Macopinion

Lenovo S10 Beats Out Used PowerBook G4 For Value And HP Launches Stylish Designer “Clutch” Netbook

Lenovo S10 beats out used Powerbook G4 12. We bought two!

Longtime The Road Warrior reader James Pearson, referencing my column: "Why Can't Apple Build A Laptop Like This?" says:

A good friend and I were comparing netbooks and used PowerBooks for one of my daughters this Christmas. She's 14 and interested in photography, music and video editing. She's also a real Machead so our first option was a used Powerbook. In the end, we couldn't deny the value and style of the Lenovo S10. We opted for the higher end model: 1.6 Intel Atom, black with 1 GB of RAM, 160 GB HD and built in Bluetooth on sale for 359.00. The price was so good we bought two - one each for my girls in middle school.

I was really worried about my older daughter accepting the Lenovo based on her distaste for all things Windows. The plan was to wipe the drives and install Ubuntu. My friend, Chris, works for a network solutions company and I worked in broadcast engineering and IT so we've seen just about everything over the years - DOS, Sun, Red Hat and every flavor of Windows and Mac OS. It was the easiest OS installation either of us had ever done - start to finish in less than 30 minutes from a thumbdrive!

Ironically, another friend facing the same decision for his daughter went the other direction. He purchased a used PowerBook 1 GZ with 1 GB RAM and a 100 GB HD off Craigslist for 600. He brought the machine to me to set up so I literally had the Lenovo S10 and Powerbook G4 12 side by side for a couple of days. The Lenovo easily beat the Powerbook in every sense - faster, smaller, larger storage, brighter screen, sharper image, more expandable, better value... it's painful to admit but then again we're comparing apples and penguins.

The only concerns have been that some programs don't display properly on a 600 pixel high display, syncing video to iPods isn't supported yet in most Linux audio apps and the built-in mic isn't working with the default drivers. The built-in wireless didn't work with the initial install but Ubuntu immediately recognized this and, after connecting with Ethernet, downloaded and installed the correct driver automatically. That's how far Linux has come with Ubuntu.

Several weeks later and no regrets. Both daughters use their S10s every day for homework, surfing, social networking and light gaming. Ubuntu is slowly winning us over. It's user friendly, attractive and easily customizable. We upgraded the standard installation with all the Ubuntu Studio packages so there's a broad assortment of media apps configured to work out of the box. (The S10 as configured handles all these better than any PowerBook or iBook G4 I've used.) There's also good community support online for comparable Linux alternatives to Apple applications but we've been using open source apps on our Macs for years. Besides the obvious Firefox and Open Office, I recommend Amarock for iTunes (although Songbird is coming along) and Pitivi for video editing. All come in the Ubuntu Studio installation by default.

So, for $100 more, we have TWO netbooks that easily outperform a used Powerbook at $600. I'm bowled over!

I know....hard to believe but our experience with this combination has been that good. Apple better get in this market if they want to compete in the new economy.

James Pearson

Thanks to Jim for sharing this report, and his compelling argument corroborates what has been my own deduction for some time - that the so-called PC "netbooks" do offer incredible value for the money, and that the more recent desktop Linux distros, particularly Ubuntu, are hitting their stride as a credible alternative to both Windows and the Mac OS for non-geeks and well as the geekily inclined.

You just can't argue with the price, and as for Steve Jobs' supercilious categorical dismissal of sub-$500 computers as "junk," if they do the job you need them to do, then they're providing fair value for the money. Personally I would much rather have a small laptop with a real keyboard and 10" display than an iPhone for roughly the same money.

So where does this leave Apple, which evidently is still resisting the netbook tsunami (although we of course don't know what they may be working on behind the scenes)? While traditional Mac laptop sales held up remarkably well through the last quarter of 2008 as the world economy melted down, thanks mainly to enthusiastic reception of the new unibody MacBooks, reportedly while foot traffic in the brick and mortar Apple Stores is still reasonably brisk, sales are flagging. Last week Silicon Valley Insider's Henry Blodget observed, "Apple Stores are now just cheap entertainment for broke shoppers," citing Mark Veverka at Barron's: "the registers aren't ringing the way they used to....."

Consequently, rumors that persist about a forthcoming MacBook nano shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. HTLounge thinks an Apple-branded netbook or UMPC would sell very well in this market, which is almost certainly true, but the conundrum is would it make any money, or just serve as a placeholder to prop up (or expand) Apple's market share until a "normal" economy returns? As Henry Blodget's Silicon Valley Insider colleague Dan Frommer notes, netbooks are both a blessing and a curse for PC makers, being an engine to support rapid growth market for some companies, like Acer and Asus, but relatively low-revenue and low-margin.

Another potential avenue for Apple to pursue is joint ventures with service providers for 3G enabled MacBooks. Appleinsider's Aidan Malley reports that Apple's iPhone partner AT&T is hoping to make 3G-enabled notebooks a staple of its cellular business, noting that in a Fortune interview AT&T's Emerging Devices group president Glenn Lurie said he would like his company's deals with Apple to extend beyond the iPhone, hinting that it may be chatting with Apple to extend its reach into MacBooks or other non-iPhone devices.

However, based on recent developments in the netbook world, I agree with HTLounge that an Apple MacBook nano is perhaps a more likely bet. While I would be very surprised to see Apple wade into the sub-$500 laptop pool with an OS X machine, the release of premium netbooks like Asus's very enticing Eee PC S101 and the HP (see below) as well as Sony's VAIO P (which is not being pitched or priced as a netbook) have created a category in which Apple should be able to compete strongly without compromising its engineering principles.

The Sony VAIO P starts at about $900, which is of course just $99 less than what Apple will sell you the recently enhanced and newly very desirable base white MacBook for.....

And speaking of premium netbooks and small notebooks, how about a "ClutchBook?

HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Special Edition Mini Laptop A "Netbook" With Designer Flair

Particularly if you're female, or for that matter a male looking for a cool Valentine's Day gift for your significant other, and think netbooks can't cut it as seriously useful work tools and look good while doing it, check out the HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Special Edition, which HP pitches as "the world's first purse-size digital clutch designed inside and out for the fashion-forward women on the go"

Featuring Tam's peony-inspired design (peony blooms symbolize good fortune and prosperity in Far Eastern philosophy) in vivid shades of violet and red from her Spring 2009 collection, this mini laptop coordinates perfectly with Vivienne Tam fashions if one is so inclined. The slightly undersized keyboard (92% of full size) key labels are in gold, and the Enter key includes the Chinese symbol for “double happiness.”

Weighing in at 2.45 lb. and less than 1" thick, the Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Special Edition is more than half a pound lighter than a MacBook Air and nearly as thin.

The not-so-good part, at least for Mac fans, is that the Mini 1000 is powered by a relatively anaemic Intel Atom N270 1.6Hz processor and supports only Windows XP Home or Linux operating systems instead of the Air's full-powered Intel Penryn Core 2 Duo CPUs and OS X, but then at $699.99 (or even much less than that if you eschew the designer livery - see below) it also sells for less than half the price of the cheapest MacBook Air and $300 less than the cheapest MacBook Pro.

However, the HP Mini 1000 isn't exactly austere in terms of equipment and features. It has no internal optical drive, but neither does the MacBook Air — in either case the drive will set you back another $99.99. It does have internal speakers, microphone, a headphone/microphone jack, and a built-in Webcam, and trounces the Air in connectivity with a 10/100 Ethernet port as well as 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth v2.1, two USB ports, an SD card reader, an expansion port and a VGA port. Display choices are an 8.9" or frameless 10.1" diagonal BrightView Infinity display as opposed to the MacBook Air's expansive by comparison 13.3" screen. It comes standard with less RAM at 1 GB, but can be upgraded to 2 GB.

The hard drive is a not really adequate these days 60 GB, and the optional HP Mini Mobile Drive is available for additional storage with SSD (an even smaller 8 GB or 16 GB) configuration only.

Personally, I would try to scratch together the extra $300 and get a white MacBook, which gives you full power, OS X, and a full range of notebook features, but of course weighs twice as much as the Mini 1000 and has a much larger footprint.

Also, if you can live without the designer livery, the price of entry for a MIni can considerably less. The HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition (Linux version ships with “HP MIE” OS)
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mini1000/hpmini1000_mie.html
sells for $379.99, and the HP Mini 1000 XP Edition (Windows XP Home)
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mini1000/hpmini1000.html
starts at $399.99

For more information, about the HP Mini 1000 XP Edition & Vivienne Tam Edition visit:
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mini1000/hpmini1000_vivienne.html