[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Netbook Evolution: 22 Netbooks in 18 Months here

[MleB]

Typo with the ASUS EeePC 701 - its cost was $399, not $499 - and yes, it was that price (and the discovery by Linux nerds that underneath ASUS' Easy Desktop lived a real Distro and Desktop)that attracted me (and many others) to it as a truly portable notebook.
I've since looked at 'upgrading'. But, to my mind, $399 remains the upper watermark as far as price is concerned, while in upgrading to the more recent - and larger - models, one loses out on the size and weight advantages that made the 701 so attractive in the first place.

[gmoneyjie]

$899 for Asus Eee PC 1000HE??? That must be an error or the price list you were looking at is a couple of years outdated. It retails for for $400 and can easily be had for $350+. Even PCWorld's own 1000HE review(http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/46518/review/eeepc1000he.html)list the product at $400 on Feb, 9th 2009.

Also, the atom N280 processor comes standard on the 1000HE.

[bend]

Ummm, you got the price on the MSI Wind 120 wrong. Amazon has the 120 for $330, not the listed price of $545.

[janar1988]

wait a minute!! u guys have totally forgotten about the most sexiest netbook available in the market the VAIO P Series

[reor]

One thing all these photos point up is the lack of a Trackpoint on any model yet. Which is puzzling (at least from a functionality standpoint) because the Trackpoint would be ideal for these things. I have a Dell Mini, and the space below the keyboard that houses a too-small trackpad and tiny buttons, would easily hold a full-sized set of three Trackpoint buttons, with the eraser head tucked into the keyboard to control the mouse. It seems such a natural fit for this compact keyboard that I'm astonished that no one has done it. There is probably a licensing hitch somewhere, or a prohibitive cost factor.

Mine came with Ubuntu, which I liked, but now dual boots XP ('cause I need it for some work stuff, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered) and Mac OS X on a 64GB Runcore. Both operating systems (and Ubuntu before them) run fine. The keyboard criticisms of the Mini are valid, but on the road I've adjusted and the portability more than makes up for it. At home I plug in a monitor and keyboard and have a regular desktop. I don't game, so it seems plenty peppy to me. So, contrary to the dismissive tone in the photo feature about the Dell, I like it a lot and chose it after long consideration.



Nice overview of the trend, though - it really has been a mini-revolution!

[TechieXP]

Seems the Asus models are all thumbs up for the most part. I agree the Toshiba models don't look so good. Once you get to the $600 mark you may as well consider a 13 or 15 inch laptop. $600 for something so small is a bit pricey.
I system with a 4GB footprint just is to small. XP on those must really be stripped down. XP uses a 2GB footprint by default on the big boys.
Mom this is your present this year.
Smaller is better :-)

[Anysia]

I have the Aspire One 150AOA and I love it.
I disagree with having higher resolution being better. The screen might be small, but it's bright and clear, but if the text and icons were any smaller it would be difficult to read. The only thing I would like a firmware update so it could use a 2 gig chip along with the 512 built in.

[hummerzdca]

All seem to forget what helped Acer jump ahead in sales was just before Christmas '08. For $99+ a 2 year AT&T 3G account, you got the 120 GH HD, etc. I got two, and haven't been disappointed. Many forget the concept of the 'net-book', and start looking for full functionality, well, that's what LAPtops are for!

[Anysia]

That might apply if I had gotten it last year, not just last week. :D

[ivandistefano]

Hi all, you have forgotten about the Samsung NC-10-14GB (excellent choice)

[Webster]

I happen to like my Dell Mini 9, which met my criteria for a netbook:
- Cheaper than a regular laptop (I watched for a sale, then bought it with Linux, all of which brought the cost down to $215 before tax)
- Small enough to be much easier to carry than a laptop (if I want a large screen, I would just buy a laptop for the $500+ so many of these "netbooks" cost). I bought this for email and Web research when I travel, not for editing video or graphics.
- Easier to type on than a cell phone, can't expect it to be as easy to type on as a laptop unless you pay a premium. Let's see - $215 for this, or pay $300 more for a Samsung NC-10 or the HP mini that people recommend for their keyboards. I don't especially like laptop keyboards anyway -- connect a USB ergonomic external keyboard whenever I can -- so I guess I'll just save that $300 toward a full-sized laptop in the future. Or, if I traveled practically all of the time, I would invest in
- Solid-state hard drive. I like this, again for travel -- less worry about damaging a hard drive, perhaps less power use.
The "new" netbooks just don't seem to be in the same category created by ASUS -- not as economical, not as compact, but still not as full-powered as a laptop. I'm happy enough to have gotten mine cheap and compact -- even though I still have to look for the apostrophe key on the keyboard.

[CombiVerde]

We got the HP 2133 with 1.2 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, 120 GB hard drive, with Vista Home Basic. Since the bank accaunt wont accept other than windows XP, I used Vista for particioning the hard drive, and have dual reboot: either XP or Vista. I used PC-World articles as guidance (thank's, PC-World!), the one with "sorry, I forgot about Vista recovery" included: I already had noticed, but that partition we eliminated since we installed: A) XP pro SP3, and B) Vista Ultimate. Both with Office 2007, disc space not wasted with any "recovery". We installed everything via USB.

Then after driver install on both OS, no more start...called HP service, they took the MINI in garantee to fix. The Motherboard had burned out. With my CiberGurú, Teo, we received FOUR new MINI 2133, called HP sevice (they had garantee) and...their motherboards had burned out TOO! In ONE week time...

After a Month and a Half of Hell (the people attending garantee are...the worst! I have no decent words for their description) the HP company (in México) decided that since the part was not available, they offered an HP Elitebook 2530p instead...the weight factor was important in our choyce: the 2530p weights slightly LESS than the 2133! And my CiberGur said since size is a little bigger, air circulates better, so no burning!

It came with Vista: disc C, recovery and tools, partitions. Plus 2 windows XP sp2, Cd's (one in sanish) and another drvers CD. We installed XP, updated to sp3 & IE 8, works PERFECTLY! I have to say HP as a company is EXCELLENT. I hope they change the people staff at garantee service...

We have been using HP products since 1997 (windows 95 then) and I am still using a Pavilion 8241 PC. Motherboard, CPU & RAM memory updated, of course! And a DVD writer added. Now running (I am writing this Comment in it) on AMD Duron processor 1.19 GHz, 496 MB of RAM, 20 Gb hard disc, from other less older PC's...yes, old parts. Recicling is our third world game, I live in Cuernavaca, México.

Wonder if you have other reports about the MINI burning out their mother...I also noticed those "chill pads" for Minis, looks like they have two fans on them. Since new, it heated a LOT. Every one complained about it. We never used it on our human lap, only over solid flat surfaces (my CiberGuru cleans a lot of messy fluffy things fron Lap's with compressed air, because most people use them on their bed! A miracle they don't catch fire more often!)

That's all, Folks!