There, I said it. I mean, OK, I’ve said it before. A number of times. But now I’m not the only one saying it. Engadget’s Joanna Stern just published a roundup of 4 laptops with NVIDIA ION graphics and Intel Atom processors. And while they blow away your typical netbook with integrated graphics when it comes to HD video playback and 3D gaming graphics, here’s the dirty little secret: When you’re performing tasks that don’t feature GPU acceleration, most of these computers actually feel slower than your average netbook.

My best guess as to what’s going on here is that there are 70% more pixels in a 1366 x 768 pixel display than a 1024 x 600 pixel screen. And that means that when you’re loading web pages or performing other tasks, the CPU has to work a lot harder to pump out 2D graphics.

That’s why I noticed laggy performance when I reviewed the HP Mini 311 laptop, the Gigabyte TouchNote T1028X tablet, and the Asus Eee Top ET1602 all-in-one desktop. All of these computers have single core Atom processors and 1366 x 768 pixel displays.

Now, the difference isn’t huge. That’s especially true now that Flash Player 10.1 beta supports GPU acceleration for computers NVIDIA ION chips or Broadcom Crystal HD video decoder cards. Because to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have noticed this problem early on if it weren’t for the fact earlier machines I tested struggled to play Flash video in full screen mode. The HP Mini 311 had no such problem with standard or high definition Flash video thanks to the ION chipset.

But some apps do take a bit longer to load, and your computer might feel a bit less responsive if you have a higher resolution display.

Now for the big caveat: This is true for every machine I’ve tested with an Intel Atom n270 or N280 chip and GMA 950 graphics. I have not yet tested a computer with an Atom N450 chip, GMA 3150 graphics and a 1366 x 768 pixel display. I’ll be curious to see if there’s any improvement with the new chips.

It’s also worth noting that Joanna found that the Asus 1201N performed about as well as a typical netbook on non-GPU accelerated tasks thanks to its dual core Atom 330 processor. Unfortunately, that CPU takes its toll on battery life. You’ll be lucky to get two and a half hours of run time while watching video.

Of course, Atom ain’t the only game in town anymore. While the chipset works well enough for 10 inch netbooks with 1024 x 600 pixel screens, Intel has a higher priced and more powerful CULV chipset that plays nicely with higher resolution displays. AMD and VIA also have their own solutions.

I’ve been testing out a number of netbooks over the last few days, including the Samsung Go (pictured above, left), and Gigabyte TouchNote T1028X (pictured, right). Like most 10 inch netbooks on the market today, the Samsung Go has a 1024 x 600 pixel display. The TouchNote T1028X, on the other hand, has a 1366 x 768 pixel touchscreen display. The picture above gives you a rough idea of how much more text you can fit on that higher resolution screen. But just an idea. Because I’m starting to think that no 10 inch netbook should really have a display this sharp.

The T1028X isn’t the only 10 inch netbook with a 1366 x 768 pixel display.  That resolution is sort of a magical number for many people, because it corresponds to 720p, which means HD video. The Sony Vaio Mini W comes with a similarly sharp screen, and the HP Mini 5101, Mini 1101, and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 are available with 720p display options.

On the one hand, there’s no doubt that you can fit a whole lot more on the screens. But there are a few problems. The first and foremost is that the text is so sharp that it’s hard for me to read from the  netbook for more than 20 or 30 minutes without getting a headache. I’ve tried adjusting the dpi from 96 to 125 and that helps a bit, as does using large fonts and adjusting the zoom level in Firefox and other web browsers. But these changes are often inconsistent throughout the user interface and just result in making the experience of using the T1028X even more disorienting.

There’s another problem too, and it’s one that I’ve also noticed with Intel Atom powered machines like the Asus Eee Top ET1602 with a 15.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel screen. The 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 and 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processors have to work a lot harder to pump out graphics to higher resolution displays. So while Flash video from web sites like Hulu looks great in full screen on a netbook with a 1024 x 600 pixel display, it’s choppy on a 1366 x 768 pixel screen. This is a problem that could eventually be resolved by offloading some of the responsibility for processing Flash video to the graphics processor, but right now the integrated GMA 950 graphics in most netbooks isn’t optimized to work with Flash, and neither is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M processor used in the NVIDIA ION platform.

I know some folks will feel differently about this, and never met an extra pixel they didn’t like. But I’m starting to think that 1366 x 768 pixel displays should only be used on laptops with 12 inch or larger screens. Even on those machines, that resolution is pretty darn sharp, but at least it’s not quite as blinding. It would be nice if there was an accepted resolution between 1024 x 600 and 1366 x 768 that netbook makers could comfortably use for 10 inch netbooks, but aside from the occasional 1280 x 800 or 1280 x 720 machine, I haven’t seen much.

What do you think? Do you have a netbook with an HD display? How do you like it? What do you think would be the perfect resolution for a 10 inch netbook?