So these seem to be the two notebooks that http://blog.laptopmag.com/10-inch-netbooks-fight-for-dominance, so lets look at ASUS, MSI as the early leaders and Samsung and Acer as newcomers. Laptop Magazine did a shoot out. The net is that the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE scored highest except hard disk transfer time.
In November 08, their comparison had the Samsung NC10 and the MSI Wind U110 as the leaders with great battery life, good design and great keyboards.
Overall on performance, Acer Aspire has the fastest hard drive. Boot time wise, HP Mini 1000 was slowest at 1:04 ASUS Eee PC 1000HE was fastest at 37 seconds. MSI Wind U120 was in the middle at 50 seconds. So HP Mini really has a slow hard drive.
On Wifi, Samsung NC10 was quite a bit slower at long range at 17Mbps. Acer ASUS and MSI were all about the same at 20Mbps closer. Farther away, the MSI Wind stayed at 19.4 which is pretty amazing. Not much to choose from here.
Screen-wise, they were all pretty much the same. Matte screens are Lenovo, Samsung, Wind and ASUS. But on the touchpad and keyboard, the special Amazon version of the NC10 is a larger touchpad that is nearly perfect. Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10 is multitouch and the ASUS 1000HE. Wind is the same as the U110 and only OK.
The keyboard is what really counts. Overall, the 1000HE and NC10 are the best, with the Acer and Lenovo close behind. The Samsung NC10 and HP Mini have nearly perfect keyboards. Too bad the HP Mini has so many other issues. ASUS’s new keyboard in the 1000HE is much better. MSI’s keyboard is OK.
Battery life. MSI Wind got 5 hours and the NC10 got a blow away 6.5 hours. Wind U120 only gets 4:28 hours. The Special Edition NC10 has a six cell batter than coule get 8 hours. ASUS gets 7 hours! The Aspire is strange in that some come with big batteries and others with small.
Pricing. You get waht you pay for. The two nicests, the NC10 is $444 and the Special Edition is $500. The ASUS Eee PC 1000HE is $365 which is probably the best buy. The Aspire One is $350 as well, so the main issue is the NC10 worth the $150 premium. I’d say the ASUS is probably the best buy.
Upgrading. This is easy for the ASUS and Acre. Nearly impossible for the new Wind U120.
