“Maximum” Coverage of Netbooks

NetbooksNormally when you think of Maximum PC Magazine, you don’t think of low-power ultraportables based on older platforms like netbooks. Usually, Maximum PC focuses on the latest and greatest high-end equipment and laptops, but it turns out they do have an interest in these devices.

Earlier this month, they published and compared three reviews of the Asus Eee PC 901, Acer Aspire One, and MSI Wind U100 (and last week published a review of the Lenovo S10). It’s a slightly different look at these devices – among their benchmarks – Photoshop tests were included.

They also manage to accurately describe the appeal of netbooks, unlike some other publications:

A few years ago, SUVs were riding high, with throngs of the massive gas-guzzlers clogging the highways. Compact cars were considered wimpy and passé. Fast-forward to the present day and suddenly small is back in style. It’s not the size that matters, as the saying goes, it’s what you do with it. Since the advent of Asus’s Eee PC, manufacturers have been racing to bring tiny, low-powered laptops, also known as netbooks, to the market. You probably won’t use a netbook as your primary computer… But as small, eminently portable word-processing and Internet-browsing devices, netbooks hit the price/performance sweet spot for many people.

Maximum PC Reviews:
MSI Wind U100
Asus Eee PC 901
Acer Aspire One
Lenovo IdeaPad S10
Roundup – Maximum PC