Netbooks Gets a Performance Boost

Netbooks are meant for basic computing tasks but with Intel announcing the Atom N450 Pine Trail platform for netbooks and nettops the performance bar has been raised. With integrated graphics and memory controller on the processor, netbook users can expect a richer multimedia experience. Keeping this in mind we take a look at the interesting Netbooks launched at CES 2010.

Extremely low power consumption seemed to be the USP of many netbooks thanks to the Pine Trail platform. Toshiba Mini NB305 is loaded with an Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 250GB of HDD. It has a 10.1-inch TruBrite LED backlit display with 1024×600 pixel resolution. It promises an 11-hour battery life and has a 6 cell battery.

Samsung’s N series of netbooks namely N210 and N220 offer battery lives of 12 hours whereas N150 and NB30 reach 8.5 hours and 11 hours respectively. They also offer support for 720p graphics. Each of them has a 10.1 inch screen and it features Easy Resolution Manager, which adjusts the screen resolution based on the application running on your system.

HP Mini 5102 went a step further in the netbook segment by coming out with a touch-enabled netbook. With features like face recognition for logging onto windows and multi touch sensor, HP Mini has raised the bar for netbooks. It comes with a four-cell or a six-cell battery, the latter can last up to 10 hours.

Lenovo Ideapad UI, a netbook-tablet hybrid

ATI also revealed the much awaited range of its DirectX 11 supporting notebook graphic cards. The entire announced range of laptop graphic cards include ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5600 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 series graphics. MSI unveiled notebooks based on the Intel Calpella platform. The C-series and G-series range of laptops use Core i5 processors. MSI’s GX640 and GX740 are powered by i5 processor and features the ATI Radeon HD DirectX 11 supporting video card. The Gx740 has five speakers for what MSI calls “The ultimate 3D sound experience in notebooks.” They both started retailing in UK in 2010 and will have a price tag of £999. Dell also showed its 11 inch alienware notebook that will cost less than $1000. It has NVidia’s GT335M graphics and is capable of running Crysis at 50 FPS. It has a battery life of 2 hours in gaming mode, although it goes up when the game runs at lower levels. Sony also revealed its Vaio F series notebook which will cater to both home cinema and powerful office users. It has a slick black chassis and a Full HD 16.4 inch display. It runs on Windows 7 home premium. Dell also wowed the crowd with the demonstration of its OLED notebook. The Studio XPS has an OLED display with a depth of just 2mm. It has a pretty impressive contrast of 10,000:1. HP also displayed a concept notebook running Android with a Qualcomm processor and full 3G support.

MSI’s Gx740 offers surround sound in Netbooks

Netbook purchases have seen a steady rise in 2009 and this growth is bound to continue with more performance being packed in. With tablet PCs about to make an entry in the consumer market, the battle for portable computing is just going to heat up.