There is no perfect netbook.. but lets try to make it.
Continue reading..
Idea:
As all these small computers have good and bad features, we need to use the good parts of each to get the perfect Netbook.
This is my take. If you want to share yours, comment here or link to your blog post about Your Perfect Netbook.
You can only use features or parts from real netbooks..
My Perfect Netbook:
I like it small. The original Eee PC 700 was perfect for mobility. But the screen needs to be bigger. I want 8.9 inches, but not a glossy one. I would love touch screen but as there is no netbook with touch yet, i can't have it..
UPDATE: as Gigabity M912 seems to qualify as netbook, I can have touch screen ;)
The mouse pad needs to be bigger and better too. I want the one on Eee 900, with multitouch. I think it's the best mouse pad ever. But the mouse buttons need to be lighter. I don't know which one has the lightest.. I want the lightes ones. Eee 700/900 keyboard would do fine for me. 
Then the looks.. I want it to look a bit more stylish. I want Acer Aspire One's looks. Looking like the Acer but sized as the Eee 700. But all black on black. And I want the speakers on screen frame like on Acer.
Another part I want from Acer is the 3G card slot. But with the 3G card of course! from LG as it has GPS too. I would take the bluetooth from Amilo Mini.
I want more accessible slots too. Just like on Eee 901. I want to be able to upgrade stuff easily.
I have to go with SSD. I have broken too many HDDs on my mobile computers. The biggest and fastest righ now is on Eee 1000 .. it's 8GB. It's ok for my needs. XP fits fine.. yep, I would take XP Home as XP pro is not available on any netbook.
CPU. We have Atom, Celly and VIA C7.. I want Atom. And I want it with the Asus over and under clocking software.. with the button. Yeah buttons! I want button/swich like on HP 2133 to enable/disable wireless. Wifi card would be from 901 as it's b/g/n.
I want the webcam and mics ( dual array ) from 901.. or maybe webcam from Amilo Mini as it has auto focus.
I need good battery life but i want to keep it small and light. So it needs to be 4 cell. Best ones are on Eee 900 USA versions ( 5800mAh @ 7.4V ), It would give me 5 hours.
So the full specs would be:
8.9 inch 1024 * 600 touch screen
Intel Atom at 1.6Ghz
1GB RAM
8GB SSD
1.3 Mpix auto focus webcam with dual array mics
Ethernet, Wifi, bluetooth, GPS and 3G HSPA
3 * USB, SD card slot, VGA out, mic/headset port
Stereo spekers on the screen frame
Multi touch mouse pad
5 hour 4 cell 5800mAh battery
225 mm * 165 mm * 35 mm 920g
Matt Black
XP Home
I would pay $700 to $800 for it.
Am I forgetting something?
Hmm.. just remembered that I want keyboard light too.. but none has it? ( typing in a dark balcony.. )
So how about you?
Link to your blog post or comment here.. or do both.
Links to others perfect netbooks:
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Friday, August 29, 2008
Make the perfect netbook.. from other netbooks.
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51 comments:
I think the Aspire One would be a good base to start with. It just needs a bigger/better touchpad (Eee 900), anti-glare touchscreen, smaller yet more powerful battery pack (Eee 900), better speakers (Eee), and a better webcam (Eee 901). A bigger/faster SSD that works with XP would be nice, too. The keyboard layout must stay the same with standard right shift key and arrow keys. Yes, I'd be willing to pay more than $350 for it, possibly $600 - $650 USD.
I'd pay 900 if I could install osx on it (without the usual problems with Sigmatel HDA, Intel wireless ABG, etc.) Since STEVE is NOT hearing, I hope Dell, MSI, Asus, Sony, etc., may be. It can even ship with xp for all I care.
well That is pretty much spot on what i am looking for. Unfortunately its not out there. So I will settle with the 900a with modded 3g inside. I will be doing some kinda hard drive/ ssd mod to get higher capacity or faster drive in there. I am gonna replace the .3mp camera with a better (perhaps the 1.3 mp from 900/901). The 4400mah battery is OK, but perhaps i will wait for higher capacity, or mod it myself. I can live with glossy.. white (i prefer glossy white or matte black). The 900a is a bit heavy.. but it is nice build quality, and should be lighter and sturdier than the 901.
so jkk you need an 901 with 3g and gps :) ( asus will release it soon)
jkk, your specs sound great. For me more ssd and i would buy one ;)
901 is out with size and weight..
and i dont like the looks..
Glossy finishes show scratches and fingerprints too easily and might end up looking outdated as styles change. The black finish on the first Eee PC 700 series looked nice and was pretty durable too.
I agree that SSD is the best hard drive option, and would like to see it in a single module like the 8G.
If they made a 900A with the 701's version of Galaxy Black and an 8G's SSD, they'd have my perfect netbook right there.
i haven't tried the larger versions, but i like the size of my 701. higher resolution is all i want, really. maybe 1024*600?
the celery is a little slow for me, i'd much rather something a little faster.
running 2GB ram in my 701, i can't see me ever taking less than that - it definitely helps!
size-wise, i'd like it just a touch smaller than the 701, although i could handle it being deeper if it would allow me to drop a hdd in.
speaking of which, i'd like a /fast/ ssd to run OS and main apps, and the space+ability to add hdd to gain storage space. maybe 8GB SSD [keeping it 'real'] with 1.8" [but preferably 2.5"] hdd option.
having put touch on my 701, it's something that i'd really miss going to another machine - i keep trying to touch every monitor i use...when i'm set up i usually use a mouse anyway, and when i'm on the run i only need something that can right click, really =)
style-wise, i'm not really fussy. my 701 is white, and i could handle another white machine, but these multicoloured machines are mot for me. i'd stick to black or white, i think.
i'm pretty happy with the battery in my 701 - between the over/underclocking software available and the relative ease of finding power points at uni, it's never been a problem.
i'm not above dropping some *nix flavour on it, and my 701 never booted the OS it was shipped with, so supplied OS doesn't really bother me.
so:
a touch smaller than 701
1024*600 7" screen
upgradeable ram
8GB of fast SSD, option for 2.5"/1.8" hdd
clean lines, white or black.
touch, or easy to mod =)
usable input devices - slightly larger keys than 701, simple but functional mouse/trackpad/thing.
similar battery life to 701
800-950g
$600 [base spec] - $800 [totally 'pimped']
An Everun note with the swivelling mecanism of, for example, the Gigabyte M912 at a sub USD 1000.- price would be enough for me
For me it would just be a model that sits between the EEE PC 901 and 1000, a form factor that is half way between the two sizes with a 16gb primary SLC partition SSD and a smaller 48GB MMC partition.
Please don't forget the booting ability off the sd card. Matter of fact throw in a cf slot on one side for mine please.
My perfect netbook specs:
OS: Leopard or Windows Vista Ultimate
Atom 1.6Ghz
10.2" Screen no gloss
32GB SSD much faster than the market right now
1000h keyboard on black
Bluetooth
A/B/G/N WLAN
3 USB Ports
1 HDMI Port
DVI Port
No optical Drive
Touchpad and buttons like 1000
2.0MP HD webcam
6cells 6600mhz
Matt finish
Just 3 pounds with 6cells battery
2 DDR2 slots (up to 4 GB RAM)
My Perfect Netbook:
Case: Asus Eee pc 900 all black with no gloss
Screen: 8.9" widescreen with no gloss
OS: Ubuntu 8.04
CPU: Atom 1.6ghz
RAM: 1gig
SSD: 8-32gig with 35/30(read/write)minimum
Webcam: 1.3mp
Microphone: Sterio(Dual-Channel)
Battery: 3-5 hours on light usage
Keyboard: Illuminated keys
WiFi: 802.11g
Others: 3xUSB ports, 1xVGA/DVI, 1xmemory card reader, Bluetooth, and 3G
My Perfect Netbook (this is theory isnt it)
-Raon Notebook Case/Screen
-OS: Windows XP
-CPU: Quad core Atom with TDP of 1W
-8800mah battery
-700-900Grams
-Webcam: 2mp
-4gb Ram
-Storage: 256gb SSD with atleast 250mb/s Read and 100mb/s Write
-WWAN: Either enough room for me to add it, or preinstalled EVDO Modem
On a section note, i want a better ISP too :P
Well of course all the little stuff.. Wifi, usb ports, etc. I dont mine b/g wifi.. i dont see the big deal with N.. US doesnt have broadband above 30mbps :{ and i dont use Lan that much.
I think the netbook that comes closest to perfection for me is the Eee 901.
I'd up the res to 1280 x 768 like on HP's mini note. Throw in some GPS just for kicks and I'd be set.
Also, I don't own one yet so I can't criticize this yet, but better thermal management? A review on notebookreview.com says the 901 gets pretty toasty. All they specified was 'normal extended use' so I'm not too sure what that means, but I heard that MSI Wind is very cool to the touch.
it's simple...
the HP 2133 with a better CPU
I really like the gigabyte x912 but it needs to be with at least 1280x768 screen resolution AND LED backlight. Would be nice if the touchscreen could swith to a more inking friendly setup when the stylus is pulled out (or a button is pressed). This is however not strictly important for me.
A matte black look would make it even more awsome and then of cause a 6+cell battery with the small formfactor (dont want it to stick out).
3G should be build in and GPS should be optional (as it uses waaay to much power).
Don't really like the eeePCs. Especially as I need waaay more diskspace in my daily work than the SSD can give me (within an acceptable pricerange).
I would easily pay $1000 for the optimized Gigabyte.
for me, the perfect netbook must be at the initial price level of the 701 when it was shipped. Anything more exepensive falls into the area of cheap laptops where specs are much stronger.
I think a better battery life stands for more mobility than a smaller battery... so i would want still a 6 cell one. but you set a good example for the netbook producers ;)
I dont want or need a netbook
I might want a real laptop on a netbook form factor though.
10" 1280x768 would serve all my portable computing needs but I dont want cheap components. $1000 for a 3G enabled Intel core superbook please. MSI Wind form factor and keyboard would be fine. 1.2KG for tabletopping is fine but I also want a 7" tablet or MID slider for mobile net and media use.
Can these netbooks run 720p videos smoothly?
I'm not sure if I should wait for the dual core atom with higher clock speeds.
I just want to run on a osx compatible netbook with basic hd playback!Lenovo s10 looks to b promising!
MSI Wind & LG XNote B831 both with 10 hours battery life.
I am able to play 1080i vidéo (1440x1080 exoanded to 1920x180HDV native AVI files in MPEG2) with a EEE 900 (Celeron overclocked to 1,1 GHz) and a SD Card Class 6
I would like the Gigabyte M912 because i love working with Journal, Inkseine... It's so nice to work with a pen on a book format. I owned first a Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC, then a Samsung Q1... On this last Celeron 900 MHz machine, i got a good Vista Experience with 2 Go RAM and somes apps out like Superfetch, automatic background defrag, and indexation...
iPhone Touch-Tablet (8,9") with UMTS and Bluetooth (for Keyboard and Headphones) and Ubuntu 8.04.1 Linux
I don't even need to draw up a list, this entry already defined the perfect one for me. Ditto for the keyboard light and touch.
I like my 701 4G apart from the battery life and screen size. Both would be solved by mating it with an Atom + 8.9" screen model. Double the SSD and add 3G plus some hardware switches for more reliable feature control and voilà! Then I would just mod it with a touchscreen and it would be perfect for its lifetime.
Case: eeepc 701 in dark green
Screen: 8.9" rotatable touchscreen with no gloss
OS: xp for tablet or xp pro
CPU: Atom 1.6ghz
RAM: 2gig
SSD: 16 gig with 35/30(read/write)minimum
Webcam: 1.3mp
Microphone: Stereo(Dual-Channel)
Battery: 6 hrs or better
Keyboard: eee style is fine
Touchpad: 901 multitouch
WiFi: 802.11a/b/g/n with hardware switch
Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA/DVI, 1 sdhc slot that shows as second HD. 1 multifunction memory card reader
Bluetooth, and 3G.
I want to have the look and feel of my E³900 but with the Atom, internal BT, an 8 or 16 GB SSD onboard with optional expanding slot for second SSD or harddrive and not extending 6 Cell Battery.
Or shortly: the 901 in the housing of my 900!
I really don´t like the "style" of the newer E³PC.
My "Dreamgadget" differs in several points from the solution "Netbook". Sadly a lot of things are not covered yet by any available product. Therfore I'm not even able to virtually mold existing parts together to fullfill my wishes.
The perfect size would be that of a folded passport which snaps open with two 5,5" VGA screens to form one screen as soon as it is folded up to paperback size. (Or a flexible 7" WSVGA screen.) The high resolution is usefull as it is such a small device, usually held as close to the face as a print of a photo.
No keyboard, but a multitouch-touchpad that covers the back of the device with the same area as the screen. You navigate on the backside, but it can also emulate a keyboard on the back while you hold it between the palms of your hands, using thumbs on keys of the screen's bezel and letting your 8 fingers glide or tap on the backside.
A gadget of that size should be able to do the 5 basic tasks of mobile electronics:
1. communicate (telephone, text, email)
2. navigate (directing and tracking with GPS)
3. entertain (music/video/presentation playback, reading and simple games)
4. online ability (internet browsing and LAN/WLAN).
5. receive, store and some process of data (taking notes, wordprocessing, spreadsheets, taking pictures and videos, exchange of electronic business cards)
Therefore it needs hardware for mobile phone including bluetooth, speaker and microphone, GPS, WLAN, medium quality camera (doubling as scanner), enough RAM and a SSD, a sufficient CPU/GPU and access to external memory. USB Ports to connect it to printers, keyboard, mouse and other external hardware. It needs a digital video outlet fit for hooking it up to displays and beamers.
And of course an exchangeable battery for at least 7 hours of steady low profile use. The Gadget should be able to make use of the USB-ports, e.g. if you hook them up on a powered USB-hub or any other powered device it should run and recharge by the provided energy.
what I want is 8.9(1280x768)inch tablet netbook. I'd still be happy with lower res though. Inside some nice atom that is in all those mids (z-series that have smaller motherboards and are not so power-hungry. Atleast I think you can make them smaller). It would leave more room for bigger battery aswell. And of course gps, bt and 3g.
perfect, but for me, the camera should be able to rotate 90% to the front
- Intel Atom at 1.6Ghz
- 2GB RAM
- HDD 80GB or SSD 64Gb with SAS II
- 1.3 Mpix auto focus webcam with dual array mics
- Ethernet,RTC modem, Wifi, bluetooth, GPS and 3G HSPA
- 3 * USB, SDHC card slot, VGA out, mic/headset port
- Stereo spekers on the screen frame
- Multi touch mouse pad
- 5 hour 4 cell 5800mAh battery or 6 cell/9Cell
- XP Home
- Display touchcreen
Case EEEPC 900 : 8.9 inch 1024 * 600 screen
Case Acer One : 10,2 inch 1024 * 600 screen
My perfect netbook? The 901 innards plus internal 3G, but in the black 900 case. Simple.
No words to say this will be the ultimate Netbook.
What i sometimes miss is the understanding that a netbook is a netbook not a notebook or desktop.
jkk: Use the new Driver for the Touchpad, works great.
greetings to finnland, and nice haircut, i made a short one too, easy to use ;-)
Saperalot alias jtj
Inspired by the jkk I wrote a post about this on my blog: http://nielsandersen.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/make-the-perfect-netbook/
Asus EEE 901 with little modifications:
- 8.9" 1280x768 matte touch screen with swivel
- Fast (min. 30/30 R/W) SSD 32GB ->
- HDMI port
- 3G HSDPA
- GPS
- Illuminated keys (automatic brightness)
- Switches for WLAN/GPS/BT
- Some small changes with looks, speaker locations etc.
For me the perfect one would be the 901 with some changes
I like it because: tinyness, large battery, touchpad, atom, modding possibilties, resolution, wifi b/g/n, bt
Changes: larger and faster boot ssd, at least 8GB, brighter display (LED), keyboard as wide as the body
Would be nice: GPS, 3G, 2nd SD-Card Slot, thinner, stylisher, ExpressCard slot
hey jjk your clock is wrong! If it is Finnish time, 2 h ahead...
My Perfect Netbook:
Case: Acer Aspire One all black
Screen: 8.9" widescreen with no gloss
OS: Kubuntu
CPU: Atom 1.6ghz
RAM: 1GB
SSD: 8GB
Webcam: 1.0MP
Microphone, Stereo Speakers
Battery: 3-5 hours on light usage
Keyboard: Good size.
WiFi: 802.11g
Others: 3 USB ports, 1 VGA, 1 multi-memory card reader, Bluetooth(optional), Wimax(optional)
Price: up to US$500
Well my perfect netbook would be 901 black but not glossy with 3g card inside and those 64G module for 200$ instead of 16 keyboard with smaller spaces between keys and no F***ing blue leds (now i have them covered with black isolation tape) internal gps would be nice since now i'm using freedom keychain gps 2000 which i finly got to work with linux on my 901. as for weight of 901 for me its light eoiugh but it would be nice if cenetee of gravity was closer to geometrical center.also wishing ... slightly glowing like phosphorous labels on keyboard.
jay - nice. but dont forget bout pricing. i'm not willing to pay too much i'm willing to kinda downspec mine a bit...
would be the aao with non glare (but that doesn't bother me too much)and a much bigger battery and the ram beeing easyly accessible and comp. configurable (not 1/2 soldered). with a second ide addapter and a express card slot (instead of the g3 "option" space - like this every one can choose)
main point:
there is no ideal netbook due to people beeing different and having different uses for their netbooks.
what i miss with most mininotes is the possibility to configure them with mini pci cards (as an example) or an accessible second hdd conector (second ide for instance).
like this you (me pointing at jkk)may use g3 while i stay with more ssd storage :)
pricing would stay reasonable.
and i would realy love to see the new via in action. like this most flash stuff would be "watchable"
Out of the box linux compatibility is a must have.
when will the first Chinese EEE illuminated keyboard upgrade arrive? Can't be that hard to build can it?
This is awfully close to my ideal netbook. Matte black++. Thanks for that.
I too would like the eee 700/900 size with an 8.9" screen (matte of course). A 1.3 megapixel+ webcam, the 900's touchpad but with better buttons (I wouldn't mind a thinkpad like nub as well).
I like the looks of the 900 a lot. Really, I guess the easiest thing would be to say I'd like a 900 with an atom (or a not-celeron), and a replacable main SSD (with a zif connector for optional hard drive) and bluetooth. GPS and touchscreen would be nice bonuses. So would 3g.
900a doesn't work (crappier webcam and SSD, and glossy body). 901 doesn't work (glossy, and weird touchpad and looks pants). The Aspire is too wide (and glossy).
I slightly agree with Chippy.
+ Want enough power and graphics for multitasking and decent gaming in a very small package like the Everun Note. With a hardware key for underclocking & separate BT, WWAN, WLAN power controls.
+ Want very long battery life, 5 hours +.
+ Don't want a touch pad, optical thingy is fine.
+ Must have touch screen, swivelling not necessary.
+ Express card slot, x54 preferably.
+ HDMI / DVI out.
+ No nasty thick screen bezels.
+ Hardware screen brightness control.
+ Screen good for outdoors use.
+ Keyboard back light.
+ Customizable cases, never out of fashion.
+ Easy home mods / upgrades.
+ Good powerful speakers, why can't anyone put decent speakers in laptops/umpc's etc?
+ OSX86 compatible would be fun.
+ Weighs well under 1kg, 500g would be good.
Maybe not entirely realistic but will be one day.
no keyboard light! You shouldn't be allow to write a tech blog if you don't even know your keyboard layout.
What about the HP keyboard and a 9-Cell battery option!! Nice conglomeration of parts though - sounds good to me. Dunno if I'd pay that much though :D
OK...
I have wondered the next thing for a LOOONG time!
Most of the wishes could be fulfilled if some or even one manufacturer would sell a case/hull/chassis or what ever you'd like to call it and would not put the HDD/SSD, memory, operating system in the computer at all (meaning that there would be VERY easy-to-access places to put in some of your own choosing)...
All the "standard" bells-and-whistles such as
*Intel Atom Silverthorne w/Poulsbo
*OR upcoming VIA Nano w/S3 Chrome400series
*Bluetooth 2.0 class2
*WLAN a/b/g/n
*3X usb
*SD/CF card reader
*Slot for 3G module with allready integrated antenna wires in the backside of the screen.
*Slot for GPS module with allready integrated antenna wires in the backside of the screen.
*etc. etc. etc
...would be included in this "skeleton-of-a-netbook"
There could be some different types of these Casings e.g HP MiniNote-like, eee900-like, Aspire One-like... what ever. Screens should have good enough resolution... 8,9inch 1280x768, 10,2inch 1360x768 (you can always use lower resolution if you like but upscaling above the native resolution is "a bit" more tricky if you know what I mean... Even MacGyver would struggle with that :-) ...And there might also be screen touch screen versions of all the same casings.
In the package would be a CD with the windows and linux drivers of the integrated devices of course.
When you drop basically everything not integrated or not "standard" parts off like HDD/SSD, memory, OS... etc. from the case you get quite reasonably priced base-device I would argue.
So my solution to the problem would be basically to allow those people who would anyway modificate their netbooks to start with clean sleigh and not pay for the components that will go to the garbage anyway and make it as easy as possible to build everyone's own dream-netbook!!!
Damn this became to be a long post,
E.T.
alienware notebooks has iluminated keybord...u can see it in dark....so noe u can put it in to ur perfect laptop spec.
- 8.9" matte touch screen with swivel
- WiFi: a/b/g/n
- 3G HSDPA
- GPS
- 6-cell battery
- Pre-loaded with optimized Linux Distro
and WORKING Drivers.
- Webcam would be nice too!
10.2' matte wide touchscreen with swivel and NO BORDER.
WiFi A/B/G/N, Bluetooth
HSDPA
GPS
6-Cell Battery
Shipped with CLEAN Vista Business, 100% osx86 compatible.
2.0 MPX Webcam with AutoFocus
Atom Silverthorne
Full-size, backlit keyboard
Big touchpad (like 1000H)
2GB RAM
32GB SSD
HDMI / DVI Out
Ethernet, ESATA, 2x USB 2.0
2.0 Dolby Speaker, Stereo microphone.
6 hours REAL battery life with Wifi ON, 50% brightness.
1.2 KG.
Under $500.
Impossible?
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