Archive for the ‘netbook’ Category
Atom + ION: empty promise? Certainly compared to CULV!
CULV Acer Aspire 1810TZ trounces HP Mini 311 ION in every way that matters to me
Straight up: despite the hype, while the Atom/ION platform provides some advantage over a conventional netbook on at least some real world applications, it does not begin to compare to the dual core CULV machines that share the same form factor and similar pricing.
The CULV Aspire Timeline 1810TZ with a dual core Pentium U4100 and Windows 7 Home Premium is two to three times faster than the HP Mini 311 with Atom 270, W7HP, and the full ION, on all of the things that matter to me…and it does, with ease, things the HP Mini still simply can not do well, or do at all.
Pairing the nVidia ION graphics accelerator with an Atom 270 is like pairing an energetic professinal sprinter (nVidia ION graphics acceleration) with a six-year-old (Atom processor) for the three legged race. There are portions of the course where the sprinter carries most of the weight and they go faster than the six-year-old can on his own, but for most of the course, the pair are pretty much limited to the six-year-old’s pace…certainly, tied leg to leg, they never achieve the pace you would expect, or hope for, from a professional sprinter.
Of course, if you allow the sprinter to pick the 6-year-old up and carry him, they do go, at least for a short time, faster. You see a lot of bench-marks published for the HP Mini 311 where that is essentially what they have done. In the real world the course is much more varied, and very few programs are written to allow the sprinter to do all the work.
On the other hand, in the CULV machine, you have an enthusiastic 14-year-old gamer (the GM4500 integrated graphic acceleration) paired leg to leg with a talented advanced amateur sprinter (child of a pro, maybe not turned pro yet but showing the breeding of one: the ULV processor, often dual core). They might not match the speed of the pro-sprinter, and they might not even match the full possible speed of the amateur, but they certainly will, and do, run circles around the Atom/ION pair. At least, as I say, in any three legged race that matters to me.
If you want to know how I came to this conclusion: read on.
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If you are in the market for a slightly bigger, more powerful, higher resolution, alternative to a conventional Atom Netbook, as I recently have been, you have basically two choices:
1) An ION powered super netbook like the 11.6 inch, 1366×768 resolution, HP Mini 311…or…
2) A CULV powered, 11.6 or 12.1 inch mini-laptop (thin-and-light) with the same screen resolution, like the Acer Aspire One 1410s/Timeline 1810s, or the Asus U20.
The ION platform pairs a conventional netbook Atom 270 or 280 processor with the nVidia ION Graphics Accelerator. This combination, in theory, should boost performace just where netbooks are weakest, in the graphics department.
The CULV machines (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) come with low voltage versions of the processors that power real computers: single and dual core Centrinos, Pentiums, and Core2s, paired with integrated GM4500 graphics acceleration. The low voltage requirement means they do not have the full processing power of their larger siblings, but they do provide incredible (by last year’s standards) battery life, and large bump up in general processing power from the Atoms.
On the graphics front, there is no doubt that the discrete ION acceleration engine is much more powerful, and potentially considerably faster, than the integrated GM4500 graphics engine that runs with the CULV machines.
I recently, kind of by accident, ended up testing both an HP Mini 311 ION based machine and a CULV Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ. Long story, but the gist is that I installed all my work-a-day applications on both machines and compared performance side by side, doing the kinds of things I do everyday on my netbook/laptop, and the kinds of things I want to be able to do, but could not on my trusty netbook.
My previous travel workhorse was the 10 inch, Atom based, Windows XP Acer Aspire One 250, about which I have nothing but good to say, and I have owned and used two other Celeron based netbooks from Asus, a 7 inch Linux machine, and a 10 inch XP, both with SSDs instead of hard drives.
What I need my travel computer to do is:
1) all my net based stuff, surfing, twitter, facebook, smugmug, flickr, gmail, google reader, etc. etc: so basically the machine must run Chrome really well. Adobe AIR is a strong second since I use some AIR based twitter and facebook clients.
2) process and catalog my images on the road: it has to run Lightroom, and should run PhotoShop Elements (ideally at the same time).
3) display decent quality steaming video from Hulu and CBS.com. I don’t watch TV…but I do follow some shows on the internet.
4) open and do some light editing on MicroSoft Office documents: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Office, or one of the immitations, must run at least okay.
5) manage my iTunes library and my iPhone apps: iTunes 9 is right at the limits of what an Atom processor is up to, believe one who has a lot of experience.
My Aspire One handles all that relatively well. Lightroom and PhShEl at the same time is painful, but marginally possible. Editing a PPT on a screen that small can be done…just.
What I want my new machine to do, that the Aspire One could never handle, is:
6) play 720 HD video from my camera: QuickTime? Windows Media Player? Media Player Classic? Don’t care. It just as to work. (My Aspire One could just about manage Media Player Classic…if I shut down everything else, and ignored the occasional abrupt jump in the video.)
7) edit 720 HD video: much harder. I never did find a program that would come even close on the Aspire One.
So, with those needs in mind, and mindful of the new ION and CULV offerings, along about Thanksgiving, I went shopping. I spent two days reading reviews and studying specs, and then ordered the HP Mini 311 with ION graphics and Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit. Again, part of the long story, but a week later I ordered an Aspire Timeline 1810TZ with dual core Pentium su4100, with integrated GM45oo graphic acceleration, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
I now have both machines, and I have installed all my software on each. I upgraded the HP to 3 Gigs of memory, and the Aspire came with 3 Gigs. I enabled ReadyBoost on both, using identical SanDisk Cruzer flash drives. And I have run tests on the things that matter to me. Not scientific. Not bench-marks. Just press Start on an action and the stopwatch on my iPhone at the same time, and hit stop when the action finishes. Twice. Once on each machine using identical files and identical actions. I also tested HD video in various players, Hulu full screen, and garnered an impression of routine acts like sliding the sliders in Lightroom, scrolling in Adobe AIR apps and Chrome, etc.
Results, in no particular order. And remember, the HP Mini is already faster than the Aspire One 250 in almost every action, by at least a noticeable amount.
PhotoShop Elements 7.o
Smart Adjust action on same image
HP: 10 sec./Acer: 4.8 sec.
Unsharp Mask, radius 30, amount 18
HP: 8 sec./Acer: 1.3 sec.
Adjust colors: + 2 blue:
HP: 2.8 sec./Acer: 1.1 sec.
Filter: Brush strokes; ink outline
HP: 12.5 sec./Acer: 9 sec.
Lightroom
export jpeg to disk: (includes rendering changes on original file as well as saving to disk)
HP: 12.5 sec. /Acer: 3.9 sec.
edit psd copy with Lr changes in PhShEl
(from pressing start to image open in PhShEl, includes time to render copy, open PhShEl, load image)
HP: 33 sec. /Acer: 10 sec.
Switch modules and load image for development.
HP: 7.3 sec. /Acer: 2.4 sec. (takes longer the first time the Dev. module is used)
Windows Movie Maker
2 min. video from 720 HD file, with title, save to disk as .avi
HP: 11:50 sec. / Acer: 5:06 sec.
Cyberlink Director 8
same vid with transition saved as .avi
HP: 4:54 sec. /Acer: 1:39 sec.
In addition:
The Acer plays 720p HD video in QuickTime Player without stutters. HP will not.
There is a very slight delay in Lightroom sliders on the HP. None on the Acer.
The Acer plays 720p HD clips in the edit module of Corel VideoStudio 2x just fine. HP will not. In fact, HD video editing is very possible on the Acer using either Corel or Cyberlink. It is problematic on the HP at best.
Both machines play Hulu streaming video at full screen very smoothly.
Scrolling in Seesmic Desktop (Adobe AIR app) is noticeably faster and smoother on the Acer, as is scrolling in Chrome…but both are enough better than the Aspire One to make the differences between the HP and Acer insignificant.
It is not that the HP Mini 311 is slow…it is significantly faster than a conventional Atom netbook in most routine actions, even in Lightroom and PhotoShop Elements. It is just not at all fast compared to a CULV, dual core machine like the Aspire.
So, not scientific at all. But enough so that the HP Mini is going back to Amazon, and the Aspire Timeline 1810TZ will be my new travel computer. No doubt. The HP Mini with ION might excel in a few tasks, and with a few apps, but day-in and day-out, at least the way I work and the way my days go, the CULV based Timeline 1810TZ is simply the more capable machine.
Ideal Netbook USB Hub!
Every one of the Netbooks I have owned so far (4, but who is counting? 2 Asus, 1 Acer, 1 HP) have had the same USB problem. 3 ports, two on the right and one on the left. 3 is often just not enough. If you use a mouse, there goes one. If you have a portable external drive, there goes another. If you then want to transfer files to or from a USB flash drive, or attach an external optical drive, or a card reader, or your ipod…or all of them at once…
And, so far, on every machine I have owned the two ports on the right are simply too close together. There is no way you can plug two flash drives in there at the same time, and even one flash drive and anything else is a problem, unless the USB cable on the second device is much more dainty than usual.
And worse, anything you plug into the right side USB ports sticks out into your mouse space and is forever in the way when you are mousing around. Invariably you run into the USB cable or flash drive just short of being able to drop the file you are dragging into the destination folder. Hassle!
Therefore an external USB hub is a really attractive accessory for the Netbook. I recently stumbled on what may be the best USB hub for a Netbook. It is certainly the best I have yet found.
It is from igogear, and its obvious attraction is that the ports are in the top of the device, well spaced, so you can plug almost anything in there without issue. Not so obvious, but even better, is the built in mini-USB connector tucked away in the side of the unit. The packaging says it is for charging devices with mini-USB charging ports, but in fact, checking the more complete description on the igogear website reveals that it is a fully functioning USB mini port, capable of both charging and data transfer. That means if, as I do, you regularly use a portable drive to extend the drive space of your Netbook (my current HP Mini has a generous 250 gig HD, but that fills up fast when working with photos, video, and music), you can plug the hub into a single USB port, uncoil the mini-USB cord and plug, and attach the HD directly to the hub. That leaves you with all three USB hub ports still open. Plus you eliminate one USB cord from your workspace. How cool is that?
This is harder to describe than it is to see…take a close look at the pic. That’s my wireless mouse receiver sticking up, and you can see the protable Seagate FreeAgent drive attached directly to the hub. No mess. No fuss. Elegant.
The price is right too. Check it out on the igogear site. I got mine for $10 on sale at Target. What a deal!
Netbooks for the Traveling Photographer: take two
Acer Aspire One 10in. on top. HP Mini 311. Dell 13.1 inch below.
[NOTE: while much of this is still true, I have now replaced the HP Mini 311 with a CULV based Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ. To see why, read Atom + ION: empty promise?]
Just over a year ago I wrote a piece on my Point & Shoot Landscape Blog called Netbooks for Traveling Photographers. It is among the most popular posts I have ever written, and is still getting regular hits a year later. It is still worth a read if you are new to the subject of Netbooks, and have specific questions on how they manage a photographic work-flow.
Until a week ago I was still using the Acer Aspire One 250 that is described in that article. I have processed more than 2000 thousand images, primarily in Lightroom, on that little Netbook in the past year. I have had no reason to regret my choice and I still highly recommend a Netbook to any photographer who spends much time on the road. It is hard to match the simple portability, and they are certainly powerful enough from all but the most demanding tasks. And, there is nothing quite like a Netbook for ease of doing all the daily stuff you need a computer for. Load up a browser (I use Chrome for preference), subscribe to a Google account, and you can do email, calendar, news feeds, Twitter, FaceBook, etc. etc. With a copy of ThinkFree or Open office (or even the real MicroSoft Office), you can even tweak the occasional PowerPoint for work…or run numbers in Excel: all on a machine that requires very little effort to carry. I have made two trips to Europe in the past year without my work laptop: just carried my Blackberry and my Netbook and I was good to go.
Within the past five months, however, I have gotten more heavily into HD video, and, while you can edit HD on a conventional Atom powered Netbook like the Aspire One, no one would claim that it is an enjoyable experience.
Lightroom's Develop Module on the Aspire One
About that same time, the first announcements of a new class of Thin and Light laptops, some not much bigger than your average Netbook, began to appear. The smallest of the Thin and Lights are 11.6-12.1 inch screen machines with a screen resolution of 1366×768 (16/9 wide screen, HD video format), and are powered by the new CULV processors from Intel (Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage). The CULV processors come in various shades of single and dual core, and are based on the more powerful processors used in real laptops. They are several times as powerful as the Atom processors used in Netbooks, but due to low voltage circuits, get just as good battery life. They are paired with the more capable Intel integrated GM4500 graphics as well.
Lr's Develop Module on the HP Mini's larger screen
Also, about that time the first ION based Netbooks began to be announced: primarily in the form of the HP Mini 311. This Netbook combines an 11.6 inch, 1366×768 screen with the same Atom processor found in the majority of Netbooks, but uses the NVIDA ION graphics processor instead of the usual Intel integrated GM950 graphics. Since graphic performance, especially the ability to render complex 3D graphics and video streams, is one area where Netbooks are noticeably deficient, the ION platform, at least on paper, offers the promise of real improvement. For one thing, today’s graphics rich OSs should be a lot happier on an ION based machine.
Couple that with the Adobe announcement of an upgraded Flash plugin which specifically takes advantage of the graphics acceleration offered by the ION and GM4500 graphics processors, and we are beginning to see some new possibilities opening for Netbook sized laptops.
As important as HD video was to my deliberations as I read the first reviews of the new machines, one of the major reasons I was looking was screen resolution. After a year of living with the 1024×600 10 inch screen on the Aspire One, I was beginning to feel just a little cramped. 1366×768? I could imagine how Lightroom would look on a screen that big (big being relative…I was determined to say as close to the Netbook form factor as possible: I really value the portablilty!)
Suffice it to say that I did my research and opted for the HP Mini 311 with ION Graphics. For one thing, while more expensive than a conventional 10 inch Atom powered Netbook, it was still less expensive than the dual core CULV machines. For another, reviewers rated the ION graphics performance significantly higher than the GM4500, and the new Flash beta is optimized for ION at a slightly higher level than it is for the Intel chipset.
And, perhaps as important in the end, the HP was available when I was ready to buy and the dual core Aspire 1810T (my other strong contender) was not. On such little things the tides of decision turn…at least, it seems, my decisions!
PhotoShop Element's Camera Distortion Filter
So far the HP Mini 311 has met all my expectations. It is not too much larger than my Aspire One. It still fits in the same over the shoulder backpack I used for the Aspire. The extra screen real-estate makes a huge difference in viewing images and working in Lightroom (not to mention Powerpoint and Excel). With 3 Gigs of memory installed, it runs both Lightroom and PhotoShop Elements at the same time…flicking back and forth between them instantly. And it runs both programs faster than the Aspire One ever managed. The speed increase in noticeable and welcome in Lightroom, on every operation, but especially on complex actions like the graduated filter effects…but it is totally amazing on PhSElements, turning a real sluggard, which crashed way too often, into a working proposition for the first time in my experience on a Netbook. This has significantly changed my post-processing work flow already, making it possible for me to use PhotoShop Elements as my external editor while running Lightroom: for those times I need to apply layers, local edits, or use, for instance, the Correct Camera Distortion filter (see Distortion City…and how to cure it! on P&S Landscapes). Slick.
With the Atom processor, HD video editing is still a challenge, but along with the new computer I discovered a new video editor: Corel Video Studio 12, which does the trick of creating low resolution stand in files for HD video as you import it into a project, so your editing is done quickly and easily, and then the edits are applied to the original HD files when the final project is burned to disk. Corel runs just fine on the HP Mini 311.
HD Video in Windows Media Player
The 311 even runs HULU desktop…something it should not, by the specs, do. And, with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta installed, it does really well on HD video from YouTube or other streaming sites. Windows Media Player handles raw MP4 video straight from the camera with ease. Impressive. Watching an HD video on a 1366×768 16/9 ratio screen is, in fact, a real pleasure.
I should mention that the HP Mini 311 I bought came with Windows 7 Home Premium. It provided my first experience of Windows 7, and while I will never be a real fan of Windows, it is the best implementation I have seen yet, and seems well suited to the Atom/ION platform. It is notably faster in almost every operation than Windows XP, at least on the 311, and many of the rough edges of XP seem to have been well and intelligently smoothed. Every program I rely on has, so far, run at least as well under 7 as it did under XP, and maybe even a bit better.
It is still Windows, of course.
I will have to wait for more extensive reviews of the newer CULV machines to see my somewhat impulsive buy was, in the end, for the best…but I am very impressed with the HP Mini 311. In another year there will undoubtedly be CULV machines with more powerful graphics processors. Combine the CPU power and a dedicated graphics accelerator and you would have a Netbook sized machine to rival almost any laptop on the market. We will see. Nothing is forever, but for now my HP Mini is pretty much this photographers dream of the mobile image processing station!
Corel VideoStudio 12
almost full sized key board for very easy typing.
