What's The Perfect Balance For a Budget Laptop? 375
cheapbob writes "Recently HP officially unveiled a budget ultraportable laptop aimed to compete with the likes of Asus Eee PC. According to Compal, one of Dell's assemblers, Dell is also going to enter the budget ultra-portable market soon. All of these devices lack many of the features associated with larger-sized laptops, such as optical drives and large amounts of storage space, yet demand for them is very high. Initial reviews of these devices unsurprisingly expose them to be underpowered and lacklustre. What's the appeal? What do you think is the perfect balance of features and price point for a budget laptop?"
4 hours commuting a day... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:4 hours commuting a day... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:4 hours commuting a day... (Score:5, Insightful)
2 hours each way seems a bit high, but at least he is using transit so he is not wasting all that time (thats why he got the freaking laptop!)
I know people who spend 45 minutes driving to work, one way. Thats 1:30 wasted in traffic.
In many places, most of the jobs are in the center where rents are very high.
I know plenty of people who live in San Francisco and commute to San Jose because they want it.
In Paris, young single people who can afford to rent a small flat would rather live close to the nightlife even if they work in the suburbs.
On the other hand, family would rather get an affordable house in the suburbs even if there job is in the city.
Your not even thinking about couple, whose jobs maybe in oposite directions. And its not always that easy to move when you own a house, or when your children are going to school.
Your priorities maybe different...
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On public trasnsport I would have a choice of two busses and a five minute walk (1.5 hours each way) or a two mile walk and one bus (1.25 hours each way).
I would not want to live where I work, it is in an area that has been on the news for the wrong reasons!
Re:4 hours commuting a day... (Score:5, Interesting)
Speaking as someone who lives in NYC, yes you can find a reasonable place to live in town on a middle class paycheck. If you don't mind renting forever (median apartment prices are over $900k) and you don't have kids. As soon as you actually care about the schools and neighborhood cultural ideals, acceptable places to live become amazingly scarce. Most of the towns around NYC where the soccer mom lifestyle exists also are priced that $200k a year salary is the entry level. The median housing prices are around $600K and property taxes are high. [lohud.com] So anyone who makes less than the requisite $200K lives farther away, and your don't have to get all that far away for a rush hour commute to take two hours or more. Minutes of your life may be worth more than a few bucks, but your family's standard of living is worth more than a few minutes. This is where the jobs are, so millions of people make the daily trek.
Re:4 hours commuting a day... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:4 hours commuting a day... (Score:4, Funny)
It's not that they aren't lawers, it's the damn slashdot hiding Unicode character 2665 in their posts.
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Re:4 hours commuting a day... (Score:5, Funny)
So who's IAN
That would be me...
and why does he 'heart' AL?
Beats me.
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Most modern laptop hard drives are rated to withstand specific g-forces. if you are experiencing failure and you think its vibration related (somewhat unlikely if its a recent drive/laptop) then seek a drive with a higher g-force tolerance, or replace it with an SSD.
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And... always backup, just in case. I backup multiple time per day.
The Appeal? (Score:5, Insightful)
The HP review says it does fine doing the basics - that's all most people need. For people who are on the move a lot, lugging around a full size laptop gets really old. People want to connect to the internet anywhere, but they don't want to carry a boat anchor to do it. These umpcs may be small but they are a lot bigger than many phones that would by the way, cost more. So there is the sweet spot. Price and size.
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Re:The Appeal? (Score:5, Insightful)
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You don't need a supercomputer to run an office suite, web browser, and e-mail client, and these laptops are designed with that in mind.
Have you tried running the latest version of Windows/Office? It's no wonder that people expect ball-burning laptops. I would have gone and got an "underpowered" machine if they existed when I settled on my MacBook as a pseudo desktop replacement.
The appeal of the Eee and OLPC is they don't run Windows so they can be "underpowered" as hell and still work really well. A Windows Eee is just the worst piece of shit I ever saw; they won't sell to the masses with Linux and they're too slow for the masses wit
Re:The Appeal? (Score:5, Interesting)
XP isn't too much of a resource hog even with all the chrome on, and you can turn most of it off if it does impact performance.
It's really no different than the Duron 800Mhzish I had back in the early 2000s. The only downside is the small screen, but the 2nd generation fixes that this year with a full-sized 9" 1000x600 screen.
Allow me to introduce you (Score:4, Funny)
What tablets were supposed to be (Score:4, Interesting)
Couldn't fit-in any more hyphens.
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I don't like the direction they're taking (Score:3, Interesting)
My criteria is pretty much (1) As much power as possible under (2) a reasonable price. All other things being equal, I'll probably select a smaller laptop, but I would gladly sacrifice a couple pounds for a larger HD, a DVD-Rom, expandability, or a full assortment of ports.
I know some people do care, but for me thickness has about as much bearing on my choice as the thing's color.
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And it's bad form, I know, but I'm replying to myself in the hopes of preempting all the dirty jokes making fun of what I said.
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The EEE is easily carried anywhere. You can lug it around all day and never notice the weight, and it will never be awkward to carry. It doesn't have a lot of power, but I'm not looking for a desktop replacement (I'd rather just have the desktop) or somethi
Re:I don't like the direction they're taking (Score:5, Insightful)
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It would be hard to put too little power in, I just need enough to run fluxbox and read PDFs. On the other hand, it would be very easy to make it too bulky or too delicate to be really handy.
light and cheap (Score:4, Insightful)
If all you want is email or web access, a cheap ultra portable like an ASUS eee is a perfect match.
Comparing these devices to full sized laptops misses the point.
Re:light and cheap (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. I'd like to see a review of a pda that complained about the lack of screen size, power, and inputs/outputs. These aren't laptops - they are something between a pda and a laptop and they do a great job of filling that niche. The demand demonstrates that people have been hungry for something like this that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I don't even bother trying to use my laptop when I'm actually traveling anymore. For a host of reasons it doesn't work - but one of these would be perfect.
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Layne
HP (Score:2)
It cost $900 when it came out in the late 90s, they could probably make it for less than $500 today.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&product=61677 [hp.com]
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So get firefox 3 and scale the website...
or are you still using a browser that displays images original-size and wondering why you need so much screen space?
Re:light and cheap (Score:4, Funny)
2. Go back 8 years.
3. Use eeePC when Web pages were designed for 800x600 screens.
Oh, and
4. ???
5. Profit.
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That doesn't mean that certain knowledge isn't still appropriate to be learned by rote.
Yes, I have a calculator on my mobile phone that can multiply any two numbers in less time than it takes to key them into the thing, but I'm not going to pull it
What's the appeal? You're looking at it (Score:5, Insightful)
Finally, if it's cheap enough to not really force a user to chose between owning a portable and owning a desktop (or better equipped portable) and instead they can have both, then you sir have a cash machine!
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A usb/firewire external is in no way a replacement for an internal drive, unless it's part of a laptop dock.
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Underpowered for what? (Score:2)
I am not the type that needs to do big Excel Solver sheets or Matlab simulations while on the go. Why carry more than twice the weight for what amounts to a bigger power draw and little marginal value? A computer that consistently hits 40% CPU utilization (fairly high for a desktop) is a computer that is still idle 60% of the time, and that's what my Eee PC is right now.
Gimme lightweight any day; if I need CD-ROM d
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My sentiments exactly. I've got a dual-core desktop at work (which would be idle 90% of the time if I weren't running two instances of Folding@Home [stanford.edu]). The most intensive thing I do with my laptop is when I remote-desktop to my work box.
I'm beyond low-end. I got an old PII laptop from Retrobox (now Intechra [intechraoutlet.com])
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Even if you do happen to need to run that Excel or Matlab monster on the go there's always using these UMPCs as thin clients to remote into your home or work box to do it while on the go. Now CAD or Crysis OTOH......
The answer's simple... (Score:2, Informative)
My mom had one of these... (Score:2)
Mom had a drapery business then. She'd drag me off to client's houses and talk window dressings with them, and I'd hide in the corner with this portable 386 and play games on it's orange screen. mmm reader rabbit.
oh you mean a modern day computer? I don't know. I have this 10 pound dell from work and love the 1920x1200 pixel display. 2 hour battery is enough for most purposes but when I travel I'll bring 2-4, depending on the location.
Simple. Not up-to-date, but not stone-age (Score:2)
Beyond that... storage isn't an issue if you've got memsticks or cards. Give it wireless, a decent CPU, and a gig or two of RAM (one if Linux/XP, two if Vista) and WiFi and I'd be happy. And, for
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It should be able to handle running 3D games at low resolutions... 1024x768, say, or a widescreen version of that. It shouldn't be able to handle Crisis at 1900x1200 without a flicker, but at least let me putter about on World of Warcraft and Sims 2 without feeling like I'm working on something from five years ago.
Are you serious or just trying to get modded as 'Funny'? The word budget should be a clear indicator to any gamer that this laptop is not intended for gaming. History will tell you the very same thing. It is true that laptops have become more capable at the lower segments, but 3D power has remained consistent (more or less). Budget segments will always target businesses and people who intend to browse the web, check e-mail and so forth. Maybe that will change some day, but not in the next five years.
$99.99 in a blisterpack hanging near the checkout. (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, that's my price point for getting a toy-ish low featured laptop, although they are featured-enough, solid state drive is fine, lowerpowered CPU is fine, just not be skimpy with the RAM, at least a gig or two.. The original OLPC hundred buck idea would be nice then.
So, you richer guys, get crackin and buy a zillion of them for what they are asking now, so the price can drop some more..heh.
Budget vs Ultraportable (Score:5, Interesting)
If the question is truly about Budget and "powerful enough", obviously the thing won't be ultraportable. You can get a reasonable machine (~5 lbs, 14" screen, low-end Core Duo or Turion based) for about $500, or even lower if you look for sales or rebates.
You can then add a cheap or free office suite (e.g. OpenOffice), Firefox, etc., and you're ready to go.
Missing features? (Score:2)
<Anecdote>
Back in 2000, I got a new work laptop: a Toshiba portege 3440... seemed a bit too small at first and seemingly underpowered, but to be honest, it was quite adequate for taking notes, hacking my Perl, Java & SQL (didn't use the monster-ish Eclipse back then), and when needed, VNC into my desktop to run my batch queries and compi
cheap and lightweight are what I want in a laptop (Score:2)
I don't need it to be powerful or have great performance to do these things. These reviewers are using the wrong scale to review these types of laptops.
I use the EEE in the field for astrophotograpy (Score:2)
Thin is not cheap (Score:2)
I know I will probably get modded down as a troll for not advocating openoffice and linux, but I am going to say its not fully compatible and writer is nearly useless for my papers in the apa format required for college. Excel compatibility is my concern too and I need the real version of MS office.
If you want cheap and do not need compatibility there are alternatives like the Asus notebooks and OLPC's. H
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I know I will probably get modded down as a troll for not advocating openoffice and linux, but I am going to say its not fully compatible and writer is nearly useless for my papers in the apa format required for college. Excel compatibility is my concern too and I need the real version of MS office.
Don't want one (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the biggest appeal of these "budget" laptops is just that -- the price fits most people's budgets.
The "Laptop" (Score:2)
Now? *If* it plays movies (DVD, or other), it should be able to play at least 2 full movies (at least 4 hour battery life, although the M100 lasted 20 to 40 hours!). I should be able to pull it out and type on it (capture notes) without waiting minutes for it to "boot". It should be dead quiet for use in meet
The appeal is obvious. (Score:2)
Email? Check.
Surf Web? Check.
Can type on it? Check.
Cheap? Check.
There you go.
The Next Apple Offering... (Score:2)
To date, what I see looks a bit recycled.
Must qualify to run XP after June 30th (Score:2)
It will be three years before enough laptop hardware to run Vi$ta 'quickly' will cost less than $1500. I would urge all the OEMs to push that definition as hard as they can.
Simple (Score:2)
I don't get it. (Score:2)
It isn't the size... (Score:2)
When traveling, I have a regular laptop. I don't want to lug around a "mini" laptop in addition to my normal one. If I need to do real work, and there is space, I'll pull out the normal laptop.
What I want is something that allows me to check e-mail; browse the web for travel itineraries, stocks, sports and weather; has instant on; access to all my contacts by syncing with my phone or main desktop; and, in a pinch, ssh, VNC or remote desktop.
And make it fit in my pocket.
All this is
Remember when PCs first came out? (Score:3, Insightful)
The same sorts of questions were being asked then. What could you possibly DO with a little home computer? They were SO underpowered compared with a mainframe.
The question was related to another one that had been asked before: "How many of these first IBM machines will we be able to sell?" "Well, 10 of them would do more arithmetic than all the accountants in the world..."
Surprise: When the price gets low enough there's a LOT of stuff you can do that you couldn't afford to do before.
So it's got a lot less processor and memory than the current top-of-the-line laptop? That puts it far ahead of the laptops - and desktops - of just a few years back. And it would run RINGS around the first Unix machine I bought for my personal use, back in the '70s. A couple megabyte or RAM? 80 Megs of hard drive? Floppies for backup? I still found PLENTY of stuff to do with it. Enough to justify the several thousands of dollars it cost - back when two hundred bux were worth about what a thousand is now.
Bring the price down to a hundred or two, for a small, light box with enough memory and processor to drive a decent display, audio, enough battery to keep it alive for a few hours, USB (or other) interface for external memory sticks / drives / cameras, and internal modem and wireless. Then you've got the bulk of what I need at a throwaway price.
I'd buy one for me, one for the wife, one for each nephew (if they don't have it already), put one in the vacation house to monitor the cameras and phone home in case of trouble, one for the townhouse to phone the vacation house when we're there ditto, one in the camping trailer, one on the boat, a spare in the trunk,
As for the vendors: Fast nickels are better than slow dimes. Get the price point down far enough and you sell SO many of 'em that you more than make it up on volume.
Budget (Score:3, Funny)
Simple (Score:3, Interesting)
These new gen small notebooks are the perfect size, plenty small enough to carry round but big enough to be able to display web pages properly and maintain a proper keyboard.
I'm not sure why anyone would say they're underpowered or lacklustre though, unless you're expecting to play Crysis on it then the spec is just find, people have been happily creating spreadsheets, presentations, word documents, doing e-mail, browsing the web ever since the 486 era. You're not going to be playing the latest and greatest games on them it's silly to think so, we don't have the tech. to put that much power in such a small size at a reasonable price point but if you want to use it to do every day stuff you do on a computer I'd argue it's better than a laptop and better than a PDA because it has the advantages of both without the disadvantages (well except proper laptops have better specs, but gaming laptops are so big and bulk they may as well be in the desktop category anyway!).
The new sub-notebooks fill a niche that was filled then emptied again over the past decade or so. I found an old 486 laptop at work not so long ago that funnily enough whilst fatter than the new gen notebooks wasn't really much deeper or wider. Similarly Apple did away with their nice small notebooks and upped the size an inch or so when they went Intel - I'm not sure what the Air was all about either, it's just as wide and deep but extremely thin, to me thinness really doesn't solve anything and just makes me worry I'll snap it or something!
The Asus EEE Killer Features (Score:4, Interesting)
+ Small.
+ Durable.
+ Full PC - runs all PC stuff I need.
+ Sacrafices Optical for durability, size and price == good move - I don't want to watch DVDs on a small thing like that anyway. I *do* however, want to use OpenOffice in a pinch.
+ No extra custom gadget connectivity stuff needed. Supports all standard ports out of the box. Means: Ready for universal flexible use. Cheap.
+ No obscure custom purpose 'Pocket OS'. Linux beats Palm OS any time of the day.
+ Linux preinstalled, Debian Variant being a big bonus. I'm a programmer and an IT pro. I want to use a Computer, not a pimped out virii-ridden slowpocking typewriter that needs DirectX to render it's desktop.
Now only if I could get one. These things are hard to come by right now.
A new Operating System (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a Macbook, and I love it. But if I wanted something on a budget that was going to be my utility system for lugging around and doing office-type tasks, the last thing I'd want to use is a full-blown desktop OS. There really needs to be a new kind of system designed for portable machines that's designed for ease of use, low power consumption, and high grades of flexibility without needing to wade through a typical desktop interface.
If I were designing a new OS for one of these systems, I'd want something that handled software installation and deletion similarly to OS X. You drag a file into Applications or wherever, and it runs when you click it. I would want accessory and connectivity options designed along the lines of a
PDA - illustrative graphical things you toggle on and off with virtual switches. I'd want a heavily customized and graphically streamlined version of Open Office to handle documents. A modified version of Firefox made to work within the context of a special application control bar similar to a combination of the OS X task bar and the Windows tray.
Linux is just not a good platform for something like this as it currently stands. I for one never want to worry about whether or not my glibc is the right fucking version before I install software. (It's been a while since I used a mainstream distro for longer than a few days) And I know that if I don't want to know it, my mom sure the hell wouldn't when she saw a neat new gadget to install on her email device.
Insofar as hardware goes, I think Intel has the right processor coming out with Atom. If a system like I just described was written from the ground up, a gigabyte of RAM should be plenty - but go for two so you can use one as a disk cache for even more speed improvement. Again, a custom OS and streamlined applications could be easily done within a few gigabytes of hard drive. And there's no reason an 8G internal flash source wouldn't work with an option to slot in another 8 or so with the latest flash technologies for media storage and application space.
Dual-core CPU's wouldn't necessarily be needed if you're not loading up a monster desktop OS. Just take a look at what Nokia has managed with the N8XX line, which for all its faults is still a damn nice little piece of hardware. It runs Linux, so packaging is a clusterfuck, and at least the N770 takes a while to boot - then runs slowly - but those can be overcome with RAM upgrades.
I rant too much.
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Easiest way to achieve balance: (Score:3, Funny)
Battery Life (Score:3, Insightful)
Small notebook features (Score:3, Interesting)
1. It is dependable - it boots quickly, runs the full duration of its battery life (2.5-3 Hrs), warns politely when battery is dying with time to recover, and charges up in a couple of hours, even from an inverter plugged in the lighter socket in my car. Quick charging is a real blessing. It draws 25 watts while running AND charging, less if just running!!! Amazing.
2. It is durable, small, and light- No drive means it is not fragile and I don't have to worry whether I will crash the drive. It is amazing how convenient it is to have on hand when needed. Going to a hotspot just means grabbing the little gadget and going in. Less than 1 Kg is hard to beat.
3. Screen is sharp and legible - Though I would like it somewhat bigger and with more resolution, the screen is amazingly sharp and pleasant to read from. Only drawback is that it shows fractional web pages but that is usually a minor problem. The size and form factor of the device make for a very nice "Belly Telly" for watching movies while reclining.
4. USB ports are very useful - I had to edit a resume while out of town, had no printer, went to Wally World and bought a $35 HP deskjet, plugged it in, and printed my resume. No muss, no fuss, no bother. It already had drivers for the printers so it just worked. NICE... 2.5" USB hard drives hold lots of movies for extended trips away from civiilization. USB DVD drive allows viewing DVDs.
5. Wireless has good sensitivity and is amazingly seamless. I go to a hotspot, turn it on, click a couple of times, and am online. No worries whether a windows trojan will be downloaded, and the wireless just works.
6. The screen makes a good bookreader for non DRM (the only kind of Ebooks I consider anyway) books. It is very legible, no fatigue from reading from it, and it has an OK bookreader provided.
7. Great way to download audiobooks from librivox.org or podiobooks.com and then listen to them or transfer them to an SD card for use in an
8. Audio system is credible and it plays most audio formats seamlessly. When SDHC cards grow in capacity, I have considered getting and dedicating one of these gadgets to playing my collection of
9. USB thumb drives are now available in 8+ GB capacity. I use one for temporary movie storage and put a movie or two on the thumb drive to watch and then delete. I just saw 16 GB USB drives so it looks like capacity will be little trouble with this device.
10. The keyboard is too small for long term heavy use but for editing a document and for navigating the Internet it is just fine. Of course, with USB one can plug in a bigger keyboard if needed, and even plug in a VGA display to have a full size machine.
11. Finally, Cost - $400 is a price point nobody else seems to take seriously. In the car market, people see a small car, built with precision and artistry, and decide to compete with a larger more expensive car. Ultimately you get to SUVs when it all plays out. The competitors for the Eee PC seem to be bigger, heavier, more expensive, and maybe marginally more functional but somehow people forgot the original idea.
What price point? (Score:3, Interesting)
I was ecstatic to find a Dell Vostro deal a couple weeks ago where you could get an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB 7200RPM disk, 15.4" glossy 1680x1050 display, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB, 8x DVD dual-layer burner, Intel 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR for around $1000 (USD).
That's a pretty decent machine, for a thousand dollars. It's not an XPS, or an uber-gaming rig, and it's way more than what you need to just browse the web and check your email. But for what I like to do (run virtual machine instances, test out apps, play some recent PC games) it's perfect.
If all you need is web and email access with document and spreadsheet software, the Asus EEE PC and (rapidly arriving) competitors is great. It's small, light, and good enough.
If you want to run memory- or disk- or video-intensive apps, obviously the EEE PC doesn't work for that.
All of us here on Slashdot need to remember that not everyone uses their PC in the same way.
Re:depends on your salary (Score:5, Insightful)
The low end on this HP is under $500. I'd say if it takes me an extra hour to get Suse tweaked just right on this box then my time is worth over $1300 an hour.
Even with extra ram, a hard drive and suse - I'm still going to come in a thousand or more under the comparable apple.
Re:depends on your salary (Score:5, Funny)
That everything works? I mean EVERYTHING. Temperature sensors and webcam and all... No, you lie. No one can do that. In under a year? No, you said under one hour. YEAH RIGHT.
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good luck with your Suse system when you need to run MS Office for compatibility reasons, or Photoshop or basically any app found in the bussiness world.
If you are a student, then yeah, time have no value, to use suse.
I use Linux too. But I use it on my servers and the laptops that have to work with servers. but I don't use it on my bussiness or personal laptops.
Re:depends on your salary (Score:4, Insightful)
I wouldn't want to work with office or photoshop on an air or the 2133 - that is not the point. I want something that size to be mobile. Suse is great for browsing, email, and if I needed to I could even handle office docs sufficiently.
I don't work in the business world - I work in the tech world and there isn't really anything I can't do, that I need to do, with a linux box.
What problems have you found with OOo? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Who all uses macros? (Score:2)
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Re:depends on your salary (Score:4, Insightful)
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That is perfect.
It's also not what the OLPC project offers, at least not yet. Each laptop costs closer to US$200, and there's no Internet infrastructure included (unless you mean the mesh networking, which could be implemented on just about any 802.11 device given an appropriate driver).
And, having received my Give One, Get One laptop just yesterday, I can say that while the industrial design of the laptop is sublime, I do wish it had a little more horsepower u
Re:OLPC (Score:4, Interesting)
Are we asking for small, or cheap? Pick one... (Score:5, Interesting)
* About 6lbs.
* Celeron 1.6 single-core with a 533 memory bus.
* 512megs RAM, 80gig SATA, DVD-read, CD-R/RW.
* Intel 945 video.
* PCMCIA slot.
* Atheros WiFi.
This is about the same horsepower as the recent crop of "ultra-lights", with more disk space of course.
I dropped an extra gig in it for cheap and nuked Vista Home Basic immediately for Ubuntu. I'm typing this on it now, with Ubuntu Gutsy. I have full Compiz support although the limited graphics speed seems to limit the "cube" to a two-sided plane (two desktops) with full speed. I also have VirtualBox and Windows XP running perfectly.
I even run whole-disk encryption with TrueCrypt with no noticeable speed penalty.
It's been dropped twice and survived a water-glass spill that nuked the WiFi card but that was a $20 fix. It's been carried *daily*, used hard and runs like a champ still.
This low-budget critter is enough to make anybody re-think the need for anything more potent, if you're running Linux.
I mention all this to establish what performance baseline is really needed today.
I wouldn't trade this critter for anything physically smaller, but then again I'm a big guy and am not bothered by running a sizeable "messenger bag" style laptop case.
Finally, thumbs up to Acer for offering a cheap, tough and useful as hell little critter.
Thumbs down to Micro$loth for fostering a crapware OS on them...
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That's the whole point right there. 6lb is a LOT more than 2lbs. 6lbs, you might just leave your messenger bag in the car sometimes because you just don't wanna sling it
2lbs, you'd barely notice it.
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Re:OLPC (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheap, small laptops in the next year or two will be very popular though. People will be cutting back. They're not going to buy something fancy, they'll get something that will do the job. As long as it does the full internet, does their email, has information manager functionality, they'll be happy.
It's not about CPU power in this form factor, unless you do something silly like running Vista on the device. The iPhone shows that you can have a slick, smooth interface, fully featured (um, cut and paste excepted) that works well for the user, on a mere 412MHz ARM11 CPU. I suspect that some tasks (music decoding) are offloaded to the ARM9 on another chip in the system that has acceleration for that. Oh, there's also an ARM7 in that other chip. Probably ARM7s in the wireless controller too. Intel - you really think you can compete when something like an iPhone has so many ARMs to slap you about with?
Oh, I digress for a bad joke. Anyway, it's about the software and its optimisation. Linux has a grand chance here to shine on the lesser hardware.
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Don't forget the silence and no-maintenance aspect that going completely passively cooled and solid-state affords you. And even in a desktop system all the other issues apart from computing speed become important once you experience the difference.
Such other concerns are the whole raison d'etre of silentpcreview.com. There have been some clever cases designed for silence, but they lack the elegence of a small enclosed box that never needs to have filters cleaned or the worry that a fan will seize at an inopportune time.
With the release of the Intel Atom and the Via Isaiah I suspect that it will be only a matter of time before we get the desktop system with essentially no downside. Which is why I'm waiting for it, because at that point the upgrade cycle will likely be over for me. Maybe there will be a killer app coming along, but we are 4 cores into the parallelization path of more CPU horsepower and I haven't seen it yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIA_Isaiah [wikipedia.org]
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