The netbook market may be slowing down, but Intel’s absolutely not giving up on the netbooks. The company recently announced the new Cedar Trail platform, which is the next generation Atom processor that’s clearly targeting the netbook and the low cost mini laptop segment.

So what can we expect from Cedar Trail? First, performance will improve slightly, like every other Atom launch before it. Power consumption will be a key factor here. With the new Cedar Trail platform, netbook’s battery life is expected to further improved compared to the current generation netbook. Intel is promising battery life in the 10 hours plus bracket and “weeks” of standby time.

Another improvement of Cedar Trail netbook is that it will run cooler with a “50 percent lower thermal design point”, according to Intel. This enable manufacturers to design a fanless netbook that’s thinner, lighter, and run quieter.

Also, Intel says that the Cedar Trail platform is capable of triple booting, which means it can run Windows, MeeGo, and Chrome OS on the same system; and let you pick the OS that you want to run when the system is booting up.

Intel’s Smart Connect technology is another special feature that can be found on the Cedar Trail platform. With this technology, any running application will be able to update itself, even when the netbook is asleep. For example, if you have a Cedar Trail netbook that’s put into standby mode with Twitter and Facebook running in the background, Smart Connect technology will wake your system up periodically to check for Facebook and Twitter updates before putting it back to sleep again. The benefit for this is that the resume time will be much faster when you wake your netbook up since everything have already been updated.

Graphical performance has been a major limitation for Intel Atom platform. That’s why the AMD Fusion platform is getting a lot of attention recently for being much more capable than Intel in this area. In the new Cedar Trail platform, Intel promised smooth 1080p HD video playback and HDMI support, which isn’t possible currently on the Pine Trail platform without the help of third party GPU.

And finally, there’s the Wireless Display (or WiDi) technology that mirrors whatever is on the netbook to an HDTV, wirelessly. The beauty of WiDi is that the technology is built into the Wi-Fi chip, so there’s no dongle hanging off the USB port. A separate Netgear receiver is required in order to take advantage of WiDi, though.

What about price? The recently announced ASUS Eee PC 1025C and 1025CE suggest that a Cedar Trail netbook will cost no more than $279. With all the attention that the tablet PC is getting recently, such low price will definitely help to draw some attention back to the netbook.

What Is A Chromebook?

Google introduced a new category of cloud computing device called the Chromebook on the I/O 2011 event. What exactly is a Chromebook? The quick answer is a laptop-like device running Google Chrome OS. But there are several differences between a Chromebook and a traditional laptop/netbook.

Software

Chrome OS while being called an OS is actually an Internet browser with minimal system setting to play with. Unlike the Microsoft Windows or Apple MacOS, the Chrome OS depends on cloud application to perform almost all of the tasks that you would normally do on your local PC program. For example, you will be using Google Doc to manage your documents instead of Microsoft Office, and all of your documents will be stored in the cloud instead of to your local hard drive. There are pros and cons for that which we will discuss later. Of course the Google Doc replacing Microsoft Office is just an example. You will be checking email, playing games, browsing photos, etc.. pretty everything on the web using a Chromebook. That’s why there’s a need for a Chrome Webstore — a place where you can find all the games and apps for your Chromebook. If you have used any Android devices before, the Chrome Webstore is something just like the Android market.

Hardware

In terms of hardware, the Chromebook is pretty similar to a netbook. Taking the Samsung Series 5 (one of the first Chromebook to hit the market) as an example, it has a 12.1-inch display, a dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor, 16GB SSD for storage, 8.5 hours of battery life, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 4-in-1 memory card slot, Mini-VGA port, and a full-size Chrome keyboard. The major differences we see here between a Chromebook and a typical netbook are the storage and keyboard layout. Typical netbooks comes with larger but slower 250GB hard drive. You won’t need this for a Chromebook since most of your stuff will be stored on the Cloud. And for keyboard, you will find quite a number of standard keyboard keys such as ‘Delete’, ‘Caps lock’ , and ‘Print Screen’ to be missing on the Chromebook’s keyboard, and some extra keys not found on the typical keyboard to be there.

Pros and Cons

What’s Good about Chromebook

Secure Data – The Chromebook is truly a cloud computing device. You can access your data from anywhere at anytime. You won’t loose any data even if you throw your Chomebook into the sea. Get a new Chromebook, login, and tada.. all your stuff are still there.. that’s because everything is stored on the cloud.

Security – Since the Chrome OS is basically just a web browser, there’s less security loopholes to be exploited by hackers. You don’t even need an antivirus.

Instant Bootup – The Chrome OS is a very lightweight OS and it boots up in 8 seconds or less.

What’s The Downside

Internet connection is a must – Since everything is done on the web, you can do almost nothing when you don’t have access to the web. Luckily there’s the 3G version Chromebook that ensures you always get Internet access.

Limitation of web application – Not everything can be done on the web yet. For example, graphic or video editing still requires professional software like Adobe Photoshop.

Price – It isn’t cheap. The Samsung Series 5 is currently selling at $429 for the Wifi version, and $499 for the 3G version. You can get a netbook with similar hardware specs for less than $300.

The top 10 best selling netbooks for April 2011 are dominated mostly by budget netbooks that cost under $300, with the Toshiba NB505 being on top of the ranking. Listed below are the top-10 best selling netbook of April 2011.

	Netbook Models	Price	Rating (out of 5)
1	Toshiba NB505-N508BL	$278.00	4.3 >> Read reviews
2	Acer Aspire One 255E-13639	$251.98	3.7 >> Read reviews
3	Dell Inspiron Mini 1018	$284.99	4.2 >> Read reviews
4	Toshiba NB505-N508OR	$278.00	4.3 >> Read reviews
5	Toshiba NB505-N508BN	$280.43	4.3 >> Read reviews
6	Toshiba NB505-N508GN	$280.07	4.3 >> Read reviews
7	Samsung NF310-A01	$359.99	4.5 >> Read reviews
8	ASUS Eee PC 1215B-PU17-BK	$436.99	3.7 >> Read reviews
9	Acer Aspire One 255E-1802	$287.99	4.8 >> Read reviews
10	ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-EU17-WT	$249.99	3.9 >> Read reviews

1. Amazon.com

Everyone knows Amazon. It’s one of the best places to purchase stuff online from due to their excellent service and the extremely competitive price they offer. You will find some pretty good discount for netbooks from the links below:

• Netbooks with 5% off or more
• Netbooks with 10% off or more
• Netbooks with 20% off or more
• Netbooks with 30% off or more

The older a netbook model is, the higher discount rate it gets. So don’t look at only the 30% off netbook as you will mostly find older or less popular model there. Try to look also at the 5% and 10% section which you will find lots of great netbook models there, including those that we recommend.

2. Buy.com

The reason we recommend Buy.com is because of their Best Price Guarantee. According to this policy, if you find any netbook you purchased from them to be more expensive than one of the Internet retailers they specified (including Walmart, BestBuy, and Amazon), you can request a credit that will beat their competitor’s price by one cent. Request can be made within 3 days you purchase from them. Check out their other terms and condition here. Now with this policy, you can always trust that they are one of the online retailers that offer the best netbook price. Here are the most popular netbook deals offered by Buy.com.

3. NewEgg.com

NewEgg is another great Internet retailers that we can find some great bargain from them quite often. To find the best deal from them, start from their best selling discount netbook section.

And there you have it.. the top 3 online retailers that we recommend for netbook deals hunting. The best time to get a good netbook deals is when when a newer netbook model is released. For example, the price of the Acer Aspire One 532h may drop due to the release of the newer Aspire One 533, but there’s actually not much difference in terms of performance between those 2 models. If you can wait, the holiday season such as Labor Day, National Day, and Black Friday; or special event like back to school promotion, is in fact the best time to hunt for cheap netbook deals online.

If you are planning to buy a netbook online, it’s always a good idea to look around the web before deciding where to purchase from. It may take you some time to do this, but the amount of money that you will be able to save is well worth it — a good netbook deals can save you up to $100!

Netbook vs Mini Laptop

There’s no industry standard that differentiate netbook with mini laptop, but generally we refer to netbook as a lightweight portable PC that has limited power and is capable only for general computing tasks such as web browsing, checking emails, creating and editing office documents, or pretty much anything else you could do with a 2-3 year old computer; while mini laptop is a more powerful device that’s not only capable for general computing, but also for running more demanding tasks like full HD video playback, and some moderate gaming that netbook couldn’t handle well.

Important Features For Netbooks And Mini Laptops

There are both advantages and disadvantages for netbooks and mini laptops. Both have lighter weight and lower price but less processing power than a full-featured laptop. Netbooks and mini laptops may not be for everyone, but if you use your current laptop mostly for Internet surfing and word processing, then you could benefit from these smaller, and more portable device. Below are some of the features that you should look for when buying a netbook or mini laptop.

Weight
Portability is one of the major benefits for netbook or mini laptop. Therefore, always look for a model that’s light enough to carry conveniently. Most minis weigh about three pounds, but if you are able to find one with less weight, go for it — the lighter a netbook or mini laptop is, the better.

Screen And Keyboard Size
One of the drawbacks to a smaller, more compact computer can be a reduction in screen size. If you want a bigger screen, there are quite a number of mini laptops that have 12-inch displays, but keep in mind that you shouldn’t get mini laptops with screens larger than that, because at that point you should probably just buy a full-featured laptop.

Similar to the screen size, keyboard size is shrunk down a bit on most netbooks and mini laptops. Try to find one as close to a normal laptop’s size as possible if you have problems working with smaller keys.

Battery Life
What good is buying an uber-portable mini if you’re tethered to an outlet all the time? Luciky, most netbooks and mini laptops nowadays are available with 6-cell battery that provide users with more than 6 hours of battery life. There are some models that comes with 3-cell battery that delivers 4 hours or less of battery life. So pay attention to the battery that comes with a netbook or mini laptop. Most of the time, manufacturers will state the estimated battery life in product description. Read carefully and choose according to your need.

Matte Display
If you are getting a netbook or a mini laptop, chances are you plan to take it outside often with you. If that’s the case, a matte display, as opposed to a glossy display, is a better choice because it stands up to glare and bright sunlight. You will find that majority of the netbooks and mini laptops comes with glossy screen, but it’s worth spending some time to locate a model with a matte display if you plan to use it outdoor frequently.

Performance And Price
Another advantage of mini laptops and netbooks are the price. You get less power and thus you pay less. However, it’s still important to think about what kind of activities you will be doing on your computer so that you will to be able to choose between price and performance wisely:

If you only need to surf the web, checking emails, editing documents, or other lightweight computing tasks, a netbook with single-core Atom processor will be sufficient. A few models in this category that we recommend includes: Toshiba NB505, ASUS Eee PC 1001PX, and Acer Aspire One 255E. You can get one of these models for below $300.

If you have the habit of running lots of program simultaneously, a netbook with dual-core Atom processor, which cost between $300 to $399, will provide you smoother multitasking experience. Some netbooks in this category that we recommend includes: ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM, Toshiba NB305, and Samsung NF310

If you are to run some demanding tasks such as video editing, playing 1080p videos, or playing first person shooter games, then you need a mini laptop with either a dual core Atom processor with discrete GPU, or one with the new AMD Fusion APU which combines CPU and GPU into one. Some netbooks in this category that we recommend includes:ASUS Eee PC 1215B, ASUS Eee PC 1215N, and HP Pavilion dm1z

And finally if you are in the market for a netbook or mini laptop, be sure to check out our list top 10 netbooks and mini laptops!

The AMD Fusion powered Eee PC 1215B mini laptop is now available for pre-order at Amazon for $449.99.

Specification:

• AMD E350 APU
• 2GB DDR3 RAM (1x2GB), 2 Slots, 4GB Max
• 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM); No Optical Drive
• 12.1″ WXGA (1366×768) LED screen
• ATI HD 6310 graphics; HDMI VGA out
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; 10/100 LAN
• Bluetooth 3.0
• 0.3MP Webcam
• 2-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC); 3 x USB 2.0 Ports
• Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (32 Bit)
• Up To 8.5 Hours Battery Life

For those who are looking for a low-cost, multimedia-capable netbook/mini laptop, the 1215B is a great choice since it’s powered by the AMD Zacate platform which has proven to be much better than the Intel Core i5 CPU in terms of graphic performance (demonstrated in video below).

The Eee PC 1215B in action:

1. Price: Below $300
2. Performance: Not necessarily the best performing model, but is at least capable of running general computing tasks smoothly.
3. Battery life: 5 hours and above
4. Usability: Keyboard and touchpad are not too small, screen not too glossy, etc.

Below are our pick of top five budget netbooks right now.

1. Toshiba NB505

Price: $298 (Price fluctuates from time to time. Check live price)

Basic Specs: 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N455 CPU, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB hard drive storage (full specs)

Besides decent performance and battery life (8.5 hours), the Toshiba NB505 is ergonomically designed, providing comfortable typing experience and easy to use touchpad.

2. ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD

Price: $288 (Price fluctuates from time to time. Check live price)

Basic Specs: 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N455 CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB hard drive storage (full specs)

The ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD offers great performance and battery life (8.5 hours) as the Toshiba N505. Its matte display makes it less reflective and more usable outdoor.

3. Dell Inspiron Mini 1018

Price: $284.54 (Price fluctuates from time to time. Check live price)

Basic Specs: 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N455 CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB hard drive storage (full specs)

The Dell Inspiron Mini 1018 offers decent performance and long battery life (6 hours) for a good price.

4. HP Mini 1103

Price: $299.99 (Price fluctuates from time to time. Check live price)

Basic Specs: 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N455 CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB hard drive storage (full specs)

The HP Mini 1103 designed for students provides excellent battery life (8.75 hours) and decent performance at a low price.

5. Acer Aspire One AOD255E

Price: $279.99 (Price fluctuates from time to time. Check live price)

Basic Specs: 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N455 CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB hard drive storage (full specs)

At $279.99, the Acer Aspire One AOD255E offers great value for the money.

Here’s the netbook deals highlight for the week of January 31, 2011.

1. Dell Inspiron iM1018-2628OBK ($288.88)

Quick specs: Intel N455 Atom Processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 10.1-inch display, up to 6 hours battery life, Windows 7 Starter (full specs)

Rating: 3.6 out of 5 >> Read customer reviews

2. ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-MU17-BK ($289.99)

Quick specs: Intel N455 Atom Processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB HDD, 10.1-inch display, up to 8.5 hours battery life, Windows 7 Starter (full specs)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 >> Read customer reviews

3. ASUS Eee PC 1015PN-PU17-BK ($398.00)

Quick specs: Intel Atom N550 Dual Core Processor, Nvidia Ion2 Dedicated Graphics, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB HDD + 500GB Free Web Storage, 10.1-inch display, up to 9.5 hours battery life, Windows 7 Starter (full specs)

Rating: 3.8 out of 5 >> Read customer reviews

Other cheap netbooks that are worth considering:

– Toshiba NB505-N508BL ($299.99)

– ASUS Eee PC 1001PX-EU27-WT ($259.99)

– Acer Aspire One AOD255E-13639 ($269.99)

APU or Accelerated Processing Unit is a new term introduced by AMD together with their latest technology called AMD Fusion. Wikipedia has a great explanation of what an APU is:

An APU integrates a CPU and a GPU on the same die thus improving data transfer rates between these components while reducing power consumption. APUs can also include video processing and other application-specific accelerators.

If that isn’t clear enough for you, watch AMD’s video below that explains how an APU works and what’s its difference compared to a CPU and GPU.

Brazos, Zacate, And Ontario

On CES 2011, we have seen quite a number of newly announced netbooks and mini laptops that run on AMD Fusion technology — not all of them are the same. You will notice different name like Brazos, Zacate, Ontario, and even Bobcate being used to describe different models of AMD Fusion mini laptop, and it can be confusing if you do not understand these terms.

AMD Fusion is the general marketing name that refers to the company’s brand new technology that integrates CPU and a GPU on the same die called APU.

Under the AMD Fusion technology, there are several different platform where each targets a different market segment. “Brazos” is one of the platform targeting the netbook/ultraportable and notebook markets. Other platform include “Lynx” and “Sabine” which target the desktop and mainstream laptop market respectively.

Zacate and Ontario are 2 of the APUs that fall under the Brazos platform. Both APUs are built from the same die. Zacate and Ontario are physically identical, they just run at different clock speeds. Both are available in single and dual core versions, and the CPU cores are based on AMD’s first truly low power client architecture, codenamed Bobcat (equivalent to Intel’s Atom).

Performance

Now that we have a basic understanding for AMD Fusion technology and its platform, let’s take a look at their performance.

Dutch site Hardware.info compared the C-50 (Ontario) to Intel’s Atom N550 netbook processor, the primary competition to one of AMD’s low-power entries. The results are as below:

In two of the four benchmarks the testers used, the Fusion chip smoked the Atom: It nearly doubled the N550’s PCMark Vantage – Gaming score (1,380 to 697) and destroyed it by more than tenfold in 3DMark06 (1,769 to 153). The site didn’t (or couldn’t) run the PCMark Vantage – TV and Movies test for the dual-core Atom, whereas the dual-core Fusion processor scored 1,046. The only test that the Intel chip won was Cinebench 10 (1,466 to 1,271).

How about battery life? There’s no battery life comparison in Hardware.info’s test, but technology sites like Engadget and LaptopMag has tested the HP Pavilion dm1z which run on Zacate E-350, and the results indicate that it gets more than 6 hours of battery life under regular usage. AMD claims that the Ontario will give 10 hours plus of battery life. This is about the same as most Intel Atom powered netbooks!

AMD Fusion Powered Netbook / Mini Laptop

Besides performance and battery life, another advantage of the AMD Fusion powered laptops is its low price. For example, the upcoming Acer Aspire One D522 which runs on Ontario APU will cost $329.99 which is the same price as the D255 when it launched late last year, but the 522 is superior in performance and also packs in a higher resolution display.

To find out more AMD Fusion netbooks / mini laptops that are currently available on the market, Amazon has a special section that features them all — check them out here.

Tablet

Tablet PC is all about content consumption. if all you want is a device which allows you to watch movies, check email, read ebooks, surf the internet, share photos with friends, social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and playing some simple games on the go, then a tablet PC will work very well for you. But if you are going to process documents, writing long email / blog post, creating presentation slides, taking notes in classes, editing photos / videos, or any other content creation tasks, netbook or laptop is more suitable for you. After all, you can’t type a long article on a virtual keyboard with any level of extended comfort; or install any real desktop app such as Photoshop or Powerpoint onto a tablet PC.

Having said that, if you aren’t looking for a new mobile machine to get work done on the go, tablets like iPad and Galaxy Tab are really fun devices to play with.. they are easy to grab, have long battery life, gorgeous display, and lots of useful and fun apps from Apple/Android stores.

Which tablet to get for this holiday season?
Not much choice here.. it’s either the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab. No other worthy competitor on the market currently, although there will be lots of them soon next year.

Netbook

Netbook is a great choice for those who want a durable mini laptop and who need a keyboard for doing most of the work. Compared to a tablet PC, a netbook boot up slower, and it lacks certain features like capacitive multi-touch screen, camera, and lots of fun Android/iOs apps that’s designed specially for the tablet form factor. On the other hand, a netbook can do almost all the tasks that a tablet pc can do, plus content creation tasks which are hard to be accomplished on a tablet. It’s also cheaper than a tablet pc.

Netbook has its limitation though — most of them are running on the under-powered Atom processor with no dedicated GPU to offload the CPU burden. So don’t expect it to be able to run some CPU-heavy tasks such as video editing, running Photoshop to edit high resolution images, or playing high-end games like Call of Duty 4. For those tasks, you need a mainstream laptop.

Which netbook to get for this holiday season?
Check out our top 10 list.

Laptop

Laptop nowadays is more or less a desktop replacement. Depending on the specs of the laptop, you will be able to do most of the tasks you generally do on a desktop, including all of those that you couldn’t accomplish on a netbook. The downside of mainstream laptops is that they are more expensive, and generally have shorter battery life.

Which laptop to get for this holiday season?
We recommend the Apple MacBook Pro, Toshiba Portégé R705, and ASUS U43JC Bamboo.

To summarize
If you are looking for a portable device to handle fun and games, go for an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab; if you are looking for a small machine to handle real work tasks, netbook is a safer bet; and if you are looking for a portable computer that can replace your desktop, go for a full-size laptop.