jRin.net

Lenovo IdeaPad U330 Initial Hands On Review

James Rintamaki — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:15:57 +0000

After a long wait, ordering on 8/27/08 and finally receiving it 9/25/08 (wow, almost as bad as the Dell XPS M1330!), I finally have the wonderful machine that is the Lenovo IdeaPad U330. Preliminary thoughts after using it for about ~~2 hours? Neat features, very responsive, I hate the placement of the Fn key, and awesome screen.~~ 1 day? Great screen, very cool facial recognition webcam, awesome screen, bad battery life, nice keyboard, quite responsive, quiet, and I don’t like vista. Seeing as how I just received this laptop, this will be a somewhat simple, initial review. It will take a few days to do full battery testing, performance metrics, etc etc, but I will post updates to this page as I go along, and post a final review in a new post once it’s complete!

On with the review!

The specs of the machine I ordered, which if I remember right, was the only configuration available at the time:

Intel Core 2 Duo (Centrino 2) P7350 (2GHz, 1GHz fsb, 3mb L2 cache)
Windows Vista Home Premium
13.3" WXGA (1280×800) LED TFT Screen (16:10, 300:1 contrast, 300nits)
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256mb Dedicated AND Integrated Intel 4500MHD (dynamic switching between them!
3GB DDR3 PC3-8500 1066MHz
320GB 5400RPM Sata drive (1.5gb/s
DVD-RW/CD-RW
1.3mp webcam with dual array mics (with facial recognition software)
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100 (a/b/g/n)
6 cell battery
Memory card slot
Dolby Home Theater premium audio
~~(no express or pcmcia card slot)~~ ExpressCard/34 Slot (thanks Andrew!)
2x 2.0 usb, 1x firewire, 1x HDMI (HDCP), 1xVGA, 1xEthernet (10×100), Bluetooth 2.0
4lbs 4oz (with 6 cell battery) - this is the actual weight measured with my digital scale
12.5" x 9.3" x 0.9-1.1" (318mm x 237mm x 23-28mm)
(full spec sheet available here from lenovo.com)

Review Updates:

9/27/08, 10:53a - Vista experience scores for ATI video card
9/27/08, 3:49p - Running BatteryEaterPro tests (1.5hrs max performance)
9/27/08, 7:36p - Added info about heat and noise while running BEP tests
9/27/08, 8:40p - Added pics of weight
9/27/08, 9:25p - Video of sticker removal
9/27/08, 9:42p - Video of touchpad keys, keyboard, and fan noise levels
9/27/08, 10:54p - Install XP
9/27/08, 10:58p - 3dMark Vantage not working…
9/28/08, 8:52a - No bios option to turn off annoying boot jingle…
9/28/08, 10:26a - Battery time (~3.0hrs power saver mode, intel graphics)

Sections of the review (so far):

Unboxing
Different Physical Views / Aesthetics
Performance
Keyboard
Webcam (face recognition only, so far)
Heat and Noise ~~(just writing this review, and light video editing)~~
Build Quality
Battery
Install XP
Bios / Drivers

Unboxing:

Here you can see all that comes in the box: manuals, paperwork, charger, battery, and the laptop itself. There are no cd’s included in the box (no windows re-install, nothing). What may look like a case is actually just the fabric they put in between the screen and the keyboard for shipment. And that ugly sticker… why’d they have to put that on the palm rest!? (don’t worry, it’s not "sticky" — it comes right off — whew! ).

Different Physical Views & Aesthetics:

Here’s a look from the top, and the bottom

Left (fan exhaust, VGA, ethernet, HDMI), and Right (Firewire, 2x USB, DVD-RW, Power, lock)

In the front we have what looks to be an IR receiver for a remote (no remote included, I’ll report back on what this is later), activity lights, memory card slot, headphone/mic jack, wireless switch).

The first picture shows how far the lcd can be opened, and the second picture shows how thin it is (pretty thin!)

And last but not least, the keyboard (WHY oh WHY did they switch the position of the Fn and Ctrl key!?!?!?), and the glossy-ness of the screen.

Update 5: 9/27/08, 9:25p – As you saw in the picture above, there is a huge sticker on the left side of the palm rest - at first, I was pissed because in my experience, these stickers can be a pain to get off without leaving nasty, sticky residue. However, fear not - the sticker isn’t really sticky, and comes right off without a problem:

Performance:

I haven’t had a chance to do much hard core testing, but I’ll start out with the HDTune Results and Super Pi. HDTune showed results of: 7.5mb/s minimum, 64.8mb/s maximum, and 49.2mb/s average transfer rates, 17.3ms avg seek time, 50.0mb/sec burst, and 22.9% CPU usage. It also does have NCQ enabled:

Super Pi results: 1M = 25 seconds, 2M = 59 seconds.

Vista Experience Scores (Intel graphics): 3.7

Processor: 4.9
Memory: 5.7
Graphics: 4.0
Gaming graphics: 3.7
Primary hard disk: 5.3

Vista Experience Scores (ATI graphics): 4.4

Processor: 4.9
Memory: 5.7
Graphics: 4.5
Gaming Graphics: 4.4
Primary Hard disk: 5.3

Below, is my initial boot sequence video (very simple, and just from power on to the login screen) — not much editing has been done in any of these videos, so if it sounds like I’m "uhhh, and, uhhhh", just deal with it :). Upon boot, it plays a short little audio jingle, which is cute, but I’ll turn it off as soon as I look into doing it.

Update 8: 9/27/08, 10:58p – Okay, so I’ve been trying to run 3dMark vantage now about 4 times, and each time I do it, it’s getting about 1-2fps, and then it says that there must be some error and give me a 3dmark score in the low 200’s. I’m going to keep investigating. Hopefully I figure this out…

Keyboard:

The keyboard is very nice — sturdy, fairly quiet (though the Dell Mini 9 is quieter), and larger than normal labels (which is good). Unfortunately, the home and end keys require the use of the Fn key to be held down, but that’s fairly common (though I don’t like it).

Again, as I stated in my Dell Mini 9 review, I HATE when keyboards are not laid out in their standard way. And I know IBM/Lenovo has had this with their other laptops, but WHY oh WHY did that have to swap the left Ctrl key with the Fn key!? I suppose if you are already a IBM/Lenovo user, you may be used to it, and my whines will be falling on deaf ears, but for everyone else… I hate it, haha. However… The more I use it (writing this review and such), the more I am becoming more conscious about moving my pinky to the right a little when I’m looking to the left Ctrl key, so perhaps… after a while… it won’t be as big of a deal as I’m making it out to be. but you have been warned.

Other than that, the keyboard is alright. There is a little bit of flex in the middle, just a little, and I keep thinking it’s a bit (a very little bit) raised/bulged in the middle too — but then I look at it level with the palm rest, and I don’t see it being higher… (reminds me of the m1330 keyboard bulge..). I asked someone else if they thought it looked bulged, and they couldn’t see it (maybe my eyes have bad barrel distortion???). Another thing I’ve noticed, as I’ve been writing this paragraph (haha), is that I have to press directly in the center of the ‘?’ key in order for it to register - as if there’s a loose contact or something. (I’m going to assume that’s just a fluke with my particular keyboard… let me know if any of ya’ll have this too!)

I do, however, love the touch sensitive media pad! There is a "switching" button that toggles the buttons from "media" to "equalizer":

Webcam (and face recognition):

For now, I’m just going to talk about the face recognition for logging in — and I must say, this is pretty sweet! Basically, it’s very fast at recognizing your face, fast setting up, and doesn’t confuse my cat’s face for my own. I also tried using a couple pictures I had of my self on my other laptop, put it’s screen in front of the webcam, and it couldn’t recognize it — but I didn’t try very hard. I’ll later try a printed picture, or on a better quality screen, so see if it can be beat!

Heat and Noise:

So far, after just writing this review (about 2 hours), doing some light video editing in Windows Movie Maker, it has been rather warm at times (and it’s been on my lap the whole time). Hot enough for me to have said "wow, this is getting kind of warm on my leg (the left side, where the hard drive is). The fan turns on, on and off, but never gets very loud; I can hear it, but it’s fairly faint.

After I do more of the review (performance testing, normal usage, etc), I’ll be able to better report on how hot it gets, and how warm it is most of the time. But so far, most of the time the fan is on but hardly audible, and it’s pretty much always ‘luke warm’, and when doing the video rendering and such, it can get slightly hot (it makes me start to get hot, and a bit sweaty on my legs when it’s on my lap). The palm rest never gets HOT, but it does stay a little warm most of the time (but again, all laptops I use do too).

Update 9/27/08, 7:26p — During the running of full battery eater pro tests, I was curious to see how hot and loud the laptop was. The fan seems to be pushing out a lot of air, and it still isn’t very loud at all — it’s surprising how not loud it is. Now, I’m not saying it’s silent, but compared to the noise my acer aspire one and dell latitude d630 can make, this thing is surprisingly quiet. Also, it does get quite warm (borderline hot), but it’s mostly just where the hard drive is located — yes, the palm rest and rest of the keyboard gets warm as well, but it’s not bad.

Update 6: 9/27/08, 9:50p – Here’s a video of the loudness of the touchpad buttons, keyboard, and fan. (for some reason, all the fans sound louder on camera than they do in real life — it really isn’t as loud as the camera makes it out to be. ):

Build Quality:

This laptop has it’s pros and cons when it comes to build quality. The keyboard and bottom chassis (everything but the screen) is very sturdy, and there’s no flexing (except the bit mentioned earlier, in the middle of the keyboard). A commenter in my ‘coming soon’ post asked if the screen seemed to have a solid frame, and unfortunately, it’s quite easy to flex and bend — a bit of a disappointment for me. If I hold the top of the screen in one hand (at the webcam), and push in the middle of the back of the screen, it will bow in a bit. If I grab each side of the screen, and use my fingers to push in the middle (from the back), it too is pretty easy to flex.

With the lid closed, there’s no latch to keep it closed, and it’s not a "tight" fit — what I mean by that, is if I were to turn it up side down ~~in my hand~~ and hold it by the sides, the lid opens about a millimeter or so. The hinges, though, are tight enough to not allow the screen to wobble when you typing, or your using it on your lap.

Update 4: 9/27/08, 8:40p – Wasn’t sure what ’section’ to put this in, so I put it here, haha — The actual weight of the laptop with the 6 cell battery is 4lbs 4oz, and the charger itself is about 1lb 2oz:

Battery:

So far, battery times are not looking good (at least with the ATI card enabled). I’ve run the BatteryEaterPro twice (for some reason, it didn’t create the graphs), with settings at 1280×800 32 and full screen, with brightness maxed, wifi and bluetooth on, and I keep getting right at 1 hours 30 minutes. 1:30!!!! Okay, so maybe it will be better with the integrated video…. I’ll keep ya’ll posted!!

Update: I’ve switched back to intel graphics, and "power saver" mode, and vista is reporting that I should be able to get 3:30 (we’ll see about that, haha)

Update: 9/28/08, 10:26a — Okay, so I just tested the battery time with the integrated Intel graphics, 3/10 brightness, wifi/bluetooth on, and "power saver mode" on. This also allowed the screen to turn off during in activity, which happened a few times. With 7% battery life left, I had just reached the 3 hour mark — I was watching the debate skit on SNL on Hulu, and then the screen turned off, audio eventually stopped, and about 2 minutes later it turned off (why did it take so long to hibernate?). 3 hours on lowest settings… not anywhere near the claimed 5 hours by ibm… (perhaps it will fair better with xp!?)

Vista
- ATI Graphics, max performance, 10/10 brightness, wifi/bluetooth on, BatteryEaterPro (1280×800 full screen)
  - 1 hour, 30 minutes (ran the test twice)
- Intel Integrated Graphics, 3/10 brightness, wifi/blueooth, with ‘moderate’ usage (web browsing with IE, watching Hulu clips, uninstalling programs, editing this review)
  - 3 hours, 1 minute (just ran this once)
XP
- {soon to come}

Installing XP:

Okay, so I’ve yet to jump on the Vista band wagon, as I am still in love with XP. After trying to do this review for a while, and trying to figure out where everything is in Vista, I’ve decided I’m going to (eventually) do this review in XP as well. For those of you who have this laptop already, and went to lenovo’s site and can’t find the drivers for XP, here is the link:

http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/lenovo/Drivers/list.aspx?CategoryID=849

Once I get more stuff on this review finished (or not, ie: 3dmark isn’t working…), I’ll back everything up and then install XP and let ya’ll know how things fair there!

Bios / Drivers:

Tying to figure out how to stop the ‘cute’ boot up jingle, I started looking around in the bios. Basically, there’s nothing there except boot sequence, passwords, and changing the time. Very disappointing seeing as how I see no other way to stop the jingle from happening other than in the bios! Here’s a breakdown of the bios options (values are editable unless specified):

Information, just simply lists the following (nothing to change):
- CPU Type: core2duo p7350 @ 2.00ghz
- System Memory: 3072mb
- HDD Info: 320gb sata
- System BIOS version: OFCN46WW
- KBC Version: 03.37
- Product Name: Lenovo IdeaPad U330
- Unit Serial Number: [I'm not going to list this, haha]
- Lenovo SN: Invalid (what???)
- UUID Number: [like a 30 digit alphanumeric string]
Main
- System Time
- System Date
- Network Boot (enabled/disabled)
Advanced
- Legacy USB Support: (enabled/disabled)
- Wireless: (enabled/disabled)
- Sata Controller Mode: (Non-AHCI, AHCI)
- Graphics Device: Switchable graphics, discrete graphics)
  - in the "item specific help" on the right it says "Switchable graphics mode allow switch between discrete and integrated graphics. NOTE: This mode should only be selected if you are using WIindows Vista and the corresponding driver installed. Discrete graphics mode will achieve higher graphics performance"
Security:
- Set Supervisor Password
- Set User Password
- Password on boot
- Primary Hard Disk Password
  - Set Hard Disk Master Password
  - Set Hard Disk User Password
Boot: just simply allows you to change the boot order — the ordered list contains:
- USB FDD:
- ATA CD/DVD: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U20N
- ATA HDD: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCTO
- USB HDD:
- USB CD/DVD:
- PCI LAN : Network Boot
- No boot drive
- No boot drive
Exit
- Exit saving changes
- exit discarding changes
- load setup defaults
- discard changes
- save changes

And that’s it’s folks. Not that I was expecting a whole lot, but at least an option to turn off the audio jingle!! Not cool…! (unless, has someone figured out a way to kill the jingle??)

I’m also looking to install XP (and maybe a fresh install of Vista…we’ll see), so those who want the drivers, you can find them here: EDIT: looks like they’ve now combined the pages for XP and Vista drivers, and it looks like they removed some of the XP drivers….???? What’s going on here?

That’s all there is for now. Check back tomorrow for more updates!!! Keep checking back for updates. (I am in the process of downloading game demos, so I’ll be able to get on those tomorrow as well soon — including battery times, etc). Be sure to list, in the comments below, anything you want to see!

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Usage Review

James Rintamaki — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:37:00 +0000

So no sooner had I bought and brought home my Acer Aspire One, I was able to get in on an order for some Dell Inspiron Mini 9’s! Well, the other night they finally arrived and here I am to give you my review! What do I think in a one liner? Compared to the other netbooks currently available, it’s about the same as the rest except it gets a BIT better battery life, I don’t like the keyboard, but love the easy access for upgrades.

Lets start off with the specs of the system reviewed:

Intel Atom processor N270, 1.6GHz, 533Mhz512K L2 Cache
512MB,DDR2,533MHZ,1 DIMM
8.9 inch Wide Screen WSVGA (1024×600) LED Backlit - Glossy
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
16GB Solid State Drive (mini-card Module/PATA)
Windows XP Home Edition
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
32WHr 4-cell Battery
Bluetooth 2.1 module
Memory card slot (SD, MS/Pro, MMC)
3 x USB
Weight: 2lbs 5oz (with 4 cell)

Unboxing:

We’ll start out, as usual, with some onboxing shots:

This is the exact box that the Mini 9 shipped in.

What comes with it very minimal, including cds, charger, and a manual (props to Dell for still keeping with supplying the windows re-install cd!):

And of course, different angles/viewpoints:

Left (lock, power, 2 usb, memory card slot), Right (headphone, mic, ~~fan~~ exhaust, usb, vga, ethernet)

Front (power LED, battery LED - no hdd led because of SSD), Back (battery)

And then, straight on, the bottom, and flipped upside down:

And, now for the review:

Screen:

The screen is on par with other netbooks — great backlighting levels, bright, crisp, and good horizontal viewing angles. The vertical angles have a bit to be desired; tilting the screen too far back or forward will start to wash out the colors a bit, but nothing that isn’t ‘fixable’ by simply tilting the screen a bit. It is a glossy screen so you will get the usual reflections, but with it’s very bright LED backlit screen, most reflections won’t be too much of an issue.

I don’t think you can tell the quality of a screen from a picture vs seeing it in person, but here’s a picture looking straight on, level with the screen:

Sitting on the train with the sun shining through the window, I haven’t had a problem seeing anything, though I do have to set the brightness pretty high. As with other netbooks with the 1024×600 resolution, you will need to do a bit of vertical scrolling, but most applications and webpages should be designed to fit the 1024 horizontal resolution, so you just have to worry about the vertical resolution; even at only 600px vertical resolution, most apps are designed in such a way to accommodate vertical scrolling. Unlike the aspire one, this does not suffer from the screen dim when accessing the hard drive because 1) there is no hard drive, and 2) it may fare better because it has a 4cell battery.

Keyboard:

The keyboard is a tad bit smaller than a normal size keyboard; larger then the acer aspire one, but not quite full size. Even though it is smaller, Dell did a good job at making the actual keys to still be almost normal size. What I mean by this, is take a look at a normal laptop’s keyboard. The keys are like a trapezoid - a little bit smaller on the top, than the bottom. On the Mini 9, they’re pretty much the same size on top as on bottom, giving you more ‘real estate’ for your fingers to land on the key — closely mimicking the size of a normal keyboard key.

However, this is where the praise of the keyboard stops, and where the my largest gripe of this netbook comes in: the keys are not arranged like a standard keyboard.

Normally, the first row of letter keys (qwertyuiop) are ’staggered’ compared to the second row (asdfghjkl;). In other words, the Q over hangs the A a bit, and the P over hangs the L a bit. However, on the Mini 9, Q-O are DIRECTLY above A-L, leaving the P completely off ‘the edge’. You may think to your self this isn’t a big deal, and of all the other nuances with this keyboard (keep reading), this turns out to not be that big of a deal for me (I can still type using the alphabet just fine, though I find myself making a typo with a letter on the top row a little more than I feel I normally do).
The apostrophe. It’s not next to the semicolon as it has been since the dawn of time. I actually had to stare at the keyboard for a few seconds before I could find it. Turns out, it’s next to the context-menu ("right-mouse-click") key, to the right of the space bar.

In my usual typing of stuff, instead of typing something like "I can’t, I won’t, I just don’t want to!", I actually end up typing: "I can
t, I won
t, I just don
t want to!

Get it? I keep pressing the enter key thinking that’s where the apostrophe is. Sure, you can get used to the apostrophe key (which is also the quote key) being down by the context-key, but then you’ll have to get used to using two different kinds of keyboard layouts (normal, and then Dell Mini).
No dedicated function (f1, f2, f3, etc) keys. Now normally, this wouldn’t really bother me; I don’t use them enough to have the lack of them be an issue; instead, you just hold the laptop’s Fn key and ASDFGHJKL; are function keys F1-F10. F1-F10. F1-F10. Something wrong there? Looks like f11 and f12 are missing, and they indeed are! There is no f11 or f12. This means no f11 to full screen your web browser, among other f11 and f12 keyboard shortcuts. Even though I never find myself using those keys, it bothers me to know that if I ever DID need them, I wouldn’t have them - and that’s just not right.

Touchpad:

For what the keyboard lacks is partly made up by the touchpad. Coming from using the acer aspire one’s tiny pad and awkwardly placed buttons, the touchpad on the I9 is like most any other laptop you’ve used. The touchpad is almost full size, and the two buttons are located below (joy!). The touchpad itself has a slight rough texture to it, so it’s very easy to use - perhaps only I have this issue but sometimes I find my finger sticks to the touchpad so it doesn’t allow a smooth sliding movement. However, due to the texture, even if my finger happens to be a bit wet if, say, I just washed my hands, it slides across just fine. The buttons click just fine with the expected amount of force and are actually quite quiet, but feel a bit cheap and "plasticy".

Battery:

As far as I can tell, only the 4 cell is currently available and is the one that was tested in this review. Using BatteryEaterPro (full screen, 1024×600 rendering, medium screen brightness, and wifi/bluetooth on) the Mini 9 clocked in at 2 hours 51 minutes. That sound pretty good to me considering is was rendering a 3d image, full screen, and that the acer aspire one (3 cell) only lasted just over 2 hours. On a 0% charge, it took 2 hours 22 minutes to reach 100%. I haven’t had much of a chance to use the battery while doing ‘moderate’ usage, other than on the train, but after 45 minutes of writing this review in notepad with lowest brightness (screen always on) and wifi/bluetooth on, I am only at 80%. With the way the battery is positioned, getting the 6 cell will be one of those extended batteries that stick out on the bottom, adding thickness to the back.

(battery discharge and charge graphs)

Performance:

Upon the initial boot, and having windows setup (pick user name, accept dell’s license, network settings, etc) it took a good 5-6 minutes from the time I clicked finish, to the time I got to the desktop and programs quit loading. I was quite disappointed at first, because not only was it running kind of slow, I was getting "low virtual memory" errors quite frequently, and just having an overall unhappy experience.

That’s when, however, I noticed that Dell enabled drive compression! I read up a bit online and found that it does indeed lower performance, so following the command line given from DjLizard, over at Piriforms, I turned off drive compression, have yet to have a major slow down or as many low virtual memory errors. (coincidence? maybe, I’ll keep using it and see). Keep in mind, too, that I am currently only running on 512mb, so that most likely is part of the problem.

Before doing the drive decompression, 3.18gb were used up (first picture) , and after there was ?gb (second picture)[lost the data, will get it back tonight 9/25]

The HDTune report is about the same for the Mini 9’s SSD as it is for the HDD in my acer aspire one:

It has a max transfer rate of 65.2mb/sec, min of 3.8mb/sec (!?!?), access time of 0.4 ms (wow), burst rate of 44.9mb/sec, and average transfer rate of 62.7mb/sec. Super Pi results for 1 million digits was 3m 39s (the acer aspire one was 3m 37s). I tried running 3dMark06, but it kept erroring out. I first thought it was the 512mb memory, but even after I bumped it up to 2gb with a single stick, it still resulted in an error. No clue as to why.

Doing things like writing this review in Windows Live Writer, it does take about 6 seconds when I add a picture, and it resizes it to 350px (down from a 8mp image), where as it’s almost instant on my dell latitude d630 (core 2 duo 2.4ghz). Web browsing with firefox, and 512mb ram, you’ll definitely notice lag when you open new tabs, and if you have a bunch of them open. I replaced the 512mb stick with a 1gb, and results were noticeably better, but still a bit sluggish.

One thing I noticed was really nice, is that when setting the laptop to go on standby upon closing the lid, when you open it again and it comes out of standby, it’s almost instantly back to your desktop ready to go. (I don’t remember any other of my laptops being this fast coming out of standby).

Heat and noise:

When running the BatteryEaterPro, or when doing other intensive tasks such as watching movies or doing light photo editing, ~~the fan will eventually kick in but it’s not very loud at all~~ the fan does NOT turn on because there is no fan! (I was getting my netbooks mixed up when writing this review, haha). Just doing simple web browsing, installing 3dmark06, and writing this review, ~~the fan never turned on~~no fan ever turned on, cause again, there’s no fan! (oops), and remained completely silent. It will start to get a bit warm to the touch (palm rest, and the memory cover area on the bottom) after using it for a while, and quite warm if doing intense tasks. When using BEP about 2 hours in, it got kind of hot to the point where it would’ve got uncomfortable if it was on my lap (but, any laptop would). During ‘normal’ use, it gets warm, but usable. The keyboard keys are quieter than the aspire one, and also quieter than my 3 desktop keyboards (I don’t really know of a way to "accurately" describe their noise level, but compared to my other keyboards, it’s the quietest — though you can still, of course, hear the keys when typing).

Build Quality / Aesthetics:

As with other netbooks this size, being that it is so small, there is basically no flex anywhere, and none whatsoever on the keyboard. The battery, however, can be jiggled a little bit, though it’s not in danger of falling out or anything. The silver paint used on the inside (palm rest and screen bezel) makes it look cheap, but the glossy black lid looks nice like any other laptop with a glossy lid. It also, therefore, is very prone to attracting fingerprints, so if that bothers you…. prepare to be bothered.

As for the weight, the netbook comes in at 2lbs 5oz, and the charger at 6.2oz (together that’s 2lbs 11.2oz):

The screen does not open all the way, even less than the aspire one - I could guess the degrees, but it’s just easier to see for yourself:

Comparison shots:

Of course, none of my reviews are complete with out some comparisons to other laptops/items I have laying around the apartment. First up, comparing it against the Acer Aspire One:

As you can see, it is almost the same size as the Acer Aspire One. The AAO starts out a bit thicker in front, but meets up with the Mini 9 as it moves back.

Here, too, you can see that they are pretty much the same size. The mini 9 is a tad deeper and not as wide, and virtually the same thickness.

Here are some more comparison pictures of it with random stuff I had laying around, including my dell latitude d630 — what a tiny litlte thing this mini 9 is in comparison, and it’s so much nicer to carry around while commuting than the 5.8lb monster the d630 is!

Conclusion:

All in all, I would say that this netbook is fair game in the race between all the other 8.9" netbooks currently out there. I would say they keyboard layout is it’s largest drawback, and it’s a pretty large one at that. Like the CTL key on some IBM laptops, and other brands/models I’m sure, changing the keyboard (at least in my opinion) is something that should never be done. I don’t care if you have to make the keys smaller, the laptop wider, etc - it just shouln’t be changed. (and I’m talking about the alpha-numeric keys — you can switch around the pgup, pgdown, home, end, etc and that’s fine — just don’t move my letters, numbers, or punctuation!).

That being said, everything else I like about the Mini 9. The fact that there is an EASILY accessible memory slot underneath is a definite bragging point for dell. Unlike the AAO (Acer Aspire One), I don’t have to fully dismantle it to upgrade the memory or change the wireless card if I later want 802.11n. The screen is as you would expect from any other ‘good’ quality laptop — LED backlit, good viewing angles, very bright and crisp, and relatively good in sunlight. Dell also did well when designing the touchpad (only possible, I believe, because they scrapped the dedicated function keys). It is large enough to not have to fumble around with a tiny touch pad, and the click-buttons are directly underneath like they should be (plus their quite, which is a plus).

Performance is about what you would expect fro a 1.6ghz processor (533fsb). It’s not blazingly fast, though it’s not HORRIBLY slow either. I used it to write this review in Windows Live Writer which including having it resize pictures, which did take a while for each pic, but it was bearable. Also, keep in mind that I was only using 512mb of ram, so upping that to 1 or 2gb would definitely help. Speaking of memory, here’s one more thing that totally threw me off, and would potentially steer me away from this netbook. When running off 512mb of memory, I kept on getting "low virtual memory errors", and occasionally, it would just shut down programs that were running in the background — once windows live writer as I was using it. I’ve used windows xp (sp1) back in the day with just 512mb and never had these issues, so I"m not sure where the problem lies (is it sp3?). However, after replacing the 512mb with 1gb, I didn’t get those errors anymore, and everything ran a bit faster (though I didn’t test anything with the increased memory).

Using firefox with multiple tabs, while having live writer and windows media player playing music, I definitely noticed lag when ever I opened a new tab, or had a flash video load or something. Again, nothing that wasn’t bareable, but it was still enough lag for me to notice and be a tad annoyed by it. That being said, however, for being such a small, lightweight, portable notebook — it’s great. I would feel comfortable enough to take it with me when I visit the parents out of state, or to take it on a trip, instead of lugging around my 14.1" d630 (which is getting replaced by the lenovo IdeaPad u330 soon!!). It’s very nice to just be able to pull out of my bag when sitting on the train, not having to worry about it getting in the way, and even sometimes using it while I’m standing up in the metro to read the news or watch some recorded tv episodes (such as this week’s House).

As said before, battery life is also pretty good — while using it for about 40 minutes on the train, I am consistently at about 78% battery life (little more than 3hrs) with moderate usage, and just under 3 hours if using it heavily. It also stays silent ~~at most times, and even when (if) the fan does turn on, it stays at a low hum~~at all times because there is no fan, and no moving hard drive. (I’ll try to get a more accurate battery time w/normal usage over the next few days).

Would I keep it? No. I like the acer aspire one better — I like it’s keyboard, and larger 120gb storage space. Had the Dell had a normal laid out keyboard and/or a larger hard drive, I would keep it over my AAO because I like the battery life, it stays quieter, the actual keys on the keyboard are nicer, and it’s much easier to upgrade. Would I recommend someone else to get it over other netbooks? If the keyboard won’t bother you, sure — It’s cheap enough, and has better battery life than the others I’ve reviewed (and read about), but for me, it comes down to the keyboard. But with all things considered (other than the keyboard layout), it’s not much different (better/worse) than the other netbooks out there — at this point, I’d say it’s which looks better, and cheaper at the time.

Pros:

Battery life (little more than 3 hours on standard 4-cell)
Silent (most times)
Good low-light performing webcam (stays dark, but doesn’t get choppy/low fps)
Nice keys (but the keyboard layout…..read below)
SSD has same disk performance as a 5400rpm sata
Easy access to upgrade memory/wireless card/etc
Very light (2.5lbs)

Cons:

Keyboard does not have a standard layout (qwertyuiop is shifted right, apostrophe/double quote is on bottom row)
Running on 512mb keeps getting Low Virtual Memory errors (bumped to 1gb seems to make issue go away)
16gb largest drive (SSD) currently available
Ships with drive compression turned on (hurts performance, but easily undone)
Kind of cheesy touch pad buttons (but quiet)

Coming soon: Lenovo Ipad S10 Review

James Rintamaki — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:10:18 +0000

Also coming soon, is my review of the Lenovo Ipad S10 — another netbook, only this one is a 10.2″ one (to compete with the asus eeepc 1000h and the like). Just got the shipping confirmation yesterday, so look for the review in the upcoming days!

(as always, have something you want to know? Tell me about it in the comments!)

Coming soon: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (910) Review

James Rintamaki — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:39:21 +0000

Ah, the sweet new trend of netbooks! Just received my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 the other night, and am in the process of writing up the review. My initial thoughts? It’s about on par with the other mini laptops I’ve used (Acer Aspire One, EEE PC, Fujitsu P7120, etc). When compared with the Aspire One specifically (at least so far), the battery life is a bit better, the keyboard layout is awful, the webcam is much better in low light, and ssd performance is a bit better (basically the same) than the aao’s hard drive.

Here’s the specs of the Mini 9 I am reviewing:

Inspiron 910 Intel Atom processor N270, 1.6GHz, 533Mhz512K L2 Cache
Obsidian Black Color with Gloss Finish
512MB,DDR2,533MHZ,1 DIMM
8.9 inch Wide Screen WSVGA TLLCD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
16GB Solid State Drive (mini-card Module/PATA)
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition
Wireless 802.11g Mini Card
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
32WHr 4-cell Battery
Bluetooth 2.1 module via USB I/F (Option)

Stay tuned for the complete review to be finished in the next couple days. Have anything specific you want to see in the review? game play footage, performance tests, etc? Let me know in the comments!

(The full review will be linked here, or just check back at the homepage)

update 9/24/08: Here is the full review! http://www.jrin.net/2008_09_25/dell-inspiron-mini-9-actual-usage-review

Coming soon: Lenovo IdeaPad U330 Review

James Rintamaki — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:17:13 +0000

I just got my shipping confirmation for the new Lenovo U330 13.3″ laptop! It’s should arrive on Thursday, but depending on if they leave it at my door, I probably won’t be able to pick it up till Friday, so stay tuned this weekend! (I will post a link on this post to the review once it’s up, or of course simply check back at the home page)

Update 9/25/08 11:22p:

Initial hands on review posted!! http://www.jrin.net/2008_09_26/lenovo-ideapad-u330-initial-hands-on-review

Update 9/26/08 4:30p:

I pick it up on the way home from work today. Keep a lookout tonight for an initial hands on review!

Update 9/25/08 7:20p:

UPS tried to deliver today, but I wasn’t home. I called them up, and they told me I could drive to the UPS center and pick it up tonight! I drove there, and was told that the truck from my area won’t be there until 8:00p…. They closed at 7:00p…… Ugh. Well, I will be posting my initial review tomorrow night!

The Lenovo U330 I ordered will have the following specifications:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P7350 ( 2GHz 1GHz 3MB )
Windows Vista Home Premium
13.3 WXGA LED Backlight TFT 1280×800
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB (ATI M82SCE 256MB)
3 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
320GB 9mm 5400RPM
DVD Recordable w/ X6 Ultrabase
HDMI, WiFi (802.11a/g/n), Bluetooth, 10/100 Ethernet (boo, no gigabit)
0.9″ Thick

One thing I’m really looking forward to checking out is that it’s supposed to be able to switch from the dedicated video card, to the integrated (x3100?) video, to save battery life. If this ends up being light enough, I may end up getting rid of my Acer Aspire One!

Have anything in particular you want to see reviewed? Game play? Specific performance tests? Let me know in the comments!

Acer Aspire One - Actual Usage Review (XP, 120gb, 3 cell)

James Rintamaki — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:54:28 +0000

I recently moved to the Baltimore/Washington area and have opted to use the trains to get to and from work, so I was looking for a ultra portable laptop to take with me on my commute. At the time, I had a Dell Latitude D630 and though it’s weighs about 5 pounds, I wanted something much lighter - which is when I came across the Acer Aspire One. I just started a new job, so money was tight, and this was the cheapest ‘netbook’ available that had the new Atom processor and XP (plus it was carried locally by Best Buy, so not having to wait for shipping), so I decided to give it a go:

Here are the specs of the machine reviewed:

Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz 533mhz fsb 512mb cache
1gb ddr2-667 (512mb soldiered, 512mb removable/upgradeable, though difficult)
8.9" WSVGA (1024×600), CrystalBrite (glossy), LED Backlit screen
120GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive (1.8")
Intel integrated 950 graphics
Built in 0.3mp (vga) webcam with mic
2 Memory card slots
- 1 SDHC
- 1 5-in-1 (SD, MMC, Reduced Size MMC, MS/MS Pro, & xD)
3 usb 2.0 ports
Built in 802.11b/g wifi (atheros invilink)
2.2 pounds, 1.1" thick
Windows XP Home

Unboxing:

First, lets see some unboxing shots:

And now for the review:

Screen:

The screen in a nutshell is quite amazing. It’s LED backlit, very sharp and crystal clear, and is even viewable in sunlight (ie: sitting on the train with the sun shining directly on it). That being said, I don’t mean to say it’s crystal clear with the sun directly over head outside - it’s still a bit hard to see then, but it’s at least usable (unlike compared to my old m1210 for example). Being that it’s a glossy screen, you do get reflections, but with the brightness set on max, even during sunny days or bright overhead lights, most reflections don’t much matter and you can still view the screen. There is a minimal amount of (what looks to be) light leakage that comes from the bottom, but it’s hardly worth mentioning (and I can’t tell during normal use - only if the screen is all black, or black at the bottom like in a widescreen movie, and even then, it’s not bad) - I think it’s more of a viewing angle issue (but again, it’s minimal). In the image below, the white you see in the corners and bottom is just because of the angle it’s being viewed at; if I were to move the camera, it would look different (it’s not nearly as bad as it seems, I promise - it’s just the way the camera captured it). I was debating to even include this picture, but figured I would since I took it, haha:

The 1024×600 resolution is a nice fit for this size screen as any higher resolutions would probably make it hard to see (things would be too small). The LCD is also pretty thin, which is a tad bit thinner than my d630 and hp dv2000t.

When running off battery and at the lower screen brightnesses, everytime time the hard drive is accessed the screen backlight flickers ever so slightly. It seems as though there isn’t quite enough power coming from the 3 cell battery to keep a constant power level to the screen’s LEDs so when the hard drive spins, there’s a power drop to the LEDs and the brightness flickers (this is a guess!). At first it bothered me because I thought it was broken, but then I read up on others having the same issue, and after using it now for a while I don’t notice it anymore - it is very subtle. I would give it maybe 1/4 the ‘brightness change’ of actually, physically, changing the brightness level (maybe not even 1/4); the flicker doesn’t occur when at higher brightnesses (actually, it probably does, but you just can’t tell). I tried to take a video of the dimming, but I couldn’t get it to be noticed on my camera.

I’ve been using this on the train to do basic web browsing and web development, and as far as the screen is concerned, I have almost nothing bad to say…. except for sites that are designed for ‘taller’ resolution screens, such as google reader. Being that it’s only 600px tall, once you add in the browser’s menu, status, bookmarks, etc tool bars, you don’t have much vertical web viewing real estate. Sites such as google reader don’t provide vertical adjustment, so I can only "see" 1 feed title at a time:

Though, in retrospect, I think this is more a limitation of the website than anything else because I feel that it should be an option to resize the sections on that page anyway! So far, however, that’s the only site that has not ‘done well for me’ with this 1024×600 resolution. (and seeing as how most sites are designed with 800×600 or 1024×768 resolutions in mind, horizontal space shouldn’t ever really be an issue).

Want to easily see what it would be like using different programs, that you are using right now, in a 1024×600 resolution? Download sizer (www.brianapps.net) which allows you to right click on the title bar of a window (ie: firefox, word, etc etc) and have it resize to different resolutions of your choosing (ie: create one for 1024×600!).

Keyboard & Touchpad:

Being that this is a 8.9" laptop, the keyboard is smaller than a standard sized keyboard (89%). Yes, the keys are smaller, but after about 15 minutes (at least for me), I was able to get used to it and was never really a big deal (reminds me of the good old days with the dell 700m). However, if you have larger hands, I could see it being more of an issue. There is minimal flex - again, nothing really worth mentioning, in fact, I’d say it has the least flex of any keyboard I’ve ever used. The keys are pretty quiet (on par with the latitude d630) and you do have to hold the FN key to do Home, End, num lock, and scroll lock.

The touchpad is quite small; It’s about half the height of a normal touchpad, and maybe 3/4 the width. I’ve found myself having to consciously start my finger at the very bottom of the touch pad in order to move the cursor from the bottom of the screen to the top, in order to get the same ‘reaction’ as a standard sized touchpad. On regular sized laptops, I never really use the bottom of the touchpad, but with this "half height" one, you’ll either want to turn up the speed and/or sensitivity of the cursor (so small touchpad movements result in larger cursor movements), or really try to utilize the entire touch pad. Another thing I did that helped touchpad usage was to change the area for horizontal scrolling to a minimum:

Now we get to the touchpad buttons… I am so not a fan of how the buttons are on either side of the touchpad (as opposed to below it), but after using it a while and realizing how small the laptop is, and how small the touchpad is already, I am used to it and don’t see there being any other option. The buttons themselves are a bit stiff in that they require more effort to press than I would like (but I also usually tap the touchpad for clicking anyway, so everything but dragging isn’t a big deal for me personally). I have, however, found my self to occasionally use my left thumb to handle left clicks, seeing as how it’s RIGHT there, but the buttons have definitely been one of the few major things I dislike about this laptop (not to say it’s a show stopper - it’s more of just an annoyance). I’ve therefore found myself getting around using the touchpad buttons by doing things such as using the arrow keys for scrolling/moving around a document/webpage, and relying more on keyboard shortcuts than before (and of course tapping the touchpad for clicks).

Heat & Noise:

This netbook does get fairly warm after about 15 minutes of usage. Nothing even close to something that would burn you, or uncomfortable with direct skin contact. However, having it sit on my lap on the train after running to try to catch it (ha), it definitely makes me a bit warm to the point where when I’m on the train, I will purposely find a seat under an air vent, or put a notebook between my lap and the laptop.

When the netbook first starts up, you can see just how loud the fan CAN get. It starts with a higher pitched, relatively loud (for the size of the laptop) whirring, but then promptly becomes almost silent (in a silent room, you could hear it); When warm, the fan is on and running, but it’s more of a low hum – nothing that would ever bother me at least, and I would venture to guess that most others wouldn’t care either. After using it for little over a week now, I’ve never had it run the fan at full speed like when starting up, so the noise level has never been an issue for me.

Battery (3 cell):

The battery is my worst gripe with this netbook. Using it at the 2nd-lowest brightness, while having my phone plugged in for internet access (but not charging the phone), and wireless off, got me just at 2 hours and 30 minutes. This consisted of simple web browsing, a bit of youtube play back, and some web development (notepad, etc). While I would love to have the 6 cell, which would basically afford you ~4.5 hours, the ~2.5 is bearable. Starting at a 0% charge, it took 2:20 to charge it back up to 100%.

Below is the data sheet from running BatteryEaterPro. With this, I had wifi and bluetooth on (using one of those MicroUSB bluetooth adapters), and had the screen brightness at 50%, and the 800×600 resolution of video rendering. Clocking in at just over 2 hours with max usage with BEP, and just under 2:40 using "moderate" usage (detailed earlier), if you are looking for good battery life as well as ultra portability, I would hold out for the 6 cell version (which amazon will have on 9/22/08 for $399).

(click here for full BatteryEaterPro log)

For me, personally, I only need about 1.5 hours of battery life a day (for the train), so it fits my needs just fine. However, if I want to use it for more than an hour at work as well as on my commute, or I forget to charge it one day, I’ll be out of luck (though, the charger is very small and light weight at about 10oz).

Build quality, ‘physical aspects’, and ports:

This laptop is very well built, and I haven’t noticed any flex anywhere - being that it’s so small and compact, I don’t think it could ever flex. The keyboard is firm, as well as the LCD panel and the whole laptop itself. The screen only opens to about maybe 155-160 degrees. When using it on your lap, with the screen open, the laptop does tilt backwards ever so slightly, but not enough for it to be in danger of falling/flipping backwards or anything.

(screen fully opened)

Here is my last, and final ‘major’ gripe with this laptop: The 4 rubber feet that are on the bottom, to give it a ‘non-slick surface’, aren’t all the same height. One of them is about a millimeter shorter than the rest, so if you have it on a table and you are typing, you are able to slightly rock it - not really when typing, but only when lifting the heels of your hands off when you’re "done typing". I am not the only one with this issue, as I read about someone else over at slickdeals.net forums (where they discuss getting this for $250 like I did!). If my best buy had more in stock, I would return it to get a replacement; however, if I had ordered it online, I wouldn’t bother going through the hassle of shipping it back (even if it was free), just because it’s something I can live with:

It comes with 3 USB 2.0 ports, vga, headphone and mic jack, built in webcam and mic, SDHC card slot (left) and 5-in-1 card slot (right - sd/sdhc, xD, memory stick/pro), power, and the hole to put a lock into. That’s right, it has 2 memory card slots.

The only reason I can think it has two is for the SSD hard drive versions of this laptop so you can use one for extra storage (seeing as how the largest SSD option is 16gb), and the other for ‘daily use’ (cameras, etc). The slot that is only the SDHC reader will allow the card to fit all the way into the laptop (flush, without sticking out), whereas the multicard reader has the card stick out (for easier/faster removal). Once larger SDHC cards come out or if you find a SDIO card you could actually make use of, I could maybe see the dedicated SDHC slot being useful — but until then, I will stick with my wish that they turned one of the card slots into an extra USB port, express card slot, or something else wonderful.

Here are some size comparisons to my Dell Latitude D630 (14.1" widescreen laptop) and other objects:

Seeing as how the lid has the "glossy" texture to it, it does attract finger prints, but luckily they don’t show up as bad as on a completely black lid (like on the dv2000t):

Size / Weight:

Weighing in at 2.55lbs with the 3 cell battery, walking the mile from the train to work I can hardly notice it’s in my bag. This is definitely it’s major selling points — being so light and about the size of a book. On busy train rides, with people crowded all over the place, and sometimes not being able to find a seat, it’s small and light enough to hold in one hand while standing, and using the other one to type/use the mouse; however, if it was a tablet, it’d be even better haha. I can definitely see this being nice to use on small planes - using my 14.1" is hard to type with because it’s too deep to be able to maneuver my hands and elbows with the 2 seats x 2 seats planes with about a foot from you and the seat in front of you.

Performance:

Being "only" 1.6ghz (atom processor), I was very surprised at the speed this thing can deliver. No, it is not going to be as fast as a core 2 duo laptop, nor do I expect (hopefully) that anyone would hope for such. Opening MS office, firefox, media player, etc, I don’t notice much difference than if I were using my desktop. Installing software, however, is where I found the most lag – while installing office, activesync, firefox, etc, I definitely noticed a bit of sluggishness, but for ‘everyday browsing, word processing, movie watching, music listening, etc’, it will be just fine. After all, it does have 1gb of ram and a 1.6ghz processor – it’s not like it was unbearable back a few years ago when we were all using the Pentium M processor in laptops!

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been using it to do some web development (using Paint.net for image editing, notepad++ for coding), watching youtube videos, writing this review on google docs, and simple web browsing, music listening, etc. At 1gb, having a bunch of firefox tabs open, while having office and windows media player open, then trying to open something else (say wireshark or paint.net), I’ll notice things start to slow down a bit (where as on my t7700 2.4ghz core 2 duo, it hardly hiccups). However, it is not like it’s painfully ’slowed down’ when doing alot, you just simply can notice it, and at it’s price point and processor, it’s to be expected.

Webcam:

The webcam is actually a lot better than I expected. It does have the lag and poorer quality in low light situations (as any sub $75 webcam I’ve ever owned), but does great in better lit areas – I wasn’t able to find software to record video at the moment, so I don’t have a sample video. I do, however, have a sample picture of our bakers rack. It’s not very good, but it’s expected with a VGA cam haha:

Software:

The laptop does not come pre-loaded with a bunch of bloat/crap ware, which was a welcome surprise. It does come with a 60 day trial of both MS office and McAfee, and other than that, it’s just a bunch of ‘driver software’ (touch pad, quick launch, etc etc). One thing I really don’t like is the absence of a recovery disc (or any discs for that matter, ie windows reinstall), or the ability to create one. The only option available is the restore partition to which if you delete it, you are out of luck if you want to restore back to factory settings/defaults/etc.

I tried to use DriveImage XML to create a backup of the hard drive, but it would not see the hidden partition, so that was out of the question. I have norton ghost 12 I got free-after-rebate a while ago, installed it, but can’t (quickly) find the way to image the entire hard drive (I miss my norton ghost 10..). I wanted to install XP Pro, so I just kept the ~5.8gb recovery partition in tact and installed pro on the partition that home was on; you can, however, download the recovery software which will restore your computer given that you have not deleted the recovery partition. (come on acer…!).

Upgrading:

Acer definitely made it hard to upgrade anything in this laptop. As shown at tnkgrl’s blog here, there’s a detailed guide how to dismantle the laptop to add in extra memory and if you are feeling lucky, you can add internal bluetooth (requires a good amount of work). I’ve just been using one of those micro bluetooth usb adapters (like this one) and it works fine.

Conclusion:

There are many “netbooks” out there at the moment: msi wind, eee pc, hp’s , and soon the dell mini (if mine ever ships..), lenovo s10 (also backordered.. ). For the price, and the specs of the acer aspire one, it wins the contest hands down, no question (at least in my opinion!). With 120gb hdd, 1gb ram, 1.6 atom processor, webcam, and windows xp for the low price of $350 (or less), you can’t go wrong. This is great for the person who wants something small and light to travel around with, while not having to go with one of the low voltage (slower) processor (and more expensive) laptops, while also not having to switch to linux. They keyboard is smaller than normal, and the touch pad is annoying, but it’s what’s going to happen when you get an 8.9” laptop, and it’s nothing one can’t over come.

Yes, there are 10” netbooks which would be the best of both worlds (keeping a ‘normal size’ keyboard and touchpad, while keeping the small foot print and weight), but they also cost around $200 more, and still have the same screen resolution (ie: eee pc 1000h). While at the time of this review there’s only the 3 cell option, acer is coming out (shortly) with a 6 cell version with a 160gb, which is scheduled to cost $400 (at least on amazon, check link to the left!). Would I recommend holding out for it? Yes! Having the extra battery life is WELL worth the extra $50 (not to mention 40gb more storage space).

Having used this on the Maryland/DC trains for about 2 weeks now (1.5hrs a day), I’m very happy with it (especially over having to drag my twice as heavy Dell Latitude D630). It has a long enough battery to suit my needs, has a screen bright and crisp enough to use even when the sun is shining directly through the window, and it small and light enough to carry on my mile walk from the train to the office without it becoming annoying to carry.

If you want to check it out in person before buying, I have seen it on display at both Best Buy (where I bought mine) and Microcenter.

Pros:

Very small and light weight
XP Home (not linux)
Large 120gb (compared to similar netbooks with tiny SSDs) 5400rpm sata hard drive and 1gb ram
Sturdy build quality, practically no flex anywhere
1.6ghz atom processor (fast enough for most tasks including light photo editing)
Cheap! ($350 at time of review, or $250 with some work)

Cons:

Only about 2.5hr battery life with standard 3 cell battery (though 6 cell soon to become available)
No recovery disc, or option to create one (but does have a recovery partition)
Touch pad is quite small, and awkwardly placed buttons (though no where else to put them)
Difficult to upgrade ram (must fully dismantle) if desired
Ever so slight backlight flicker/dimming when the hard drive spins when on lower brightnesses and on battery

Wallpaper - Constellation

James Rintamaki — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:48:38 +0000

Taken at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD

Normal:
800×600 (74 hits) 1024×768 (77 hits) 1280×960 (75 hits) 1280×1024 (68 hits)	1400×1050 (98 hits) 1600×1200 (73 hits) 2048×1536 (70 hits) 2560×2048 (76 hits)
Widescreen:
1280×720 (87 hits) 1280×800 (73 hits) 1366×768 (69 hits) 1440×900 (69 hits)	1680×1050 (75 hits) 1920×1080 (80 hits) 1920×1200 (76 hits) 2560×1600 (70 hits)