Asus is re-designing their netbook line from the “seashell”-inspired design to the “flare” which will still feature the island-style keyboard with the flat keys. But unlike the old seashell, this will have a slightly raised palm rest area.

This design has already been used in the Asus Eee PC X101 MeeGo netbook but will also be used in the upcoming versions of the 10″ Asus Eee PC 1025 and and the 12″ Asus Eee PC 1225. The two new netbooks will also have full-sized keyboards, with the 1225B running AMD Fusion and the 1225C coming with Cedar Trail.

With the older seashell design in the Eee PC series, the netbooks are wider and curved in the back than in front. The new netbooks will most likely appear at the Cosumer Electronics Show happening next week.

SOURCE: Notebook Italia

The Lenovo IdeaPad S110 isn’t the only netbook coming with the new Intel Cedar Trail processor. Acer is also going to be releasing one, the Acer Aspire One D270 (AOD270) that will come with the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N2600 processor.

There’s little to be said about the new netbook but it’s supposed to come with a 10.1″ screen, 1GB of RAM and 320GB hard drive as well as Hyperthreading and a 400MHz embedded graphics core.

This will be Acer’s first Cedar Trail netbook.

Pricing is €250 ($324 US) for a 3-cell model and €269 ($348 US) for a 6-cell model.

Stay tuned!

SOURCE: Netbook News

[Rating:6.5/7] Here’s why.

Features and Drawbacks

• Elegant design – Yes. It’s been blessed with the same beautiful lines of every Seashell netbook which makes it familiar and comfortable. It has a matte plastic chassis. The lid color extends all the way to the palm rest below the chiclet-style keys. What I like about the Asus design is that the battery is nearly flush with the machine and doesn’t stick out the way other netbook battery does.

• Very good matte screen – The Asus Eee PC 1015PEM has a 10.1″, 1024 x 600 pixel matte display. The colors remain sharp and vibrant even if you move the screen around. Pics and videos show clear details.

• Good keyboard if too small keys The netbook has a chiclet-style keyboard which is pretty comfortable and solid to type on except that the keys are a little smaller than usual. The right Shift key is positively tiny. Definitely needs a little getting used to but not bad to use. The touchpad is better, a spacious 3.0″ x 1.6″ space with the same finish as the palm rest. It was also responsive and accurate. The mouse button bar is a long silver bar underneath the touchpad.

• Speakers are good too. – Not great. You won’t expect to hear theater-quality sound but the speakers on the 1015PEM is pretty good. You can play music at full volume without the sound cracking. And you don’t have to use full volume to be able to hear the music from across the room.

• Above average performance – The Asus Eee PC 1015PEM is one of the first dual-core N550 netbooks and looks like it’s one of the best attempts too. Benchmark scores are high, and shows significant improvement over single-core netbooks. As a matter of fact, it scored better than another dual-core netbook, the Acer Aspire D255. The processor is faster than the average netbook, with transfer speeds even better than the Eee PC 1215N. That goes to show that the Eee PC 1015PEM can handle all your computing needs pretty much at the same time without suffering a stroke.

• Found the graphics a little lacking – While the screen shows great colors and the sounds are fine, the graphics chip isn’t as impressive. HD YouTube vids didn’t play very well, and hitched every now and then. Looks like the dual-core processor doesn’t really help the Intel GMA 3150 graphics chip.

• Impressive battery – Battery life lasted as long as 8 hours on a single charge. It’s a 6-cell battery which averages at 6 hours, 30 minutes.

Rating – 6.5/7

Value for Money – 1
Speed and Performance – 1
Screen – 1
Keyboard – 1
Portability & Battery Life – 1
Looks and Design – 1
Extensibility & connectivity – 0.5

Technical Specifications

• Intel Atom Dual Core N550 processor
• 1GB DDR3 RAM, 1 SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max
• Intel GMA 3150 graphics
• 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) + 500GB Free Web Storage
• 10.1″ 1024X600 WSVGA Matte Finish LED Display
• 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth 3.0
• 13 Hours of Battery Life
• Windows 7 Starter Operating System (32 bit)
• 0.3MP Webcam; Chiclet Keyboard

Bottomline
Good choice, good choice, good choice. And did I say that the Asus Eee PC 1015PEM is a good choice? It comes with a dual-core processor, good looks and a long battery life. Only drawbacks are the smaller than usual keys and less than stellar video playback, but it performs very well for a very long time. And for $368.59, it’s definitely a good choice. Available in black, blue, red and white.

NEC has just introduced their own 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550-ran netbook, the NEC LaVie Light BL550, in Japan.

Here are the specs:

• 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel HD display
• 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 dual core CPU
• 2GB memory
• 320GB hard drive
• Windows 7 Home Premium

It also comes with SDXC support and WiMax but no Optimus technology. Premium specs mean premium price. The netbook is expected to sell for ¥85,000, or a little over $1000 US. Even if netbooks generally get lower prices once they hit the US shores, this one is still high-priced.

NEC will also introduce the LaVie Bright BL350 which will have lower specs: a 1.83GHz Intel Atom N475 CPU, 1GB of memory, 250Gb hard drive and Windows 7 Starter. It still won’t come cheap at ¥70,000 ($800+ US).

SOURCE: PC Watch

[Rating:5/7]

Features and Drawbacks

• Beautiful design, no fingerprint smudges – I don’t know about you, but I like my netbooks neat and smudge-free. It definitely is smudge-free with the black, textured lid. It has a black keyboard over a gunmetal gray strip. It also has all its ports tucked neatly on the sides.

• Full-sized keyboard, tiny touchpad. – The keyboard on this ultraportable is a joy to use. It was easy to get on normal typing speed, and the Shift and Enter keys were large and easy to find. The touchpad was a bit too small, but then I’d still rather use a mouse anyway. However, the left and right buttons were responsive and easy to use.

• Has one of the best screens ever put on a netbook – The Acer Aspire One 721 has an 11.6″ screen with 1366 x 768 screen resolution, and the pictures are bright and crisp. Details on videos were also very clear especially HD videos. Audio quality is also very good, although you have to put it on a flat surface. The speakers can be found underneath the front part of the chassis. Of course sound gets muffled if you put the netbook on your lap or on top of a pillow.

• Faster than a speeding netbook – Well, not really. It has a single-core AMD Athlon Neo processor and 2GB RAM, and it IS faster than you typical Atom-powered netbook. Of course, dual core netbooks are coming up and about so you can expect the Acer Aspire One 721 to go lower in the food chain as time goes by, but for now, this one works just fine. It doesn’t choke up on most tasks such as multiple tabs on Firefox with iTunes running, a document open and Plants vs Zombies waiting in the background. Of course, adding other tasks such as watching a video or streaming music adds to the strain and makes it slow down a little.

• Speaking of videos… – This baby has an ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics cards which is why you can actually get some decent game time with World of Warcraft in it if you have a mind to. Again, of course, there are other netbooks with Nvidia Ion 2 graphics than can easily outplay the Acer Aspire One 721 but still, you can’t just push this one aside. Streaming videos at 720p isn’t a problem, but you might get a little stutter with a 1080p. Playback wouldn’t be a problem if you download the vid first.

• Aweful battery life – With other netbooks lasting for a whopping 9 hours on a single charge, the 3 hour battery life of the Aspire One 721′s six-cell battery is pathetic, making it not nearly as portable enough as it should be. You will definitely need to bring along the adaptor and be sure to sit near a power outlet if you’re using it out and about.

Rating – 5.5/7

Value for Money – 0.5
Speed and Performance – 1
Screen – 1
Keyboard – 1
Portability & Battery Life – 0.0
Looks and Design – 1
Extensibility & connectivity – 1

Technical Specifications

• 11.6-inch LED-backlit screen (1366 x 768 resolution)
• 1.7 GHz AMD Athlon II Neo single-core processor K125 (2 MB L2 cache
• ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics card
• 250 GB SATA hard drive (5400 RPM)
• 1 GB of installed DDR3 RAM
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• 84-key, full-sized Acer FineTip keyboard
• 1.3-megapixel Crystal Eye webcam
• Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking capability, Bluetooth 3.0

Bottomline
I’d love the low price and the screen and the awesome keyboard, I think the low battery life of this netbook will definitely discourage people from choosing it over some other more expensive machine, because there are definitely better options out there. Newer machines are coming out with faster CPUs and longer battery life which can give a user the same, if not better, performance than the Acer Aspire One 721, especially if we’re going to stay within the sub-$500 price range. You might want to look elsewhere, for example the at the ASUS Eee PC 1201PN? Or the newer Asus Eee PC 1215N? The extra cash you’d fork out will definitely be worth it in the long run.

For my Christmas Wish List, I’ve decided to choose one netbook and stick with it. No second thoughts, no hard feelings. None. To do that, I have to narrow down my list.

1) Acer Aspire 1410
It’s a reasonably sized 11.6″ netbook with a 1.4GHz Intel Core2 Solo ULV SU3500 Processor, 2048MB DDR2 667MHz Memory, 250GB SATA Hard Drive, an almost full-sized keyboard and a 6-cell battery that can go on for as long as 6 hours.



The processor is a huge selling point for me as well as the keyboard. I’m a little iffy about the six-hour battery since a lot of other netbooks can go longer than that but still. It’s a good deal. It’s practically a notebook in a netbook’s body for $439.99.

2) Asus Eee PC 1005HA-P
The perennial (so far) number one on the Amazon’s Bestseller’s List. Intel Atom N280 Processor 1.66GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1 x SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM) and 10GB Free Eee Storage with a 10.5-hour battery for $354.99? It’s easy to see why.



I love the idea of the 10.5-hour battery (of course, in the real world it doesn’t last THAT long, but still…) even though it’s a little heavy. But what did Sam Witwicky’s (Transformers) grandfather say? No sacrifice, no victory? Besides, it looks like it’s THE best netbook currently available, not only in the Eee PC line but over all.

3) Samsung Go
1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1GB DD2R RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, Windows XP Home, Up to 9 Hours of Battery Life (6 Cell 8850mAh), 10.1″ wide LED-backlit LCD display with a rubberized chassis that sets it apart from the other netbooks.



I have a special fondness for the Samsung Go. Maybe it’s because it looks different with the rubberized lid and looks very durable, considering that I have butterfingers. It has decent (ha! 8.5 is just “decent”?) battery life and a 94% keyboard. Also, it’s a very, very good netbook.

After going through a lot of netbooks and netbook reviews, I’ve finally resigned myself to the fact that netbooks will only get better and better and no matter what netbook you get, you’ll end up wishing you waited for the next one to come out. But that’s not an excuse to be happy with the one you’ve got. How about you? Which is your next netbook?

This article was written using Google Docs running on Google Chrome.

Aren’t we seeing too much of Google in an article posted on a netbook site? Wait ’til you’ve read one where I’ll throw in Google Android into the mix. But that will have to wait. Today, we talk about Google Docs.

Google Docs was not made primarily for netbooks. It is supposed to be a web application that simplifies collaboration when working on typical office applications like word processors, spread sheets, and presentations.

But then again, since netbooks are selling like hotcakes, chances are the person whom you’ll be doing collaborative work with is already using one.

Picture yourself leading a team of writers scattered across the globe. Now, at a certain point, you’re thinking of coming up with a feature series made up of 10 closely related articles complete with images and drawings. I don’t know how you’d normally do it but here’s how you could using Google Docs.

Create a new file, hammer down a raw outline, then share it with writers who’ll be doing the project with you. Let’s assume that you instructed them to put in suggestions in the sections specifically assigned to them. Let’s also assume that you’re initially working from the comfort of your home.

So your writers, say 5 of them, each receive emails notifying them of the shared document. They promptly open the document and check out the sections assigned to them. Of course, they can see the other portions that are not assigned to them. Notice that they’ll be looking at the same document at the same time.

Now, right after you’ve shared them the doc, you decide to have some refreshments at a local cafe. So, you grab your netbook and head straight to the place. Once there, you flip open your netbook, log into your Google Docs account and open the file. At this point, you’re now ‘simultaneous viewer’ number 6.

As you scroll down the file, you see the different portions come alive as your writers pour in their thoughts. (Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. More often than not, you’ll have to save the file from your end or refresh the browser to see the changes take place.).

You feel that some of the initial inputs warrant comments from you so you add a few lines too. Likewise, all your writers are going to see the changes and your comments as well.

In the days that follow, you continue building up the series with text, images, and drawings. All of these will be done on a SINGLE DOCUMENT. Past revisions are automatically saved, allowing you to revert to them if needed. Also, since you don’t want to stay put in one place (and neither do your remote writers), you’ll be working from different places (beach, restaurant, pool, cafe, park, office, home, etc.) every day.

So why is a netbook the perfect device for the this application?

1. Because you really don’t need a full notebook to do the tasks mentioned earlier. and
2. Because only a netbook will allow you to do all these for an extended period.

Imagine having to go to the beach with a regular notebook.

In early 2009 netbooks are the only personal computers that are seeing sale increases (laptops and desktop sales have been declining). 

Netbooks are significantly cheaper than regular notebooks. They’re portable, equipped with a decent memory for storage and can perform basic computer applications such as web-browsing and e-mailing.

The question is – What would be Your perfect netbook? Here’s mine -

My Perfect Netbook

Now, having said all that, what would, in my opinion, make a perfect netbook?

Price less than $500

To begin with, price tops my wish-list in selecting a netbook. It should have a good system utility similar to a regular notebook sans the multimedia devices and space-encroaching applications. Thanks to cloud computing, I can live without a lot of software that takes up hard drive space. A good netbook shouldn’t be over $500. Although, I am willing to compromise on the price for a particularly beneficial feature like 2GB or more memory or an optical drive.

10″ High Resolution Display

The Eee PC 1000 series boast a 10.2″ wide screen display and 1024 by 600 resolution and that’s just perfect for portability. I remember my first netbook that had a measly 7″ display screen and 800 by 400 LCD panel. In a span of one year, netbooks have improved hugely in the screen size and resolution department.

HP’s mini-note is by far the best in the display screen department with their 1280 by 768 resolution. Since progress is moving faster than expected, I am hoping for a better LCD resolution in the coming months. The extra pixels would be a plus.

Near Full Size Keyboard

My perfect netbook has plenty of room for a decent keyboard. The keypads are not all cramped up, not spilling over to the sides and no letters falling off whenever I’m typing real fast. The netbook’s keyboard should accomodate my long fingers and also provide support for my huge hands while I’m typing. As it is, the netbook’s miniature form makes fast, accurate typing close to impossible but I’ve found HP’s mini-note keyboard easy  to use – comfortable and it didn’t tire out my fingers from typing a long essay. But it still has room for improvement — a sturdier keyboard is always welcome.

Also, its great to hear that Samsung have fit in a full-size keyboard onto their N120 netbook. A step in the right direction.

Fast, Powerful Processor

The CPU should be fast enough to perform basic computer tasks. My first netbook ran on VIA C7-M with 1GB DDR2 667 SO-DIMM and comparing that with Intel’s Atom platform, I prefer the latter for speedier processing. Memory should be 1 GB minimum although stepping it up to a 2GB configuration works better for me.

8+ hrs Battery Life

Moving on to battery life, a six-cell unit battery that lasts six to eight hours is ideal. Netbooks running on four-cell unit and below mean the netbook is forever attached to a wall socket which defeats the purpose of its portability. Ideal is eight hours of battery life. Asking for ten hours might be unrealistic. I’m willing to pay for the additional cost for battery life because this feature is important especially when I’m traveling.

Some Trimmings

For the wi-fi, I can live on a 802.11b/g. It should also be bluetooth enabled in case my netbook can’t find a good wi-fi signal.

Another feature I want for my perfect netbook would be a dual-layer DVD rewriter like MSI’s Wind series. I can compromise on the added weight and slightly thicker form for this added feature.

Closing Thoughts on My Perfect Netbook

My perfect netbook  is already available in the market. It’s just that it’s not found in one netbook alone. However, at the rate netbook technology is going, all the features in my wish-list may soon be developed in one powerhouse netbook.

1. LG is going to enter the US netbook market with its LG X110 netbook – probably in June or July 2009. My thoughts on the LG X110.
2. At the CeBit conference in Hanover, Germany Asus launched a few new models including the sleek, thin Asus EeePC 1008HA and the Asus T91.
3. Always Innovating is launching their ‘Touch Book’ touch screen netbook.
4. Windows now has over 90% share of the netbooks market.
5. Gartner is forecasting that 21 million netbooks will be sold this year, up from 11.7 million last year. Other analysts are quoting figures as high as 35 million.
6. Microsoft is developing an Office version that will work with netbooks. Windows 7 already runs great on netbooks, and after using Windows XP to beat out Linux, its no surprise that Microsoft is looking to expand Office to netbooks. Stephen Elop from Microsoft had this to say -
   

   There are new ways to package and monetize SKUs that are unique to the netbook market. From the Office perspective if someone is spending just a few hundred dollars on a netbook, how much will they spend on productivity software?”

7. Intel has new plans for its Atom processor -
   

   … versions of Atom which power in-car infotainment systems, VoIP phones, and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), those handheld browsers which are the x86 functional equivalent of iPod Touches

8. Averatec is targeting the netbook market.
9. MSI demo’ed a new instant-on OS called Winki that it’ll be shipping in a MSI Wind netbook.
10. Kingston announced advanced 2GB memory modules for netbooks. The module will cost just $35.
11. Google CEO Eric Schmidt says Google might subsidize netbooks in the future. Obviously, he doesn’t know that 90% of netbooks now ship with Windows.

A lot of interesting news and updates surrounding netbooks, and I’ll get back to you when there’s more netbook goodness to share.