HP Mini 210-4125sa
Another 10.1in Atom-based netbook, you might think, but a closer look reveals that this HP has a couple of interesting USPs: first, it comes with an Atom N2800, the higher clocked version - it runs at 1.86GHz - of the almost N2600 seen almost everywhere. A small, but welcome 12 per cent performance hike. Secondly, the Mini sports a Beats audio sub-system, which will please folk with a penchant for bassy, red headphones. I'm more impressed by the eight-and-a-half hours battery life, though the trade-off is bulk: the HP is a hefty 33mm thick.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £230
More Info HP
Lenovo IdeaPad S206
Lenovo's entry into the 11.6in netbook segment follows the customary AMD CPU route, though here the manufacturer has fitted a 1.4GHz dual-core E1200 chip. That, coupled with 4GB of Ram, sets the S206 up as one of the fastest netbooks here. And I like the fact that it comes with dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi - all the others are single band. However, this isn't a slim machine, which might not matter so much if it had been packed with battery, but you'll just get four hours typical usage out of the S206. I found the keyboard area a little too bendy for my taste too.
Reg Rating 70%
Price £350
More Info Lenovo
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COMMENTS
Asus Eee PC 1015BX: "at up to 26mm thick, it's one of the chunkiest netbooks here"
Asus Eee PC X101CH: "just under an inch at its thickest point making it one of the thinnest machines here'
Seriously? 0.6mm between thinnest and chunkiest?
There's a reason for El Reg units, you know.
and while we're at it, where's the EEE girl?
How much of that price is the Windows tax?
Netbooks really shine when you put something like Linux on them. Just a pity you can't buy any without paying Windows tax.
Still too expensive...
When netbooks first came out three or four years ago, they were £229 or thereabouts. And they are STILL that sort of price. They've got slightly better specs - but that's all.
They seem to be the only form of computer life which doesn't go down in price. I cannot see any good reason why they shouldn't be sub-£150 these days.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if Asus or Acer were to produce a fairly minimal spec box for £149. I reckon it would fly off the shelves.
Not quite...
"I'm assuming the thumbs are mostly industry shills."
Everyone who disagrees with you must be an industry shill - couldn't possibly be because your writings are somewhat of the n00b could it.
Win7 Starter is limited to 2GB, Wikipedia would have told you that if you'd bothered to research before upgrade, it would also have revealed Starter is 32bit so if you did an in-place upgrade then the resultant Home/Pro will also be 32bit and thus not fully utilise your 4GB as "any fule no".
Try installing from a USB stick (very very easy to do, Google it) a 64bit version, you can pop the 64bit ethernet or wifi driver on the same USB stick and install it afterwards and then you can just visit Windows update or download whatever drivers you need direct. Simples?
Lin Line Lin Line Ux
I got my AAO for under £150 a few years ago.
Great wee machine, still gets a lot of use.
It's Linux distro allowed it to come in at such a low price, and with a fairly low spec still run very well. Boot up into Linpus is seconds, and you have your browser, office suite and documents in front of you.
(Of course I later upgraded the RAM and Wireless card and triple boot with XP and a certain OS that rhymes with Oh Ess Ex)
Windows 7 killed the Netbook through Windows tax, the need for notebook/desktop specs to run, and when they finally relented and released the Starter edition - it is so cut down that you can't even easily change the wallpaper! (there are tricks to get around this)
Sceptical about ChromeOS, I want my data on my machine, not in someone else's fog-- I mean, cloud.
