Are all entry-level netbooks this slow?

[StageLeft]

I just bought the Samsung N130. Standard 1.6 ghz processor with a gig of memory, rated very highly on Amazon. My main problem with this is it's slower than frozen-crap. I have a three year old entry level laptop I'm moving away from and this and this is MUCH slower.

It has Windows 7 Starter edition and not all that much extra stuff that companies typically cram in that has to be uninstalled right off the bat. I have new video drivers. Internet Explorer 8 just drags wicked ass. Chrome is faster (as always) but even that isn't great. For example if I'm on amazon and right-click, open in new tab a few windows I'll get a lot of freezing/locking in my primary as the rear ones load up. Even a single tab the pages load quite slower.

Youtube videos work. When they are full screen they still work but there is a subtle refresh issue. However, go to Youtube HD and forget it, frame rate drops to the single digits.

So the CPU itself seems to be very lazy given the page loading issues and the video card reminds me of 1998 when I had a Pentium 200 and after a fresh windows install running on stock drivers in 16 color before getting the chipset-specific one I'd surf web pages and it would be hideous. OK not that bad but you get the idea.

I'm really thinking of returning this to Bestbuy and eating the 15% restocking fee.

 

[BTA]

They aren't for everyone. My old MSI Wind works great for me, it is running XP but I've heard people put Win7 on it and it still runs well.

It shouldn't be dragging really really slow, but it certainly isn't going to be blazing fast.

Youtube HD sucks on even my main PC sometimes btw...

 

[MStele]

Netbooks by design are entry level notebooks. They aren't meant to do anything heavier than accessing the internet, thus the fancy name. That is why they are so cheap. Before you bring it back, I recommend you try putting a Linux distribution on it. You might find it to work alot better. Good luck.

 

[onza]

I use my netbook for internet / emailing / viewing some wmv/avi vids.

Does the job very well.

 

[hans030390]

Just so you know, Chrome has some issues when it comes to temporarily freezing in many occasions. I wouldn't judge your computer based on it.

Also, I believe a 1.6ghz Atom is roughly as powerful as a ~900mhz P3.

 

[StageLeft]

Just so you know, Chrome has some issues when it comes to temporarily freezing in many occasions. I wouldn't judge your computer based on it.

Also, I believe a 1.6ghz Atom is roughly as powerful as a ~900mhz P3.

yeah I just found that. Damn me for assuming that, years later (I haven't tracked hardware in a long time), 1.6ghz would at least be decent, I can't believe they are that slow, about half as fast as a similarly clocked Celeron according to one site, no wonder it chugs. I was, obviously, distracted by the nice sound of 1.6 ghz.

I really don't know if homey can take this, I really think I'll need to return it. They are cool but as I am not walking around from cafe to cafe with a backpack all the time I don't need something quite this small if it's going to be slower than a cellphone.

 

[Gillbot]

I just bought my wife a Dell Mini 10v, she HATES it. Says it's too slow and the screen is too small.

 

[StageLeft]

I just bought my wife a Dell Mini 10v, she HATES it. Says it's too slow and the screen is too small.

Unfortunately Mrsskoorb doesn't mind this one enough for me to clearly commit to returning it.

The 1024X600 screen is an annoyance. Apparently the Acer for $330 at best buy has a 1024X768 and is 12" but for some reason i wanted Windows 7. No idea why. In any case, I figured a large monitor would cover our screen issue, and it would, but the slowness is irreparable. Are you going to get rid of yours?

I guess I'll probably keep this one for another week maybe and then return it, as I have 14 days before doing so, so consider it an expensive rental.

 

[Gillbot]

Unfortunately Mrsskoorb doesn't mind this one enough for me to clearly commit to returning it.

The 1024X600 screen is an annoyance. Apparently the Acer for $330 at best buy has a 1024X768 and is 12" but for some reason i wanted Windows 7. No idea why. In any case, I figured a large monitor would cover our screen issue, and it would, but the slowness is irreparable. Are you going to get rid of yours?

I guess I'll probably keep this one for another week maybe and then return it, as I have 14 days before doing so, so consider it an expensive rental.

Yep, it'll be listed in FS/FT as soon as she gives me the green light. I'll pull what little data she has on it off to her original Dell E1405 and post it up. I'm just a little disappointed that she didn't realize the screen would be too small after messing with one at Sams club for a bit. O-well, i'm helping to spur the economy right?

 

[dfuze]

Mine is nice for simple surfing or writing up some stuff while laying in bed or on the couch. As soon as I bought mine I popped in a 2gb ram chip, so I'm not sure if it would help you too much. My daughter also loved using it for typing up her school project instead of using the old dying laptop she had been.

 

[Massive Overkill]

See my sig, I'm used to that kind of power. That being said, I love my netbook and it's plenty peppy for the internet functions I need to perform.

I do have 2 gigs of RAM and a 4 gig SDHC card for readyboost, and I installed Vista Ultimate. I also have the 160 gig hard drive and not the poorly-implemented 16 gig SSD drive.

 

[StageLeft]

I'm getting rid of this thing, executive decision. I'll eat the $45 and give it back to Bestbuy. I doubt that if I sold it privately I'd get much more than retail - $45 anyway.

Maybe in a couple of years these things will be up to snuff. I saw a $400 laptop in Staples with the full Windows 7 but more importantly much beefier CPU, 3 gigs ram and when I tried to navigate around it it seemed like it actually wanted to please me not force me to make coffee as control panel loaded

 

[hans030390]

That's weird, though. My netbook is never that slow (though I do have 2GB RAM).

 

[StageLeft]

That's weird, though. My netbook is never that slow (though I do have 2GB RAM).

Well at staples I also briefly fiddled with some netbooks there with the same CPU/memory and Windows XP and if I wasn't dreaming I'd say that XP is faster on these. I haven't actually compared benchmarks, though so maybe in general it really isn't. I know for things like loading control panel it really was at least on these vs th samsung. I mean, heck, on this Samsung when I load the control panel the progress bar at the top takes quite a few seconds as it fills all the stuff up, it's ridiculous. On that $400 laptop it snapped right up as one would expect. As one ought to expect.

In general it feels like the operating environment for this netbook is just more than its hardware can really handle, like it's not holding up its end of the bargain properly.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Look into a CULV laptop. You can find one in the 12-13" range (ASUS UL series or Acer Timeline), and they'll cost more than a netbook. They're much more powerful, though.

A 1.3GHz CULV Core 2 Duo still performs like a Core 2 Duo, not like a Pentium 3. I still wouldn't want to do any heavy encoding or other super-CPU intensive tasks, but for general mutlitasking, I can't tell the difference between it and my i7. My only gripe with mine (sig) is the horrible Intel graphics, which can be remedied by buying a UL30Vt or UL40Vt instead (which have user-switchable graphics), and the lack of integrate Bluetooth (also included with the UL30Vt). The 13.3" screen has a 1366 x 768 resolution, which is about perfect for the size.

4GB DDR3, 500GB hard drive, and a decent screen / keyboard all make it an absolute pleasure to work with. I'll be shoving my 160GB X-25M G2 in it after Christmas.

Best part? 10+ hours real world battery life. Seriously. The UL30Vt, which as a 4400mAh battery won't be as good as the UL30A (5600mAh battery, IIRC), but it should still pull 6-7 hours without breaking a sweat.

 

[StageLeft]

Look into a CULV laptop. You can find one in the 12-13" range (ASUS UL series or Acer Timeline), and they'll cost more than a netbook. They're much more powerful, though.

A 1.3GHz CULV Core 2 Duo still performs like a Core 2 Duo, not like a Pentium 3. I still wouldn't want to do any heavy encoding or other super-CPU intensive tasks, but for general mutlitasking, I can't tell the difference between it and my i7. My only gripe with mine (sig) is the horrible Intel graphics, which can be remedied by buying a UL30Vt or UL40Vt instead (which have user-switchable graphics), and the lack of integrate Bluetooth (also included with the UL30Vt). The 13.3" screen has a 1366 x 768 resolution, which is about perfect for the size.

4GB DDR3, 500GB hard drive, and a decent screen / keyboard all make it an absolute pleasure to work with. I'll be shoving my 160GB X-25M G2 in it after Christmas.

Best part? 10+ hours real world battery life. Seriously. The UL30Vt, which as a 4400mAh battery won't be as good as the UL30A (5600mAh battery, IIRC), but it should still pull 6-7 hours without breaking a sweat.

Wow, that is truly some battery life!

 

[CurseTheSky]

Read up on some of the UL30A reviews. It's sort of bitter sweet... you can either have the UL30Vt with switchable graphics, integrated Bluetooth, and a worse battery, or the UL30A with just Intel graphics, no integrated bluetooth, and a better battery. Build quality is about average to above average - far better than some of the junk that comes from HP, MSI, Acer, Dell (Inspiron), but not quite up to par with Apple, Lenovo, Sony, or Dell (Lattitude, Studio, XPS). It's pretty thin and quite light, too.

I was skeptical at first, since I've heard "5-6" hour battery times claimed by 15.6" general purpose notebooks that ended up being more like 2-2.5 hours at best, but this one really does it. ASUS originally claimed 12 hours for some models, and 16 hours for the UL30A, but the actual numbers end up being somewhere in the 7-12 hour range, depending on what you're doing.

It's friggin' awesome to walk around with my laptop and not worry about plugging it in for days on end (1-2 hours of use a day). I got so used to plugging my old laptops in as soon as I took them out that it became almost an OCD thing. My girlfriend does that now too with her XPS M1530.

You still have to keep in mind that you're making a sacrifice for that battery life, though. A 1.3 Core 2 Duo is still a 1.3 C2D, but it's MILES ahead of Atom and similar processors (dual core vs. single core, too). The Vt model also has an automatic overclocking feature that'll bring it up to 1.73GHz. That just about matches the Core 2 Duo E6300 with those first came out, and even to this day they're still fully capable of just about everything. I can't tell any performance difference between this thing and my previous notebook's 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo P8600, 4GB DDR2, and 9650M GT, except in games.

 

[Rottie]

I use my netbook for internet / emailing / viewing some wmv/avi vids.

Does the job very well.

That is what I do with my baby

 

[Rottie]

If you are not happy then you can wait until netbook with new atom dual core 330 cpu

 

[Zargon]

I'm getting rid of this thing, executive decision. I'll eat the $45 and give it back to Bestbuy. I doubt that if I sold it privately I'd get much more than retail - $45 anyway.

Maybe in a couple of years these things will be up to snuff. I saw a $400 laptop in Staples with the full Windows 7 but more importantly much beefier CPU, 3 gigs ram and when I tried to navigate around it it seemed like it actually wanted to please me not force me to make coffee as control panel loaded

how much would you like for it?

I'm toying with getting my wife one so she can surf and gmail around the house.

she loves her desktop but misses fiddling on the net while watching TV

 

[StageLeft]

how much would like for it?

I'm toying with getting my wife one so she can surf and gmail around the house.

she loves her desktop but misses fiddling on the net while watching TV

I returned it last night!

TV fiddling is imperative but a laptop will have to do as we don't have a desktop in the kitchen (our main access point).

 

[Zargon]

dang!

I was too busy rearraging my computers yesterday to get on here.

 

[Zap]

FWIW...

My sister just got a Samsung N130 with the same specs and with Windows 7, and it has been super laggy for her to the point of being unusable. I had her check and just sitting there with nothing running except whatever it boots with, CPU utilization hovered from 50-60% with occasional peaks at 100%. It did that continuously. I don't know what process caused it (we live in different states, this was over the phone).

I saw the same Samsung N130 at Sam's Club and played around with it for several minutes. CPU utilization was almost nothing and it felt almost like my netbook with Windows XP in responsiveness.

I'm wondering if Windows 7 (Starter?) does anything in the background when the system is new?

I currently have an MSI Wind with Windows XP, and if I had to do it again today I would get a setup using a CULV.

Acer Timeline is available in a configuration for around $400-450 that uses a single core CULV chip with 2GB RAM, Windows 7, 250GB HDD, 11.6" screen, Intel X4500 IGP and weighs around 3.1 pounds with 8 hours of battery life. That seems like a suitable replacement for a netbook, making it a hair better in all ways.

Alternately, 13.3" are available from a number of vendors in the upper 3 pound range with dual core CPUs and even more RAM.

 

[StageLeft]

FWIW...

My sister just got a Samsung N130 with the same specs and with Windows 7, and it has been super laggy for her to the point of being unusable. I had her check and just sitting there with nothing running except whatever it boots with, CPU utilization hovered from 50-60% with occasional peaks at 100%. It did that continuously. I don't know what process caused it (we live in different states, this was over the phone).

I saw the same Samsung N130 at Sam's Club and played around with it for several minutes. CPU utilization was almost nothing and it felt almost like my netbook with Windows XP in responsiveness.

I'm wondering if Windows 7 (Starter?) does anything in the background when the system is new?

I currently have an MSI Wind with Windows XP, and if I had to do it again today I would get a setup using a CULV.

Acer Timeline is available in a configuration for around $400-450 that uses a single core CULV chip with 2GB RAM, Windows 7, 250GB HDD, 11.6" screen, Intel X4500 IGP and weighs around 3.1 pounds with 8 hours of battery life. That seems like a suitable replacement for a netbook, making it a hair better in all ways.

Alternately, 13.3" are available from a number of vendors in the upper 3 pound range with dual core CPUs and even more RAM.

That is interesting she is having issues. I didn't spend much time in my task manager watching things because really everything just took a while to move around within the OS. I'd love to know if she continues to have problems with it, though.

 

[frostedflakes]

FWIW...

My sister just got a Samsung N130 with the same specs and with Windows 7, and it has been super laggy for her to the point of being unusable. I had her check and just sitting there with nothing running except whatever it boots with, CPU utilization hovered from 50-60% with occasional peaks at 100%. It did that continuously. I don't know what process caused it (we live in different states, this was over the phone).

I saw the same Samsung N130 at Sam's Club and played around with it for several minutes. CPU utilization was almost nothing and it felt almost like my netbook with Windows XP in responsiveness.

I'm wondering if Windows 7 (Starter?) does anything in the background when the system is new?

I currently have an MSI Wind with Windows XP, and if I had to do it again today I would get a setup using a CULV.

Acer Timeline is available in a configuration for around $400-450 that uses a single core CULV chip with 2GB RAM, Windows 7, 250GB HDD, 11.6" screen, Intel X4500 IGP and weighs around 3.1 pounds with 8 hours of battery life. That seems like a suitable replacement for a netbook, making it a hair better in all ways.

Alternately, 13.3" are available from a number of vendors in the upper 3 pound range with dual core CPUs and even more RAM.

Maybe it's a bad driver or something like that. My Win 7 netbook is pretty responsive, doesn't feel much slower than my desktop for basic web browsing and stuff like that. Of course, as soon as you load up something CPU intensive (Flash, javascript heavy sites, etc.), its lower performance becomes apparent.

I installed Win 7 Pro on mine, though, it isn't running Starter.