Netbooks were made possible because of advances in processor technology. The first netbooks – those tiny, seemingly ancient seven and eight inch netbooks – were powered by outdated Celeron processors which were hot, slow and had limited battery life. If netbooks had been limited to those Celerons, they probably would never have become popular. They would have simply been a novelty, tiny and cute but not useful.
There has been a revolution in computer processors which has allowed for netbooks to become what we see today. Intel, VIA and AMD have all introduced compelling processors which focus on battery life and cost rather than maximum performance. But while the new processors have a similar purpose, they are very different in the ways they perform. Buying a netbook with an Intel Atom processors will give you a different machine than if you buy it with an AMD Neo.
Intel Atom
The Atom will go down in computer history as the processor which made netbooks relevant. Before the Atom netbooks were small, but their battery life wasn’t better than normal laptops. Atom gave netbooks a low power processor with adequate performance, allowing them to achieve up to eight hours of battery life. Since the Atom’s initial release it has been updated with the Pinetrail platform, further improving battery life. There are now some Atom based netbooks which are capable of fourteen hours of battery life.
While the performance of the Atom has always been adequate, it has never been outstanding. The Atom is not designed for speed. As a result, the Atom performs substantially worse than a 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo. In fact, the Atom’s performance is more in line with a 1Ghz processor from ten years ago, such as a Pentium III. The lack of performance isn’t an issue in most situations, but it causes problems when watching HD video, playing games, or unzipping large files.
The Atom redeems its performance issues with price. Atom based netbooks are the least expensive which can be found today. Some, such as the ASUS Eee PC 1001P, can be found under the $300 mark. If your budget is that low, you don’t have much of a choice. Atom netbooks are all you’ll be able to find.
VIA Nano
The Nano is a David and Goliath story on a chip. Created by VIA Technologies, whose revenue is over one hundred times smaller than Intel’s, the Nano was aimed to be a competitor with the Atom from the start. Predictably, the Nano hasn’t caught on like the Atom, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthwhile processor. In fact, its performance is unquestionably better than the Atom’s, and sometimes by a large margin. The performance difference isn’t apparent when surfing the web, but it becomes evident in more demanding tasks. The Nano is between 20 and 50% faster when encoding or decoding video and audio files, for example. If you intend to buy a netbook as your only system the Nano is a better choice than the Atom.
The downside is that the performance also results in lower battery life. Many Nano based systems can achieve six hours of battery life, which is respectable. However, since the release of the new Pinetrail platform Atom clearly leaves the Nano in the dust. Except for the use of a 9-cell battery there is no way that a Nano netbook could achieve the ten to fourteen hours of battery life the latest Atom netbooks boast.
Price is a bit tricky. The Nano isn’t found in many inexpensive netbooks, but those netbooks it can be found in tend to sell for less than similar Atom systems. For example, the Lenovo S12 with the Nano is $40 less than the S12 with Atom.
AMD Neo
Initially created as an exclusive processor from HP, the Neo can now be found in netbooks from Toshiba, Lenovo, ASUS and others. The Neo, unlike both the Atom and the Nano, is not a processor which was created from scratch for low-power computers. The Neo is in fact a modified Athlon 64 running at a low clock speed (typically 1.6Ghz). This is good news and bad news.
The good news is that performance is excellent. Compared to both the Atom and the Nano the Neo is in a class of its own. The fact that it is supported by AMD’s very competent Radeon HD3200 graphics is simply icing on the cake. The Neo is better than both the Atom and the Nano in every performance benchmark, and victory is often massive. Using a netbook with a Neo processor doesn’t feel much different from using a modern desktop PC.
The bad news is that battery life is poor, with most Neo based netbooks managing only five hours. That isn’t unusable by any stretch of the imagination, but when compared to Nano and Atom system is considerably shorter. It also isn’t much more than what you’d receive from a normal mainstream notebook. The Neo also tends to be in more expensive systems, with prices beginning around the $400 mark.
Which to Choose?
Okay, it’s decision time.
The Atom is clearly the way to go if maximum mobility is your goal. However, anyone who is thinking about a Atom based netbook should check to see if similar netbooks are available with the Nano. The question is just how much battery life you need. The typical six hours for a Nano based system is more than most people will need in one setting, but it also isn’t enough for those who plan to use a netbook for an entire working day. For that only an Atom will do. As mentioned, the Atom might be your only choice if you’re on a tight budget.
Then we have the Neo. With its poor battery life the Neo can be excluded from your consideration if mobility is important – and for many netbook buyers, it is. However, the Neo’s performance makes it compelling. For example, the Neo is clearly superior to a netbook which is using an Intel Atom processor on the Nvidia Ion platform, and Neo netbooks cost about the same. If you’re more interested in netbooks for their small size and low price than their mobility the Neo is perfect for you.
M.S. Smith is a freelance writer and blogger in Portland, Oregon. He runs SmidgenPC, a blog covering netbooks, nettops, HTPCs, laptops and other small computers.
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Sources: HardOCP, CNET, The Tech Report
