Bestseller netbooks: EEE PC vs Acer Aspire One AOD250 vs Dell Mini 10v (1011)

The ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA is stable as absolute netbook bestseller at Amazon.com. This is definetly justified by the relatively low price for a well built netbook, good looking and (by the way) with top features:

• 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 Processor
• 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1 x SODIMM Slot, 2GB Max
• 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 10.1" WSVGA 1024x600 LCD Display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Windows 7 Starter Operating System (32 Bit), *10.5 Hours of Battery Life

These are the top 5 netbooks of the actual bestseller list

1. ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-PU17-BK for $338.95
2. Acer AOD250-1197 for $279.99
3. Acer AOD250-1584 for $299.99
4. Dell Inspiron Mini 1011 (Mini 10v) for $296.99
5. ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK for $329.95

The complete list at EEE Journal Bestseller Site

A quick look at the main differences:

• Build quality: IMHO the best is ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA
  
• 10 inch display: unfortunately all glare displays, the EEE PCs are not that bright (by default)... you know the eeectl mod...
  
• Operating system: the first 4 got Windows 7 Starter while ASUS Eee PC 1005H got Windows XP
• Processor: Very little/no difference, since the Inspiron Mini 1011 (Mini 10v) got the Intel Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, while all other netbooks use the Intel Atom N280 at 1.66GHz.
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM for all netbooks. It should be possible to expand them to 2GB, not sure for the Acer Aspire One models.
  
• Hard disk: 250 for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA , Acer AOD250-1197 and Acer AOD250-1584 160GB for Inspiron Mini 1011 (Mini 10v) and ASUS Eee PC 1005HA
• Wifi: the fast 802.11b/g/n for the two EEE PC models and one Acer (Acer AOD250-1584). The Mini 10v and the other Acer Acer AOD250-1197 got the slower 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth in all netbooks but Acer AOD250-1197 in any case it is possible to add bluetooth with few dollars
• High capacity battery (6-cells) for all netbooks. Asus claims 10.5h for both EEE PC, while Acer Aspire One AOD250 and Dell Mini10v are between 8 and 9h.
  

Acer Aspire One A150X, A150L or A110?

The Acer Aspire One is a big sale success, it is one of the best 8.9-inch class netbooks, well maybe even more, the Acer Aspire One is one of the best netbooks that you can currently buy. I like very much especially the keyboard: one of the best for the 8.9-inch netbooks. What I miss in the Aspire One is only Bluetooth.
I think that the main reason for the Aspire One success is(was) a price level much lower than similar featured Asus EEE PC 901
If you want to buy an Acer Aspire One netbook be aware of the fact that there are three models currently shipped, all three equipped with the Intel Atom processor N270 1.6GHz, wifi a/b/g, 3xUSB and a 0.3 megapixel webcam. Please note that, as mentioned above, the Aspire One doesn't include Bluetooth yet. If required you may use a compatible Bluetooth USB adaptor.

The main differences between the three models are Aspire One A110L, Linux Linpus distribution. 512MB DDR2 and 8-16GB SDD hard disk. 3 cells battery. Aspire One A150L, Linux Linpus distribution. 1GB DDR2 and 120GB hard 3-cells battery. Aspire One A150X, Windows XP, with 1GB DDR2 and 120GB hard disk with 3-cells batery or 160GB hard disk with 6-cells battery.

What about price?
You can buy the Aspire One A110L for about 300 US$/Euro (8GB SDD), for the Aspire One A150L you have to give out about 50 bucks more.
The Aspire One A150X is currently available online for about 350 US$/Euros (with 120GB hard disk and 3 cells battery) or 400 US$/Euros (with 160GB and 6 cells battery).

Which Acer Aspire One to buy? I prefer the Aspire One A150 models, however at the end of the daysl... it's up to you! First of all you should be clear on the operating system: are you ready for Linux? If the answer is yes and you just want to have a good netbook, to be used for casual surfing and email the Acer Aspire One A110L is already ok for you.
If you want to do something more than casual internet surfing and emails, you definetly have to think at one of the Aspire One A150 models. Again, if Linux doesn't scare you, grab the One A150L, otherwise the One A150X is the netbook for you!

Remember that the some One A150X ship with 6 cells battery, giving you about 4 hours of battery life vs 2 hours for the 3 cells battery (standard for all Linux models).

Other posts about Acer Aspire One

Acer Aspire One 110: top netbook for small price!

Can you imagine, the netbook bestseller 2008, Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch display for less than 250 US dollars???
Acer Aspire One AOA110-1834 8.9-Inch Copper Netbook - 3 Cell Battery at the time of writing for only $238.99 (Amazon)!!!

Main characteristics are the 8.9 display and the good keyboard. The little price is due to the market shift towards 10-inch display and because of the new Acer Aspire One D150, a good 10-inch netbook for about $350 US dollars: for example Acer Aspire One AOD150-1669 10.1-Inch Seashell White Netbook - 6 Cell Battery
for $345.99 US dollars (Amazon).

In the meantime a surprice from MSI: the MSI Wind U100 for about $300 UD dollars (with only 3-cells battery) MSI Wind U100-641US 10-Inch Black Netbook - 3 Cell Battery

Bluetooth for Aspire One A150, Samsung NC10, Medion Akoya Mini E1210 netbooks

UPDATE: Netbook and Bluetooth - Integrated vs USB Dongle

Please go directly to the newest post, since the Bluetooth dongle suggested in this post may have major software problems!

You want to buy the netbook that best fits you (e.g. using the netbook features database),
you are close to buy a top class netbook/mini laptop, such as the Samsung NC10, the Acer Aspire A150 or the Medion Akoya Mini E1210 when you see that it is missing a Bluetooth interface. What to do? You really need Bluetooth in the netbook to synchronize the mobile phone calendar or just to listen to music!
My suggestion: Bluetooth support in the netbook shouldn't be a go/not go criteria, you can simply add Bluetooth support using a Bluetooth USB dongle, there are many starting just below $10 (USD) and some of them are so tiny that you even won't see it.
This micro USB Bluetooth adapter simply disappears in the USB port of your netbook, so you can plug it once and forget it. You won't notice it! No damage to break it!
The Samsung NC10 or the Acer Aspire A150 got 3 USB ports so you'll have "just" two USB ports left, however it is far enough for 99% of us!

(At the time of writing) Beside the mentioned one, many other netbooks aren't equipped with a Bluetooth port: the HP MiniNote 2133, Acer Aspire A110, Fukato Jupiter, Lenovo Ideapad S9/S10, Fujitsu Amilo Mini Ui3520, Gigabyte M912, EEE PC 700/701/900/901. So if you really like the netbook however you miss Bluetooth, just buy an USB dongle/adapter!

Important! Installing a Bluetooth USB dongle/adapter is matter of minutes with Windows XP, for a Linux netbook the installation is a bit more complex and you need a minimal linux experience, look here for instructions on EEE PC (mostly similar for other netbooks).

UPDATE: Netbook and Bluetooth - Integrated vs USB Dongle

Please go directly to the newest post, since the Bluetooth dongle suggested in this post may have major software problems!


Remember that using the EEE Journal Netbook database helps find your dream netbook, with or without Bluetooth and refining the search with many other paramenters (operating system, size, battery, etc...)
http://www.eeejournal.com/2008/12/netbook-feature-database.html

EEE PC Competition - Acer Aspire One

The ultra portable laptops market is getting very busy... Asus launched the Acer Aspire One at a street price of about 330 Euros. The One got an Atom N70 (1.6GHz), 512MB SDRAM, 8.9-inch display , 8GB flash disk.
Acer announced two new additional versions (August) for the subnotebook: Linux with 1GB and 80GB hard disk for about 360 Euros and a Windows XP variant for about 400 Euros.

See also EEE Journal Home Page

Netbook Bestseller: Cheap, Sub USD 300

A revolution in the Amazon Bestseller: the top 3 are all sub $300 (USD) netbooks of the 10-inch class, all with 3-cell battery, 160GB hard disk, 1GB memory and Windows XP. And of course all 3 with free shipping.

The actual 2nd position is actually the major news: a netbook approaching the $200 mark!!!

1. Acer Aspire One AOD250-1165 blue , $285.95
2. Gateway LT2022u 10.1-Inch Black Netbook, $229
3. Acer Aspire One AOD250-1116 - red, $285.95

The Asus EEE PC 1005HA priced in the range $350-370 (USD) has been #1 of the top ten for many weeks, of course we can't directly compare the EEE PC with the Aspire One and the Gateway, the actual top 3 netbooks are really the absolute minimum you can have from a netbook. I personally think that the 3-cells battery is no go... in any case the trend is clear: cheap netbooks! Now it is interesting to see when the first sub $200 netbook will appear, I bet it will be an ARM based netbook with Linux. Actuall if we consider about $30 for the Windows XP licence, a Gateway LT2022u with Linux could be already sold for $200...

Android Netbooks: Asus EEE PC, Acer Aspire One

Acer and Asus representatives at the Computex confirmed that the first netbooks with Google Android operating systems are expected for end of 2009, beginning 2010.
Actually this is something I already "predicted", see also my post on Netbook CPU and Operating Systems for 2009 and 2010

Feature Set Summary Table: Compare EEE PC vs MSI Wind vs Acer Aspire One vs Gigaset M912 vs other competitors

The subnotebooks market is growing rapidly, that's why now is time to make some order...

I've prepared a table to compare feature set of EEE PC, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, Gigaset M912 and other subnotebooks

I'll try to update the table with the latest information I have: price, weight, LCD size, HDD/SDD size, processor, interfaces and so on!

See this table

See also EEE Journal

EEE PC, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, HP Compaq Mininote, Gigabyte M912 for sale: is it the right moment to buy an ultra portable laptop / subnotebook ?

The answer is definitely not! Don't buy an EEE PC, MSI Wind or similar in the next couple of months!
If you want to buy an ultra portable laptop / subnotebook / netbook you'd better wait at until August-September this year.
Last announcement is of Acer, the Aspire One and many new models are coming, also something from Sony. It means healthy competition, the EEE PC is not alone and now we are getting more and more choice at lower prices due to the availability of many ultra portable laptops and also from the announced price reduction for Windows XP licences for netbooks .

For all posts about EEE PC competitions see
http://www.eeejournal.com/search/label/EEE%20PC%20Competition

or see also EEE Journal Home Page.

Intel Atom N450 (Pineview) vs Atom N280 vs N270 Benchmarks

The first netbooks with Atom N450 (Pineview, 1.66GHz) are already shipping and much more are going to be released in the next few weeks:

• Shipping: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PE-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Blue Netbook - Up to 14 Hours of Battery Life $379.99 (USD)
  
• Shipping: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1001P-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life $339.99 (USD)

In the meantime some few Pineview netbooks arrived to the press and the first benchmarks are out: bottom line the Atom N450 doesn't bring more horse power to netbooks using the new Atom generation. The situation will definetly change with the Atom N470: the higher clock (1.83GHz) will help a bit to improve netbook performance.

I put together some benchmark results

• notebookcheck.com: Asus EEE PC 1005PE (Atom N450) and EEE PC 1008HA (Atom N280)
• endgadget.com: Asus EEE PC 1005PE (Atom N450) and EEE PC 1008HA (Atom N280)
• ndevil.com: Acer Aspire One D150 (Atom N280) and Aspire One A150 (Atom N270)

The wPrime (32M) and Cinebench R10 (2 threads) clearly show that the Atom N450 is positioned at the Atom N280 level. Only 3DMark06 test shows some slightly better values for the pinewiew (Atom N450).

More details on Atom N450 and N470 performance

(click pictures to enlarge)

Availability of new Netbooks with ARM and Atom Pineview 2010

These days you see Toshiba, Samsung, Acer, Lenovo and other OEMs announcing the new netbook generation based on the new Intel Atom N450 (Pineview, 1.66MHz clock) and ARM cores.
So far these are only announcements, the first Intel Pineview netbooks are going to be available end of January 2010.
Spring 2010 will see the first interesting news IMHO: Skylight, the first ARM based netbook from Lenovo (Qualcomm Snapdragon) is going to be shipped and the first Intel Atom N470 netbooks should be available as well.
The Atom N470 got a higher CPU clock: 1.86MHz and is going to provide the first real life performance improvements since the introduction of the Atom N270 (1.6GHz, vs 1.66 of the Atom N280 and N450). I'm really curious to see the first benchmarks...

Netbook bestseller update: Aspire One AOD250, EEE PC Seashell 1005HA and Toshiba Mini NB205

News in the netbook bestseller list:

1. Acer Aspire One AOD250-1197 for $279.99
   
2. ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-PU17-BK for $347.99
   
3. Toshiba Mini NB205-N230 for §326.33
   

The feature-set is very very close for all 3 netbooks, all of them got a 10.1 glare display, high capacity battery (6-cells) with more than acceptable battery life, 250GB hard drive, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Starter.

Some differences

• Processor: Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) for the Aspire One while the Seashell 1005HA and Mini NB205 got the Atom N280 (1.66GHz)
• Wifi: fast 802.11b/g/n for the Seashell 1005HA and the "older" 802.11b/g for Aspire One and Mini NB205
• Bluetooth: available only for the the Seashell 1005HA while for Aspire One and Mini NB205 you can use a cheap Bluetooth USB dongle
  
• Unfortunately both Seashell 1005HA and Mini NB205 got a 0.3 megapixel webcam, not sure about the Aspire One.
• Keyboard: AFAIK Mini NB205 got the best one, followed by Seashell 1005HA with 92% of a full size. The worse keyboard is for the Aspire One with 89%
• Battery: the Seashell 1005HA is rated for 10.5hours, Mini NB205 with 9hours and Aspire One with 8hours.
• Weight: Aspire One AOD250 with 2.79pounds is the lightest, followed by the EEE PC Seashell 1005HA with 2.81pounds and Toshiba Mini NB205 with 2.93pounds.

Best Pink Netbook: EEE PC, HP Mini, Samsung NC10, Toshiba NB205

Most of the netbooks are sold in only few colors: black, white, gray and blue.
You want a pink netbook? No problem! My favourite is the HP Mini 110-1037NR in any case here you'll find a selection of the best pink netbooks: all with high capacity battery and good feature set.

• Asus EEE PC Seashell 1005HA-MU17-PI for $329 (Windows 7), one of the rare netbooks with matte display (a luxus nowadays!). With 250GB hard drive
  
• Toshiba Mini NB205-N313/P for $360, (Windows XP), 160GB hard drive
  
• HP Mini 110-1037NR for $430 (Windows XP), 160GB hard drive
• Samsung NC10-13P for $365 (Windows XP), also with matte display, 160GB hard drive

If you just want to have a pink netbook and must be very cheap, the only choice you have is the Acer Aspire One AOD250-1962 for $290: a decent netbook, pink and sub 300 dollars. The major difference from the other pink netbooks listed above is the smaller battery, you won't get more than 2 hours battery life.

Here a bigger list of all pink netbooks available at Amazon.com

Dual Core Netbook with Intel Atom, ARM, Windows 7 or Linux?

-- UPDATE: Windows 7 Starter can use dual core processors!

A lot of netbooks are now shipping with a Windows 7 Starter licence. This is the cheapest licence that an OEM (e.g. Acer, Samsung, etc) can get, in the range 15-20USD. This low price is key to enable Windowso low cost netboks, with a 250-350 USD price point.
Microsoft relaxed a little bit the hardware limits to run a Windows 7 Starter licence, now you can have a slightly larger hard disk (250GB instead of 160GB for XP Home), no limitation for touchscreen display and graphics and especially no limitations on the number of applications that can run in parallel.
Still tough limits are the 10,2-inch display, 1GB RAM and the fact that only single core processors (with up to 2GHz clock) are allowed.

It means that (cheap) dual core netbooks won't be mainstream with Windows 7. No chance.
My guess: Intel didn't oppose Microsoft decision, on the contrary! This strategy of course is good for Intel: if you want more performance you must buy more expensive platforms/processors (such us the CULV)!

Now some interesting factors comes into the game: Linux and ARM based processors.
ARM is pushing its cores in the netbook market and major netbook OEMs announced ARM based netbooks for mid January 2010. Qualcomm Snapdragon processor seems to be a popular choice for this first generation of ARM netbooks. ARM recently announced the availability of a dual core Cortex A9 MCore macro getting up to 2GHz, this is a really interesting news. Furthermore: all the ARM based processors include an integrated graphics unit.
Now the Linux factor: By definitions Linux distributions don't impose hardware limits and are very very cheap. Furthermore I think that now Linux gotta a chance to evolve to a really usable mainstream operating system, especially now after the huge efforts spent for Android and Chromium OS, both based on Linux kernel. Also very important is the fact that many different entities (OEMs, Intel, ARM, Canonical/Ubuntu and many more) are working at netbook friendly distributions.
My bottom line: after a first generation of ARM netbooks in January 2010, we'll probably see the first ARM dual core processors with Linux by mid-end 2010.

By purpose I didn't mention VIA and AMD: None of the two chipset manifacturers got products able to compete with Intel Atom and ARM for price and power consumption. Now with the integration of CPU and graphic processors in the upcoming Intel Pineview (Atom N450, Jan 2010 and Atom N470, March 2010) both VIA and AMD seems to have no chance at all.

PS: just to anticipate some comments. I know that there are a couple of netbooks with dual core Atom 330. However none of the big brands would dare to sell them with Windows, because of the Microsoft limitations.

-- UPDATE: Windows 7 Starter can use dual core processors!

Netbook and Bluetooth - integrated vs usb dongle

Bluetooth is a feature that you rarely find in the cheapest netbooks, say below $320 USD.
For example Bluetooth isn't included in most of the Acer Aspire One AOD250 and in many Toshiba Mini NB205. While most of the Samsung netbooks and the Dell Mini 10v and Asus EEE PC 1005HA include Bluetooth.

I personally love Bluetooth you can establish a wireless link to your netbook for example:

• with a Bluetooth headset: you can listen to music and/or make Skype calls (VoIP)
  
• with your mobile phone: to synch data, contacs ot to use the phone as 3G modem for Internet connectivity

My suggestion: Bluetooth support in the netbook shouldn't be a go/not go criteria, you can simply add Bluetooth support using a Bluetooth USB dongle, there are many starting just below $10 (USD) and some of them are so tiny that you even won't see it.
Some USB Bluetooth adapters are so tiny that simply disappears in the USB port of your netbook, so you can plug it once and forget it. You won't notice it! No damage to break it!

Be careful in the choice of the USB dongle, be aware of the fact that some cheap Bluetooth dongles got limitations. Some examples:

• Many cheap dongle don't support A2DP, necessary to listen stereo music
  
• With Windows XP 32-bit you're fine, however please be aware that many dongles got operating system compatibility problems with MAC, Linux, and 64-bit Windows
  
• Some Bluetooth dongles got a very limited wireless reach (2-3 meters)
• Some cheap dongles got buggy/crap software

These two micro USB Bluetooth dongle seem to be very good, according to the user review I read there are no issue at all especially with Windows based netbooks. The IOGear may have problems with Ubuntu 9.04.

Why so many netbooks don't include Bluetooth? Bluetooth is kind of "premium" feature, many people don't neet it. People needing it are supposed to give out few bucks more.
As I said, the average price is falling and the netbook OEMs try to reduce the costs, every cent counts in the netbook market! Netbooks are essentially mini laptops with the absolutely minimum feature set, Bluetooth isn't definetly something everybody needs.

Cheap Netbooks: Mini 10v vs EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

Finally the market offers real netbooks, I mean really cheap tiny laptops (max 1.3kg) with decent battery life (6 or more hours), good keyboard, enough display and processor power, enough for casual and mobile usage.
For less than 300 USD you have the chooce between Dell Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011), Asus EEE PC 1005HA and Acer Aspire One AOD150. If you want to spend 50 bucks more than the Samsung NC10 is probably the best choice, especially for the nice keyboard.
Until few months ago you had to spend 400+ dollars for a decent netbook, now we finally got below 300 dollars. This is what I consider a netbook price level.

Mini 10v vs EEE PC 1005HA vs Aspire One AOD150

• Processor: almost no difference, the EEE PC 1005HA is equipped with the new Atom N280 while Mini 10v and One AOD150 use the Atom N270.
• Noise: the Mini 10v is absolutely silent, I guess fanless; the EEE PC and Aspire One tend to be a bit louder under full load, nothing really annoying.
• Display: the 10-inch display of the EEE PC isn't as brigth as Mini 10v and Aspire One AOD150, in any case eeectl can help... at your own risk of course!
• Keyboard: Mini 10v and EEE PC 1005HA got a very good keyboard, 92% of full size keys, the Aspire One got slighty smaller keys.
• Touchpad: the EEE PC got a multitouch touchpad, nothing to say for Aspire One; I really hate the touchpad of the Mini 10v.
• Wifi: The EEE PC got the faster 802.11n (draft), while Mini 10v and Aspire One have only 802.11b/g.
• Battery: for the 300 dollars class the EEE PC 1005HA got a 8,5h battery life vs about 6,5 battery life for the other two netbooks with 6-cells battery. Be careful since Mini 10v and Aspire One AOD150 are also sold with 3-cells, giving you about 3h of battery life.
• Size, weight and remaining features are very similar: 1GB DDR memory, 160GB hard disk, Windows XP, 1.3megapixel webcam, SD-card slot, 3xUSB

My bottom line: if you want the most featured netbook for 300 dollars, take definetly the EEE PC 1005HA you won't be disappointed.
If you really need an absolutely silent netbook the Dell Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011) is the netbook for you!

The absolute topseller in the past 2 months is the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 10.5 Hour Battery Life for about 350 USD.

Netbook features database: find best netbook for you!

I've updated my netbook/mini-laptop/mini-notebook comparison table with many more models and details, it can be a great help to find the best netbook for you!
I called it "netbook database" with many details/features about the most important netbooks/mini laptops actually on sale and especially some filter criterias that can help you choose the right netbook to buy.

You can search by display size, operating system, bluetooth support and battery. In the next few days I'll add more and more search criteria and especially details about performance/benchmarks.
Among others, you can currently find

• Many EEE PC 701, 900, 901, 1000, 1000H, S101, N10
  
• Acer Aspire One models
  
• MSI Wind U90 and U100
• Samsung NC10

Display class any size 10-inch 9-inch 7-inch
Operating system Any Windows XP Linux Vista
Bluetooth support I don't care Yes No
High capacity battery I don't care Yes
Weight I don't care Up to 1000 gr Up to 1200 gr Up to 1400 gr
ExpressCard I don't care Yes
WLAN/WiFi I don't care High speed (draft n)

Link to the netbook/mini laptops database