NetbookTech

As you’ve probably heard by now, Windows 7 has finally released the Release Candidate (RC) stage. The official RC will be available to developers on MSDN and TechNet starting on April 30th with a broader public release slated for May 5th. Of course, if you’re adventurous enough and you really can’t wait, you download the release candidate right now (believed to be build 7100) off of many bit-torrent search engines and use your existing beta product key.

Now if you’re wondering what’s changed between the beta release of Windows 7 (build 7000) and the release candidate (build 7100), check out the list of changes here and here over at the Engineering Windows 7 blog site.

In the meantime, I decided to give build 7100 a spin on my Samsung NC10 netbook and here’s a brief overview of my experience – from setup to first few hours of opexration.

Setup and Install

Installing Windows 7 Beta took quite some time on all of our netbook systems – what would the release candidate experience be like? In a word – awesome. The total time from start to finish on the Samsung NC10 – 25 minutes (one would expect this number to be even faster on faster processor systems out there).

Here’s a quick chronology of the setup from last night:

8:26pm – Boot the DVD – see the new splash screen (which has been around over the last several builds since build 7000). Select language of choice, agree to the license terms, choose the drive you want to install Windows 7 on, and you’re off to the races.

8:29pm – The install actually begins:

8:30pm – 10 minutes later, we’re at 74% of the “Expanding Windows Files” section. Very nice.

8:44pm – A reboot, starting some services, and completing installation.

8:47pm – One more reboot.. and now watching Setup preparing the system and checking video performance. The performance checks all have new splash screens too.

8:49pm – Enter your user name and a name for your PC

8:50pm – Time to enter the product key, set the time, and connect to a Wi-Fi- network

8:52pm – Reach the Welcome screen and preparing the desktop

8:54pm – Setup is DONE! The desktop is up and running and everything in the hardware was successfully detected by Windows 7 setup. Running time – 25 minutes from when the setup first began and 28 minutes from when I first booted from the DVD.

Here’s a quick still image of the desktop. (you’ll notice that I shrunk the icons on the task bar down since I’m operating on a netbook display which is limited to 1024 x 600).

Side Note for Samsung NC10 owners

While Build 7100 installed flawlessly on the Samsung NC10, some of the keyboard hotkeys were not working correctly. To get this working, go to the Samsung website and download the display manager software for the NC10.

First Impressions

If you’ve been working with the Beta build for some time now then you might not initially notice differences between the Beta build and the RC build. Many of the changes as listed in the Engineering Windows 7 website are subtle beauty changes and usability enhancement changes. Changes to how Alt-Tab and Aero Peek work; changes to the jump lists; changes to the Device Stage etc etc. If anything, the RC build is clean both on the inside and around the edges. You’ll notice new sound effects, many more themes to choose from, tighter performance, and just an overall sense of polish to the product. We’re close folks – very very close and it’s my opinion that Windows 7 will be awesome for netbooks.

Here are some snapshots of the control panel for anyone interested:

Boot Times

If there’s something noticeable right from the get go – it would have to be the overall boot times and system resumes from hibernation. With Build 7100 running on my Samsung NC10, here are some really quick numbers that I compiled.

Under a minute to the desktop? Not bad. Now granted, the OS is still carrying out some operations in the background but it’s entirely usable within 50 seconds of hitting the power button.

Memory Consumption

If you’re coming from a Windows XP-based netbook world loaded with 1GB of RAM, then you’ll definitely want to consider upgrading to 2GB of RAM for Windows 7. Yes, Microsoft should be commended for their memory optimizations in Windows 7 (it does consume less memory than Windows Vista) but it still consumes more memory than Windows XP.

An out of the box install of Windows 7 Ultimate consumes approximately 500MB of memory at boot time. This does settle down a bit to around 420MB of RAM thanks to some paging optimizations but again – you’ll want to upgrade to 2GB if at all possible.

Performance Perceptions

I haven’t had the opportunity to run real world application or system benchmarks as of yet but the overall system under RC1 certainly feels very responsive and peppy – PLUS – we’re talking about Windows 7 Ultimate – not the Starter Edition of 7. Again – Microsoft should be commended for appearing to execute their goals of making all versions of Windows 7 usable on netbooks.

Keep in mind, this is all preliminary at this point. I’ve yet to use the RC build on the NC10 for a prolonged period of time but it’s all very promising to say the least.

To Be Continued

This is certainly only the beginning when it comes to testing Windows 7 RC for netbook systems. We’ll go ahead and install the OS on other netbook systems to see how compatible the OS is with other hardware. We’ll also look into the battery performance under Windows 7. However, all tings are certainly looking up at this point. Windows 7 could finally spell the end of Windows XP on netbooks – assuming Microsoft gets the licensing agreements worked out.

Just noticed that Newegg.com was now offering both new Samsung netbooks – the N110 and the N120. The key difference between the N110 and the N120 is the larger keyboard form factor of the 120 – a whopping 97% full keyboard size compared to the 93% on the NC110.

Here are the specs to the Samsung N110 courtesy of Newegg:

• Windows XP Home OS
• Intel Atom N270 processor at 1.6GHz
• 10.1 inch WSVGA (1024 x 600) resolution display
• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• 1GB RAM
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
• Measures 10.27 x 7.3 x 1.19 inches
• Weighs 2.78 lbs
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 10/100 Ethernet
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 3 USB ports
• 1 VGA
• 1 microphone/1 headphone
• Internal microphone
• Built-in speakers
• Larger touchpad than the NC10
• 3 in 1 memory card reader (SD, SDHC, MMC)
• 6 cell Lithium Ion battery – 5900 mAh with 9.5 hour rated battery life

Meanwhile, the N120 has the following specs:

• Windows XP Home OS
• Intel Atom N270 processor at 1.6GHz
• 10.1 inch WSVGA (1024 x 600) resolution display
• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• 1GB RAM
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
• Measures 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.19 inches
• Weighs 2.8 lbs
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 10/100 Ethernet
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 3 USB ports
• 1 VGA
• 1 microphone/1 headphone
• Internal microphone
• 2.1 channel speakers with sub-woofer and SRS sound effect
• Larger touchpad than the NC10
• 3 in 1 memory card reader (SD, SDHC, MMC)
• 6 cell Lithium Ion battery with 7.5 hour rated battery life

About the only complaint that I would have with these new systems are:

1. Why not use the latest N280 processor?
2. N120 – why not throw in a slightly larger display along with the larger keyboard? 11 inches perhaps??

Netbook/Mobile broadband bundles are clearly expanding as Dell announced a new partnership with China Mobile Communications Corporation incorporating CMCC’s high speed 3G wireless support into the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook. The Mini 10 will have a starting price of RMB3, 880 (or approximately $575 U.S. dollars) in China where some analysts expect netbook growth to grow 276 percent in 2009.

As a reminder, the Inspiron Mini 10 features:

• Intel Atom processor
• 92 percent keyboard
• Weight of 2.6 lbs
• Multi-touch touchpad
• WSVGA edge to edge 16:9 widescreen LED display
• HDMI output
• Wi-Fi
• Built-in Webcam
• Windows XP Simplified Chinese
• 1GB RAM
• 160GB HDD
• Dell Remote Access

The Inspiron Mini 10 will be available through China Mobile as well as select consumer electronic retail stores including Gome, Suning, and Hongtusanbao.

Here’s an interesting (and somewhat flawed or mislabeled) benchmark test over at CNET’s Crave.com. The website pitted three systems against one another. An ASUS Eee PC 1000HE with an Intel Atom processor vs a Samsung NC20 with a VIA Nano processor vs. the new HP Pavilion dv2 with the AMD Athlon Neo processor. Their goal – to establish how the netbook/ultra-portable processors compare against one another – a “CPU showdown” of sorts.

Their result? Not surprisingly, confusing and inconclusive. The Atom processor faired well in their “multitasking test”, while the Nano faired well on the Apple iTunes encoding test and finally, the Neo faired best in their Jalbum test.

This “processor showdown” was unfortunately flawed to the bone and realistically mislabeled. It would have been somewhat better to call this a system showdown between three different netbook/ultra-portable families – one involving the Intel netbook platform, one with a VIA netbook platform, and one with the AMD Neo platform. Comparing these systems was like comparing a Granny Smith Apple to a Red Delicious Apple to a McIntosh Apple. They’re all Apples but they vary in size, shape, texture, taste, etc. 

Folks who benchmark for a living (anandtech.com, techreport.com etc) will often try and isolate processor performance from the rest of the system. This means when they’re comparing one version of a Core 2 Duo vs a new version of the processor- they try and keep everything else the same. Same motherboard; same RAM; same Hard Drive etc etc. The Crave review pitted three very different systems with different guts against one another. There was no real way to isolate processor performance from the rest of the system components.

Ah yes.. the art of benchmarking..

In any case, what I find most interesting about this test is the relative poor showing of the Athlon Neo processor – not so much what the Atom or Nano did.. Makes me wish I could have three different systems to compare against!

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Yeah.. as you can tell – I’m trying to deliver more news on netbook deals (not that we don’t have enough general netbook news to cover on a daily basis of course). However, I figure a large number of you are probably coming to our site simply to find out more info on netbooks and heck.. maybe find a good deal here and there. 

Thus, here’s another refurb deal for you to consider. This time it’s Buy.com and they’re offering the HP Mini 1033CL netbook for a mere $279.99. The system features the Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 60GB HDD, a 10.2 inch WSVGA display, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Webcam, and Windows XP Home Edition.

If you’ve never been a fan of purchasing refurb equipment – I don’t blame you. It might very well be a hit or miss thing.. however, the one time I did purchase a refurb was from Buy.com and it was for an HP desktop PC which has worked perfectly fine over the last year+. Will you get the same experience with this product? Beats me.. but if you’re looking to save some dough, buying a refurb might just make sense.

About the only major con with this HP netbook is the stupid mouse button placement.. grrr.

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While I was at mwave.com, I also noticed a deal for a refurbished Eee PC 900A white netbook. The system features the Intel Atom N270 processor, an 8.9 inch 1024 x 600 resolution display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, 1GB RAM, 4GB SSD, audio, SD/MMC reader, 3 USB ports, and a 4 hour battery. The refurb price? $179.99.

Again – we’re not affiliated with mwave.com

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Are you looking for an external USB powered DVD drive for that new netbook of yours? I just noticed this deal over at mwave.com that you might find interesting. They’re currently offering the Samsung SE-S084B/RSBN (gotta love that model number) 8X DVD+/-RW external Slimline drive for $59.90. Yes, it’s USB powered and supports 12 and 8cm discs as well. There’s even a manual disc eject function in case the power is off to the drive. Media format support includes DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, DVD+/-R DL, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-RAM. (we’re not affiliated with mwave.com)

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MSI announces their latest netbook additions today – the MSI U123 series consisting of the U123, U123H, and U123T. Catering towards young professionals, the new U123 series eschews the rounded corners of the U100 series and offers up sharper lines and more stylish colors such as pearl white, dolphin gray, midnight blue, and silver red.

Features and specs include:

• Intel Atom processor N280 clocked at 1.66GHz
• Intel 945GSE + ICH7-M chipset
• 2.5 inch 160GB HDD (also available in 80 and 120GB capacities)
• 2GB RAM
• 4 in 1 memory card reader
• 16:10 aspect ratio 10 inch LED backlight display with 1024 x 600 resolution
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth support
• 3.5G mobile broadband support in the U123H only
• Integrated TV tuner on the U123T
• 3 cell and 6 cell battery options
• 2 speakears
• D-Sub, microphone in, headphone out, 3 USB 2.0 ports (for U123 and U123H) 2 USB 2.0 ports (for the U123T)
• Measures 26 cm (length) x 18 cm (width) x 33mm (height)
• Weighs less than 1kg with battery

And finally, let’s not forget about the keyboard. MSI improves upon the keyboard experience by expanding the space between the keys to 17.5mm making for a much more comfortable typing environment.

No word on pricing as of yet  (nor what the battery life expectancy is).

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Just a lil word of warning. If you happen to have perused through this Sunday’s Best Buy circular, you would have noticed a sale for the ASUS Eee PC 1000HEB for a low price of $349.99. Do not confuse this for the popular Eee PC 1000HE folks. This is NOT the same machine. The 1000HEB comes with an Intel Atom N270 processor (not the N280 in the 1000HE) and a regular 6 cell battery for around 6+ hours of battery life – not the gi-normous 9+ hour battery life of the 1000HE. However, at $349.99, the 1000HEB still isn’t a bad deal.. it’s just not the same as the $380+ 1000HE that you can find over at Amazon.com.

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Costco currently offers the 10.1 inch Acer Aspire One netbook at a price of $350 dollars. This is certainly not the cheapest 10.1 inch Aspire One out there but if you’re looking to get one right now – at least you can head down to your local Costco and pick one up. They’re currently stocking the red, blue, and black models – all for the same price. Specs include the Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 resolution display, Intel GMA 950 graphics, 0.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, 10/100 Ethernet, built-in stereo speakers, media card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports, microphone-in port, and a 6 cell lithium ion battery. You’ll also get a USB optical mouse and a microfiber protective sleeve.

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