Likely irked by the rapid adoption of Intel’s Atom CPU, it’s expected that AMD will announce its own netbook-specific processor this week, according to APC Magazine.
The company is claiming that battery life and video performance are the two key areas that need to be better addressed. AMD’s VP of Advanced Marketing, Pat Moorehead, says that we should expect 8 to 9 hours of battery life out of a netbook and that the “hottest” netbook he’s tested only topped out at an hour and 45 minutes.
On the other hand, I haven’t personally tested a netbook that hasn’t cleared two hours with ease but if AMD wants to promise day-long battery life as standard netbook fare, then who am I to argue? The company also takes issue with the fact that netbooks seem to be increasing in price and says that it’s working with hardware partners to achieve “smaller form factors and lower notebook price points.”
As far as graphics go, AMD has ATI to power the video stuff so it’s likely that we’ll see the CPU and video chipset intermingled together into a tiny package.
[APC Mag via Liliputing]
You must not have tested the first MSI Wind with XP and 160GB drive if you havent seen less than 2 hours. Do a google search and look for comments on the 3 cell battery. Lots of real users describing less than 2 hours. What I do see are lots of people buying extra batteries or 6 and even 9 cell batteries.
Don’t misquote AMD on this stuff. Part of Moorheads job is to provide the vision. In the link you can find his personal “plusses” and “minuses” on netbooks. Dont forget that when netbooks came out, they were 7″, 8gigs storage, Linix, and 2 hour battery life….. they sucked. The new generation Have 10″ screens, 160GB hard drive, WinXP, 7 hour battery life….. mini noteboooks better than just the ‘net.
CRN slams the Dell Mini 9. The real deal. Some good quotes:
“It won’t replace a notebook. It won’t even replace a smartphone. But for one task at a time, it’ll work — even if you have to re-learn how to use a PC.”
“The real problem with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, as is the problem with other netbooks in this class, is that it’s not a full PC even though it looks to be in the same species. It’s slower. Trying to do more than two things at once — like type a document on OpenOffice.org while listening to Internet radio — is really pushing the system’s limit. The Mini 9 has a pretty nice, built-in, 1.3-megapixel Webcam. The problem: activating that Webcam on Skype took 11 minutes. That’s not a typo: 11 minutes. ”
http://www.crn.com/hardware/212001420
Kyle Bennett, respected editor of the U.S.’s HardOCP probably said it best on netbooks.
“Don’t think for a second that a $500 netbook is going to replace a more expensive notebook if you have any kind of content creation applications or true multitasking needs. Another thing that has to be taken into consideration is living with a screen resolution of 1024×600 like we see on the MSI Wind. If you have applications that you run that you want pixels behind, a netbook is likely not for you.”
Is it better than Atom?
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