Netbookfreaks width="298"

While netbooks started with 7″ displays, users realized that the limit of these early devices was not the processor or memory, but rather the display.  They wanted, make that demanded more screen real estate.  Manufacturers responded, and the size of the LCD grew to 8.9″, and subsequently morphed into 10.1″.  While this larger size is considerably more usable, for more than short sessions, an 11″ to 12″ size may be the ideal size that balances the tradeoff of screen size and portability.

The problem is that Microsoft and Intel have agreed that larger than 10 inches, and they want the price to go up, out of netbook territory.  Microsoft makes less of a profit margin off of Windows XP, or even Win 7 Starter Edition than off of a standard Windows 7 OS.  It also doesn’t help that Intel makes less off of the Atom processor than almost anything else they sell.  Clearly they both want to keep netbooks to secondary, or even tertiary machines, and not have them replace pricier laptops with better profit margins.

However, a 12″ portable machine shouldn’t have to cost in the ultraportable territory that can go for thousands of dollars.  Some manufacturers have managed to skirt the rules by going with processors other than the Atom, or even other than Intel.  Are these machines perfect?  No, you clearly give up something to gain that extra inch or two of screen real estate, but for longer computing sessions on the go, the trade off can be worth it.  Here are several examples of what I am talking about:

• Probably the best known, and easiest to find is the Acer AO751. It has an 11.6″ LCD, but to achieve that, it had to go with the underpowered Intel Atom Z520 processor.  These are affordable, and refurbs are common, but with the 3 cell battery, they have a runtime of less than 3 hours.
• One of the more intriguing machines is the Gateway LT3103u netbook. Thumbing their nose at Intel, they went with the AMD Athlon L110 processor.  For those that don’t make a living memorizing processor specs, this is really a detuned Athlon 64 chip, with a mobile friendly 1.2 GHz clock speed.  Reportedly, it can outpace the Atom at most tasks, but the battery life takes a hit, although it it still usable at 4 hours.  As a bonus, they also upsized the hard drive to 250 gigs.
• Lenovo also have their IdeaPad S12. It is actually sold with either an Intel Atom N270, or a Via Nano ULV 2250, which is a more powerful chip that cuts into the battery life.  The build quality of the Lenovos is higher than some other brands, which explains the $429 base price of these devices, although there are occasional coupon codes to help get it under the $400 mark.  Personally, for over four Franklins, I would rather have the next model.
• The Acer Aspire 1410-2801 is a powerful machine, with specs good enough to put the fuller sized notebooks on notice that it can compete in a smaller package.  It technically is a CULV, and the dual core processor makes it the most powerful machine in this lineup.  The downside is that it goes for a little over $400, but just might be worth it for power users.  It also can get about 4 hours of runtime between charges.  Also be aware that there are also single core variants of the machine (like this Gateway model), but the price difference is minimal, and would recommend getting the more powerful dual core one.
• Not to be outdone by the competition, the Asus EeePC 1101HA also has an 11.6″ display, coupled with the Intel Atom Z520 chip.  Although the Asus is reportedly of higher build quality than the Acer, I don’t think it can justify the significant price premium over the competition.
• Finally, don’t forget about the Dell Inspiron 11z. It is another example of the CULV with an 11.6″ display, but at the starting $400 price point only has a single core processor.