• AMD dual-core C-50 Fusion APU
• 1GB RAM
• 250GB HDD
• 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 screen

This Toshiba NB550D multimedia netbook is the first laptop to run on chipmaker AMD’s new accelerated processing unit (APU) chips, which are dubbed AMD Fusion.

APU is a term coined by AMD for its new range of chips that marries a central processing unit (CPU) to a graphics chip. The technology heralds lower power consumption, as well as better heat management, graphics performance and battery life.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in Jan 2011, AMD launched the E-series Fusion APUs for mainstream laptops and the C-series for ultrathin ones.

Powering the ultrathin NB550D is AMD’s C-50 APU, which is integrated with an ATI Radeon 6250 graphics chip.

If you were anticipating sizzling graphics performance, you would be right. The netbook chalks up 1,877 points on the 3DMark06 graphics test.

This translates to a smooth gaming experience. The game Plants Vs Zombies is lag-free, although the netbook still cannot handle more graphics-intensive games like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Dawn Of War 2.

You will need a machine that can hit at least 4,000 points on 3DMark06 to run these games reasonably well at low resolutions.

YouTube videos at 720p high-definition (HD) quality run smoothly, which is rare among the current crop of netbooks. While there are pauses caused by the buffering of the video stream, the clips run without a hitch once that is completed.

When watching 360p YouTube video clips, the experience is almost flawless. There are very few pauses as the lower-resolution files are smaller in size.

It should be noted that the display resolution of this netbook is 1,024 x 600 pixels, so you can watch HD clips at a resolution of only up to 600p.

CPUs are designed for sequential tasks, while graphics chips excel in parallel processing. Hence, a touted benefit of AMD’s APUs is their ability to combine the best of both worlds.

Multi-tasking on this netbook feels much smoother than the typical Intel Atom-based netbooks I have tested. I am able to download three files at the same time while installing an application.

In terms of raw processing power, this dual-core netbook is still not in the class of lower-end laptops based on, say, the Intel Core i3 chip. For instance, converting a 15-minute video clip using Cyberlink Media Espresso software took nine minutes. On Core i3-powered laptops, the task usually takes under a minute.

The netbook seems to have a problem with Shockwave sites. I cannot view Naruto Shippuden videos on crunchyroll.com and both Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome browsers crash when I try to do so.

The long battery life is impressive. During the review, the netbook easily lasts about eight to nine hours per charge with typical use, which includes both idle time and active usage.

However, what really gets me pumped up are the twin Harmon Kardon speakers located at the sides of the palm rest.

These are the best speakers I have ever heard on a netbook. They sound crisp, sharp and loud with vocal tracks. When I listen to pop songs, I can easily discern the different instruments being played. The bass is significant. The only downer is a slight distortion at maximum volume.

The 1GB of RAM onboard is clearly insufficient and I suspect that adding more RAM will significantly improve the performance.

The NB550D has an HDMI port so that you can connect it your TV to view Internet videos. There are three USB ports, one of which has a Sleep and Charge feature to let you charge your mobile phone or MP3 player when the laptop is turned off.

This netbook is a winner. Just do not expect it to beat out full-fledged laptops, even cheap ones that are under $1,000.

For Toshiba, the challenge of selling the NB550D is to capture the attention of consumers whose attention is expected to be on tablets this year.

• Intel Atom N470 1.83GHz processor
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• 250GB hard drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 graphics
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet, wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n
• Windows 7 Starter

With its tapered edges and a razor-thin side profile, Samsung’s latest all-black N230netbook exudes business chic, putting it in a class above the sea of drab-looking laptops in the market.

In terms of raw performance, however, this 1kg device is middle-of-the-road. Compared to older sibling N220, which uses the Intel Atom N450 processor, the N230 comes with the slightly faster Atom N470 chip. However, this netbook does not feel zippier than the N220 in typical tasks like Web browsing and word processing.

In the PCMark05 benchmark test that grills PCs with a suite of computing jobs, the N230 scored 1,433 points – marginally better than N220′s 1,250points and Prolink Glee UW2′s 1,364 points. The UW2 is powered by an Atom N450 processor.

The Samsung N230 handles video streaming from sites such as YouTube and CNET TV well, but high-definition video clips trip it up.

Its 10.1-inch matte screen serves up a default resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, but this can be bumped up to 1,024 x 768 pixels with Samsung’s bundled Easy Resolution software.

The matte display makes it more comfortable for reading Web pages or e-books outdoors compared to glossy screens. However, compared to the Glee UW2 netbook I recently reviewed, text quality is not as sharp.

You will find a bunch of quick-access function keys on the Samsung N230, including one that lets you turn off the display in an instant to prolong battery life. On machines without this key, you would have to gradually reduce the screen brightness to zero to switch off the display.

Samsung has included a comprehensive suite of software with the Samsung N230, including the Fast Booting software that shortens the time it takes to wake the computer from sleep mode.

The three-cell battery lasted for about five hours when I used the netbook for mostly Web browsing and online document editing.

Checkout the details: Samsung N230 Series N230-11 10.1-Inch Netbook

by: Aaron Tan is an infocomm professional

• Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• 250GB hard drive
• Up to 8GB RAM
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
• Bluetooth V2.1, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n
• Windows 7 Starter

The LifeBook MH380 sets itself apart from other netbooks with its edgy design, a gorgeous display and a scroll wheel which is rarely seen in portable PCs.

It is also a good-looker, with rounded corners, metallic trimmings and a chrome plate on its inner hinge.

By moving your finger in circular motion on the scroll wheel, you can scroll documents and Web pages. The netbook’s track pad also supports scrolling for those who prefer not to use the scroll wheel.

Its 10.1-inch display delivers sharp-looking text and vivid graphics – thanks to a 1,336×768-pixel screen that packs in more pixels compared to most netbooks with the same screen size.

However, while high definition video clips streamed from Apple’s movie trailer website appeared vibrant, playback can be a tad jerky due to the generally weak graphics performance of netbooks.

The good audio quality of this LifeBook‘s speakers augments the visual experience. The speakers sounded louder than those in most netbooks with little distortion, even at maximum volume.

Typing on the netbook, despite its closely-packed keys, felt easy and comfortable.

My only gripe is at the lack of dedicated buttons to control volume and brightness.

Like other netbooks, the MH380 lacks an optical drive. To make up for it, Fujitsu has bundled an optical disc drive (ODD) sharing software that lets you use an optical drive from a separate PC over a network.

I installed the ODD sharing software on a Windows 7 PC with an optical drive, which took just several minutes, and copied some files from a DVD to the MH380 through my home network. The ODD sharing software, however, does not support DVD playback from any optical drive.

In the PCMark05 test suite which grills PCs on a range of computing tasks, the LifeBook MH380 fared well by scoring 1,301 points.

The six-cell battery lasted for a good seven hours when I used the netbook to work on this review, watch YouTube videos and install a handful of applications over the network.

• Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• 250GB hard drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 graphics
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet, wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n, 3.75G HSUPA PCI Express Mini Card
• Windows 7 Starter

Better known for its networking products, Singapore-based IT vendor Prolink is eyeing a slice of the crowded netbook market with the Glee UW2.

The 1.1-kg portable PC with a 10.1-inch glossy display distinguishes itself from rivals with an integrated mobile broadband modem which is uncommon among netbooks.

Prolink‘s expertise in networking is evident in the way the Glee UW2 is configured for instant access to the Net.

In a matter of minutes, I was surfing with 3G cellular network, after slotting a data SIM card into the netbook’s High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) modem.

Other connectivity options include wired and wireless LAN. There is no built-in Bluetooth radio, which means you cannot use a Bluetooth mouse or transfer pictures from a cellphone over the air.

Physically, the Glee UW2 resembles the Hewlett-Packard Mini 1000, with its mouse buttons similarly placed on the left and right sides of the track pad. Those new to this layout may take a while to get comfortable.

There are some nice ergonomic touches. For instance, the six-cell battery doubles up as a stand which props up the netbook, making typing comfortable.

I also like the keyboard but found the tiny comma and full-stop buttons a pain to use. I often mistook one for the other, leading to frequent punctuation errors.

The performance of the netbook was up to mark when it comes to daily computing tasks such as Web browsing, word processing and casual Flash games.

It scored 1,364 points in the PCMark05 test, an above-average score that surpasses the 1,250 points attained by the Samsung N220, which has similar hardware specs.

Like many netbooks, the Glee UW2 is no high-definition (HD) video champ. I found the video jerky when playing clips from YouTube. You are better off watching standard definition clips.

However, the screen is bright and sharp and will make your holiday pictures look good.

The Glee UW2 runs on Windows 7 Starter edition and comes with Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a stripped-down version of the full-fledged Office suite.

The netbook lasts about six hours with a single charge on a six-cell battery, so you should be able to take the netbook out for the day without taking its power adapter along.

To say that netbooks have historically been hobbled by Intel’s integrated graphics is to unfairly ignore their slow single-core CPUs, 1GB RAM maximum, miniscule keyboards, and awkward screen resolutions. It’s an unfair assertion, of course, netbooks came into existence to be cheap, portable, low-powered machines. But the defi nition of netbook has been stretched, to the point where HP’s new Mini 311, while still considered a netbook, has an 11.6-inch 1366×768 screen, Nvidia integrated graphics, a large keyboard, and can support up to 3GB of DDR3 RAM, for less than $500.

At fi rst, the HP Mini 311 looks a lot like any other 11.6-inch netbook on the market: Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 3 USB ports, and a somewhat squashed keyboard. But the RAM is DDR3/1333, not the typical DDR2/667, and it’s soldered to the mainboard , leaving a SODIMM slot free for an additional 2GB of RAM. The screen has a maximum resolution of 1366×768, signifi cantly better than the standard 1024×600, for one thing, websites and programs built for 1024×768 won’t break. And thanks to the Ion platform, the HP Mini 311 can display 720p HD video, and output 1080p over the HDMI port—that’s right, a netbook with an HDMI port.

Aside from the graphics (and all that that implies) the rest of the Mini 311 is standard netbook fare, and non-graphics-related benchmark scores bear that out. Photoshop and MainConcept scores were within 5 percent of our zero point, as was battery life, which, at just over four hours, is good for anything with discrete graphics, but middle-of-the-road for netbooks. The Mini 311 played our Quake 3 benchmark at 142fps, compared to our zero point’s 58fps. Quake 4 performance on a standard netbook is akin to watching a violent PowerPoint; the Mini 311 pushed out a playable 34fps. It suff ered more on current gen games—Left 4 Dead caps at 10fps when zombies are on the screen, and both Modern Warfare games chug along at a nearly playable 15fps. The Mini 311 isn’t a modern gaming notebook, the single-core Atom CPU is too slow for that but thanks to its Ion graphics and decent resolution, it can kind of play more modern games than its predecessors.

The HP Mini 311 shell is slim and attractive, with a white or black patterned lid and a silver-and-black chassis. The screen is bright and not overly reflective; in fact, our only real complaint with this netbook is its keyboard. It’s big, true, with nice concave chiclet keys, but unlike the keyboard on the Mini 1000 series, the keys feel mushy and slick, rather than firm and matte, so typing is not as pleasant as it should be on a keyboard this big.

Though the HP Mini 311 is still hampered by the long-in-the-tooth Atom N280 processor, the Ion graphics make up for it. HD video and actual gaming capability on a netbook, plus HDMI-out and up to 3GB of DDR3 RAM? Heck yes. The Mini 311 is only the fi rst in a doubtless long line of Ion-enabled netbooks, but if this is the shape of things to come, we’re excited

Check out the HP Mini 311 hardware specification.

• Stay plugged in with a nano receiver
• Web surfing is a joy with built-in scroll wheel
• A wireless receiver means no more messy cables
• Plug-n-play
• Optical sensor

Product Description
The Kensington Wireless Mouse for Netbooks is the simple, comfortable wireless mouse you need for your netbook. The nano USB receiver is so small, you can plug it in and leave it in. Plus, the built-in scroll wheel makes scrolling through web pages fast and easy- no more messing with the tiny touchpad on your netbook…. More >>

Kensington K72349US Wireless Mouse for Netbooks

• Fits laptops: Up to 10.2-Inch
• Small, compact footprint is perfect for transporting ultra-portable notebooks 7-10.2-Inch with none of the extra bulk
• Power Pocket – Dedicated storage for AC Power Adapter
• Durable neoprene construction with extra protection
• Warranty: 25 Years

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Case Logic is obsessed with organization! No matter who you are, what toys, tools or technology you have, where you are, or where you are going, Case Logic is your partner in managing the things that matter to you. We are the -Inchstuff wranglers-Inch that make life easier. With this focus in mind, Caselogic introduces the LNEO-10 Ultrportable Neoprene Netbook Sleeve (Magenta). Small, compact footprint is perfectfor transporting ultra-portablenotebooks 7-10” with none of the extra bulk. Featuring a Power Pocket – Dedicated storage for AC Power Adapters. Durable neoprene construction with extra padding for added protection. Comfortable handles for easy carrying. Fits Netbooks up to 10.2-inches. 25 Year Warrant… More >>

Case Logic LNEO-10 Ultraportable Neoprene Netbook Sleeve

• Fits laptops: Up to 10.2-Inch
• Small, compact footprint is perfect for transporting ultra-portable notebooks 7-10.2-Inch with none of the extra bulk
• Power Pocket – Dedicated storage for AC Power Adapter
• Durable neoprene construction with extra protection
• Warranty: 25 Years

Product Description
Case Logic is obsessed with organization! No matter who you are, what toys, tools or technology you have, where you are, or where you are going, Case Logic is your partner in managing the things that matter to you. We are the -Inchstuff wranglers-Inch that make life easier. With this focus in mind, Caselogic introduces the LNEO-10 Ultrportable Neoprene Netbook Sleeve (Magenta). Small, compact footprint is perfectfor transporting ultra-portablenotebooks 7-10” with none of the extra bulk. Featuring a Power Pocket – Dedicated storage for AC Power Adapters. Durable neoprene construction with extra padding for added protection. Comfortable handles for easy carrying. Fits Netbooks up to 10.2-inches. 25 Year Warrant… More >>

Case Logic LNEO-10 Ultraportable Neoprene Netbook Sleeve

• Intel Atom Processor N450 (1.66 GHz, 512 KB L2 Cache)
• 1 GB DDR2 System Memory (1 DIMM); 160 GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
• Genuine Windows 7 Starter, Up to 4.25 hours of battery life
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 (shared) with up to 256 MB total available graphics memory
• 10.1-inch Diagonal WSVGA LED Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1024 x 600)

Product Description
Prepare to be noticed when you take this Netbook out on the town. Small, slim and stylish, the HP Mini 210 lets you surf the web, stay connected, and be entertained wherever you go. Amp up the fun by playing videos and music or showing off your photos. Exclusive, integrated software keeps you in sync with your life by letting you e-mail, chat, and instantly access your files from anywhere. Take just what you need And leave the rest on your primary PC. At less than one inch thin and starting at just 2.69 pounds, this ultra-compact PC won’t weigh you down. You’ll enjoy a 16:9 10.1″ diagonal BrightView Infinity display and nearly full-size keyboard…. More >>

HP Mini 210-1010NR 10.1-Inch Black Netbook – 4.25 Hours of Battery Life

The easy-to-use Acer Aspire One AO751h-1192 Netbook with a 11.6″ Acer CrystalBrite™ LED-backlit display provides continuous access to the Internet and weighs less than three pounds. With up to 8-hours of battery life and powered by the incredibly small, amazingly smart Intel® Atom™ processor, you have the performance to enjoy popular online activities like streaming videos or music, emailing, web surfing and more. The Acer Aspire One AO751h-1192 Netbook integrates a full-size soft-touch keyboard enhancing typing comfort. Pinch, flick and swirl your fingers on the Multi-Gesture Touchpad for an effortless navigation of web pages, photos expansion, spreadsheets and more. With 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Fast Ethernet LAN connectivity jump on the Internet and access email, browse the web, connect to your social networks and enjoy multimedia content in an instant. The Acer Crystal Eye webcam and digital microphone deliver smooth video and superior voice quality so you can maintain in contact wherever you are by means of real-time video streaming, video chat and conference calling.