When the first low-cost "computing appliances" arrived in 2007 as solutions to the non-profit OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) initiative, few realized a new class of computer was emerging. As frequent travelers to Asian shows and markets, many of the AnandTech staff had embraced the idea of the small full-featured notebooks that were all the rage in Asia but which were almost nonexistent in the US.

For some reason those same small notebooks that were so popular in Asia just weren't available in the US market.  The notebooks available in the US were the heavy "full-featured" 14-17" models that were barely portable. Just lug one of those beasts through a few airport security lines and the small light and elegant Asian notebooks for writing, web-surfing and spreadsheets start to look like a great idea. Of course in typical notebook fashion the smaller the notebook the more it generally cost at that time. That was a hard pill to swallow, but the charms of the smaller notebook were hard to resist if you could afford the price of admission.

The first OLPC notebooks in 2007 were a different breed than the small full-featured notebooks that were so popular in Asia.  The OLPC units were also small, even downright tiny, but they were much more limited in capabilities than most were willing to accept. Of course they weren't designed to even be sold in the general computer market. The $200 subcompact Intel Classmate PC was targeted at a third-world user who could finally afford a real computer or who was the recipient of one bought by an international agency as an education grant. The early models looked like toys but they were real computers aimed at education and children in the developing world.

They were called subnotebooks at first, but the idea was one that was hard to resist for many potential users outside the developing world. Provide just the computing power a user needed to do research on the web, write, manipulate spreadsheets, and do general educational computer use, and make it available at a very low price. Computing power had grown so fast in recent years, and costs had dropped so dramatically, that a pretty powerful computer could be built with a very low cost CPU and clever engineering. ASUS saw the potential and introduced the Eee PC late in 2007 to the American (and later worldwide) market. The Eee PC changed everything about the market.

The original ASUS Eee PC was a massive hit in the US and it became popular throughout the world. It was tiny, weighing just 2 lbs, with a 7" screen, built-in WiFi and regular network ports, with standard ports and an integrated webcam for a price of less than $300. The ASUS Eee proved there was a market for a small, light, less powerful, low-cost laptop and the netbook was born. ASUS has produced many evolutionary Eee netbooks since and it seems every major notebook manufacturer has since jumped on the netbook bandwagon. Two of the last PC holdouts were Dell, who finally jumped on the bandwagon with their Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12 models, and Sony, who recently introduced the VAIO W "mini notebook".

Evolution of the Netbook

While it has only been about a year and a half since the ASUS Eee first defined the netbook market, the netbook has quickly evolved and has become one of the hottest items for sale in the computer market. No doubt part of that appeal has been the worldwide economic downturn, which has made a complete cheap computer a much more attractive purchase than it might be in good economic times. The appeal, however, is arguably more than just a low price, and every US computer company, with the exception of Apple, has quickly jumped into the netbook market.

The new competitors have tried to offer more features, bigger screens, more powerful processors, and longer battery life than the original ASUS Eee. As a result the latest netbook models now sport 10" screens, Intel Atom processors (Instead of the earlier Celeron), and generally the promise of a computer system that sips power to provide longer battery life.

Comparing the developing ASUS Eee line and its competitors you can see the processor has evolved from the original Celeron M900 to the Intel Atom N270 as the netbooks moved to larger screens. The two netbooks we are comparing today both feature the slightly faster Intel Atom N280, which is replacing the N270 in most netbook designs.  The N280 is essentially the same CPU as the N270 running at a slightly faster 1.66GHz compared to the 1.6GHz of the N270.  The N280 bus speed is also slightly faster at 667MHz instead of the 533MHz of the N270.  For more information on the Atom processors see Intel's Atom Architecture: The Journey Begins and the recent look at the Atom of the near future in Intel Unveils Next-Generation Atom Details.

The original Eee PC 4G (far right) featured a 7" LCD screen with a resolution of 800x480. Most users longed for something larger and LCD technology was rapidly driving down the costs of LCD screens at the same time. The next generation of netbook, the Eee PC 900/901 featured a 9" screen at 1024x600. Current generation screens are generally around 10" with the same 1024x600 resolution. Several manufacturers have recently introduced or announced netbooks with a 12" screen.  The Acer Aspire One ZA3, with an 11.6" screen and 1333x768 resolution, has just arrived in our labs for review.

As screen size has grown, so has the physical size and weight of the typical netbook. The 2 pound PC 4G of 2007 is now more typically around 3.2 pounds. However, the extra weight is not really screen or CPU as much as it is increased battery capacity. Manufacturers are keenly aware of the extra weight in the newest netbooks, and ASUS offers 6-cell and 3-cell versions of the 1000HE. MSI similarly offers both 9-cell and 6-cell versions of the Wind U123. This allows the buyer to determine which is more important to them - longer battery life or lighter weight.

There is also no doubt that the original 9" x 7" of the PC 4G has now grown to 10.5" x 9" in the larger screen 1000H series. This will likely continue as manufacturers try to provide larger screens, more computing power, and even longer battery life in future netbook models.

Almost all current netbook models now feature a 1024x600 screen, an Atom processor, around 1GB of memory, built-in LAN, WiFi, and in some cases Bluetooth connectivity, a webcam ideal for Skype communications, Windows XP, and a hard drive typically providing around 160GB of storage. Some netbooks ship with Linux and Unix-family operating systems as the standard OS or as an option, and the recent announcement by Google that they will develop a Chrome OS for netbooks promises even more OS variety in the future. None of the netbooks tested so far offer an optical drive option although all feature the necessary USB ports to install an external DVD (or BD/DVD) drive.

None of the currently tested netbooks included an SSD drive. The SSD seems an ideal match to a netbook computer, but cost is still relatively high for Solid State Drives compared to the low-power 1.8"/2.5" drives currently used in most netbooks. A few manufacturers like ASUS and OCZ do offer SSD options and more SSD drives may appear in future models.

Prices for the tested netbook models ranged from $300 for the original ASUS PC 4G to $400 for the two recent models from ASUS and MSI. That is an extremely tight price range for a computer and demonstrates the price sensitivity of the netbook market. A few netbooks reach into the $500+ range with added features, but for now netbooks are clearly an "under $400" market in the United States.

Battery Capacity Testing

One of the charms of the netbook format is the promise that the little computers can provide very long battery life by using less powerful processors that consume extremely low power compared to current top-performing CPUs. Netbooks have quickly developed a reputation for sipping power and truly providing the ability to power a flight-long session or a work session for a full 8-hour workday. This has been helped along by manufacturers who have been beefing up battery capacity in more recent netbooks and claiming increasingly longer battery life in their specifications.

Of course you didn't come to AnandTech to see a list of manufacturer's claims, you came here for real world test results. Like notebooks, the battery life claims in netbook specs really don't provide the kind of information most buyers are looking for. Why specify battery life with the netbook wireless LAN turned off as most manufacturers do? The most visited websites use flash imaging, so why test with just non-flash websites to inflate battery life numbers? Do you really care about how the battery lasts with very long idle periods? We believe most want to know how long a battery charge lasts when a netbook is used as most people use them. Therefore the AnandTech battery life test is conducted with a wireless internet connection constantly on, viewing pages that contain some flash images among the text.

In AnandTech notebook battery testing the screen brightness is calibrated so that is equal on each tested notebook. The netbook is a particular challenge in this regard, since the highest current netbook screen resolution is 1024x600. We have several versions of standardized brightness calibration software, but the lowest resolution supported by any package is 1024x768. Since it makes little sense to test battery life with an external display we addressed this issue by setting an ASUS 1000HA to the middle of its brightness adjustment scale. Other displays were visually matched to the mid-level brightness of the ASUS 1000HA screen.

All hibernation and power management schemes were disabled on the netbook, and a wireless connection was established from the netbook under test while the battery charger was still attached. We connect to a script at anandtech.com that cycles among a group of standard anandtech.com pages that contain text, charts, graphs, and flash elements. The pages are continuously cycled at a fixed interval. The charger is then disconnected and a stop watch started. The test is run until the netbook shuts off due to low battery power.  This is the same Battery Test run in our recent MacBook Pro article.

Results are reported in hours and minutes and provide a comparison of battery performance under common usage at the most demanding conditions. Please keep in mind that the AnandTech battery life results represent a realistic usage scenario. If you use an Ethernet connection and rarely use wireless your battery life will be slightly longer. If you surf the web with long intervals of inactivity, your battery life will again be longer. If you disable flash, battery life will also improve.

Battery Life Comparison

To provide the best perspective on battery life we tested with representative ASUS models from the original ASUS PC 4G to the ASUS 1000HA. ASUS was extremely helpful in providing netbooks to more clearly demonstrate the improving battery life on netbooks. Battery tests were run for the ASUS 1000HE and the MSI Wind U123 and test results were added to the base charts.

The first ASUS netbook, the Eee PC 4G had a specified battery life of just 2.8 hours. This compares to the current ASUS 1000HE with a specified battery life of 9.5 hours - certainly a dramatic improvement. Our more demanding battery life testing showed the original ASUS Eee PC 4G with a battery life of 2 hours 10 minutes with improvement in the 1000HE results to 5 hours 54 minutes. However, the MSI Wind U123 is clearly the battery performance king among netbooks tested in this roundup. The Wind U123 turned in a benchmark-leading 8 hours 27 minutes of battery life while constantly connected by Wireless LAN to a website with flash content on every page.

With netbook architectures so very similar in recent designs the most revealing specification is the Wh (watt hours) battery rating. The voltage and mAh ratings were converted to Wh and the advantage for the 9-cell MSI Wind U123 is almost 40% compared to the Wh rating for the 6-cell ASUS 1000HE.

Our first thought was that the extra power trade-off in the Wind U123 must be increased weight, but that is not the case. The 9-cell Wind U123 weighs almost the same as the ASUS 1000HE. This makes the MSI an even more impressive performer in the battery life derby.

Performance Testing

When we first mentioned plans for performance testing of netbooks we encountered stiff resistance from some manufacturers. They expressed concern that performance comparisons defeated the whole idea of a netbook, which is a cheap portable computer based on cheaper processors that provided competent performance for basic computing tasks like web search and writing. While we agree that it would be a mistake to evaluate netbooks on performance alone, the facts are that netbook performance is increasing rapidly, as is the definition of what represents a "basic" computing task.

If the first netbooks represent all that is needed in a netbook there would be no reason at all for any future models. In fact people are doing more and more with netbooks - and the more that is demanded of these little computers the more that is demanded in raw computing power. The caveat, of course, is that it is unfair to compare the performance of a $300 to $400 netbook to a $2000 state-of-the-art notebook. They are aimed at different users and tasks. However, with the growth of computing power in recent years it is truly remarkable how very much the tiny netbook is actually able to do today.

Determining the best method for testing netbook performance proved quite a challenge. Of the readily available test suites PCMark Vantage seemed the ideal tool for testing overall computing capabilities. The problem is that Vantage only runs on Windows Vista and none of the current netbooks available for testing even offer Vista as an OS option. In addition Vantage requires a 1280x1024 minimum screen configuration which is far beyond resolution capabilities of current netbooks, so we would need to attach an external display.

Serious consideration was given to testing netbooks with Linux or a Linux variant OS like Ubuntu. In staff discussions at AnandTech we looked at benchmark issues with testing Linux notebooks, and we also considered the fact that all of the netbooks in house for testing had arrived with the Windows XP Home OS installed.  We do plan to compare "Linux" and Microsoft OS options on netbooks in a future article.

With Windows XP Home already installed on all five netbooks that became our current OS choice for performance comparisons. Even that choice presents testing problems. PCMark05 runs fine on Windows XP, but the test suite still requires a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 and several test modules fail at any lower resolution. The best current netbooks can do is 1024x600. After considering various options PCMark05 testing was standardized on an external monitor fed by the netbook being tested at a 1024x768 resolution. On some netbooks the screen output at 1024x768 is hardly ideal, but using a standard resolution removed a variable from the performance testing.

With the continuing growth in computing power in netbooks we fully expect to add additional tests to our netbook test suite. It is common knowledge that current netbooks can handle Flash and streaming videos present on the web without much difficulty. We confirmed this in our own internal testing. We also concur with other reports that current netbooks can handle up to 720p video playback with relative ease. However 1080p and BD playback is definitely beyond current capabilities.

In the future there is no doubt netbooks will be able to smoothly handle higher resolution video playback, Blu-ray, and perhaps even mid-level gaming. As those capabilities appear we will add relevant tests to the netbook test suite.

Performance Comparison

PCMark05 test results are reported as an overall PCMark05 score and a separate CPU Test Suite Score for this initial round of performance testing. Three processors are represented in these test results and the actual impact of those processors on the CPU Test Suite was of great interest.

As a raw CPU score the improvement from the Celeron M900 to the Atom N270 represents a 47% increase in performance. However, the impact of the improved CPU performance with the similarly improved capabilities of the 945 Express chipset combine for a 72% higher PCMark05 score, which factors in graphics, CPU, and total system performance to achieve the final score.

Manufacturers claim about a 10% improvement in performance in the move from the Atom N270 to the more recent Atom N280. PCMark results show an even smaller performance improvement, with just a 4.3% improvement in the CPU Test Suite score. The PCMark05 overall performance improvement also measured in the 4% to 5% range, which is definitely an improvement level you will not likely notice in day-to-day use of your netbook.

The bottom line is that you will definitely notice the performance improvement in a move from an early Celeron M900 to an Intel Atom processor notebook. However, while the Atom N280 is a better performer than the N270, the improvement would be hard to notice in everyday computing. The performance difference between the N270 and N280 is minor at best and should not strongly influence your Netbook buying decision.

ASUS 1000HE Hands-On

Notebook keyboards and pointing devices are at best an acquired taste. When talking about netbook ergonomics it helps to constantly remind yourself that the comparison is to other netbooks, notebooks, PDAs, and smart phones and not to the best separate devices available on a desktop system. Given that perspective the ASUS 1000HE is very successful from an ergonomic point of view.

Comparing all the Eee netbooks that came before the 1000HE it is clear the 1000HE is the best keyboard yet from ASUS. Keys are clearly labeled and there has been some logical reorganization of special purpose key locations from the earlier Eee models. Typing feel and tactile feedback are very good.

The larger 9.75" width that comes with a 10" display is much easier to use than the smaller keyboards on the 9" PC 901 and the earlier 7" PC 4G. The touchpad is large with a clear positive click feel on the selection buttons. Touchpads remain in our thinking a low-cost pointing device relegated to notebooks and netbooks, but the ASUS 1000HE touchpad is the best of the 5 netbooks tested in this comparison.

Ports are pretty standard for a notebook with an MSRP of $399. There are a welcomed three USB ports instead of the more common two, which is very useful. Other ports include external video, an SDHC card reader, microphone/headphone jacks, an Ethernet jack, and the power adapter port. Stereo speakers, a 1.3MP webcam, Windows XP Home, and a 160GB hard drive complete the package. The battery pack is removable for easy upgrade or customization, with 3-cell and 6-cell battery options. Wireless options include both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

ASUS points out that the bottom of the 1000HE is relatively smooth and flat compared to the bulges on earlier Eee models. A large port door provides easy access to the hard drive and memory, and it is held in place with two non-captive screws that are unfortunately easy to lose. Yes, the bottom is smooth, but the ASUS is still one of the heftier netbooks and thicker than many of its competitors.

It is easy to recognize the 1000HE as the best netbook yet tested from ASUS, which is high praise since ASUS essentially invented the netbook market. MSRP is $399 but we have seen the 1000HE selling in the $350 range at several e-tailers.

MSI Wind U123 Hands-On

The Wind U123 caused quite a stir at this year's CES, but it took a while to make it to market in this less than vibrant economy. The excitement was mostly the result of the biggest battery pack available on any current netbook. With a 9 cell 87 Wh battery the U123 promised huge battery life, and it definitely delivered in our battery life test.

Beyond that the MSI is certainly a slick looking netbook with a standout blue top - also available in white, red, black or gray. Featured are a bright 10" LCD with effective backlight power management, and a clever removable battery pack design that turns the larger 9-cell battery pack into a tilt leg for the computer. The whole package is slightly smaller in both width and depth than the ASUS 1000H series, which features a similar 10" screen.

The U123 is very similar to the earlier U120. The processor has been updated to the latest Intel Atom N280 (from the N270) and the battery is now a huge 9-cell design. As shown in performance testing the N280 is faster than the Atom N270, but the real-world performance improvement is only 4% to 5% and will hardly be noticed by most users. The battery life improvement, on the other hand, makes the U123 the longest battery life we have yet tested in a netbook. This is amazing considering the U123 9-cell design weighs almost exactly the same as the 6-cell ASUS 1000HA also tested in this review.

The MSI Wind U123 keyboard is the same size and layout as the keyboard used on the ASUS 1000HE. The MSI key labeling is larger and easier to see if that is important to you, but the two keyboards look the same. Looks, as they say, can be deceiving, however. The Wind U123 keyboard will not likely be an issue for hunt-and-peck typists, but the switches are somewhat hard to activate and rather imprecise compared to the ASUS 1000HE keyboard. Two fast typists we asked to type on both systems definitely preferred the ASUS keyboard. Two slower typists saw little difference in the two keyboards.

Everyone, however, uniformly preferred the ASUS touchpad, which provides decent feedback. The MSI touchpad by comparison is smaller with very imprecise left and right click keys that feel mushy and have no distinct click position that we could find.  The buttons sometimes engage and sometimes don't engage. The touchpad could definitely use a makeover and MSI would do well to take another look at keyboard touch and feedback as well.

Ports are pretty much what you would expect on a $379 netbook. Fortunately there are three USB ports instead of the two ports found on many netbooks. On the right side MSI provides a card reader that accepts several varieties of the smaller flash cards (SDHC/MMC/MS/XD), one USB port, headphone/microphone jacks, and an Ethernet port. The left side adds two more USB ports and the power adapter jack. Stereo speakers, Windows XP Home, Wi-Fi, a 1.3MP webcam, and a 2.5" 160GB hard drive complete the U123 feature list. The battery pack is removable, with 6-cell and 9-cell battery options so the end user can choose the best pack for their needs.

Unlike the ASUS there is no easy bottom access panel to the hard drive or 1GB memory. It appears you can gain access to the netbook board and peripherals by removing seven small screws on the bottom panel. The MSI Wind U123 feels very dense and somewhat heavy with the 9-cell battery pack options. In fact we assumed the U123 would weigh more than the ASUS 1000HE. It was a pleasant surprise that the Wind U123 actually weighed all but the same as the ASUS. That makes the 9-cell MSI design quite an achievement as it delivers the best battery performance yet tested in a package no heavier than other 6-cell designs.

Retail price for the MSI Wind U123 is $379 with street prices as low as $335 for the 6-cell version. The 9-cell option is usually a little more costly at around $400.

Final Words

When the $200 One Laptop Per Child machines first started shipping about two years ago, few realized that a hot new computer market segment was being defined. ASUS recognized the potential of the small, lower-powered, low-cost computer, and launched the ASUS Eee PC 4G just 6 months later. That first 7" screen netbook selling for around $300 was a huge hit in the US and around the world. From that first netbook the market segment has quickly evolved with added performance and features, and that evolution will definitely continue.

In the year and a half since the ASUS Eee created the netbook market, the netbook has grown from a near toy to a serious computing tool. Those who only need a computer for internet access, writing, and basic computing have embraced the netbook as a tool that does the job they need "well enough" at an extremely low price. So have parents buying computers for their school-age children, where computers have become all but a necessity. So many have embraced the netbook that it is now one of the hottest market segments in the computer industry.

That demand, combined with ever cheaper prices for computer power, stimulated rapid improvements in the netbook. The original Celeron CPU was displaced by the Intel Atom N270, with a 45%+ improvement in the PCMark05 CPU performance score. The Atom also brought improved Intel chipsets that increased the final PCMark05 score some 70%. In a market just 1.5 years old a 70% improvement in PCMark05 performance is remarkable - especially considering the fact that prices have still stayed relatively close to the $300 mark set by the original ASUS PC 4G.

Similarly screen size, which started at a 7" screen at 800x480 resolution, quickly grew to 9" and today's 10" screens with 1024x600 resolution. Some are even looking to move 12" screens into "netbooks", like the Dell Inspiron Mini 12 with its 1280x800 LCD (priced slightly higher than the 10" netbooks) and the Acer Aspire One ZA3 with an 11.6" 1333x768 screen at just $349.

Battery power started with a modest 2 hours on the first Eee, with a modest 38.5Wh power rating. That has grown into almost 6 hours in our battery tests on the latest ASUS Eee netbook and to a whopping 8.5 hours wireless surfing time on the latest MSI Wind U123 which features a 9-cell 87Wh rating. That growth in battery life has had a price, however, since the original 2 pound weight of the PC 4G has grown to around 3.2 pounds in the latest long-battery-life designs. Still, a 50% increase in weight for four times the battery life on a larger higher resolution 10" screen is considered a fair trade-off by most users.

The two netbooks tested in this review - the ASUS 1000HE and the MSI Wind U123 - are very representative of the current state of the netbook market. Both feature a 10" screen in a 3.2 pound body with claims of much extended battery life. The CPU in both units is the latest Intel Atom N280, which measures some 4% to 5% faster than the N270 it replaces. That improvement is very minor compared to the dramatic improvements brought by the earler move to the Atom N270 from Celeron, but netbook performance and capabilities are definitely improving, and we will see even more in the future.

Port complements are all but the same on both machines, with three USB, external video, audio outputs, flash card readers, WiFi and wired Ethernet capabilities, stereo speakers, and a 1.3MP webcam. Both also feature a 160GB internal hard drive. Looking at the surface there is little to distinguish the two netbooks from one another which is often the case in this market.

The primary difference is in battery capacity, with Wind U123 providing a 9-cell 87Wh option that provided the longest battery life we have tested in a netbook. The MSI managed almost 8.5 hours in the demanding AnandTech battery test which should be considered a heavy use testing scenario. This compared to 5:54 with the ASUS 1000HE 6-cell design. Certainly if battery life is your first concern the best netbook choice today is the MSI Wind U123, which provides significantly longer battery life at the same weight as the 6-cell ASUS 1000HE.

If ergonomics is a larger concern then the ASUS 1000HE is an easy recommendation. The ASUS design is more refined, with better attention to details than the Wind U123. While the ASUS and MSI keyboards are the same size and layout, the ASUS has a much better typing feel and was preferred over the MSI keyboard. The touchpad is also much larger with better button feel and operation on the ASUS. MSI really needs to upgrade the touchpad on future models. This will matter if you actually use the touchpad, but for those who quickly plug in a mouse or trackball the touchpad quality is not as important.

Finally there is value. With the street price of the ASUS 1000HE and the MSI Wind U123 all but the same you can choose the unit that best meets your needs. The MSI has by far the longest battery life among this group of 5 netbooks, while the ASUS has decent extended battery life and superior ergonomics. The superb U123 battery life tilts the scale in that direction for our needs, but your needs may favor the ergonomics of the ASUS.

ASUS has also announced the 1005HA as a replacement for the 1000HE model. That could mean some better pricing of the 1000HE as it is replaced with the updated model.  ASUS specifies a very modest improvement in battery life with the 1005HA, and we have just received that model in house for testing. 

While the ASUS 1000HE and MSI Wind U123 represent the current state of the netbook market we cannot help but project a bit on where the netbook market may be going. The definition of the netbook as a cheap computer that is "good enough" for most users' computing needs is compelling. That certainly does not mean the netbook market will be static. As computing power gets cheaper new performance gains will drop down to the netbook market. The huge popularity of netbooks will also be a driving force to provide more capabilities at cheap prices to drive business to new models.

The last two bastions of computer tasks not well-suited to netbooks are Blu-ray/H.264 playback and gaming. Another AnandTech Editor recently emailed me about his daughter and her friends finding ways to game on their school netbooks. The ability to game on netbooks is definitely coming. It is also likely you will see full Blu-ray playback capabilities available in the netbook market in the very near future. As these capabilities emerge AnandTech will add new test procedures to compare these capabilities.

The netbook market will also likely spill over the current "less than $400" market description. There are already netbook sites defining the netbook as "less than $600" and some as "less than $800". We could argue that these more expensive "netbooks" have defiled the netbook definition but the argument, like the argument about performance not mattering on a netbook, is really moot. The market will go where people buy, and whether you like it or not there is definitely a market for small, cheap laptops that bring most of the performance people want for a very low price. Netbooks do too many things too well to be ignored, and they will do even more in the future.