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ITS MY OWN LIFE

MY 2010 - Netbooks

Posted by Abhishek Sunday, 29 May 2011 0 comments

Yesterday, we gave you our choices for the best Laptop this year and today is the turn of the Netbooks. Ever since their inception in 2007, Netbooks have become smaller, lighter and faster in the few years of their existence. Netbooks offer more portability than their laptop counterparts, but at the cost of performance.

Netbooks are perfect for those who need a lightweight, portable device and have basic computing needs. Since Netbooks don’t have very powerful hardware, they are priced a lot lower than laptops and give those on a budget a wide variety of choices.

So below are our pick for the best Netbooks to hit the market this year.

Best Performer: Acer Aspire One AO532h 


You are WINRAR!

The Acer Aspire One AO532h is powered by a Intel Atom N450 processor, which clocks in a 1.6GHz and has a 1GB of DDR3 RAM. It managed to impress in both synthetic tests like SiSandra as well as real world tests which included video encoding and file compression. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth as well as three USB, One VGA and two audio jacks.

Add in a 160 Hard Drive and built-in broadband functionality and it’s a great buy for those who want great looks coupled with great performance.

Price: 19,499

First Runner Up: Samsung N150 

It ain't all show and no go

The Samsung N150 missed the top spot by a very small margin. But don’t let it deter you. The N150 is a quite a stunner in terms of looks, the entire body is pearl white in color and has very distinct shimmer which gives it sporty look.

In terms of performance, it was neck and neck with the Acer. The only downside to this great laptop is the lack of Bluetooth and the size and spacing of the keys, which could have been better.

Price:
� Rs. 18,802

Second Runner up: Asus EeePC 1201N 

Strikes a balance between performance and portability

The Asus 1201N was one of the first Netbooks to undergo a game benchmark in our labs. That should be enough to tell you how powerful this Netbook is. Infact, it's twice as powerful as Samsung N150, what makes it powerful is not just the hyper-threaded Intel Atom N330 processor and 2GB RAM, it’s also the inclusion of NVIDIA’s 9400m GPU that makes all the difference.

Thanks to the NVIDIA Ion platform, the N1201N has twice the performance figures of the other two Netbooks in the list in the synthetic as well as real world tests. Add to that the usual trappings such as HDMI, three USB ports, Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth, it has everything that one would need.

At Rs. 29,000 it maybe a whole lot more than what you would normally pay for Netbook, but exceptions can be made when a product strikes a good balance of both performance and portability.

Price: Rs. 29,000

Click to enlarge


MY 2010 - Netbooks

Posted by Abhishek 0 comments

Yesterday, we gave you our choices for the best Laptop this year and today is the turn of the Netbooks. Ever since their inception in 2007, Netbooks have become smaller, lighter and faster in the few years of their existence. Netbooks offer more portability than their laptop counterparts, but at the cost of performance.

Netbooks are perfect for those who need a lightweight, portable device and have basic computing needs. Since Netbooks don’t have very powerful hardware, they are priced a lot lower than laptops and give those on a budget a wide variety of choices.

So below are our pick for the best Netbooks to hit the market this year.

Best Performer: Acer Aspire One AO532h 


You are WINRAR!

The Acer Aspire One AO532h is powered by a Intel Atom N450 processor, which clocks in a 1.6GHz and has a 1GB of DDR3 RAM. It managed to impress in both synthetic tests like SiSandra as well as real world tests which included video encoding and file compression. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth as well as three USB, One VGA and two audio jacks.

Add in a 160 Hard Drive and built-in broadband functionality and it’s a great buy for those who want great looks coupled with great performance.

Price: 19,499

First Runner Up: Samsung N150 

It ain't all show and no go

The Samsung N150 missed the top spot by a very small margin. But don’t let it deter you. The N150 is a quite a stunner in terms of looks, the entire body is pearl white in color and has very distinct shimmer which gives it sporty look.

In terms of performance, it was neck and neck with the Acer. The only downside to this great laptop is the lack of Bluetooth and the size and spacing of the keys, which could have been better.

Price:
� Rs. 18,802

Second Runner up: Asus EeePC 1201N 

Strikes a balance between performance and portability

The Asus 1201N was one of the first Netbooks to undergo a game benchmark in our labs. That should be enough to tell you how powerful this Netbook is. Infact, it's twice as powerful as Samsung N150, what makes it powerful is not just the hyper-threaded Intel Atom N330 processor and 2GB RAM, it’s also the inclusion of NVIDIA’s 9400m GPU that makes all the difference.

Thanks to the NVIDIA Ion platform, the N1201N has twice the performance figures of the other two Netbooks in the list in the synthetic as well as real world tests. Add to that the usual trappings such as HDMI, three USB ports, Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth, it has everything that one would need.

At Rs. 29,000 it maybe a whole lot more than what you would normally pay for Netbook, but exceptions can be made when a product strikes a good balance of both performance and portability.

Price: Rs. 29,000

Click to enlarge



Remember the ASUS teasing us about a new device on Facebook. Well, it looks like they are at it again, by adding another shadowy figure to the list. But this time, we may have an idea as to what the new product could be.
Another teaser...
Another teaser...


According to Notebook Italia, ASUS is going to unveil an Ultra Slim Version of the Eee PC netbook. The website dug out a picture that looks remarkably similar to the one shown in the teaser. The image shows the familiar Eee PC netbook design, but has lost every single inch it could spare in order to gain the Ultra Slim moniker.
This is what it could look like
This is what it could look like


Nothing else is known about the device. What processor will it run on or most importantly, what operating system will it have. With Computex only a few days away, and two more products to reveal, ASUS certainly has our interest peaked.


Remember the ASUS teasing us about a new device on Facebook. Well, it looks like they are at it again, by adding another shadowy figure to the list. But this time, we may have an idea as to what the new product could be.
Another teaser...
Another teaser...


According to Notebook Italia, ASUS is going to unveil an Ultra Slim Version of the Eee PC netbook. The website dug out a picture that looks remarkably similar to the one shown in the teaser. The image shows the familiar Eee PC netbook design, but has lost every single inch it could spare in order to gain the Ultra Slim moniker.
This is what it could look like
This is what it could look like


Nothing else is known about the device. What processor will it run on or most importantly, what operating system will it have. With Computex only a few days away, and two more products to reveal, ASUS certainly has our interest peaked.


Lenovo took over IBM and is relatively new in comparison. IBM’s ThinkCentre and ThinkPad series were always known to be workhorses. Now Lenovo’s All-in-One PC solutions also have usually done quite well and they obviously want to carry the trend forward. All-in-One PCs are usually meant for easy setup, no-nonsense desktop PCs meant usually for home use. Some offices also use them and these PCs are known for consuming very less space on your desk. Now that the A70z has come in for review, we put it through its paces and see whether it gives you a good bang for your buck. 

Design and Build Quality
The package consists of three components, the screen with the CPU integrated into it, a mouse and a keyboard. Setting up the whole system is quite simple, as all you have to do is find some space, plug the keyboard and mouse to the screen, plug the screen to a power source and you’re good to go.
Ports behind are placed well, metal stand is strong
Ports behind are placed well, metal stand is strong


At first glance, the monitor has a typical ThinkCentre look and feel to it. It has a black colour with a non-glossy finish throughout, means it doesn’t attract unnecessary smudges on the body. For that matter, even the 19-inch display screen has a matte finish which is nice and makes viewing quite comfortable. The metal stand behind is foldable and because of the solid metal rod it gives the screen a firm support, without any kind of wobbling or instability whatsoever. While on a whole the design and build quality of the monitor is nice, the thick bezel around the display wastes space and could have looked a lot sleeker.  

Lenovo hasn’t really made too much of a change to the design and build quality of the keyboard either. Instead, continuing with that same design, Lenovo has added a little bit of colour, by making keys of the same function (for e.g. F1-F11, or the Enter keys) of the same colour which is a nice thing and helps the user to easily differentiate between them. Anyway, the keyboard as mentioned earlier has been built well and the keys are big and are quite soft to press. Personally, I liked the whole experience of typing on the A70z’s keyboard. 
The mouse also compliments the combination and has been built quite well. The buttons are firm to press, the middle wheel scrolls quite smoothly and on a whole it works quite well. However, the mouse feet are really thin and are bound to wear off after use on a hard surface. 

Features
The A70z has six USB ports - three at the back of the screen and the rest on the side. It’s a good thing that the keyboard and mouse have long wires and can be connected at the back, which makes the USB ports at the side free to use to connect external hard drives, pen drives or any other USB-based devices. Apart from these ports, there’s a VGA and an Ethernet port behind and at the side along with the other three USB ports, there’s an audio jack and a line-in port as well. Apart from these features, this desktop PC has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for wireless internet which works quite well. There’s Bluetooth 3.0 for transferring data with portable devices like mobile phones.
Thick bezel around the screen could have been avoided
Thick bezel around the screen could have been avoided


The power button is located at the right bottom of the screen which is very easy to access, but the brightness controls located on the side should have rather been placed next to the button which would have made it more convenient to use.  

On the other side, there’s a DVD RW tray and the grip at the centre of the tray works pretty well to hold CDs or DVDs in place. The A70z also has a webcam at the centre on top of the screen that has a 1.3 Megapixel lens. 

Coming to the specifications, the A70z has a pretty outdated Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 processor, which clocks at 2.93 GHz. There is 2GB of RAM and 320GB of Hard Disk space which is low by today's standards but will be good enough to install software, movies and games. Many netbooks nowadays come with 500GB built in. Also, the Intel GM45 chipset means that the on-board graphics is not really meant for gaming or other high-end purposes like graphics designing and so on. 

Performance
The ThinkCentre A70z was put through the grind, by making it run all our regular set of benchmarks to test the hard disk, processor and other performances. The hard disk scores were pretty average as the file transfer test of a 4GB sequential data file saw a speed of 58.51 MB/s and this further dropped to 40.96 MB/s for the assorted data of the same capacity. A score of 4347 for the PCMark Vantage benchmark again looks very mediocre; the IdeaPad Z570 for instance scores better at 4609. File compression took 65 seconds and encoding our standard video file was done in 122 seconds.
Side ports are convenient to use
Side ports are convenient to use


Leaving the scores aside, let’s come to the display screen of the A70z. While we can say that the viewing angles are pretty good, the screen has its share of issues, as well. While watching movies, we noticed banding and in scenes with dim light, backlight issues were noticeable at the edges. Nevertheless, we’ll also add that an HD 1080p clip having a frame rate of 60 fps ran just fine without any stuttering or audio sync issues. 

While running the benchmarks, we also noticed that the machine did not heat up. However, the screen did get a little warm. 
Simple Setup, Average Performance and a tad expensive
Simple Setup, Average Performance and a tad expensive


Verdict
While the performance of the A70z is average, it should be noted that this All-in-One is not meant to deliver a lot in terms of performance. However, we’re judging the performance in terms of its price. At Rs. 33,200 which this model of the A70z is priced at, there are quite a few notebooks that can perform quite well. For e.g. Lenovo’s very own IdeaPad Z570 can do the same and is a lot more portable than the A70z for sure. The HP Omni 100-6120in Desktop PC comes for about Rs. 29,680 which is about Rs. 4,000 less and has very similar specifications albeit an Intel E5800 processor that clock 3.2 GHz and a 500 GB HDD.


Lenovo took over IBM and is relatively new in comparison. IBM’s ThinkCentre and ThinkPad series were always known to be workhorses. Now Lenovo’s All-in-One PC solutions also have usually done quite well and they obviously want to carry the trend forward. All-in-One PCs are usually meant for easy setup, no-nonsense desktop PCs meant usually for home use. Some offices also use them and these PCs are known for consuming very less space on your desk. Now that the A70z has come in for review, we put it through its paces and see whether it gives you a good bang for your buck. 

Design and Build Quality
The package consists of three components, the screen with the CPU integrated into it, a mouse and a keyboard. Setting up the whole system is quite simple, as all you have to do is find some space, plug the keyboard and mouse to the screen, plug the screen to a power source and you’re good to go.
Ports behind are placed well, metal stand is strong
Ports behind are placed well, metal stand is strong


At first glance, the monitor has a typical ThinkCentre look and feel to it. It has a black colour with a non-glossy finish throughout, means it doesn’t attract unnecessary smudges on the body. For that matter, even the 19-inch display screen has a matte finish which is nice and makes viewing quite comfortable. The metal stand behind is foldable and because of the solid metal rod it gives the screen a firm support, without any kind of wobbling or instability whatsoever. While on a whole the design and build quality of the monitor is nice, the thick bezel around the display wastes space and could have looked a lot sleeker.  

Lenovo hasn’t really made too much of a change to the design and build quality of the keyboard either. Instead, continuing with that same design, Lenovo has added a little bit of colour, by making keys of the same function (for e.g. F1-F11, or the Enter keys) of the same colour which is a nice thing and helps the user to easily differentiate between them. Anyway, the keyboard as mentioned earlier has been built well and the keys are big and are quite soft to press. Personally, I liked the whole experience of typing on the A70z’s keyboard. 
The mouse also compliments the combination and has been built quite well. The buttons are firm to press, the middle wheel scrolls quite smoothly and on a whole it works quite well. However, the mouse feet are really thin and are bound to wear off after use on a hard surface. 

Features
The A70z has six USB ports - three at the back of the screen and the rest on the side. It’s a good thing that the keyboard and mouse have long wires and can be connected at the back, which makes the USB ports at the side free to use to connect external hard drives, pen drives or any other USB-based devices. Apart from these ports, there’s a VGA and an Ethernet port behind and at the side along with the other three USB ports, there’s an audio jack and a line-in port as well. Apart from these features, this desktop PC has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for wireless internet which works quite well. There’s Bluetooth 3.0 for transferring data with portable devices like mobile phones.
Thick bezel around the screen could have been avoided
Thick bezel around the screen could have been avoided


The power button is located at the right bottom of the screen which is very easy to access, but the brightness controls located on the side should have rather been placed next to the button which would have made it more convenient to use.  

On the other side, there’s a DVD RW tray and the grip at the centre of the tray works pretty well to hold CDs or DVDs in place. The A70z also has a webcam at the centre on top of the screen that has a 1.3 Megapixel lens. 

Coming to the specifications, the A70z has a pretty outdated Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 processor, which clocks at 2.93 GHz. There is 2GB of RAM and 320GB of Hard Disk space which is low by today's standards but will be good enough to install software, movies and games. Many netbooks nowadays come with 500GB built in. Also, the Intel GM45 chipset means that the on-board graphics is not really meant for gaming or other high-end purposes like graphics designing and so on. 

Performance
The ThinkCentre A70z was put through the grind, by making it run all our regular set of benchmarks to test the hard disk, processor and other performances. The hard disk scores were pretty average as the file transfer test of a 4GB sequential data file saw a speed of 58.51 MB/s and this further dropped to 40.96 MB/s for the assorted data of the same capacity. A score of 4347 for the PCMark Vantage benchmark again looks very mediocre; the IdeaPad Z570 for instance scores better at 4609. File compression took 65 seconds and encoding our standard video file was done in 122 seconds.
Side ports are convenient to use
Side ports are convenient to use


Leaving the scores aside, let’s come to the display screen of the A70z. While we can say that the viewing angles are pretty good, the screen has its share of issues, as well. While watching movies, we noticed banding and in scenes with dim light, backlight issues were noticeable at the edges. Nevertheless, we’ll also add that an HD 1080p clip having a frame rate of 60 fps ran just fine without any stuttering or audio sync issues. 

While running the benchmarks, we also noticed that the machine did not heat up. However, the screen did get a little warm. 
Simple Setup, Average Performance and a tad expensive
Simple Setup, Average Performance and a tad expensive


Verdict
While the performance of the A70z is average, it should be noted that this All-in-One is not meant to deliver a lot in terms of performance. However, we’re judging the performance in terms of its price. At Rs. 33,200 which this model of the A70z is priced at, there are quite a few notebooks that can perform quite well. For e.g. Lenovo’s very own IdeaPad Z570 can do the same and is a lot more portable than the A70z for sure. The HP Omni 100-6120in Desktop PC comes for about Rs. 29,680 which is about Rs. 4,000 less and has very similar specifications albeit an Intel E5800 processor that clock 3.2 GHz and a 500 GB HDD.