UMPC Portal

There’s been a flood of mini-laptops with 11.6 inch and 12.1 inch displays over the past few months. Call them netbooks, ultraportables, thin and light notebooks, or what you will, but it seems that these machines are targeted at people looking for something in between a small, low power netbook and a larger more powerful laptop. But 10 inch netbooks aren’t going anywhere just yet.

Chippy at UMPC Portal conducted a somewhat unscientific study by counting the number of devices available in Germany at Geizhals.at. Specifically, he counted thenumber of devices available with 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 inch displays.

This is his third SKU count of the year, which makes it easy to see trends over time. And this the major trend: There’s a growing number of 10 and 11 inch laptops and the number of machines with smaller displays is shrinking. I kind of had a feeling that this was the way the market had been moving in the last year or two, but it’s nice to have a pretty chart to put with the hunch, even if it’s specific to the German market.

Over the past few months, the low cost ultraportable notebook space has expanded to include a new class of device. While 10 inch and smaller netbooks are still playing an important role in the field, there’s been a new crop of devices with 11 to 12 inch displays selling for $600 or less. While these laptops including the Acer Aspire 1810T, Dell Inspiron 11z, and Asus UL20A are larger and generally more powerful than most netbooks, as well as more expensive, they’re still a lot cheaper than the ultraportables of yesteryear. And they tend to weigh less than 4 pounds, which is always a good thing.

But just to show you why I don’t expect to make a habit of covering 13 inch or larger laptops anytime soon, I’ve put together a little photo shoot that shows the difference between three laptops I happen to have at Liliputing HQ this week (yes, the photo shoot took place in our laundry room… you have a problem with that?): The 10 inch Asus Eee PC 1008HA, the 11.6 inch Acer Aspire 1410, and the 13.3 inch Asus UL30A.

While the Acer Aspire 1410 is just a little bit larger than the Asus Eee PC 1008HA, the Asus UL30A is clearly in a completely different class. Sure, it weighs just 3.9 pounds, but it’s a heck of a lot bigger and bulkier. And while that makes it a better choice for anyone looking for a larger machine that won’t cause eye strain, it’s not quite as portable as the other two laptops.

You can check out more photos of the three laptops after the break. While I think it should be pretty clear which computer is which, for the sake of reference, the Asus Eee PC 1008HA is black, the Acer Aspire 1410 has a blue lid, and the Asus UL30A has a silver/gray lid.

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The Asus Eee PC 1101HA is an 11.6 inch laptop with an Intel Atom Z520 processor, while the Asus UL30A has a 13.3 inch display and an Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. The UL30A is clearly the more powerful of the two, and it’s also larger and heavier, although at 3.3 pounds, it’s still relatively light for a full sized laptop. But more importantly, the UL30A’s specs are nearly identical to those of the UL20A, which has an 11.6 inch display and should be about the same size as the Asus Eee PC 1101HA.

Unfortunately, Asus is pushing the UL30A a bit harder right now. For instance, you can already pre-order that model from Amazon for under $700, while the UL20A is nowhere to be seen. If you can’t wait for the 11.6 inch version to hit the streets, Netbook Live has a photo shoot out comparing the 11.6 inch Eee PC 1101HA to the 13.3 inch Asus UL30A. It should give you a good idea of just how much physical difference those few inches make.

The two latest members of the Lenovo IdeaPad S-series have a few things in common. They both have 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processors, integrated GMA950 graphics, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drives, Windows XP, and a version of the Splashtop quick-start software. But there’s one big difference between the two laptops… and I do mean big. While the S10-2 sports a typical netbook-style 10 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, the IdeaPad S12 has a 12.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel screen.

Along with the larger screen, the S12 has a larger keyboard and room on the chassis for a few other goodies including an ExpressCard slot and hardware buttons for controlling the computer’s volume.

I have to say, the S12 definitely feels enormous by netbook standards. But it’s still relatively light, at about 3.5 pounds. And the extra screen resolution definitely comes in handy when working on documents or viewing some web pages. Unfortunately, the Atom processor and integrated graphics aren’t up to the task of pumping out Flash video in full-screen on the high resolution 1280 x 800 pixel screen.

I’ll have more details after I’ve spent a little more time with these machines. But in the meantime, you can check out a bunch of pictures of the two laptops. I also threw in a few images of the S10-2 next to my trusty old Asus Eee PC 1000H, because it’s the other netbook I happened to have lying around. As you can see, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 is a little smaller than the Eee PC 1000H. But overall the two netbooks are pretty similarly sized.

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The HP Mini 1000 and HP Mini 110 may look a lot alike at first glance. But the newer Mini 110 is a bit thicker and heavier than the Mini 1000.And if you don’t beleive me, you can check out a series of photos posted by JMacalinao over at the MyHPMini forums comparing the two. It’s worth pointing out that the HP Mini 110 in these photos has a bulky 6 cell battery while the HP Mini 1000 has a 3 cell battery that sits flush with the netbook.

And while the extra size means there’s room for a full sized VGA port and a faster, 5400rpm hard drive instead of the 1.8 inch, 4200rpm hard drive in the HP Mini 1000, you can still snag the older netbook from some retailers while supplies last if size is more important to you than performance.

And while we’re comparing thin netbooks with their thicker siblings, Eee PC.de has posted a series of images showing just how much bulkier the Asus Eee PC 1005HA is than the super-slim Eee PC 1008HA. Some users will find the tradeoff worthwhile, since the 1005HA gets over 8 hours of battery life, while the 1008HA tops out at around 5 or 6 hours. Both of these models are currently in production (which is more than I can say about the HP Mini 1000).

Astute readers may have noticed that I’ve been running a series of polls as part of the Liliputing Birthday Bash contests. I find that it’s often easier to get people to respond to a poll than to leave comments on a blog, so while I already had a sense of what the most vocal Liliputing readers thought about some of these topics, it’s interesting to see how a larger group responds.

So without further ado, here are the results so far. When I asked what the best size for a netbook display was, you overwhelmingly picked 10.2 inches:

When I asked how much money was too much for a netbook, there was no clear winner. A handful of respondents don’t want to pay more than $300. But it seems a fair number of you are willing to pay $400 or $500. Some of you are even willing to pay up to $600, although with most netbooks selling for much less than that, I assume you’ll want some nifty features like high resolution displays, touchscreens, or maybe even GPS devices or TV tuners to go with that higher price tag.

Thanks for playing, and keep checking out the Liliputing Birthday Bash landing page for information about upcoming contests.

Is Acer planning to build an Aspire One laptop with an 11.6 inch display? That’s what Macles is reporting, and the site does have a pretty good track record of breaking Acer-related netbook news. 

If the rumor is true, the new Aspire One would have an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It would also have an Intel Atom Z530 CPU and integrated GMA 500 graphics with hardware support for decode HD video. The Z530 isn’t exactly a speed demon, but it’s easy on the power consumption. 

I’m reluctant to call a laptop with an 11.6 inch display a netbook, and to be fair, Acer hasn’t labeled this computer as such yet. But slapping the Aspire One name on it seems like a bad idea to me. I prefer the way Asus has done things so far, by differentiating between its netbooks with the Eee PC moniker and higher end machines like the Asus N10 series that look a lot like netbooks, but have higher quality graphics cards and other components. 

But it sounds like the only thing separating the 11.6 inch Acer Aspire One from its netbook brethren is size. It will have the same processor as many netbooks and it will still be thin and light compared to full sized laptops. Am I being too rigid here? What do you think, can an 11 or 12 inch notebook be a netbook?

While the Sony Vaio P features a keyboard that’s enarly as large as those on many netbooks, the overpriced computer is smaller. Much smaller. How much smaller? Jenn at Pocketables set out to show you with a rather impressive photoshoot displaying the Sony Vaio P next to other mobile computing devices.

The image at the top of this post shows a Samsung NC10, an HP 2133 Mini-Note, and the Vaio P. But Jenn didn’t stop there. She also pulled out a Sony Vaio TZ to compare the Vaio P with a larger subnotebook, a series of UMPCs ranging from the OQO Model 2+ to the Fujitsu U810, and a handful of MIDs including the Nokia N810 and the ARchos 5. Just for good measure she even threw in a folding PDA keyboard, a video game case, and a few phones including an iPhone 3G.

So if you’re a sucker for a good size comparison pictorial, head on over to Pocketables.