MeeGo Netbooks

Model	Asus Eee PC X101	Lenovo S100	Samsung N100	Fujitsu LifeBook MH330
Processor	Intel Atom N435 1.33GHz	Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz	Intel Atom N435 1.33GHz	Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz
Memory	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB
Storage	8GB		250GB	250GB
Battery	3-cell		3-cell	3-cell
Warranty	1 year	1 year Regional	1 year
Price & Bundled items	RM799 US$199		US$276

HD Netbooks

Intel Atom netbooks do not offer full support for HD video 1080p and no HDMI port. But the following netbooks with AMD C-50 processor and 1GB memory come with HDMI port and HD video 1080p support.

Model	Asus Eee PC 1015B	Toshiba N550D	Acer Aspire One 522
Screen Resolution	1024 x 600	1024 x 600	1280 x 720
HDD Storage	250GB	250GB	250GB
USB ports	3	3	3
Battery	6-cell 5200mAh	6-cell 4200mAh	6-cell 4400mAh
Price & Bundled items	RM899	$449 External DVD AUD499	US$330 AUD449
Warranty	1 year	1 year Regional	1 year

MeeGo v1.2 for Netbook

MeeGo is a mobile computing platform resulted from the collaboration of Intel and Nokia. I downloaded MeeGo v1.2 for Netbook and was impressed by the OS.

There is no need to install to test MeeGo. All you need is a 1GB flash drive and Intel Atom based netbook. The instructions are easy to follow.

The bootup is fast and you can access Chromium browser. Unlike Android tablet, I am amazed that 3G USB modem and Adobe flash player work out of the box in MeeGo. Realtek RTL8191SE Wi-Fi chipset is not supported but EnGenius EUB-9703 USB Wi-Fi adapter works. MeeGo also supports any USB flash drives or mouse.
Also, MeeGo will prompt you if there is any software update.

Even the standby on my netbook works in MeeGo which did not work well in Windows 7. The password to resume from standby is meego.

Acer Aspire One D255

This is the first netbook with Windows 7 Starter and Google Android 1.06.00.0115 dual boot. In Android, it has Shiretoko Firefox 3.5.1 browser with Adobe Flash 10.0.42.34 support and Adobe Acrobat Reader 1.09.00.120.

Full charging takes around 3 hours 15 minutes and the 6-cell battery lasts at least 5 hours with web browsing on wi-fi at minimum brightness in Android.

Rescue Bootable CD

If your computer is not bootable due to malware, what can you do? There are two solutions :

1. Avira AntiVir Rescue System
2. AVG Rescue CD

You can create a bootable CD from both solutions but Avira has the latest malware signatures already updated. For AVG, you can even create a bootable USB flash drive for netbook without DVD drive.

Running Windows XP Mode Without Hardware Assisted Virtualization

Microsoft has removed the need to have hardware assisted virtualization enabled in your PCs BIOS to run Windows XP mode. This means that Windows XP mode will work on all processors including netbook with Intel Atom CPU. You'll have to download Windows XP mode update (KB977206)

But, you'll require Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate. You can download Windows XP mode for free.

Budget Netbook or All-in-one PC

	PROLiNK Glee TA-009 Netbook	Viewsonic VPC 100
Price	$388/$439	$499
CPU	Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz	Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
RAM	1GB/2GB	1GB
HDD	160GB	160GB
OS	Windows 7 Starter	Windows XP Home
Others	3 cell/6 cell 10.1" LED	18.5" LCD 8x DVD+/-RW

Netbook vs EeeBox

If you don't need the mobility of a netbook, you can get a EeeBox PC instead. Besides, not having a built-in LCD screen, keyboard or mouse, there are differences as follows:

	Netbook	Asus EeeBox PC B202
Price	$599	$438
CPU	Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz or higher	Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
RAM	1GB DDR2 max 2GB	1GB DDR2
HDD	160GB SATA or more	80GB SATA
OS	Windows XP Home or Windows 7 Starter	Windows XP Home with Express Gate
External monitor	VGA	DVI

Budget Netbook

Hasee Q130B HEI10 netbook is selling for RMB1,999 with 3 years warranty in China.

Specifications

1. Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU
   
2. 10.1" 1024 x 600 LCD
   
3. Intel GMA 950
   
4. 1GB DDR2 400/533MHz (1 socket, max 2GB) RAM
   
5. Toshiba 160GB SATA HDD
6. 3 cell Li-Ion battery 2200mAh
   
7. 4-in-1 SD/MMC/MS/MS-Pro card reader
8. Realtek RTL8102E/8103E 10/100Mbps LAN
9. Realtek RTL8191SE 802.11b/g/n wireless
10. Webcam, 3 x USB 2.0, VGA
    

Drivers

1. Realtek RTL8191SE - Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7
2. Realtek RTL8102E/8103E - Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

Buffalo MediaStation Portable DVD Drive

Since I've 2 netbooks - Acer Aspire One AOA110 and Lenovo IdeaPad S10, I wanted to buy a USB bus powered portable DVD drive without the need for an external power adapter. I tested three such drives - LG GP08 ($133), Panasonic UJ-880A ($125) and Buffalo DVM-P8U2/BW-AP ($80).

LG GP08 was not detected in the BIOS of both AOA110 and S10 so I can't boot from CD/DVD to install any OS but can be used within Windows. Both Panasonic UJ-880A and Buffalo DVM-P8U2 were detected in the BIOS of the netbooks.

In the end, I chose Buffalo DVM-P8U2 because it is cheaper and the pearl white colour matches my S10. The only downside is that it can't read/write DVD-RAM which I don't need.

Installing Windows 7 RC on Lenovo IdeaPad S10

I downloaded the 32-bit version of Windows 7 RC Build 7100 and it took about 30 minutes to install on Lenovo IdeaPad S10. Contrary to information from Microsoft, the RC will expire 1 June 2010 but as shown, it will expire 2 March 2010.

All the hardware are automatically recognized in Device Manager except for one unknown device This can be resolved using the Energy Management driver from Windows XP.

Since Atom N270 processor does not support Intel Virtualization Technology, you'll get the error message as shown when you try to launch Virtual Windows XP after installation.

Intel CPUs

CPU	Atom N270	Atom Z530	Atom 230	DuoCore E5200
Speed (GHz)	1.6	1.6	1.6	2.5
L2 Cache (KB)	512KB	512KB	512KB	2MB
FSB (MHz)	533	533	533	800
Intel 64	No	No	Yes	Yes
Intel Virtualization	No	Yes	No	No
Demand Based Switching	No	Yes	No	No

Instant-On Computing

Splashtop - DeviceVM

1. Motherboard - Asus Express Gate (P5N73-CM, P5KPL/1600, P5QL-E P43 etc)
   
2. Netbook - Lenovo Quick Start S9e, S10e, S10 (March 2009)
   
3. Applications - Web Browser (Firefox 2), Music Player, Photo Manager, Skype, Chat
   

Hyperspace - Phoenix

1. Netbook - Lenovo S10
2. Applications - Web Browser (Opera), Instant Messaging
   

Installing Windows 7 Beta on Acer Aspire One

You can install Windows 7 Beta on Acer Aspire One A0A110 with 8GB SSD. There is no need to vlite Windows 7 and you can ignore the warning that the recommended free space for installation is 8279MB. After installation, the free disk space left is 990MB.

As shown, the Windows Experience Index is only 2.0 due to the slow MLC SSD and graphics. The only score which is higher than Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is the memory even though both have 1GB RAM.

Running Windows 7 Beta on Lenovo IdeaPad S10

After running Windows 7 beta on my Lenovo IdeaPad S10 for almost a week, I am very pleased with the performance.

As shown, the Windows Experience Index in Windows 7 varies from Windows Experience Index in Windows Vista. The maximum score has been bumped up from 5.9 to 7.9. Upgrading to 2GB of RAM will only change the score from 4.4 to 4.5.

The supported security providers for Windows 7 are AVG, Kaspersky and Norton. Kaspersky and Norton are still beta products and Kaspersky is not compatible with PC Tools Firewall Plus. The current release AVG Anti-Virus free edition 8.0.176 runs well.

Installing Windows 7 Beta on Lenovo IdeaPad S10

I downloaded the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 and it took about 35 minutes to install on Lenovo IdeaPad S10. The recommended free space for installation is 8279MB. Contrary to reports on prominent websites, the evaluation copy will expire in August 2009 but as shown, it will expire on 2 July 2009.

All the hardware are automatically recognized in Device Manager except for one unknown device This can be resolved using the Energy Management driver from Windows XP.

Installing Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta

Since I've a lot of free disk space on Lenovo IdeaPad S10, I installed this beta and it took 1 hour 40 minutes to complete.

It will show Service Pack 2, v.113 as shown and Windows Vista Evaluation copy Build 6002 on the desktop.

Running Vista on Lenovo IdeaPad S10

Similarly to Acer Aspire One, you need to download the latest driver to run Aero. The score for graphics and gaming graphics are lower than AOA110 even though they're using the same driver and have the same amount of video memory allocated. But, the score for disk is higher than AOA110.

Comparing Lenovo IdeaPad S10 with Acer Aspire One AOA110

S10

1. 10.2" 1024 x 600 LED backlit non-glossy screen
   
2. 160GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD (Ultra DMA Mode 5) - easy to upgrade without warranty void
   
3. 1GB DDR2 667MHz PC 5300 RAM - easy to upgrade without warranty void
   
4. Video memory 64MB in XP/Vista
   
5. 6-cell Li-ion battery
6. Windows XP Home Edition SP3
   

AOA110

1. 8.9" 1024 x 600 LED backlit glossy screen
2. 8GB MLC SSD (Ultra DMA Mode 4) - hard to upgrade with warranty void
   
3. 1GB DDR2 667MHz PC 5300 RAM - hard to upgrade with warranty void
   
4. Video memory 224MB in XP, 64MB in Vista
   
5. 3-cell Li-ion battery
6. Linpus Linux Lite
   

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

I upgraded my Acer Aspire One AOA110 to Lenovo S10. It comes with Windows XP SP3. Removed Norton Internet Security & Adobe Acrobat Reader, configured settings and did a image backup using CyberLink OneKey Recovery. Created a recovery DVD from the backup image and tested the recovery. It takes less than 30 minutes to restore Windows XP. This Intel netbook comes with a bigger 10.2" screen at 1024 x 600 and bigger 160GB HDD.

The Lenovo supplied 6-cell 52Wh Li-Ion battery takes 2 hours 45 mins to fully charge while not in use and 3 hours 30 mins to fully charge while in use. It lasted almost 4 hours with the brightness set to the lowest, performance mode, wireless disabled and surfing with 3G modem.