Could you not have run the comparisom tests with the Acer Timeline 4810, or even Packard Bell Butterfly? Accepted the Acer is a 14" screen, but it's at about the same price-point and is targeting the same type of user (Mobile, extended use...) so it would be really useful to see the benchmarks for all of them together...
damn! and there was me hoping for a decent battery!! My UX1 on extended battery will sometimes hit 5 hours under normal use - 80%backlight, wifi, web, MSN and outlook
and my T2300 win7 asus test laptop with a CCL 15" display is currently boasting 4:42 on the battery guage - and this machine is 3 years old!
Id have hoped that using current, state of the art low power chippery that battery claims were based somewhere in reality! especally as mentioned the Dell and the PB can manage some quite astonishing and realistically achevable times (not running freedos from ram on an external monitor type tests!!)
Ive seen a few machines now that ship 4gb RAM with 32bit windows! its not as if 64bit win is driverless or unsupportable like it used to be! I suppose in this case it works with the batterylife claims... heres something we will offer, but you cant use!! :)
I bought the x420 mainly for my wife for web browsing (firefox 3.5 on win 7). I had heard about the 9 hour battery and that was the deciding factor. In fact it gets around 5 hours from the battery with bluetooth switched off but using the wireless which is about the same as my nc10. The main difference between the x520 and x420 (other than the screen size) is the lack of an internal optical drive (external one powered by dual usb is provided) and numeric keypad on the x420. I have found the shiny screen to be a distraction. The laptop seems incredibly light. The lid is also very thin and flimsy so i wouldn't give the laptop to a child to use as i would be afraid of the screen getting damaged. Overall though I am very impressed.
...or is this just an overpriced POS? Apart from the 500 GB hard drive, what makes it any better than a "netbook"? (assuming the large size is not a requirement, of course, in which case there are plenty of better laptops around for less money)
@Stuart Halliday
Well, I suppose long life battery is an attractive to travelers/mobile folks more than anyone else. I myself don't see me in an airplane or subway carrying a monitor along. Which I would have nowhere to plug into, obviously. At home? If I have to use a power outlet and video cable for the monitor, I guess using the power cable for the laptop is much less of a hassle and much more portable...
Bought an Asus EEE 1005HA-P in the US back at the start of the summer, gives me consistent 8hr battery life and weighs just over 1Kg. It did do a couple of 9hr stints but it has now dropped a bit. Oh yeah, only cost me £240 as well
Samsung X520 notebook
simplez...
I'm surprised that the Register hasn't figured out this little dodge.
You can get nine hours by switching off the internal monitor as well as all the other power consuming features!
OK, you've got to use an external monitor but technically you can still do work and the computer is on so it counts.
I use this method to use my netbook as a mp3 player. Lasts for ages.
Nice review, but...
Could you not have run the comparisom tests with the Acer Timeline 4810, or even Packard Bell Butterfly? Accepted the Acer is a 14" screen, but it's at about the same price-point and is targeting the same type of user (Mobile, extended use...) so it would be really useful to see the benchmarks for all of them together...
almost excited!!
damn! and there was me hoping for a decent battery!! My UX1 on extended battery will sometimes hit 5 hours under normal use - 80%backlight, wifi, web, MSN and outlook
and my T2300 win7 asus test laptop with a CCL 15" display is currently boasting 4:42 on the battery guage - and this machine is 3 years old!
Id have hoped that using current, state of the art low power chippery that battery claims were based somewhere in reality! especally as mentioned the Dell and the PB can manage some quite astonishing and realistically achevable times (not running freedos from ram on an external monitor type tests!!)
Ive seen a few machines now that ship 4gb RAM with 32bit windows! its not as if 64bit win is driverless or unsupportable like it used to be! I suppose in this case it works with the batterylife claims... heres something we will offer, but you cant use!! :)
Err...
But I already have a Toshiba NB200 that easily provides 9 hours...
Mines the one without the spare batteries.
Comparison with Atom N280?
What i'm interested in is the comparison with 'the best' of the N270/N280 netbooks; quotes like 'it's no speed demon' don't mean a thing.
These machines slowly creep towards the 13 - 14 inch screen sizes, which used to be called laptops in the past....
x420
I bought the x420 mainly for my wife for web browsing (firefox 3.5 on win 7). I had heard about the 9 hour battery and that was the deciding factor. In fact it gets around 5 hours from the battery with bluetooth switched off but using the wireless which is about the same as my nc10. The main difference between the x520 and x420 (other than the screen size) is the lack of an internal optical drive (external one powered by dual usb is provided) and numeric keypad on the x420. I have found the shiny screen to be a distraction. The laptop seems incredibly light. The lid is also very thin and flimsy so i wouldn't give the laptop to a child to use as i would be afraid of the screen getting damaged. Overall though I am very impressed.
How much?
and for not much short of the price of a Dell XPS, and for not much less weight, I get what exactly ?
Is it just me...
...or is this just an overpriced POS? Apart from the 500 GB hard drive, what makes it any better than a "netbook"? (assuming the large size is not a requirement, of course, in which case there are plenty of better laptops around for less money)
@Stuart Halliday
Well, I suppose long life battery is an attractive to travelers/mobile folks more than anyone else. I myself don't see me in an airplane or subway carrying a monitor along. Which I would have nowhere to plug into, obviously. At home? If I have to use a power outlet and video cable for the monitor, I guess using the power cable for the laptop is much less of a hassle and much more portable...
"the battery will last a nine-hour road trip from Paris to Barcelona."
But apparently not a nine-hour road trip from Denver to the Buffalo Gap National Grassland...
This laptop is for the presbyopic
1366x768 on a 15.6" screen should be great!
Loud haler because otherwise they'll need a hearing aid along with their reading glasses
Nah.....
....I'll stick with my new Dell Inspiron 13z, similar spec but smaller, lighter and has a proper graphics chip in it.
Only two niggles I have it...no HDD status light (surprised how much I miss it) and (sigh) glossy black lid.
Only 9 hours?
I just got a 12-cell batt for my acer aspire one which I've modified by adding bluetooth, touchscreen, internal usb hub, 1.5GB RAM.
The battery life? 10.5 hours.
Asus 1005HA-P
Bought an Asus EEE 1005HA-P in the US back at the start of the summer, gives me consistent 8hr battery life and weighs just over 1Kg. It did do a couple of 9hr stints but it has now dropped a bit. Oh yeah, only cost me £240 as well