Technology Acer Intel Atom Processor - what's an atom processor? is it any good?

[scienceisbeauty]

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Acer Mini PC feating Intel Atom Processor N270, it's 2.2 pounds and an 8.9" screen...
specs are 1 GB, and 120 Hard Drive, built in webcam and mic, and windows xp

It costs 400 dollars, I don't know how this compares to other laptops that are teeny tiny...someone help?

 

[cara susanna]

Intel atom is just the brand name of a processor. Intel's a good brand, according to my dad. Assuming you're referring to memory, 1 GB isn't that great, but you can always add more.

I think $400 is okay considering that it's new. My laptop was free, but it was a broken one that my dad fixed. 😀

 

[alphaholic06]

Don't buy Acer!!!

 

[187502]

Atom is basically a very efficient subset of the Core microarchitecture, designed for ultra-mobile applications.

You can read more about Atom here:

http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/

 

[Boston2k]

Yes, the Atom is intended for the new generation of Mini Laptops, which started to gain popularity after the release of the Asus eeePC. They're geared to be ultra-portable, ideal for taking notes or using the web from WiFi wherever you want. I'm not sure how well they fare for serious work, because they are so small, but I think they are cool and plan to buy one within the next couple of years.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_netbooks

 

[moe_4eva]

Be careful when thinking about buying one of these, as the battery life is atrocious unless you spring for the 6-cell battery. I bought one but returned it due to the keyboard being too small, and the battery life only lasting 90 mins-2 hours (my laptop lasts around 3-4 if I'm in class typing notes, by comparision). Also, the netbooks like Acer cannot handle a great deal of video, so if that's important to you, might want to look into a cheap laptop.

 

[DrJosephKim]

These tiny netbooks are becoming very popular as a supplemental computer. They really do not have the power to function as your main PC all the time. They are meant to be slow so they can have exceptional battery life.

 

[187502]

Most people would probably benefit from getting an older, used, general purpose laptop for the same price. It would most likely be able to do more, just don't forget to factor in a replacement battery in what you are willing to pay, most older laptops that are cheap have dead or dying main batteries.

I got a 1 Ghz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, Windows XP, 2 main batteries (still good) for nearly 6 hours of life, about 6 1/2 years old, for free from someone that just wanted to get rid of it. It's awesome, I haven't run into anything I can't do with it (not that I am trying to do 1080p video encoding or anything).