Netbook Review – Acer, Asus Netbook Review

This is more of a question mark for some models than others, but its been around nigh on 2 years now and still doesn’t seem close to be being solved. The debate is sure to get hotter with the advent of two “ultra thin laptops” that fall a shade outside the 12″ netbook territory, but very much within the $600 price range.

We think that the basic notebook vs netbook question has to be looked at from performance and capabilities of a particular machine. The concept behind netbooks was to have an ultra portable device for light browsing and working on documents – and let’s face it – thats a large part of the computing public actually does. Notebooks were portable computers that did everything that a desktop PC would do. But once the netbook market got so generic, manufacturers tried to start differentiating their product with better specifications, hence better performance. And notebooks started to get smaller and cheaper as their market share was vastly enroached upon by netbooks. The end result looks something like the new offerings from ASUS and Dell. Let’s take a look.

ASUS UL30

The 13.3 inch screen, memory and hard drive space put it in the notebook realm, but the processor and graphics card drag it down into netbook territory. The specs mean that the UL30 is a great performer at everyday tasks and handles larger videos well. A core point of distinction, however is the graphics card. Whereas the UL30-A features the Intel product and retails on amazon for $649, the newer UL30-Vt has a switchable graphics package with Nvidia G210M. This is a way better graphics card, and we were able to play Call of Duty 4 with native resolution settings. This model costs $949 though and here you see the difference in capabilities. Be advised, there is no CD drive.

This is a great looking machine from ASUS and its core specs include:

• 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 processor
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• 13.3 inch HD display at 1366 x 768 resolution
• 500GB HDD
• Intel GMA 4500MHD
• 12 hours of battery life!

The ASUS UL30 aside from netbook/notebook discussion is a really nice piece of equipment and if you’re going to spend $500 plus on one of the larger sized netbooks, we’d advise you to consider the UL30 in your purchasing decision. The UL30 is available on amazon from $649-$949.

Dell Vostro V13

This one is still in the works, but Dell’s starting to put its initial model out into the public eye. This is part of the business lineup from Dell, but has got a stylish slim design. The Vostro V13 is only 0.65 inches thick and weighs a tad under 3.5lbs. We think this one is going to be a big hit with customers. It has a starting price of only $450 for the Linux version. But at $600 for Windows 7, the V13 still seems like a steal.

The Vostro V13 specs seem to be an Intel Core 2 Consumer processor, 4GB RAM, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, an integrated card reader, and battery that Dell claims lasts 5 hours. That’s all the details out at this moment.

Final Words

This is just the beginning of the end. The end, that is, of the distinction betwen netbooks and notebooks. What happens when you have full powered computing power available within the confines of a 10 inch netbook and no input size limitations (ASUS is coming up with a fold/unfold netbook as well that may eliminate keyboard size problems). It’s going to happen at some point, because that’s what we’re good at – making technology smaller and smaller. Oh they’ll be called different names for sure, but that’s mostly companies trying to stand out of the crowd. At the end of the day, we’re happy because we’ll be spoilt for choice!

Filed under: Asus Netbook Review, Dell Netbook Review, Netbook