Showing posts sorted by relevance for query NC10. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query NC10. Sort by date Show all posts

## Saturday, January 17, 2009

### Bluetooth for Aspire One A150, Samsung NC10, Medion Akoya Mini E1210 netbooks

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UPDATE: Netbook and Bluetooth - Integrated vs USB Dongle
Please go directly to the newest post, since t he Bluetooth dongle suggested in this post may have major software problems!
You want to buy the netbook that best fits you (e.g. using the netbook features database),
you are close to buy a top class netbook/mini laptop, such as the Samsung NC10, the Acer Aspire A150 or the Medion Akoya Mini E1210 when you see that it is missing a Bluetooth interface. What to do? You really need Bluetooth in the netbook to synchronize the mobile phone calendar or just to listen to music!
My suggestion: Bluetooth support in the netbook shouldn't be a go/not go criteria, you can simply add Bluetooth support using a Bluetooth USB dongle, there are many starting just below $10 (USD) and some of them are so tiny that you even won't see it.
This micro USB Bluetooth adapter simply disappears in the USB port of your netbook, so you can plug it once and forget it. You won't notice it! No damage to break it!
The Samsung NC10 or the Acer Aspire A150 got 3 USB ports so you'll have "just" two USB ports left, however it is far enough for 99% of us!
(At the time of writing) Beside the mentioned one, many other netbooks aren't equipped with a Bluetooth port: the HP MiniNote 2133, Acer Aspire A110, Fukato Jupiter, Lenovo Ideapad S9/S10, Fujitsu Amilo Mini Ui3520, Gigabyte M912, EEE PC 700/701/900/901. So if you really like the netbook however you miss Bluetooth, just buy an USB dongle/adapter!
Important! Installing a Bluetooth USB dongle/adapter is matter of minutes with Windows XP, for a Linux netbook the installation is a bit more complex and you need a minimal linux experience, look here for instructions on EEE PC (mostly similar for other netbooks).
UPDATE: Netbook and Bluetooth - Integrated vs USB Dongle
Please go directly to the newest post, since t he Bluetooth dongle suggested in this post may have major software problems!
Remember that using the EEE Journal Netbook database helps find your dream netbook, with or without Bluetooth and refining the search with many other paramenters (operating system, size, battery, etc...)
http://www.eeejournal.com/2008/12/netbook-feature-database.html

## Friday, December 18, 2009

### Best Pink Netbook: EEE PC, HP Mini, Samsung NC10, Toshiba NB205

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Most of the netbooks are sold in only few colors: black, white, gray and blue.
You want a pink netbook? No problem! My favourite is the HP Mini 110-1037NR in any case here you'll find a selection of the best pink netbooks: all with high capacity battery and good feature set.

- Asus EEE PC Seashell 1005HA-MU17-PI for $329 (Windows 7), one of the rare netbooks with matte display (a luxus nowadays!). With 250GB hard drive
- Toshiba Mini NB205-N313/P for $360, (Windows XP), 160GB hard drive
- HP Mini 110-1037NR for $430 (Windows XP), 160GB hard drive
- Samsung NC10-13P for $365 (Windows XP), also with matte display, 160GB hard drive

If you just want to have a pink netbook and must be very cheap, the only choice you have is the Acer Aspire One AOD250-1962 for $290: a decent netbook, pink and sub 300 dollars. The major difference from the other pink netbooks listed above is the smaller battery, you won't get more than 2 hours battery life.
Here a bigger list of all pink netbooks available at Amazon.com

## Wednesday, February 3, 2010

### Netbook Deals 2010 with Intel Atom N450 and N270

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2010 started with an invasion of netbook deals: excellent netbooks with Atom N270 and N280 are sold below 300 dollars (see end of the post) and many of the Atom N450 (Pineview) netbooks got relatively low prices..
Asus started first flooding the online shops with many Atom N450 models and I got the impression that the new EEE PC netbooks with Atom N450 got a lower average selling price: most Asus EEE PC Seashell models are available for well under 400 dollars, actually the Seashell 1001P is even below 300 dollars. I found only one premium model above 400 dollars (Karim Rashid collection).

- EEE PC Seashell 1005PE for $367.97
- EEE PC Seashell 1001P for $299.00

Beside Asus EEE PCs, also MSI started early shipping MSI Wind U135 with Atom N450, the models with small battery are sold for around 300 dollars. I strongly recommend the MSI Wind U135 with high capacity battery for just 20 bucks more.
As mentioned above, many deals are available especially for N270 and N280 netbooks. Top netbooks below 300 dollars

- EEE PC 1005HA, for $299.99
- Dell Inspiron Mini 1011 (10v), for $297.69
- Samsung NC10, for $284.99

## Saturday, December 12, 2009

### Best Netbook with Matte Display (and for outdoor usage)

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If you are in a hurry: these are the netbooks with matte display that I suggest, see also below the description

Be careful when buying a netbook: consider the fact that most of the netbooks are shipped with glossy/glare display, many people find it annoying (me for example) and prefer a matte display. This is especially important if you plant to use the netbook outdoor or in conditions of brigth sun.

#### Glare vs matte display in a nutshell

Glossy/glare displays got nicer crisps images, in fact matte display got an additional non-reflecting layer that tends to make the image a bit softer. On the other hand the big advantage of the matte displays is that they don't reflect your image.
The reflections on glare displays can be very annoying (and let the image disappear) outdoor and/or with direct light source from the backside. In order to "reduce" this annoying effect the glare displays must be very bright (more than 200cd/m2).

#### Best netbooks with matte display

As far as I know all 10-inch Samsung netbooks got a non-glare (Matte) display.
I personally think that Samsung buils the best netbooks: if you want to have a good netbook with matte display you can't be wrong with a Samsung, for example the NC10 models are among the best netbooks available today
You must pay attention with Asus netbooks since only part of the EEE PC netbooks got a matte display, you have to search for...

- The new EEE PC 1005HA ("normal" and Seashell) line got few models with matte display, namely all EEE PC 1005HA-M models. Older Asus EEE PC 1000 and 1000HE models got also a Matte display.
- "Family issue": the display of all Asus EEE PCs isn't that brigth, actually is rather dark. This can be changed by software, the eeectl utility allow you enhance the display brigthness to excellent values. Of course this is not covered by Asus guarrantee...

## Saturday, September 19, 2009

### Cheap Netbooks: Mini 10v vs EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

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Finally the market offers real netbooks, I mean really cheap tiny laptops (max 1.3kg) with decent battery life (6 or more hours), good keyboard, enough display and processor power, enough for casual and mobile usage.
For less than 300 USD you have the chooce between Dell Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011), Asus EEE PC 1005HA and Acer Aspire One AOD150. If you want to spend 50 bucks more than the Samsung NC10 is probably the best choice, especially for the nice keyboard.
Until few months ago you had to spend 400+ dollars for a decent netbook, now we finally got below 300 dollars. This is what I consider a netbook price level.
Mini 10v vs EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

- Processor: almost no difference, the EEE PC 1005HA is equipped with the new Atom N280 while Mini 10v and One AOD150 use the Atom N270.
- Noise: the Mini 10v is absolutely silent, I guess fanless; the EEE PC and Aspire One tend to be a bit louder under full load, nothing really annoying.
- Display: the 10-inch display of the EEE PC isn't as brigth as Mini 10v and Aspire One AOD150, in any case eeectl can help... at your own risk of course!
- Keyboard: Mini 10v and EEE PC 1005HA got a very good keyboard, 92% of full size keys, the Aspire One got slighty smaller keys.
- Touchpad: the EEE PC got a multitouch touchpad, nothing to say for Aspire One; I really hate the touchpad of the Mini 10v.
- Wifi: The EEE PC got the faster 802.11n (draft), while Mini 10v and Aspire One have only 802.11b/g.
- Battery: for the 300 dollars class the EEE PC 1005HA got a 8,5h battery life vs about 6,5 battery life for the other two netbooks with 6-cells battery. Be careful since Mini 10v and Aspire One AOD150 are also sold with 3-cells, giving you about 3h of battery life.
- Size, weight and remaining features are very similar: 1GB DDR memory, 160GB hard disk, Windows XP, 1.3megapixel webcam, SD-card slot, 3xUSB

My bottom line: if you want the most featured netbook for 300 dollars, take definetly the EEE PC 1005HA you won't be disappointed.
If you really need an absolutely silent netbook the Dell Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011) is the netbook for you!
The absolute topseller in the past 2 months is the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 10.5 Hour Battery Life for about 350 USD.

## Saturday, June 27, 2009

### Windows 7 Discount Sale - Screaming Deal - Netbook Operating System

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Unbelievable: you can grab up to 3 Windows 7 licences with over 50% discount, no joke!!!
Dear friends, no matter whether you own a netbook, a laptop or a normal deskop/tower pc. You got the chance to get a Windows 7 Home Premium licence for just $50 (USD) at Amazon or a Windows 7 Professional for just $100 (USD) hurry up since the offer is valid only until July 11th (2009) ”or while supplies last” for U.S., Canada and Japan (start on July 5th).
No joke! Today Microsoft started the so called "screaming deal", you can preorder a copy of Windows 7 update for less than half of the price, unbelievable!
Just to let you understand how much you can save with the pre-order, this is the regular price starting October 2009:

Windows 7 Edition | Upgrade | Full license
Home Premium | $120 | $200
Professional | $200 | $300
Ultimate | $220 | $320

Again: for a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade you save over 50%, you pay just $50!!
A similar offer will be available in the next few weeks in Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany), starting July 15th.
I already installed a copy of Windows 7 RC1, it is fantastic. My feeling is that Windows 7 is much more responsive and quick than Vista. The net is full of videos of netbook (EEE PC, MSI Wind and Samsung NC10) running the Windows 7 beta, the performance level is about the same that you get with Windows XP.
When looking at the Windows 7 offer, I just saw that Office 2007 Home and Student got to really cheap level, below $80 USD.

### Netbook on the Beach/Outdoor: Display Glare vs Matt

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UPDATE: I created an updated list of best netbooks with matte display
Do you want to use your netbook outdoor? On the beach? Do you wear white shirts?
Be careful with the display type you got: there are basically two types of displays out there.
The "traditional" matte displays and glossy (also called glare) displays.
Glossy displays are said to provide better color intensity and contrast ratios than those with a matte finish. The primary disadvantage of these displays is their tendency to reflect any external light, often resulting in an undesirable glare.
Effect that you don't have with matte displays: while matte displays distribute the reflected light across a large area, glare displays tend to reflect the light source as is.
My rule of thumb: if you use a netbook primarily outdoor, get a netbook with a matte display with a brightness exceeding 160 cd/m2, better if 200 cd/m2 or more. Glare displays are still ok if they have a very good brigthness (200 cd/m2 or more).
It means that the best netbook for the beach (IMHO) are currently:
All MSI Wind, Akoya E1210 and E1211, Samsung NC10, HP Mininote.
Unfortunately the EEE PC tend to have a very dark display, so you won't have much fun outdoor/on the beach.
One very important note: the netbooks that I mentioned above aren't ruggered, it means that they aren't build to be protected from water, dust, sand, dirt, snow and extreme temperatures. For this reason I would never bring my netbook on the beach, it would dramatically reduce its lifetime!!!
Bottom line: handle your netbook with care.
UPDATE: I created an updated list of best netbooks with matte display

## Saturday, March 28, 2009

### DVD burner for EEE PC and any netbook, why not?

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In a world with Internet flat rates, tons of gigabytes in hard disks, USB memory sticks and flash cards you don't have to burn DVD so frequently. However especially if you aren't a power user a DVD player/burner is an essential piece of hardware. DVD are especially handy to back up and restore the hard disk, not to speak about playing out music/movies from your private CD/DVD collection.
Netbooks and subnotebooks typically miss a DVD burner, especially for space reasons. The EEE PCs are not an exception. The new Asus SDRW-08D1S-U DVD records on 8X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-R and 5X DVD-RAM and access 8X DVD-ROM and 5X DVD-RAM formats. While obviously designed with the EEE PC in mind, the Asus DVD burner can be used on MSI Wind, Samsung NC10 or any other netbook. You just plug it to the USB port(s), while for the player functionality you don't need of installing any software, for burning DVDs you typically need some software. Asus ships the burner in bundle with Cyberlink Power2Go 6 LE.

## Sunday, February 1, 2009

### Netbook Processors and Operating Systems for 2009-2010

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Relevant posts

- posts on Apple / Leopard OS on netbooks
- posts on Atom processor
- posts on VIA Nano processor
- posts on dual core processors for netbooks

Netbooks/mini laptops represent now a significant part of the overall IT market, million unit of EEE PC, Aspire One, Samsung NC10 and MSI Wind were sold in weeks.
The netbook race started and in the next 6months to one year we'll see new processors and I bet also the first Android netbooks. The figure shows a possible scenario of operating systems and processors used in netbooks for 2009-2010.
1) Netbook processors
The vast majority of netbooks shipped today are equipped with Intel Atom processor, VIA C7 and Celeron netbooks are almost not shipped anymore.
A lot is moving in the netbook processors segment: we already saw netbooks mounting a MIPS processor, the first VIA Nano netbooks are coming in weeks and a bunch of ARM based netbooks are under development (see below). Voices say that also Apple is developing an own processor (ARM based).
Available Netbook Processors

- Intel Celeron, Atom, Core
- AMD Geode
- VIA Nano, C7
- Ingenic JZ4740 (MIPS based)

Netbook Processors 2009-2010

- x86 compatible: Intel Atom (single and dual core), Intel Core, VIA Nano (single and dual core), AMD Neo, Godson 3 (?)
- ARM based: Qualcomm Snapdragon, Freescale i.MX515, ZiiLabs ZMS-05, Apple (?)
- MIPS based: Ingenic JZ4740, Godson 3(?)

To be noted that Godson 3 processor is built on top of MIPS cores however implements x86 compatibility.
2) Netbook operating systems
While Microsoft Windows well supports x86 compatible processors, ARM and MIPS based processors aren't supported by Windows XP/Vista/7 and I don't think that the situation will change very soon unless ARM and MIPS processors will get a big success in the netbook market. It is also true that ARM and MIPS are already supported by Windows Mobile, however I don't think that Microsoft will let Windows Mobile and Windows 7 compete in the netbook segment.
In any case ARM and MIPS are omnipresent in portable devices and got a very good Linux support.
The Linux community is very active, the first netbook optimized distributions are coming our (e.g. Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Intel Moblin 2)
Google Android targets mobile devices (e.g. mobile phone), nevertheless I don't see a reason why not to use Android on netbooks as well. It means that the effort spent to port Android on ARM and MIPS platforms may enable an easy porting of Android on ARM and MIPS netbooks.
Apple excuse for not entering the netbook market is that actual netbook processors don't offer enough performance. Apple is waiting for next generation of netbook processors (or his own processor) to present the first "iNetbook" of course running MAC OS / Leopard.
Relevant posts

- posts on Apple / Leopard OS on netbooks
- posts on Atom processor
- posts on VIA Nano processor
- posts on dual core processors for netbooks

## Wednesday, December 17, 2008

### Netbook features database: find best netbook for you!

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I've updated my netbook/mini-laptop/mini-notebook comparison table with many more models and details, it can be a great help to find the best netbook for you!
I called it "netbook database" with many details/features about the most important netbooks/mini laptops actually on sale and especially some filter criterias that can help you choose the right netbook to buy.
You can search by display size, operating system, bluetooth support and battery. In the next few days I'll add more and more search criteria and especially details about performance/benchmarks.
Among others, you can currently find

- Many EEE PC 701, 900, 901, 1000, 1000H, S101, N10
- Acer Aspire One models
- MSI Wind U90 and U100
- Samsung NC10

Display class
Operating system
Bluetooth support
High capacity battery
Weight
ExpressCard
WLAN/WiFi
Link to the netbook/mini laptops database
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