technology and such wonderful free / dirt cheap apps as the google apps suite, dropbox, evernote, and many others, my new MSI wind is now a clone of my desktop. It is of course, only a clone of the important things. I also took a short trip down memory lane and reminded myself that 5 years ago I used to develop software on a laptop with 1.2Ghz CPU, 512Mb RAM and 30G disk. My wind now has 1.6CPU, 1G memory and 160Gb disk, and I didn’t even get the strongest model. When did we become such spoiled brats that can’t do with this spec for a few hours?
Given, the screen size is a problem. The 10″ is a bit small, and when I realized I had to do with 600 vertical resolution I thought someone was pulling my leg. But then my wind weighs 2 pounds, and that old laptop was seriously becoming too heavy. When I put all issues of convenience on the scale, the size and weight wins over the small screen.
If I had to get one of them real small laptops like the thinkpad, it would have cost me 5 times more, and I would have gotten maybe a fraction of better performance.
I vote small laptops (and Obama).
just thinking out loud here – what if someone built a laptop-looking device that had no computer inside. You’d slip your iPhone in, and get to access it with a normal keyboard and a great screen. That’s something I’d pay for. Remember that the hardware inside the iPhone isn’t really inferior to what you get in the low end netbooks anyway.
Or, just have a little valve on the side of your iPhone, that you can blow air into to make your iphone bigger, then later on push a button to deflate.
Coming soon, appstores near you…
I think you make a good point with a modular screen/keyboard idea. It sounds similar to the palm folio concept which was d.o.a. I think many of the challenges here are because companies are a little bit skittish about this category. If it weren’t for the OLPC intel probably never would have even explored these motherboard form factors. The whole netbook category kind of came out by accident in my opinion.
I really dont know which Netbooks you have tested yet, but actual Netbooks like the Samsung NC10 oder MSI Wind can play PC games like GTA Vice City, Quake 3 Arena and stuff like that at very reasonable framerates. Saying the Iphone isnt really inferior in terms of performance is ridiculous and cleary shows how Apple twisted your mind already.
The Iphone has a ARM Processor with around 500Mhz and 128MB Ram, current netbooks have 1.6ghz Atom CPU and 1GB of Ram…Also on the Iphone you cant run multiple apps at the same time, which is the main reason it may seem faster to you but thats not anything you really want to work with, let alone all the limitations Apple is forcing upon you through itunes and the app store. No thanks, i would take a small and not so powerful netbook with XP over that any day.
Also saying you see more text on the Iphone is blah, you might see more lines but the lines arent as long as a netbook which supports 1024×600 resolution…heck even my xperia x1s browsing experience with its 880×400 resoultion is superior to the iphones…
For real work i use a Desktop PC running ubuntu with a 24 and 22 inch screen. Desktops give you LOADS of performance compared to any Laptop at half the price. So when i travel i use my netbook for small stuff and when i need decent machine i just grab my Desktop PC and the 22inch monitor and take it with me, for everything else the netbook works just fine.
After all i take it with me alot more than my previous laptops, because its so light and small. My 15,4″ Thinkpad was okay in weitht and size, but still nothing you want to carry around everywhere you go.
Like Modu?
http://www.modumobile.com
For pervasive computing, my AT&T 8525 (now a Tilt) satisfies in all aspects of portability except display. Inside the car on a sunny day or trying to see detail and aspect of a map is difficult. The ability to display the screen on a dashboard or Auto visor monitor is close, but not released. Microsoft Live Mesh, similar to WebEx, will allow me to run apps or access data on my desktop, so I just need some local storage and Internet features for portability. In my perfect world, I’ll pay $550 next month for WinXP on a CTL netvertible, hoping it will run MS OneNote and Live Mesh, and be readable outdoors.
IBM had such a beast as early as 2002 called the “Meta Pad”. Essentially there was the notion of a “core computer” that would slide into various form factors such as a netbook, a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, etc. Resources could be added in the shells in which it was added (such as additional CPU/Memory/Video to augment the core.
Also, instead of sliding it in, why not take a page from “Microsoft Surface” and make it proximity based for paired devices?
Not quite slipping it inside, but wasn’t that essentially the idea behind Palm’s Foleo…. a larger companion device that would connect to your Palm Treo to give you a bigger screen and keyboard to work with?
Redfly from http://www.celi...p.com/index.asp already does what Michael describes for Windows mobile phones.
Genius idea.
iphone commercial vs. real life
http://uk.youtu...h?v=oaN1Nz1Dyls
I’d tap that. Er…I’d swype that…I mean, I would be interested in something like that.
I’m waiting for a touch-screen tablet from Apple that is about 2 1/2 to 3 times the size of the iPhone. This would make me happy. Giddy, in fact. Especially if it were under $300.
Check out RedFly, it’s a terminal for WinMo smartphones. It’s solid enough, but the price is still a bit more than I think most would be willing to pay for a “dumb” terminal
That was the Newton eMate. Jobs killed it.
Yes, I’m aware the Newton was not a phone. But the iPhone, successor or not, has a similar form factor and function.
Maybe with 3G/Wi-Fi and the popularity of notebooks, a $100 (oh, Apple, okay, $199) 2 lb. iPhone shell with a 92-100% keyboard and 9-10″ 720p screen would be feasible. But Jobs killed the eMate because people wanted a laptop or a PDA, not a hybrid.
As long as the iPhone and MacBook are popular and not losing market share, he’ll never do it. With the recent iPhone display-out hack, though, a third-party might find a fun niche – especially if it works with the iPod touches without any extra fiddling.
Well, I am just looking forward to when Steve & Co. decide to take a look at this market.
I did read that they are not that interested at the moment but are still keeping a loose eye on the market (MacUser).
As they did with the iPhone, I am sure Apple would work out a bunch of issues and give us a ‘must have’ product.
I bought a little Asus Eee PC for my 14 y/o brother. Portable, and powerful enough for a student’s needs.
I had one myself for a while (ex girlfriend inherited it, and it got stolen in Egypt). While it definitely isn’t a replacement for my MBP, it was nice to tote around, and a comfort going to a coffee shop, and knowing my servers were only a short SSH away.
I’d like to give props to my Asus eeepc too. The article complained about the resolution issues. It sounds like the he didn’t look at one of the most popular and widely available models on the market at the moment. (It is one available in stores at Target and Best Buy. They have ones available on-line with pricepoints from $249 to $499. They range in size from 7 to 10 inches. There is a version with a 4 to 8 hour battery life.) Mine is an 7.8 inches or so, has a resolution similar to that of my 17 inch laptop. I thought it would have been smaller and only really comprehended it wasn’t when I looked to see how many others were using NetBooks when visiting my site. (The low resolution wasn’t giving it away.) I’m also extremely happy with the customer service for my Asus. It had a problem and I had to get it fixed. As it wasn’t fixable, they sent me a new one.
Cell phone replacing my netbook? I don’t think so. I don’t want to pay the data surcharge for that on my cell bill. I have a wireless device, a mylo. It has the resolution you’re talking about and it isn’t easily changable. (And using the iPhone as a base for comparing the cell phone browsing base to the netbook? Lame.) The QWERTY keyboard on my mylo I can type on but nothing compared to how well I can type on eeepc once I spent a week with it. I can shift, use the numbers, copy and paste, select text better than I can on my mylo. And certainly better than I can on my cell phone… which I basically just use for texting. The two major selling points for my wireless device are that I get free wifi at McDonalds and that I can use it discretely, like a cell phone while standing outside the McDonalds at Union Station in Chicago or in a crowded mall. Oh and the camera and ability to listen to mp3s on the train.
My eeePc means I can be logged in to about 7 different IM programs, can have open about 10 different FireFox tabs, can type in OpenOffice’s word program, can get actual work done remotely. I can take it to a coffee shop with out it taking up my whole table while I sip my hot chocolate or eat my soup. Oh, and my favorite part? I can read in bed. I can’t do that as well with my mylo of my 17 inch laptop (which has speakers, 2 external hard drives, a trackball and occasional other accessories hooked up to it.)
I think NetBooks have a much higher potential to take off in certain markets: Seniors. My parents couldn”t ever probably use a cell phone because the buttons are too small and the screen is too small. They also have a barrier of entry for people not familiar with cell phones… and a lot of people are probably familiar enough with Vista or can muddle through a Linux machine which has a much bigger screen than they could with a cell phone.
So yeah, I love my Asus eeepc and can see why people are optimistic for the market growing. The two reasons you outlined were precisely why I bought and I’ve been extremely happy with the experience.
The complaints about resolution and the web have just as much to do with page design as screen size. Notice that the displayed TC page area is, say, 80% consumed by advertising, whitespace, and about two lines worth of navigation, yet it is not as good as what is displayed on the iPhone? I dunno, I’m looking at the TC front page right now on an iPod Touch and there is only the first line of the first story displayed.
Maybe he’s comparing pages displayed on the netbook to pages specifically designed for the iPhone/Touch. It’s really the only way the comparison makes sense.
i think that goes agains the “design” concept. A bit of OT:
it reminds me of “design for IE5, design for IE7…” design for iphone (or any phone anyway)… endless.
IMHO, if you design a page properly (telling it what-is-what), and use an intelligent browser (Opera in my case) you get hardly any practical difference in viewing the same content on 17″ or 7″.
See my comments on Friendfeed: http://friendfe...st-Aren-t-Good/
Let’s not and say we did, mmkay?
http://www.pcwo...tbook_fray.html
Some netbooks like my EEE 901 have multitouch touchpads that provide (some of) the usability of an iPhone.
Won’t this improve a bit as SAAS becomes more popular? A lot less Intensive on the device if it’s in the cloud. I have an employee who uses his for college and loves it.
That is actually my view for future personal computing. Your phone is your computer and it just docks on every screen and keyboard avalible.
Im with Itai here. I produce audio and need a lot of cpu power and big screen. So I cant do without a desktop. But for traveling and in the field stuff the MSI Wind is just perfect. This is a size thing – I could get a 15″ with more power at a cheaper price.
10″ is the the sweet spot between usability and portability. Any smaller than this and I would rather go I or G phone.
I agree that 10 inches is the cutoff between something you can use occasionally and something you want to throw against a wall. But 600 vertical pixels really, really sucks.
Excuse me?! Didn’t you just say 480 worked great? You do have a big bias, in my (iPod Touch user’s) opinion. 8.9″, 1024×600, one gigabyte and an 85-90% size keyboard (that’s my netbook) beats the browsing experience on my Touch any day of the week.
I’ll agree that typing isn’t a great experience but, then again, you are comparing to an iPhone! I’ll race my Aspire One typing to your iPhone typing whenever you want.
And don’t start slipping iPhones into other interfaces. The iPhone’s battery is short-lived enough (as will happen to any smartphone). And if you’re proposing yet another battery, well… that would defeat the purpose of simplicity and carrying less and not more, right?
Again, netbooks are far, very far from perfect, but your criticism is so misguided it hurts.
(And don’t get me started on the Apple Safari screenshot and the fact TechCrunch’s design has so much advertising you can’t see the content unless you zoom out (and then you can’t READ the content…))
Sorry to say this but this article is terrible. I just can’t take it seriously when it claims the iPod compare favorably to an Netbook. This is a joke. Or maybe you tried the crappiest of Netbooks. Try the more popular ones. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.
Actually, 600 vertical doesn’t suck. Scrolling is pretty easy- maybe you’ve seen the ‘Page Down’ key?
Argh, why bother? Arguing with people on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics.
The solution is a tablet that you hold in portrait orientation for most browsing tasks. I generally agree with you Mike that vertical screen real estate is a touchy issue with normal “landscape screen” devices, even regular 13-15″ laptops: Way too much of it gets wasted by most site and even app designers (especially Wordpress 2.5-2.6 admin screens were horrible in that regard, which is thankfully being fixed in 2.7).
Reading is fastest with relatively narrow columns (no wider than your blog here), which means tons of horizontal space is available for sidebar, etc. stuff, but often not even intelligently used in most apps, Google Notebooks, which I otherwise like a lot, comes to mind (wish there was an option for 2-column note display).
The thing that would really make those tablets sing though would be a (finally) truly workable handwriting recognition, something that looks at your handwriting more as a cypher/gesture (each word) rather than trying to spell each character. Should be pretty easy to train, and allow for great (and custom vs. Swype) short-cuts/abbreviations. On error or one-touch user request, just do a FAST pop-up training sequence like: We thought you wrote “XYZ”, please type what you meant with the touch keyboard here: …
If they do this right, there could be a whole new way to interact with the tablet device, including grabbing items by encircling, making directional connections similar to a mind-map, etc. etc.
I wonder, did you ever actually try any of the new nettops for your article? If so, not for longer than 5 minutes.
Speed – its more than sufficient, I have even started to use my MSI Wind as desktop replacement with an external LCD. I surf with 15+ tabs open, no slowdown. Btw, even the EEE 700 comes with 512 MB RAM these days, all others with 1 GB.
On the display size, use Google Chrome and you will save a lot of screen estate. And I challenge you to find anyone who actually owns a 10″ nettop and an iphone and prefers browsing the web on the latter.
Why you need to look on your keyboard to find the down arrow is inexplicable to me. Your comment on hitting the wrong keys – again I wonder if you actually used any nettops for extended periods before writing this article. The first hour you will hit a couple of wrong keys afterwards your fingers will have adjusted.
confused,
Markus
I have an eeepc 901 and what I love about them is the weight and small size when carrying ti around all day, and the LONG 6hr+ battery life (in comparison to cheap laptops which last 1hr).
What I dislike is the currently small HD space, but that will change.
Not having a CD/DVD drive also is a pain, but as the HD space increases, this will be fine as you will be able to just mount isos.
Netbooks are perfect !!
I have had all possible laptops, tablets and windows mobile phones since 20 years. Windows Mobile phones or (oh my god) iPhones? Shake it, you can’t be productive on those. Only waste time reading email and play games
I am travelling around the world for my work, usually with as less luggage as possible. Usually there is no internet where I am… SAAS? what the &$& is SAAS in Morocco? C’mon, the world does -not- turn around the USA or Europe. With my Asus EEE 901 I can work everywhere on my articles, no problem typing and I have big workers hands… I can Skype with my partner at home with the built in webcam and skype… I can Wifi when possible and I can connect the EEE to my HTC Touch and use the internet flatfee via GPRS via my HTC Touch and TMobile contract… I use all internet sites which I need without problems. The battery lasts 8 hours (!) which is perfect for long trainrides and flights…
To stop writing too much: for certain people a EEE is plain perfect, but not for you, so better start writing a little more modest
Cheers
Exactly!
Netbooks really aren’t good enough if you think of them as full-fledged computers. But if you intend to use them as some sort of “desktop companion” that allows you to edit documents, surf the web on the go etc. (sort of like a more powerful PDA) they’re great and the price matches that too.
And “price sensitive and the size sensitive” is not mutually exclusive. I don’t really understand the purpose of the more expensive netbooks but the cheaper ones are quite small and yet cheap, and for the majority who only use their notebooks to surf the web, watch videos or edit docs, it seems ideal and is a market that wasn’t previously tapped upon. Netbooks are also great for travelling purposes, because of the weight and low price (which makes it less painful should you lose/damage your netbook).
And while netbooks really are quite underpowered, few users probably will use all the netbook’s processing abilities. It doesn’t make sense to play a HD video on a netbook since the screen-res is only around that of SD.
The web browsing issue can be easily resolved, with Firefox and even IE offering zooming capabilities. On my netbook I’ve editing the zooming levels in the about:config to 78% and 100%, with 78% representing 1024 pixels horizontally on an 800×480 screen. A simple plugin to toggle zoom levels completes the package. And you can also increase the vertical height by surfing in full-screen mode, with the toolbars hidden (which is really what you should be doing anyway). Okay, maybe because my netbook has a touch screen so surfing with the grab-and-drag firefox plugin isn’t that painful.
The main quibble I have with netbooks is that the lowest end models such as those running AMD Geode 500MHz CPUs (like the OLPC) are really underpowered that they cannot even play most flash clips smoothly.
Actually many netbooks are now starting to ship with 10″ models that feature a 92% of full keyboard that is easy to type on.
Even more so the atom cpu’s are quite powerful in many ways and the screen resolution thing is not a major issue since that’s the price you pay when you get a sub laptop.
This size/format is nothing new and has been around for ages.
Basically do you want a small portable laptop or a big lcd?
Mike, it seems you guys should opt for the HP Pavilion’s HDX Notebook. Huge screen, but it’s equally not portable!
I love the idea of a shell that you slip an iPhone into for a larger screen and keyboard. I agree that this is all the extra one needs when traveling with a smart phone. Would be great for the hotel room or Starbucks.
Im with you Michael,
I was quite tempted to buy small Acer for my wife but after this article im giving up from that idea.
Im counting on you guys or Apple to bring something like bigger version of iPhone. Im buying immediately 2 pcs.
The other companies seems simple dont understand where is the hole in the market.
The main problem in this kind of business is ego.
For companies like RIM, Nokia, motorola etc. is not easy to give up and say, yes Apple made revolutionary mobile and we will give our best to build something on top of it. Instead of that they stubbornly continue to go in wrong direction. Ego is the main reason for this behavior and it will bring most of them to business suicide.
Well, if you’re waiting for Apple or TC to come up with a device to fit your ‘needs’, you’ll be waiting a while! Both are oblivious to the actual needs of most consumers out there, as demonstrated by this article.
I’d suggest you don’t take one poorly-researched article as gospel regarding a product: do some more digging and maybe actually use one for a day or two before deciding.
Sheep. Too many sheep.
I agree the netbook does not replace the laptop. I have a EeePC by ASUS. Paid under $300.
I use a USB mouse (using touch pad not recommended). My expectations are different when using the netbook. But, the size, 3 USB ports, gives me something small when I need it. I can save web pages, take notes (getting used to the typing was not fun) and most other things I need to do when just “on the go”.
I would not replace a laptop for one, but I get a lot of use out of mine and glad to have it.
I agree. My ASUS eee 900a isn’t for editing videos, it’s for showing clients the website I built for them. It’s for checking email, watching videos, photos, and anything else I want to see. I have plugged in a larger screen, wireless mouse, keyboard and printer and had all four work flawlessly. The little MAC won’t do that. I’m not throwing out my laptop, but I’m more portable now than ever, I like the fast Linux system and think that these babies are the way to go. I like this over the troublesome i-phone, and can make even make calls with the built-in skype account. The writer of this article needs to look again.
On the apple issue – I have a feeling that they bumped the Macbook to aluminium to make room for at 10″ cheap plastic netbook. Come january
I love my little netbook, affectionately known as my cellphone on steroids! I have an Asus eee 904hd, with a slightly larger screen than most. I’ve done everything I’ve needed to. I WFH so meetings in coffee shops are more appropriate. I’ve identified every wifi enabled coffee shop in CT, and my netbook is perfect for the downtime in between meetings to hop online and still be able to WORK and not just surf as one would with a cellphone. I’ve used my Samsung i600 for emailing – now there’s a small ‘keyboard’, and you resort to sms language to respond in emails which can look unprofessional. I have all the software I need installed, FTP Server, Photoshop, etc, etc etc and this little guy works like a bomb. I haven’t found it necessary to use the magnifier however my big home screen is a relief. Its not ideal for delivering marketing collateral if you are presenting off this screen, however, this has made me think along new lines – if native markets are working off small screens then content must be produced to adapt. Think of accessing the net off your wii, nintendo or any other handheld.
For the price I paid, for what I get and for my purposes, the netbook is great – would be great in schools too – completing an assignment is a little difficult on a cellphone, but so doable on the netbook.
Out of interest the SA suppliers only brought in this model with Windows and I just upgraded to the Office suite, using my ipod as a hard drive – because this netbook doesn’t have a CD drive.
Don’t buy it for all day everyday work. Don’t buy it if you have big fingers. Do buy it if you have “salad fingers” do buy it if you travel loads and need something that has a 5 – 6 hour battery life, and loads of steam.
Bottom line – dynamite does come in small packages!
I am actually looking to get one of these this Christmas season; but am not sure of my decision yet. I have a great desktop at home and have a normal 17″ laptop that I have for work (don’t use for personal use normally).
The netbook seems like a perfect solution for me to take on road trips or traveling and will act as a portable hard drive for me to unload photos onto temporarily while away from my desktop.
Also, maybe we have been so spoiled by technology that we just feel that we need more or better or faster or more powerful. I think for $300 – $400 (which is what I have priced the one I’m looking at for) – I will walk away with a pretty cool device that I can access my internet with; read the news in a cafe or even Techcrunch, etc.
I also am *NOT* a user of a smart phone and have never played with a blackberry or an iPhone so maybe I’m just behind the times; but these devices look great to me.
(I am worried about the ability to edit photos on these things though; the screen size – that vertical pixel resolution you keep mentioning *will* make it absolutely impossible to do a lot of multimedia type activities regardless of power).
I beg to differ on the power argument. If we really needed at least a dual core with 2 GHz and 2 Gigs of RAM just to enjoy email and browsing simultaneously, than something would have gone terribly wrong with software development.
I LOVE YOUR TABLET! I really hope you can mass produce it affordably.
You are right! The “netbooks” you described sound pretty painful, but here is what I’m seeing in netbooks today:
OS: XP
RAM: 1GB
Screen: 9-10’’ (full screening your browser works nicely)
Mouse: multitouch (Works nicely, but plugging in a standard mouse is even better)
Keyboard: Ok…it’s there for urls. (if you don’t want to spend a day or too adjusting to the keyboard a cheep “real” desktop keyboard is perfect and with three USB ports leaves you one to spare even after you ad a real mouse as well… I wish I could do THAT with the iPhone.
Price: $300
Today UMPCportal a store with these prices:
eee 900 (XP 1GB ram, 9’’ screen) $300
acer aspire one (Linux, Atom processor, 9’’ screen) $250
(This same one is/was available for $199 after %30 Live search cashback)
What about the Redfly windows smart phone terminal? Would that do the trick, you think? (celiocorp)
What would you rather have on your lap whilst watching TV or on holiday – a low end laptop (weighing 3-4kg) or a netbook (weighing 1-1.5kg)? No one’s writing a novel on them or browsing all day. They are (almost) perfect for what they are intended for.
I am an African trying to do my bit in bridging the digital divide. One way is to make computers and the internet accessible by operating internet cafes at minimal cost. At first, I thought these netbooks, connected to external keyboards, mice and screens would be cheaper for the cafes, but they are not! As you have stated, in the emerging markets we need machines with less bloat and user-friendly for beginners. The keyboard, the screen, the power saving features, speed and security software that does not bog the system down, are more important at this stage, than all the power of the operating systems. Netbooks and smartphones are too small and awkward to be used as vehicles to introduce the technology.
I totally agree with this.
Yep. As someone who has sent a lab of laptops over to a school in Africa, I can tell you that the netbooks aren’t the answer for that kind of situation. Refurbished Thinkpads in the 1ghz range (A30 series, etc) are the tank of the laptop forces. With a 15″ screen and 30GB hard drives, they are perfect for productivity tasks and training labs; they can eat a LOT of dust and keep on ticking; they disassemble easily and clean out nicely; and you can literally drop them off a table and they keep going.
The fact is, netbooks are not UNDER-powered; they are simply LOW-powered. There’s a world of difference in those two definitions. Fact is, I can be just as productive on a 750mhz laptop with a 15″ monitor, running Windows 98 and Open Office- as someone who’s got a Dell XPS with Vista and Microsoft Office 2 Billion and 5 or whatever it is now.
> The fact is, netbooks are not UNDER-powered; they are simply LOW-powered.
Exactly. If they stripped it down so far that all I could get it to run was Emacs on top of Damn Small Linux, I’d still have a pretty productive little machine. Though it’s awfully nice that they can run state of the art browsers, play back videos, let you read ebooks, etc.
Michael, I made the acquisition of a EEE PC 1000 HD yesterday and what you are saying about keyboard, screen, etc… is true . But , there is people that can be satisfied and interested by that kind of micro computer. Limited target indeed for now but that can increase in the future… When you travel you want to save your nice photo on your computer but don’t want to have a big expansive computer in your bag pack, first because if you travel in remote area you never know what will happend to your nice expansive computer and second if you travel light you don’t need the super powerfull laptop that have a big heavy screen . And finally if you are in vacation you have time, so even if the processor is a little slow compare to the machine you have at home , you are ready to wait a little more when you will upload your pictures just beause it’s great to be able to share them without waiting a week or two.
when the iPhone came out you were wild about it, now you dedicate 1/2, sometimes 3/4 of your blog to iPhone material. why you don’t give netbooks the same consideration is baffling to this blogger. perhaps because they are based on Windows OS and you are a Mac user?
There are a number using Linux, so could be a bias there too. My eeepc is Linux based. (And as Best Buy, Target and other companies are primarily selling the Linux version in stores…) So I think that the OS probably isn’t that important in his complaints, especially as few cellphones (any cell phones?) outside the iPhone are using Mac for their ＯＳ．
Maybe if he was given a Wind with OSX on it…
If Apple makes a netbook with touch screen for 500 bucks this market’s gonna explode with some decent functional netbooks. Please do it Apple.
My eee (one of the original 4Gb 701s) sits next to my main laptop when I’m in the office. Running Xubuntu it is entirely fast enough for what I want to use it for – Newsreader, browser, WP.
I have an external monitor for it (the external screen is resolution is 1280×1024) and so don’t have the screen space issue when I’m in the office – I effectively use an external keybaord and mouse too. If someone is replacing their aged desktop then they can do the same and not suffer.
Of course it all depends what you want to do with it. I think it would be fine for the average non-gaming or photoshopping user (and even there it’s a question of what you want to do, my usual every day tasks of sizing and rotating photos work fine)
On the road – or rather on the plane – its small size is a positive advantage because I can use it without fear that the person in the seat in front will not recline his seat and make it impossible to use. Maybe you fly business class and don’t have this problem but many people do.
As for the keyboard. The biggest problem I have with mine is that it is a US layout and I’ve become accustomed to a swiss one. As a result I keep on switching Y and Z, press a nonexistent Alt GR key and so on. This is not a function of the size of the keyboard. I admit you have to pay attention in the beginning but once you’ve written a few thousand lines on it you learn how to adapt.
As for the screen when travelling. I use Firefox with the “littlefox” theme and no google/yahoo etc toolbars. Not a problem except in sites with large amounts of ads. The same goes for Open Office. By removing the crufty toolbars that I don’t need I regain enough screen space to work.
I own a Eee 1000h with 2GB and a 320GB HD and it’s one of the best purchases I’ve done in years!
I am used to work with laptops of different sizes and brands and I still use a 17inch at the office.
However, the Eee is great for travelling, very easy and comfortable to use.
The keyboard is ok, mouse pad is great, and the screen is more than satisfying. I have no problems surfing the net, it’s fast and runs Vista without crashing…
Maybe I’m just lucky with this device, but I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to others!
I was too very impressed from the mini idea. I bought the HP mini which looks slick and has all the bells and whistles using VIA CPU. It was working fine with office and the internet but it all went wrong when I was watching videos the cpu was at 100% it didn’t matter if I’m watching hulu or DVD. I had to return it and get a regular laptop. I wonder how they let this product go to production… maybe with the Atom its better…
What kind of graphics adapter does it have? intel 950? or something else most likely since it’s a via based platform. probably somehow hardware acceleration (your video card should process it) for your video card might have not been working properly..
Another point is that Vista hardly works fast enough with standard , regular laptops so what could we expect from the mini. Microsoft as a monopoly really forces the industry to accept their “new” OS… while the public doesn’t want it. I think by itself its a near a unlawful monopoly behavior.
What mini is using Vista? Most of the laptops I’ve seen are using a linux distribution or a modified version of XP. (You know, XP, the operating system that people are downgrading to because it is more stable.)
I use a 7″ eee pc 701 netbook. I bought it because my old Dell lappie conked out. I carry it everyday not a burden. I stored law books in ebook fashion in the SDHC card attached to it. It runs Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS. I dropped it a couple of times, still works. It never attracted to much attention since it wasn’t obvious that I was bringing a netbook with me. I keep files in it and have a couple of USB flashdrives with more files. I surf the net with it and have tried using the Ipod touch but my eyes hurt and I can’t imagine keeping ebooks of law books on it and reading them by flicking my fingers every three or four words. I can’t imagine dropping the ipod. I also would feel strange opening an ipod in a meeting to say do a quick glance on some site for reference and then how do I attach a monitor/profector on it to show the others what I found on my quick glance. When I do printing and file stuff, I use my desktop. It wasn’t meant to replace my old Dell laptop ( which I seldom brought with me because it was quite heavy to bring around all day and quite prone to being stolen ). I bought it to do what I use it for. Maybe there are millions who bought it because they found a use for it and not because they wanted to replace their laptops with it.
I think these netbooks will do well simply because of their lower price. At $299, why wouldn’t someone buy one when they are mostly using laptops to surf the web anyway?
I love my EEEpc 901 as a NETBOOK. Not a laptop or desktop replacement. I use it at home to just to check gmail, facebook or blogs when I don’t want to be bothered with sitting at my workstation or firing up the 6lb 14″ noisy laptop (netbook SSDs tend to boot or wake up promptly). I use it at work to test my websites in Windows (main dev/design is done on a Mac Pro workstation).
Typing was a frustrating experience until became accustomed to the smaller, tighter keyboard. The screen has honestly never bothered me – I wouldn’t try to use Pshop or Flash, but Notepad++ and Mame run wonderfully. And for browsing, most sites still accommodate 1024px width; 600px high isn’t a problem as many sites have content below the fold and I’m used to vertical scrolling. Which isn’t bad on the multi-touch touchpad (I certainly don’t have to take my eyes off the screen!).
It’s small, light and the battery lasts forever. And as much as I agree that there is a lot of bloat running windows on a “portable” device, the best part about the machine is that it does function as a “typical” computer – runs windows (read: tons of tech/dev apps and utilities); flash in a browser; 802.11g/n draft; bluetooth. Granted, it’s not as fast as my C2D 3.0GHz desktop, but it’s a hell of a lot more functional than an iPhone, G1 or Blackberry.
EDIT: the one gripe I have about the 901’s glossy finish is that I can completely wipe it down and clean it, and 20 minutes later it still looks like I dropped it into a bucket of fried chicken.
Who cares what it looks like?
I have tested 7 netbooks/mini-notebooks over the last seven months and clearly see the inherent plusses and minuses of the design. I believe that we need two distict designs to address the needs, not one size fits all. We need two designs to address the market need.
I cover it here in my blog: http://blogs.am...ad/default.aspx
I’m typing this on a netbook:
1) You are completely right about the keyboard. However, I think this can be pretty much fixed on a 10″ netbook. Focus on giving the keys that people actually use as much space as possible and putting them in the right place.
2) The vertical resolution issue is a joke. Proper software (i.e. full-screen browsing) makes the browsing experience on the netbook far superior to that of an iPhone. The HP mini note, for instance, has a vertical resolution of 768, a feature we’re probably going to see more and more frequently in new netbooks.
3) A stripped down version of linux accomplishes what you are asking for regarding taking the focus off the OS and put it on the browsing experience.
4) I certainly didn’t get mine to replace my primary computer. I still have a desktop for all the hard stuff (managing my music, transcoding and storing video, pictures, etc), but I got it as a ridiculously small and lightweight machine to travel with, use as a couch computer, and remote into work to troubleshoot issues. It serves those purposes perfectly and I expect it to for at least 2 years.
I personally just want to see more laptops without an internal optical drive and that have a 12-13″ screen. I want it to have good battery life and not weigh a lot, just a simple machine. It doesn’t bother me if the RAM is soldered right onto the machine either, but I should be able to choose how much I want because if I’m not going to be able to change it, it needs to be enough for 4-5 years of comfortable use.
When I say “netbook”, that’s what I envision. I don’t know why you’d want it to be any smaller.
I got a Asus EEEPC 900 at Target for $349 for my wife who will be traveling abroad. I’ve been testing it for a few weeks and I must say that it’s not that bad. Sure it’s slow but I’m able to RDM into my work machine without any issues. Just using the netbook around work, I sold about 5 of them to my female co-workers. I was stopped in hallways like a had a cute little puppy. They don’t need all high powered machines guys need to do “guy” things. Chat, email, Word, and surf. That’s all that matters. For something that can fit in a purse, it’s an obvious choice. I’ll be gettiing a Fujitsu U820 soon.
Of course they don’t need those high-powered ie heavy machines to for those “guy” things; *they* have their high-powered brains to keep them from imagining that a) bigger is better, b) lugging a heavy laptop around makes you look any stronger or cooler, or c) that porn would sound way better with the larger screen, graphics card, and better speakers. High-powered guy things, indeed.
This review is comparing apples to pears. But they are different. Some people like pears, some like apples. You on the other hand try to make apple strudle from pears.
I’m curious as to what netbook you were running Vista on – I’ve had Vista business running on my Acer Aspire for a few weeks now, and it seems to be running fine. Perhaps it was bad drivers?
I own an Asus 1000H and now 9 of my friends have bought the same unit after trying mine out. I upgraded the ram which made a significant difference in function….and find it indispensable when travelling. I have no problem with the keyboard ( granted..female hands..not huge dude ones) and the 10 inch screen is VERY readable. I throw this into a small lunchbag with a slingblade portable mouse and all works great, including the built in camera. Going through airports is a breeze with it and again, the weight is nothing and the battery has a very long life. I’ve loaded all my programming software into it…no problem running it in XP. Then..when you consider the price…its a steal compared to a full size laptop. I use it to manage my business, sites for universities when travelling..so it does a lot more than “gal” things! If it got any bigger…I might as well have a standard laptop..so the “couch” concept works and the travel….good enough for me for those purposes.