Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2

The Lenovo IdeaPad S series of netbooks come in two screen sizes: 12" and 10", and they currently offer 3 models lines. The Lenovo S12 has a 12.1" screen while the S10 has a 10.2" screen and the newer S10-2 has 10.1" screen. Though the screen is 0.1-inch smaller, the new Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 improves on many fronts compared to the IdeaPad S10. It's thinner and lighter with more styling and polish thanks to the ring pattern cover design. It has longer battery life with the standard 6-cell battery but it loses the S10's ExpressCard slot. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 runs on the 1.60GHz Intel Atom N270 processor with a 533MHz system bus and 512KB L3 cache. Lenovo now offers an upgrade to the N280 processor running at 1.66GHz for $15 extra via their build-to-order web site. The standard configuration has 1GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory at 667MHz and a 160GB SATA hard drive. The 10.1-inch display runs at the usual netbook 1024 x 600 WSVGA resolution and it has a 16:9 aspect ratio and 300:1 contrast ratio. The IdeaPad S10-2 runs on the integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics, and offers Lenovo's Quick Start utility for instant-on access to multimedia, the web and Skype. The netbook has a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, integrated Wi-Fi but no Bluetooth. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has Windows XP Home Edition pre-installed and currently comes in 4 standard colors: grey, pink, white and black, and a special Nature cover that currently costs a good bit more. AT&T offers the S10 with an embedded 3G HSDPA module at a subsidized price with a 2 year contract. AT&T's version has a 3 cell rather than 6 cell battery and is available in black. Design The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 is one of the lighter and thinner netbooks on the market. Measuring 10.2 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches (with the standard 6-cell battery which we highly recommend) and weighing 2.65 pounds, the IdeaPad S10-2 is slim despite the protruding 6 cell battery. We like the lid's shiny ring pattern that adds a touch of designer-style that gives the Toshiba mini NB205 a run for its money. While we risk committing conformity, we must admit that the S10-2 in pink looks the best. Lenovo is currently charging $10 more for the pink S10-2 as that's the most popular color. Though our editor-in-chief who goes more for the stately Sony Vaio W design says the pink Lenovo looks a little Hello Kitty. Manly men and business users can opt for the very staid black or low-key gray models. The 6-cell battery clips on the back of the notebook, and creates a handle and stand for the netbook that makes typing easier on the wrists and gives the netbook room for heat dissipation and bottom-firing speaker sound distribution. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has a mid-sized netbook keyboard that doesn't feel as comfortable as the Toshiba Mini NB205 or as spacious as the HP Mini 2140. The keyboard is nearly 89% the size of a standard notebook keyboard with same sized Shift keys on either side. The keys are a decent size but they don't have much travel. The touchpad is larger than the original S10. It has chromed mouse buttons below the touchpad, and both the touchpad and mouse buttons are easy to use. Three dedicated buttons live above the keyboard along with an LED light strip. The dedicated buttons include the power button, Quick Start launcher and Lenovo's OneKey Recover utility launch button. The 10.1-inch LED backlit display has native 1024 x 600 resolution and it looks brighter than the Toshiba Mini NB205's screen but dimmer than the Sony VAIO W's display. The viewing angle is quite good on the S10-2, and Lenovo includes its own Energy Management software for adjusting screen brightness based on battery settings. Like most recent netbooks, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has stereo speakers that live on the bottom and fire downward. Thanks to the large air space created by the 6-cell battery, the speakers are easier to hear than on the Toshiba Mini NB205 and Sony Vaio W, but the volume is still not that loud. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has Dolby Surround sound 5.1-channel audio for headphones, and when working with nice 3.5mm stereo cans, the audio sounds full with very decent bass and good volume.

Cellstores price for the AT&T version (2 yr. contract):

Hardware

Our review unit came with the Intel Atom N270 processor, but you can now choose the N280 in built-to-order. The N270 processor however didn't perform badly in our benchmarks and real world experience showed that the machine wasn't that much slower than the Toshiba Mini NB205 which does have the N280. One thing that many netbook users will love is that the Lenovo runs super cool and quiet. The Atom N270 runs at 1.60GHz (vs. 1.66GHz for the N280), and the benchmarks are slightly lower than the Toshiba Mini NB205 and N280-equiped Sony Vaio W, but not by much. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has 1GB of DDR2 memory and the single SO-DIMM socket can take 2GB max. The memory slot is very easy to access under a door on the netbook's bottom. Likewise, the hard drive is easy to get to. We tested the Lenovo with a 128 Patriot Warp drive (a fairly fast SSD drive) and Windows 7 RC but we didn't notice huge improvements in performance other than application launch speed. But if you let kids use the netbook and worry about HDD head damage from shaking or bumping, then swapping an SSD drive isn't a bad idea now that they're coming down in price. The standard 160GB SATA drive (5400 rpm) on the Lenovo is reasonably fast (ours was a Western Digital) and decently quiet. As with all netbooks, there's no built-in optical drive.

The drive bay, RAM bay and PCI slot are all accessible via removable doors on the Lenovo's bottom.

We put the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 through PCMark05 benchmark tests and the scores are below. We also included the scores from the same tests for the Toshiba Mini NB205 and Sony Vaio W, each with the Atom N280 processor for comparison. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 was plugged in and running on the default balanced energy management setting, and we used an external monitor (setting at 1280 x 1024 resolution) for the benchmark tests as the netbook's display resolution is too low to meet PCMark's resolution requirements. We ran the Toshiba tests with the same external monitor and the Sony with no external monitor since its built-in panel had sufficient resolution.

PCMark05 Benchmark Tests

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2:

PCMark: 1323 PCMarks
CPU: 1489
Memory: 2361
Graphics: 544
HDD: 4290

Toshiba Mini NB205:

PCMark: 1509 PCMarks
CPU: 1542
Memory: 2490
Graphics: 564
HDD: 4257

Sony Vaio W (running at native 1366 x 768 resolution):

PCMark: 1546
CPU: 1545
Memory: 2436
Graphics: 575
HDD: 4457

As you can see, the numbers aren't drastically different between the N270 and the N280 with the same Intel GMA950 graphics chipset. The low graphics score means the Lenovo will work for very simple casual games that don't require higher resolutions. The S10-2 can run Aero in Windows 7 as well, but obviously it won't be as fast as a full-sized current notebook with a newer and faster GPU. We tested Microsoft Office, Windows Media Player and several productivity applications, and all ran smoothly. Internet Explorer 8 however is surprisingly slow; as a result web pages load a lot slower than in Firefox. We tested Hulu video playback over Wi-Fi with videos running at 480p in full screen mode. Using Firefox, the videos played at very reasonably speeds and were watchable even though it dropped some frames. Using IE 8 to play Hulu videos, the speed was noticeably slower, and there were a lot more buffering delays and frame drops. YouTube videos played smoothly over Wi-Fi 802.11g with modest frame drops at standard resolution. Both YouTube and Hulu use Flash player which uses the CPU for video playback rather than the graphics chip, so the Atom runs at full bore to keep up. Even so, the Lenovo's CPU temp never went above 60 degrees centigrade during Flash video playback and tended to hover around 55 degrees, which is relatively cool, especially since the fan ran only at low throttle. When not playing Flash video the CPU runs at an average of 32 degrees centigrade with little fan action--nice.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has 3 USB ports, a VGA out, an Ethernet (RJ-45) and a 4-in-1 card reader. For audio, the IdeaPad S10-2 has built-in mic, mic input jack and stereo headphone out jack. These are the standard sets of netbook ports (netbooks have fairly uniform specs). There is also a Wi-Fi slider switch to turn on/off the wireless radio. Lenovo eliminated the regular PCI ExpressCard slot, but it does have an internal Mini PCI Express slot (that's where the 3G modem lives in the AT&T model). The heat vent blows out on the left side, and the fan runs very quietly when it does come on (not all that often unless you're playing video or installing software).

Software

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has Windows XP Home Edition 2002 SP3 pre-loaded but no MS Works suite. It does come with a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office 2007. The IdeaPad S10-2 comes with Internet Explorer 8 which runs slow and Windows Media Player 11. Lenovo includes utility software such as VeriFace for facial recognition at login which works fine, and the Linux-based Lenovo Quick Start for 10-second boot-up and one click launching of the web browser, music player, online games, photo viewer (flash based), IM and Skype. Lenovo Energy Management and Lenovo OneKey Recovery are also included. The netbook has a system restore partition on the hard drive and running OneKey Recovery while the system is off will start the recovery and restore process. The netbook also comes with Norton Internet Security trial software (90 days) as well as Adobe Reader for PDFs.

Battery

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has a standard 6-cell Lithium Ion rechargeable battery that's 47Wh. The battery can't compete with the Toshiba Mini NB205's leader of the pack battery, but it's quite good with up to 6 hours of usage time. With light to moderate document editing, web surfing and checking email, the IdeaPad lasted us over 5 hours. Watching Hulu video over Wi-Fi on the Balanced power setting lasted us 2 hours. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 comes with a small charger that's light and compact.

Conclusion

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 is one of the better looking netbooks and one of the thinnest (not counting the battery hump). The system runs cool and quiet, and the hard drive and memory slots are very easy to access, making it ideal for those who want to swap hard drives or upgrade RAM. The AT&T version of the S10 adds 3G wireless for those who wish to unchain themselves from local Wi-Fi networks. Though the base Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 still runs on the N270, performance is good in most tasks, and now you can upgrade to N280 in built-to-order for $15. It has most of the essential ports and a 6-cell battery, but on the other hand no unique feature that sets it apart from other brands. That said, color selection, looks and thinness are the main differentiators among netbooks and the IdeaPad does well on that front. We're a little skeptical at the price hike for the pink model, though Lenovo's color upcharge is at least more modest than HP and Dell's.

Pro: Good looking and slim. Runs very quite and cool.

Con: Keyboard doesn't have good travel. No Bluetooth on standard configuration.

Price: $349 for black, white and grey, $359 for pink, $429 for Nature.

Web site: shop.lenovo.com

PriceGrabber Comparison Shopping: Where to Buy

Specs:

Display: 10.1" widescreen WSVGA VibrantView (glossy) backlit LED. 1024 x 600 native resolution. Intel Graphics Media Accelerator GMA 950 graphics engine, in 945GSE. RGB monitor output port integrated.

Battery: 6-cell Lithium Ion rechargeable, 47Wh. Ships with a small 100-240V AC charger.

Performance: Intel Atom N270 processor running at 1.60GHz. Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz for built-to-order with extra $15 charge. 1GB DDR2 533MHz RAM with 2GB max in 1 slot.

Audio: Built-in stereo speakers. Has mic input and headphone output.

Communications: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet but no modem. 3 USB v2.0 ports. Bluetooth available for built-to-order at $22.50 extra.

Drive: 160GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive. No optical drive built-in.

Camera: 1.3 megapixel camera with built-in mic.

Expansion: 1 SD (Secure Digital) slot that works with SDHC cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick pro and MMC cards.

Size: 10.2 x 7.6 x 0.7-1.8 inches. Weight: 2.65 lbs. (All measured with 6-cell battery)

Software: Windows XP Home Edition SP3. Microsoft IE 8, Windows Media Player 11, Office 2007 trial included. Lenovo software includes Quick Start, OneKey Recovery, VeriFace and Energy Management. Adobe Reader 9 included. 90-day Norton Internet Security 2009 included

Durabook

Rugged notebooks, with few exceptions, are heavy, less attractive and significantly more expensive than their less robust consumer brethren. Enter the Durabook, which isn't bad to look at, doesn't weight twice as much as a normal notebook and is several hundred rather than a few thousand dollars more. We received the Durabook D14RY which meets Military Standard 810F for drop and bump tests, vibration (truck transport-- military style) and spill resistance. The notebook's casing is made of magnesium alloy which Twinhead, the makers of the Durabook line, claim is 20x stronger than ABS plastic. It has a membrane under the keyboard to stop spills from making their way to sensitive electronics underneath (this does not mean you can go diving with it, but a careless conk of a Coke can won't destroy your investment). Even the speaker grilles on the wrist rest and the trackpad have been made more durable and spill resistant and the trackpad's buttons are rubber-clad. The corners, both top and bottom, have a hard black rubber overlay to absorb impacts,particularly protecting the LCD and hard drive which are a notebook's two most vulnerable components. The DVD drive has a slider lock to prevent accidental tray openings when dropped or bumped and the hinges are very robust. While the Durabook might not be suited to the trenches of war, it strikes us as more than adequate for field workers, vertical market users and klutzes. We dropped it 3 feet onto a very thinly carpeted floor and the machine sustained no damage. In fact, the machine is hard and heavy enough that we feared it would have damaged the hard wood floors in our office! The keyboard is roomy and it has dedicated page up and down keys as well as 4 arrow keys. There's a dedicated WiFi button above the keyboard that makes it quick and easy to shut down wireless when on a plane. The three button trackpad's center button acts as a scroll button: press it's top section to scroll up and press the lower section of the button to scroll down. The trackpad itself feels like a notebook surface rather than the usual slick touchpad. It's very easy to control and is responsive.

Performance, Graphics and Networking

The Durabook D14RY runs on the 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo dual core CPU, model T7200. That's a pleasingly powerful mobile CPU that should suit even demanding users. Graphics are the only performance drawback as the Durabook uses the integrated Intel 945GM chipset with 128 megs of shared memory rather than dedicated graphics. This significantly brings down the combined benchmark figure, as you'll see from our PCMark 05 test results below.

PCMark05 score:
2246 PCMarks
CPU: 2357
Memory: 2489
Graphics: 723
HDD: 3832

The D14RY manages a Vista Experience score of 2.7, again lower due to the integrated graphics. Microsoft recommends a score of 3.0 or better for Vista's Aero interface but the D14RY had no trouble running Aero. The Intel GMA 950 isn't horrid and is perfectly suited to business users and even light Photoshop work. But clearly the machine isn't meant for serious gaming or day-long immersion in Photoshop, CAD or video editing software. The CPU, hard drive and memory are fairly fast performers and test scores for those are good, though not cream of the crop when it comes to the CPU. And the machine is indeed responsive and Vista's Aero runs well. The T7200 has a 667MHz front side bus and 4 megs of level 2 cache.

The machine has two standard SODIMM memory slots and ours shipped with 2 gigs of RAM. The Durabook is available in a variety of configurations, from 512 megs to 2 gigs of RAM and it ships with DDR667 RAM. The notebook can handle a maximum of 4 gigs of RAM. Various hard drive capacities are available as well, from 40 to 160 gigs and ours shipped with the 160 gig drive. The machine uses a standard 2.5" notebook drive (ours had a Toshiba MK1637GSX) 5400 rpm serial ATA drive. Hard drive performance is very good as you can see from the benchmarks, and the 5400 rpm drive offers a good balance between speed and heat/noise. Anti-shock material surround the drive, memory and CPU (generally it's the drive we worry about since it has moving parts).

The Durabook D14RY is available with a DVD/CDRW, single layer DVD burner and a dual layer DVD burner. The optical drive door has a sliding latch to lock it shut (bumps can't accidentally open it when locked) and the machine comes with Cyberlink's DVD Suite for playing and burning DVDs. The notebook also has a flash card reader that can handle SD, MMC and Memory Stick cards.

The 14.1" "Dura-Brite" XGA 1024 x 768 display is the Durabook's weakness. Though the name might conjure up thoughts of various glossy, wide screen displays from other notebook manufacturers, the Dura-Brite looks like the average standard notebook LCD from years past. It's got the old computer 4:3 aspect ratio rather than a widescreen ratio, and the display is neither glossy nor particularly bright. It looks completely average, though we do give it points for resisting glare. This is a standard business LCD with no frills or temptations to watch DVDs all day rather than work. It is neither bad nor beautiful. The machine can drive an external monitor or projector via it's standard VGA port (no S-video out or HDMI).

Sound out through the built-in stereo speakers on the palm rest is adequate and not stunning. Again, this is the stuff of business, not multimedia madness. The Durabook has both 3.5mm stereo out and mono mic in jacks on the front edge, and audio quality is good when using stereo headphones. Like many recent Intel Core Duo machines, the D14RY uses Realtek's HD Audio controller.

The Durabook will keep you connected, be it at the desk or on the go. It has three USB 2.0 ports, one 4 pin unpowered Firewire port, VGA out, a Cardbus PCMCIA slot (no ExpressCard slot), gigabit Ethernet, a 56k modem and WiFi. The notebook uses the solid Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WiFi 802.11a/b/g for wireless and has a dedicated on/off switch above the keyboard. Range and performance were good and average by notebook standards. For wired Ethernet Twinhead uses Agere's gigabit Ethernet module. For security-minded buyers, the Durabook has a Smart Card socket and support for an optional TPM 1.2 module.

Battery Life

The notebook comes with a compact charger that adds relatively little bulk and weight. The D14RY ships with a 6 cell Lithium Ion battery, and they sell an optional 9 cell battery. Battery life for the standard 6 cell battery is better than average when compared with other Core Duo 14 to 15" notebooks, and we got 3.75 hours with WiFi turned on and the connection kept active and screen brightness set at 75%.

Conclusion

There aren't many competitors in the semi-rugged notebook market, and Panasonic's Toughbook is other other major brand that comes to mind. While we love the looks and lightness of the "business-rugged" Toughbooks, their semi-rugged machines aren't as attractive as the Durabook and they lack the computing power of the Durabook (as of this writing, the semi-rugged Toughbooks still have the original Core Duo rather than the Core 2 Duo CPU). The D14RY is an all around strong package not only in terms of ruggedness but in features and performance.

Pro: Ruggedized but unlike most, it's not ugly, huge, heavy and incredibly expensive. Good performance for business users, and it can handle DVD and music playback well.

Con: XGA resolution display with old-fashioned 4:3 ratio is old and low by today's standards.

Price: $2,099 (government pricing is lower)

Web Site: www.durabook.com

Warranty: 2 years

Specs:

Display: 14.1" 1024 x 768 XGA Dura-Brite display. Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics card with 128 megs shared video memory. Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable 6 cell battery (9 cell battery optional). Performance: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor running at 2 GHz (two cores, one CPU). The CPU has 4 megs of level 1 cache and a 667MHz FSB. Intel 945GM chipset. 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM standard (two 1 gig SODIMMs, two memory slots total, 4 gigs max). Drives: 2.5" 160 gig serial ATA 5400 rpm hard drive (ours was a Toshiba MK1637GSX) with 8 meg buffer, 12ms average seek time, 300MB/sec max transfer rate and SATA II interface. Lower capacity drives also available for a lesser price. 8x dual layer DVD burner. Plays and writes CD, CDRW, DVD, DVD +/-R and RW, dual layer DVDs. Also available with CDR/DVD drive and single layer DVD burner. Size: 12.3" x 10.12" x 1.46". Weight: 5.84 pounds. Audio: Built in water resistant stereo speakers, , 3.5mm line-in for external mic, 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack. Realtek High Definition Audio. Networking: Integrated WiFi 802.11A/B/G, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG. Agere Systems 10/100/1000 gigabit Ethernet and 56k modem. Ports: Three USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire IEEE 1394 4 pin port, 1 stereo headphone, one 3.5mm microphone-in, VGA. Once CardBus PCMCIA card slot. Flash card reader (SD, MMC Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick). Smart Card socket, support for optional TMP 1.2 module. Software: Windows Vista Business Edition operating system. Cyberlink DVD Suite.

ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-P Seashell Netbook

It seems like an eternity ago that we reviewed ASUS' first Windows netbook, the Eee PC 4G, that started the netbook rage. It was cheap and it looked cheap but it brought affordable ultra-portable computing to the masses. Fast forward to today and we've got the slick (literally and figuratively) Eee PC 1005HA, a 10" netbook that looks much nicer than the original Eee PC and sports a host of tweaks and improvements. The 1005HA-P model we're reviewing is the latest addition to the 1005HA "seashell" line and it's at the high end with the new Intel Atom N280 CPU, a 10.5 hour six cell battery and WiFi 802.11n rather than the slower b/g variety. Other 1005HA models run on the Atom N270 with an 8.5 hour battery and have the slower WiFi 802.11b/g. Best Buy stocks some less expensive variants that may have lower capacity batteries and no Bluetooth (read those specs before buying!). ASUS cranks out new netbook models faster than bunnies at a rabbit farm, and it can be hard to figure out who's who in the zoo given the longish string of alphanumeric characters that names them. The Eee PC 1005HA is the second "seashell" netbook line from ASUS (the even slimmer 1008 was the first), and it gets that name because it tapers in thickness. Honestly, we don't see the resemblance but it's a handy way to distinguish lines. The netbook is thicker at the back to accommodate the high capacity 10.5 hour battery, hence the taper. The design is more unified than the battery hump sticking out the back approach used by Lenovo on the S10-2 and the Toshiba mini NB205. Though the Eee's gloss finish is slippery, and more than once we've wished for the protruding battery that provides a grip. The Eee PC 1005HA-P is available in black and blue and both have a gloss finish lid that looks lovely but attracts fingerprints like mad. The bottom and side surfaces are every day matte black plastic and the ports are uncovered (ASUS experimented with covered ports on the 1008 seashell to smooth the netbook's lines). Unlike the 1008 seashell, the 1005HA has a removable battery and easily accessible RAM, though getting at the hard drive isn't for the faint of heart. The machine has 3 USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, 10/100 Ethernet and an SD card slot. The fan vents on the the left side and the machine doesn't get very warm during average use (web, MS Office, email). CPU temperatures typically stay at 21 to 35 centigrade. When gaming, CPU temps rise as high as 40 to 59 centigrade and the machine feels warm, though not burning hot. The fan, when it comes on, isn't intrusive. The lid's bottom edge tucks behind the notebook so the display doesn't look quite so tall. The drawback is that the display can't be pushed near flat back. Fancy stuff for a netbook: the 1005HA-P has a multi-touch trackpad that supports pinch zoom, 2-finger scrolling and gestures. We particularly liked the way it works under Windows 7 beta with Synaptics' drivers installed. Like many netbooks, the Eee PC has a single bar that handles both left and right clicks. The trackpad is a decent size and its surface is integrated into the wrist-rest deck (it's all one piece of plastic). The trackpad has a dimpled surface so you can tell when your finger has wandered onto the smooth area outside the pad. The trackpad doesn't offer the near-notebook experience that the Sony Vaio W does but it's quite decent and the button bar isn't overly stiff though it's a little difficult to keep it pressed down when click-dragging. There's a button on the upper left of the keyboard deck that enables and disables the trackpad (you can also hit Fn3 to do the same).

The keyboard is wonderful: it uses the entire width of the netbook so the keys are plenty roomy for a netbook. Though it lacks the Sony Vaio W and Toshiba NB205's discrete key design, it's nonetheless a pleasure to use. The keyboard has some spring and bounce since it's held in place only by plastic clips and double-sided tape. The shift and enter keys are oversized and in general key sizes mimic a full-sized keyboard's.

Display

The display is the usual 10.1" LED backlit 1024 x 600 pixel display. Brightness is adequate though not impressive and clarity is good, particularly under Windows 7 whose fonts are sharper and clearer. Those with computer-weary eyes will likely feel some eyestrain under Windows XP after a few hours of use. That said, netbooks are intended for short bouts at web browsing, email and the like. The HP Mini 2140 (pricey), Lenovo S10-2 and Sony Vaio W have the edge for display quality over the 1005HA, though the 1005HA wins on the CPU and WiFi fronts (except against the Sony but it costs over $100 more).

ASUS, always fond of tweaking, has a tray utility that allows you to change from standard 1024 x 600 resolution to 1024 x 768 (with panning) and 1024 x 768 compressed (no panning required but the non-native aspect ratio causes some compression of text and graphics). The compressed mode is very handy for applications that require 1024 x 768 as minimum resolution (games, and even our benchmark program). When doing benchmarks, we noticed a performance hit when running in compressed mode, though we didn't see that same problem when running with a 19" external monitor at an even higher 1280 x 1024 resolution. Strange.

Wireless: Better than the average netbook

The vast majority of current netbook models, regardless of price, have WiFi 802.11b/g which is slower and has shorter range than WiFi 802.11n. The Eee PC has Atheros WiFi 802.11b/g/n , but not dual band like the Sony Vaio W and most recent full-size notebooks. That means the Eee operates only on the 2.4GHz band, so if you have a dual band 2.4/5GHz router and are routing N only on the 5GHz band, you'll have to change your wireless network setup to use the 1005HA-P on 802.11n. Besides much improved range and speed for the Eee PC, 802.11n means that your home or workplace router won't have to drop down to 802.11g-- single band routers drop to the lowest common denominator-- if one "b" or "G" devices connects, everyone on the network will have their connection dropped to that speed.

In addition the 1005HA-P has Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Many netbook manufacturers make Bluetooth optional (every penny counts in the extremely low margin netbook market), so we're glad to see it here. Bluetooth is useful if you want to use your cell phone as a wireless modem for the Eee, if you want to do wireless file transfers with mobile devices and if you want to use Bluetooth mice.

Battery Life: insane!

The first netbooks ran 3 hours at most. Low capacity batteries are cheaper and make for a smaller netbook. As the platform matures, it's become clear that folks want to use netbooks for extended periods of time rather than making brief visits to the Net and quick email checks. So we've gone from 3 cell to 6 cell batteries in several brands and models, among them our own Eee PC 1005HA-P, the Lenovo S10-2 and the Toshiba NB205. ASUS describes the 6 cell, 63wh Lithium Ion battery as their 10.5 hour battery and it's standard on the 1005HA-P (Best Buy's custom models may differ). That's ASUS' highest capacity netbook battery and it rivals the never-say-die Toshiba for battery life. We typically saw 8.5 hours of battery life under Windows XP using ASUS' auto-power saver setting, and that's with the display set to 80% brightness and both WiFi and Bluetooth on. Sweet! We managed similar runtimes under Windows 7 RC after we installed ASUS' ACPI (power management and more) driver and SHE (ASUS Super Hybrid Engine that offers several power settings). It took a little work to get these installed (we're sure ASUS will have Windows 7 versions available by the time Windows 7 is released) but it works well with BIOS versions up to 0730. The netbook managed over 5 hours of video playback using locally stored video.

ASUS power management and SHE automatically set the netbook to auto power-saver when unplugged and auto high performance when it's plugged in. The charger is very compact and though there have been some reports on the Net of the charger running very hot and doing a temporary thermal shutoff, ours remained quite cool when the notebook was off and only moderately warm (in the range of average for an AC adapter) when the netbook was turned on and charging. The battery is removable unlike the first seashell 1008 that had a sealed battery.

Performance

If you feel like all netbooks sport basically the same specs, that's because they do. It's not that manufacturer's don't want to jazz things up, but rather Intel has their rules about how much RAM can be included with an XP netbook running on the Atom CPU (1 gig) and max display resolution, and Microsoft has their rule about max hard drive size for netbooks (160 gigs). Once in a while, manufacturers negotiate a rule break (for example the Vaio W has a higher resolution display) but nearly all run on an Intel Atom CPU (a single core, hyperthreading low power CPU designed for netbooks) with 1 gig of RAM, Windows XP (because Vista is too piggish for netbooks) and a 160 gig hard drive. Variation comes in the cosmetics, wireless, display quality and software.

ASUS does very well in the software arena, with a good bundle of applications that actually make the machine more usable rather than bloating it. They include an updater that will download and install the latest drivers and BIOS for you. They also include the aforementioned Super Hybrid Engine for controlling the CPU and bus clock speeds and they update drivers and the BIOS with good frequency. Their heritage as a performance motherboard company means they understand tweakers and overclockers, which we like. There's also 10 gigs of Eee storage (online storage hosted by ASUS), voice command and easy access to online streaming radio and video (handy since the hard drive isn't exactly high capacity for media storage). Skype is pre-installed and configured to work with the machine's mic and 1.3MP webcam.

Speaking of tweaks, it's incredibly easy to upgrade the machine to 2 gigs of RAM, which is the max. There's a small door on the netbook's underside for the RAM module and there's one slot, which means you'll toss the included 1 gig module to install your standard DDR2 667MHz SODIMM. The hard drive is extremely difficult to upgrade and requires near compete netbook disassembly. You'll remove all the screws, release the tabs that secure the keyboard and raise the keyboard up (it's also secured by very strong double-sided tape, which releases more easily when the machine is very warm-- stream YouTube or Hulu videos for 20 minutes to heat it up). After that, there's plenty more disassembly. If you're not experienced at taking apart notebooks, you probably won't want to do this. It also involves removing a warranty sticker inside the machine. Happily, ASUS uses a fast and quiet 5400RPM SATA hard drive, so you'll probably be happy with the stock version unless you require more storage (ours was a Seagate Momentus). If you're determined to install a larger hard drive or an SSD drive but aren't comfortable with tearing your machine apart, consider the Toshiba mini NB205 or Lenovo S10-2 which have easy access doors for both RAM and the hard drive. ASUS partitions Eee PC drives into 2 equal size drives (C: and D:). This is perfect for us geeky types who like to set up dual boot systems running Windows XP and Linux or Windows 7. Even if you don't wish to run a second OS, the partitioning makes it easy to separate OS and applications from data. There's also a restore partition on the drive and a driver CD is included.

The RAM door.

The Eee PC 1005-P (we assume "P" stands for performance?) runs on the new Intel Atom 1.66GHz N280 CPU which is slightly faster than the older 1.6GHz N270 and uses less power. The N280 has a 667MHz FSB vs. 533MHz for the N270 and our benchmarks generally show a modest improvement in the N280. We noticed that little boost when playing Flash video which uses only the CPU and not the graphics chip. Like all N270 and N280 netbooks currently on the market, the Eee PC uses Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics which is enough to runs Windows XP and Windows 7 with Aero just fine. It won't rock your hardcore gaming world but it can run older games like Diablo II fine as well as current casual games like puzzles, card games and the like.

Benchmarks

We use PCMark05 to benchmark netbooks in Windows XP and the Windows 7 Experience Index when running Windows 7. The Eee PC 1005HA-P hit the top position in PCMark among several recent netbooks we've reviewed but that margin is slim since there's relatively little variation in CPU, RAM and hard drives used in these machines. The Atom N280 made for good CPU scores and ASUS includes a fast hard drive that scored best among the netbooks we've reviewed. For PCMark, we hooked the netbook up to a 19" 1280 x 1024 pixel monitor to meet PCMark's minimum resolution requirements.

PCMark05 Benchmarks:

PCMark: 1664
CPU: 1552
Memory: 2463
Graphics: 627 *
HDD: 4779

*When the PCMark tests were run with the display resolution set to 1024 x 768 compressed mode, the graphics score was much lower: 128!

Windows 7 Experience Index:

Processor: 2.3
RAM: 4.5
Graphics (Aero): 2.0
Graphics (gaming): 3.0
Hard disk: 5.6

Conclusion

Take the Eee PC 1005HA-P for a test drive and it's easy to understand why ASUS is still at the top of the market. The low price for a feature-rich (if one can say that about a netbook) machine, fantastic keyboard, fast performance, good driver support and on-board utilities make the 10005HA-P a top pick. The netbook is attractive and the 10.5 hour battery means you really can go all day away from AC. We only wish that it were easier to access the hard drive-- open up the netbook and it's a cramped mess of cables, circuit boards, ribbon cables and double-sided sticky tape holding the keyboard that doesn't smack of high quality build methods. That said, it isn't plastered with tape on the inside as is the Eee PC 1008 and most folks will never open up their machine to appreciate (or not) the internal aesthetic.

Pro: Great features for the price, attractive, solid external build, fast and power-frugal Intel Atom N280 and WiFi 802.11n.

Con: It's nasty business upgrading the hard drive. WiFi 802.11n is 2.4GHz-only, not great if you're running a dual band WiFi router.

Price: $389

Warranty: 1 year warranty, no bad pixel guarantee (if you have just 1 bad pixel you can exchange it).

Web Site: usa.asus.com

Price Comparison Shopping: Where to Buy

Specs:

Display: 10.1" LED backlit color gloss LCD. 1024 x 600 resolution. Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics.

Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable 6 cell 63wh 10.5 hour battery standard. Lower capacity battery configurations are also available (8.5 hour 6 cell 48wh and 3 cell 4 hour 23wh). Battery is removable.

Performance: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU (on the -P model reviewed here). Non -P models are N270. Intel 945 Express chipset. 1 gig DDR2 667MHz RAM, 1 SODIMM slot, max capacity 2 gigs RAM. 160 gig standard SATA 2.5" notebook drive, 5400RPM (ours was a Seagate Momentus). Hard drive has recovery partition (press F9 three times in a row during boot to start recovery). HD is partitioned into C: and D: drives of equal size.

Size: 10.3 x 7 x 1 inches. Weight: 2.8 pounds with 6 cell battery.

Camera: 1.3MP webcam.

Audio: Built in stereo speakers, digital array mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack and mic jack. Realtek HD audio.

Networking: Integrated Atheros AR9285 WiFi 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz band only), wired Atheros AR8132 10/100 Ethernet and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Widcomm/Broadcom drivers).

Software: Windows XP Home Edition.

Ports: 1 SD (Secure Digital) slot, 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, Ethernet, 3.5mm stereo headphone and 3.5mm mic jack.

Sony Vaio W

You know that netbooks are an established rage when Sony, purveyor of all things high-end and small, finally joins the fray of manufacturers willing to crank out small, underpowered notebooks with incredibly low profit margins. Next thing you know, Apple will jump in (we wish!). Sony's first true Netbook, the Vaio W, gets the Vaio brand and a big logo on the lid, and as we'd expect, they add a a few high end features to avoid sitting at the bottom of the netbook ladder. Clearly, Sony's stating that they're fully committed to the budget netbook market: the W is through and through a netbook with no other pretensions, unlike the marvelous and twice as expensive Sony Vaio P. And at $499 it fits the netbook price point. At the same time, they're letting us know that the Sony brand still stands for that something extra (no, we're not just talking about the price tag). If you want a $300 netbook, head straight over to the "A" section of your electronics emporium's netbook section, where Acer and Asus dominate the lowest price points. Sony gets a bad rap on price-- some folks on Net forums are complaining about the $499 price tag while no one seems to bemoan HP's high prices (their netbooks run up to $650 and that price doesn't necessarily get you better specs but it might get you a nice color and lid pattern). Dell's Mini 10 starts out low, but if you upgrade the internals to nearly match the Vaio and add a nice color, the price is the same as Sony's. So what does Sony give you that many or no other netbook does? 1) A high resolution display running at 1366 x 768 vs. the standard netbook 1024 x 600. Goodbye chronic scrolling and frustration with wide web pages and Excel spreadsheets. The high res feature is available on the Dell Mini 10 as an option, but that makes you downgrade to the slower 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 with the Intel GMA500 (an integrated graphics chip that so far underperforms). 2) The new Atom N280 CPU. This CPU runs at 1.66GHz and it has a faster FSB than the Atom N270 found on most netbooks. It also uses less power. The N280 is available on the very good Toshiba NB205 netbook, the EeePC 1005HA-P and very few others and it adds about $50 to the price. 3) WiFi with draft-N. What's the big deal vs. 802.11g? N has significantly greater range and is much faster. The Vaio W will get a WiFi signal any place your full-sized 802.11n notebook does rather than dying 20 feet short. Another important factor is that your draft N router will lower ALL connections to b/g if just one little b/g device connects to your network. Do you want to be the person slowing down everyone's wireless connection at the home or office? You might not care but your gaming teenager and type A co-worker will. 4) Style and that Vaio logo. Vanity and practicality mingle here. Some folks just want to be seen with certain brands, while those using the netbook for business want to be seen with a tier 1 brand so they don't give the impression their company is hitting the bottom. I leave it to you to decide how important or unimportant this is. Specs at a Glance The Sony Vaio W runs on the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 with 1 gig of DDR2 RAM and Windows XP Home Edition. It has a VGA webcam, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR with A2DP stereo support, WiFi 802.11b/g/n and a 1366 x 768 XBrite-Eco LED backlit gloss display. The netbook has 2 USB ports, VGA, 10/100 Ethernet, 3.5mm stereo headphone, 3.5mm mic, an SD card slot and a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot. It weighs 2.62 pounds with the standard 3 cell battery and measures 0.54 x 1.28 x 7.07 inches.

Design and Ergonomics

As you'd expect from a Sony Vaio, the W is one good-looking machine. Some folks expected even more-- perhaps Vaio P thinness and shiny piano finishes, but this thing has to be inexpensive so don't expect the world. The Vaio W is arguably the best looking netbook to date. Some of this comes down to preference-- do you love shiny finishes or understated design? The W looks gorgeous when closed. Its curved corners make it look smaller and chic (it's cheaper to make straight-edged products). The satin finish is attractive, doesn't show fingerprints, is grippy and looks classy. It's available in three colors: pearly white, pink and brown. The white is pearlescent and the brown is more like a plum brown metallic. All colors are the same price. We like that since Dell charges $40 for anything other than a black Mini 10 and HP charges $20 for a non-black Mini 110. Lenovo currently charges $10 extra for a pink IdeaPad S10-2 in their online store (white, gray and black don't get an upcharge). Interestingly, Lenovo charges more on their website, but we haven't yet seen the pink price inflate at retailers. Why would a manufacturer charge up to 10% additional for a color? Because there's nearly no profit margin on netbooks and few differentiators in terms of specs among brands. Look and color are something folks are willing to spend more on for their highly personal and portable electronics.

The machine looks and feels durable, and Sony claims it's sturdy enough to be used by the entire family. This isn't a delicate looking ultra-thin Sony high end notebook. Fit and finish are excellent despite this being a budget segment product. The display lid is rigid and not prone to flex and the hard drive is securely mounted and well isolated.

Open up the clamshell and the Sony looks less unique. The display bezel is typical netbook wide and the Vaio W looks like a small laptop. There are a few design cues that set it apart: Sony's trademark isolated keyboard with discrete chicklet keys, a patterned trackpad and a stippled keyboard deck that looks kinda cool while providing hand traction and hiding fingerprints. The keyboard is identical to the Vaio P's. I mean identical: side-by-side with the Vaio P, it looks like the same exact part. While that keyboard seems incredibly large on the tiny 8" P, it's just average on the W. the P's keyboard deck is flat, so you get to enjoy every millimeter of key travel while the W's keyboard is sunk down just a bit (to avoid hitting the display), which reduces perceived key travel. The chicklet keyboard really helps reduce typing errors but the size of the keyboard (similar to the Lenovo S10-2 and Toshiba mini NB205) won't suit large-fingered folk. We wish Sony had gone with a full-width keyboard but we assume re-using the Vaio P's keyboard helps keep the price down. It's not horrid, it's just not as good as the HP Mini 2140.

On the right side, the Vaio netbook has 2 USB ports side-by-side, a 10/100 Ethernet jack and a Kensington lock slot. The left houses the VGA port, charger port and 3.5mm headphone and mic jacks. The world charger is very compact, though not quite as tiny as the Vaio P's PDA-sized charger. Both SD and Memory Stick Pro Duo slots live on the front edge with the wireless slider and power slider. There are charging status and hard disk access LED lights on the front edge and a power switch LED indicates when the unit is on (solid) or sleeping (blinking). Caps lock and num lock LEDs are just above the trackpad. By netbook standards, the trackpad is large and the two buttons are easy to operate (no single button rocker like Samsung and EeePC netbooks or finicky buttons like some Acer Aspire One models). It's a Synaptics touchpad so it supports scroll regions and acceleration scrolling but there are no multi-touch gestures.

The 3 cell battery is small so it doesn't stick out (nor does it last forever). Sony says an extended battery is in the works, but it's not available yet. The bottom has air vents and the fan grille is on the left side. The fan is nearly always on, though at least it's not terribly noisy.

How to Upgrade the Sony Vaio W RAM and hard drive

There's a single large removable door on the bottom that's secured with small phillips head screws. The 2.5mm SATA hard drive lives under the door and it's easy to swap the drive. We test the Vaio W with a Patriot Warp v2 128 SSD drive and it fit easily and worked great.

The drive bay door removed. The hard drive is under the metal plate.

RAM isn't what Sony terms user-upgradable since there's no access door for the SODIMM slot. Only those who are comfy with some minor geeky disassembly should tackle this. Fortunately, it's not terribly hard if you've dissembled computers, especially notebooks, before. You must remove the keyboard to access the single SODIMM RAM slot (you won't have to destroy any warranty stickers in the process). The machine takes standard DDR2 PC-6400 800MHz 200 pin notebook memory and it can use up to 2 gigs of RAM, which means you'll toss the installed 1 gig module and replace it with a 2 gig module.

Keyboard removed (you don't need to disconnect its ribbon cable) to expose the RAM slot.

There's absolutely no need to remove every screw from the bottom of the Vaio -- there are only 3 screws that secure the keyboard: two are under the battery (bronze colored with larger heads than the silver screws) and one more that's easy to miss. It's right next to the hard drive SATA connector.

Remove the battery and remove these two screws.

You will need to take off the hard drive access door on the bottom to get at that third screw. Once youv'e removed the screws gently pull the keyboard up toward the sky (holding the computer in standard operating position) and gently (very gently) push the green area under the computer. Be gentle because the keyboard's ribbon cable is between you and the underside of the keyboard in that green spot.

Here's the third screw that's easy to miss. That green area is the underside of the keyboard PCB with the ribbon cable over it.

One you've freed the keyboard, you can prop it up against the display and access the RAM slot. Pop out the old memory and put in your 2 gig module. This is provided as information to you the reader, do it at your own risk (we have to provide a disclaimer because if you're not experienced and careful you could possibly mess something up).

Display, Graphics and Video Playback

Yowsa, the XBrite-Eco display looks nice! As per usual for recent netbooks, it's an LED backlit display with a gloss finish, but what's very unusual is the resolution: 1366 x 768 pixels. That's the same resolution as the 13" Sony Vaio Z550 we reviewed and the same as that of the recently discontinued Vaio TT. The display is extremely bright; half brightness is plenty bright indoors and full brightness is painfully bright. It's very evenly backlit (the lowest priced netbooks tend to have uneven backlighting) and we saw no undue light leakage around the edges. Colors are vibrant and the viewing angle is better than average for a netbook and similar to a standard notebook. The display is sharp, making even small text clear. Unlike Sony's micro PCs like the Vaio P and UX series where the resolution is mind-bogglingly high and the display small, the Vaio W doesn't require the keenest of young eyed folk to gaze upon it. We tested it on spec-wearing 40-somethings and they were able to read the display with no discomfort. If your eyes are decent, you should have no problems. If they're slightly less than decent, you can increase the font size in Windows. If your eyes are terrible, look elsewhere.

Graphic performance is a hair better than average among 10 inch netbooks according to PCMark05 which is a surprise given the demands of the higher resolution. The Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics with up to 128 megs of shared memory isn't going to impress anyone but it's good enough to run Windows XP briskly and it can run Aero well under Windows 7. We had no problems running Photoshop CS3 even when working with images from a 12 megapixel point and shoot digital camera and doing things like applying filters, resizing the image and sharpening. Video playback for locally stored non-flash videos was acceptable, and the Vaio did particularly well with Windows Media format WMVs. DivX worked fine when we installed a good DivX player and MPEG4 H.264 files were OK. We tested standard def 480 and 720p content. 1080 is too much for this and any netbook we've reviewed. Flash video, though popular, is a challenge since it makes absolutely no use of the GPU. Everything is left to the single core Atom CPU, so expect it to do well with standard YouTube video, and to drop some frames when playing YouTube HD. Standard def Hulu videos play decently, even when set to full screen, but the HQ version of videos drop some frames. Alas, even with the upcoming NVidia Ion that combines a discrete Nvidia 9400 GPU with the Intel Atom CPU for netbooks, 1080 playback on netbooks won't be pleasant. And even then, unless Adobe adds graphics acceleration to their Flash Player software, the Ion won't have any advantage at all. But then again, few 10" netbooks other than the Vaio W and a built to order Dell Mini 10 with the even worse GMA 500 graphics with the slower Atom Z520 even have the resolution to display 1080 content.

CPU, Performance and Windows 7 Ultimate

The Sony Vaio W runs on the new Intel Atom N280 processor (Diamondville) and Intel's i945GSE chipset. The Atom is a single core, 32 bit Hyperthreading CPU based on a 45nm process. What does that mean? It's small and low power, can simulate two cores via Hyperthreading (but it's not that impressive) and can only run 32 bit editions of Windows. The N280 uses 2 watts of power max (crazy little) while the older N270 found in the majority of netbooks uses 2.5 watts (still crazy little but it does use slightly more power and generate a wee bit more heat). The real interesting thing isn't the 67MHz speed increase in the N280 vs. N270 but the new front side bus speed of 667MHz vs. 533MHz. Sounds great, right? As with all things Atom over the years, each new revision sounds better than it is. Performance is a little better but nothing miraculous. It makes just enough difference to ensure smooth playback of YouTube and Hulu videos where some N270 models drop more frames.

Running Windows XP Home Edition, standard on the Vaio W, we enjoyed relatively fast booting and good performance. Likewise MS Office 2007 and even Photoshop CS3 ran fine. No complaints here. The standard SATA II 5400RPM drive was very fast and extremely quiet. It ran quite cool at 32 degrees centigrade. The CPU averages 38 to 45 degrees centigrade which isn't as cool as the Lenovo S10-2 but it's well under the 90 degree max rating and cooler than we saw on the EeePC 1005HA. The bottom of the machine never gets hot, despite the bottom surface's warning stickers about the risks of burning flesh. The fan however runs all the time. Even when at idle. It's not vacuum cleaner-loud and the air coming out the left exhaust vent isn't a Sahara wind, but it pretty much never stops that 30db estimated whir. There's no BIOS setting for fan control, so if you want an absolutely silent netbook, this isn't it.

Older games like Rise of Nations run fine on the Vaio W, and thankfully it meets the minimum resolution requirements of games like RON unlike most netbooks, so it will run and install.

PCMark05 Benchmarks:

PCMark: 1546
CPU: 1545
Memory: 2436
Graphics: 575
HDD: 4457

We tested the Sony netbook with Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit RC and we even tried a 128 gig SATA SSD drive. Good times. Windows 7 boots extremely fast and the SSD drive shaved even a few seconds more off boot times. Honestly, we didn't see a massive experiential improvement with the Patriot Warp V2 SSD drive (a fairly fast solid state drive), but it gives peace of mind with a small notebook that one tends to move around. Conventional hard drives are subject to possible damage if you wave the notebook around while it's accessing the hard disk while SSD drives have no moving parts and don't care.

Windows 7 ran extremely well on the Vaio W. It's nearly as fast as XP and a heck of a lot more fun and modern. Even with 1 gig of RAM, Windows 7 was frugal and used only half that. With Photoshop CS3 running and two 4 meg JPEGs loading, we still didn't max out the 1 gig. Unlike most Sony Vaio notebooks with their interesting custom hardware, the W uses very standard netbook hardware so we didn't have to hunt for a single driver. We did however lose the Fn keys that control brightness, sound etc. so we had to use software controls instead. Once Sony posts drivers for the W (even XP or Vista drivers should do), one could download the necessary drivers to get back the Fn key features. We also tested Office 10 technical preview on the Sony W, and it ran speedily.

Windows Experience Index (Windows 7 Ultimate RC)

Processor: 2.3
Memory (RAM): 4.5
Graphics (Aero): 2.0
Graphics (3D gaming): 3.0
Hard disk: 4.6 (6.4 with our aftermarket SSD drive)

Battery Life

The Sony W netbook ships with a 3 cell Lithium Ion battery (11.1v, 24 watts, 2100 mAh). Like most 3 cell netbooks, this is good for 3 hours of use on a charge with WiFi and Bluetooth on and the display set at middle brightness when working on MS Office documents, surfing the web and doing email. Streaming video will shorten battery life (especially Flash which makes heavy use of the CPU). We had no problem making it through a two hour movie when playing locally stored videos. We do hate Sony's battery prices. The standard battery sells for $89, and they haven't released the extended battery but we're already afraid to see the price. If Sony wants to compete in the netbook market, they're going to have to drop their battery prices considerably.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a netbook that does a little more and bridges the netbook to notebook experience, the Sony Vaio W is it. We think of it as a very poor man's Vaio TT (the 11 inch notebook market has been destroyed by netbooks and the TT is no more). The Vaio netbook looks more like a notebook in terms of styling, has a high resolution display that's great for web browsing, spreadsheets and video playback and it has fast 802.11n WiFi. With the Intel N280 CPU, this little guy is as fast as you can get in a netbook, for what that's worth. Bluetooth is on-board standard and the hard drive is fast and quiet.

Pro: Lovely design and styling, yet sturdy. Fantastic HD display that sets it apart from other netbooks. Relatively light at 2.6 pounds. We love the isolated keyboard, but big-handed fellas will wish for bigger keys. Very good trackpad and easy to operate mouse buttons. WiFi draft N is standard as is Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (handy for Bluetooth mice, A2DP stereo headphones and using a 3G phone as a wireless modem for the notebook).

Con: Unless you're a hardware techie, you aren't upgrading this beyond 1 gig of RAM. These days netbooks come with high capacity batteries but the 3 cell is standard on the Vaio W. Fan, though not hugely loud, never stops running.

Price: $499

Web Site: www.sonystyle.com

Price Comparison Shopping: Where to Buy

Specs:

Display: 1366 x 768 XBrite-Eco LED backlit color LCD. Screen size diagonally: 10.1". Intel GMA950 integrated graphics with 64 megs dedicated memory and up to 192 megs additional shared memory.

Battery: 3 cell Lithium Ion rechargeable (removable). Compact world charger included.

Performance: Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz processor, 667MHZ FSB (Intel Diamondville 45nm CPU, single core, Hyperthreading, 32 bit). Intel i945GSE chipset. 1 gig DDR2 RAM (single channel). 160 gig SATA II, 5400RPM hard drive (ours was a Toshiba).

Size: 10.54 x 1.28 x 7.07 inches. Weight: 2.62 pounds.

Camera: .3 megapixel Motion Eye VGA webcam with dual mics.

Audio: Built in stereo speakers, mics and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack plus 3.5mm mic jack. Intel HD audio (RealTek).

Networking: Integrated Atheros WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR.

Software: Windows XP Home Edition. Intervideo WinDVD, MS Office 2007 trial, ArcSoft web camera software, Vaio Media Streaming Software, Vaio MusicBox and Vaio Movie Story. Norton Internet Security 2009 30 day trial.

Expansion: 1 SD (Secure Digital) slot supporting SDHC and 1 Memory Stick Pro Duo slot.