There has been a lot of excitement around some of the small, inexpensive mini-notebooks out there. One in particular that is getting a lot of attention is the Asus EeePC, with models currently priced from $299 to $499.

The Eee PC sports a 7” screen, is very small and light with a small and fast solid state drive with pre-installed Linux and basic applications. The industry certainly needs some excitement these days, but after using one of these for a few months, I wonder if consumers really understand the trade-offs versus a full-sized notebook at the same price.

I wanted to compare what $499 could get me between a mini-notebook (mini-note) and a full sized notebook (full-note) so I bought a Asus Eee PC 8G mini-note and an HP Compaq Presario F756NR full-note and have been using both for a while.

The mini-note has some strengths versus the full-note at the same price:

• Size and weight: The mini-note is less than half the weight (5.68 lbs vs. 2.02 lbs), less than half the size and fits on any airline tray table I sat in front of. It was really easy to use in my living room on my lap and even the kitchen as well.

• Simplicity: Although the mini-note had more icons off of the main tabs than the full-note, the tabbed environment seemed simpler to navigate. (1) The inability to add additional software could be simpler, I suppose. The other enjoyable thing was the lack of windows popping up telling you that you need to check into every single thing from virus scanners, to firewalls, and software registrations.

• Cold-boot and shut-down: On average, the mini-note took 76 less seconds (171%) from cold boot to internet and took 27 less seconds (338%) to fully shut down. The Presario only took 2 seconds more (33%) to go into standby, but interestingly, was faster from standby to internet by 21 seconds (168%). (2)

In my next blog, I am going to examine some of the big tradeoffs users will need to consider when deciding between a mini-notebook and a full-sized notebook at the same price.

(1) The Compaq had 9 desktop icons and 23 options from start icon for a total of 32. The Eee PC had 45 icons off of the main tabs.

(2) Average of three runs. “Internet” for the Presario was indicated by the globe icon appearing in the systray and the Eee PC by the appearance of the wireless LAN connection icon. “Standby” for the Presario was indicated by the blue blinking power button and for the Eee PC, by the green, blinking power LED.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President of Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.