(Credit:
Intel)
It's an exciting and interesting morning for Netbook fans, as full official details and even system reviews of new Netbooks bearing Intel's next-generation Atom processors have emerged.
However, does the timing annoy you?
While we've known new Atom Netbooks were around the corner for months now, the announcement hits just three days before Christmas Eve and after the last weekend of holiday shopping. Does the new Atom make you want a new Netbook or regret getting one this holiday? On the other hand, do the modest gains from the new Atoms make you want an ultralow-voltage thin-and-light with a faster processor instead, or a next-gen smartphone/smartbook/tablet that could do HD video just as well?
Or does it simply not matter to you? Early reviews indicate that the new Atom N450's gains are mild, and mainly assist the battery life of Netbooks to go even longer between charges than they already do.
Sound off--we'd love to hear your thoughts as consumers.
Imagine the HP Mini 311 with a new Atom...
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)With CES coming in January and Windows 7 computers already everywhere to be found, a casual observer might assume that Vegas' annual consumer electronics extravaganza might not be as exciting for laptops. For Netbooks, at least, that seems to be completely untrue. Although Netbooks have seen an across-the-board upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 and, in some instances, boosts like HD-resolution screens, added RAM, and discrete Nvidia GPUs, Netbooks still tend to run variants of the same N270/280 Atom processor we've seen since 2008.
Intel has been readying its newer Atoms, including a dual-core D510, for a while, but a rumor of a leaked document suggests that Intel might be unveiling the new Atom N450 (the successor to the N270), and even new Netbooks and Nettops containing it, at CES. The report also suggests a possibly quick decommissioning of the old Atom N270s. Intel's new Atoms are supposed to provide better battery life as well as smoother video ... Read more
We've known for a while that updated versions of Intel's Atom chips for Netbooks (code-named Pineview) are slated to appear in the near future, probably around the beginning of next year. Now we may have some new specifics on a previously unknown model.
According to online leaks, a new, higher-end Atom is also joining the party in the form of the Intel Atom N470 (we've alreayd heard about the slower N450 version). The N470 will run at 1.83GHz. It's still a single-core chip, so don't expect a radically different Netbook experience, but it will purportedly integrate graphics and memory control functions, rather than having that built into a separate chipset.
On the plus side, that should help with power efficiency (even though the entire package will have a higher TDP than the current stand-alone N270 Atom), but at the same time, this may cause trouble for those who want to pair an Atom with a different graphics solution, such as the Nvidia Ion.
Of course, this is all speculation ... Read more
The 450Mbps TEW-773GR from Trendnet is fast.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)Before I begin, let me say this one more time: The 802.11n wireless specification (or Wireless-N, which is currently still in draft state and therefore is also known as Draft N) is a wireless networking standard that offers speeds up to 300Mbps. That is a lot faster than the previous and popular specification 802.11g (or Wireless-G) ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
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