Netbook uses Ion platform compared to the net

The netbooks that have been compared are not performing as expected.

More than a year since Nvidia first announced its Ion platform and promises to deliver smooth HD video playback and good gaming with Intel Atom chip. With a better display, stronger graphics, of course, these netbooks have attracted a lot of attention from consumers. But it seems that their true strength is still slightly inflated. The Engadget website has made a number of tests and comparisons between Nvidia's Ion-based netbooks and the Intel Atom chip, the ASUS Eee PC 1201N, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, HP Mini 311 and Samsung N510.

Compare details according to each criterion

Design

Netbook uses Ion platform compared to the net Picture 1
The HP Mini 311 has an eye-catching design but is still full of common ports. Photo: Engadget.

All four netbooks have screens from 11.6 to 12.1 inches, which are compact enough to carry without interfering with users. Lenovo's product has a moderate thickness of 2.8 cm and weighs only about 1.5 kg. Meanwhile, the Asus Eee PC is 3.3 cm thick and the 6-cell battery protruding behind it makes it the most bulky of these. The HP Mini 311 seems to be the most notable device with a compact design that is similar in thickness to Lenovo's, but still fully integrated with a common connector (3 USB ports, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, jacks) headphone plug).

Lenovo makes a difference when decorating small light dots on the pearl-like surface, while Samsung re-arranges the power key to hinge the machine. All of these designs are highly appreciated. But HP showed more than the sophistication in the Mini 311 with surface swirls and in particular does not save fingerprints. However, this is a rather difficult criterion to truly assess the accuracy of the users' aesthetic eyes.

Screen, touchpad and keyboard

Netbook uses Ion platform compared to the net Picture 2 Lenovo's touchpad stands out with its spacious and convenient design. Photo: Engadget

With a larger screen, the keyboard is also "more comfortable" in space, so it is quite easy to edit with all four products. Undeniably, the keyboard of Asus is quite easy to press, but the keys create a feeling like the popular models. The same thing happens with the buttons that are coated with HP's silver paint when it does not impress the user but is quite prone to peeling paint. The keyboards of Lenovo and Samsung give the feeling of solidity and ease of input. In particular, Lenovo keyboard features outstanding angles to help users avoid typing the wrong key.

All touchpads of the above products are quite smooth. But HP still has errors when arranged too close to the keyboard, while typing text, the palm is very easy to move the mouse by touching the touchpad. Meanwhile, Samsung and Asus products have touchpads that support multi-touch. In some of Engadget 's experiments, they work quite responsibly with two fingers used to zoom in or out. Lenovo IdeaPad S12 continues to show advantages when having a large size touchpad and is easy to manipulate.

While Asus and Lenovo products both have a 12.1-inch display screen, HP and Samsung are slightly smaller at 11.6 inches, however, this is quite unnoticeable by the naked eye. Lenovo IdeaPad S12 has a resolution screen of 1,200 x 800 pixels but a standard HD video presentation of 1,366 x 768 pixels is very sharp and clear. However, it is worth noting that the screens for Asus, Lenovo and HP are easy to be used when especially when the transition screen is black. In this case, Samsung's N510 shows its advantages over the rest. But Lenovo's sharp display image may make many people unable to ignore it.

Performance performance

Although it is equipped with Nvidia's Ion platform and Intel Atom chip, it seems that the above netbooks are less efficient than standard products. In the test, open the Firefox web browser application (when no other program is running), Lenovo and Samsung need 2.5 seconds to complete while the product is considered standard with Intel Atom N270 chip. The HP Mini 5101 only takes 1 second. Similarly, Lenovo takes up to 8 seconds, Samsung 6 seconds to open the PDF file of 1.5 MB with Adobe Acrobat 9. Still with HP Mini 5101, it only takes 3 seconds. These are really disappointing results for all 4 products mentioned.

Time to open PDF and GIMP program for each type of machine.

System evaluation scores follow the program GeekBench and PCMark05.