Netbook Reviews

When looking for a netbook, you might not even consider which processor it uses, and will probably find it uses an Intel Atom CPU, most likely the N270 or N280.

Intel are clearly leading the way with the Atom CPU, with the vast majority of netbooks using the 1.6GHz Atom N270, and some newer models with the slightly faster 1.66GHz (and faster front side bus) Atom N280.

But AMD with their Athlon Neo, and Via with their Nano are moving in on the netbook CPU market.

So which netbook processor is best? Well, Cnet Crave have done a little show down between the Atom vs Nano Vs Neo. And long story short, unfortunately the tests didn’t show any real winner. With each processor performing better than the next at different tasks.

The Asus Eee PC 1000HE was used to test the Atom N280, the Samsung NC20 for the Via Nano U2250, and the HP Pavilion dv2 for the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40.

The Atom N280 proved best for multi-tasking, while the Via Nano U2250 was quickest at iTunes encoding, and the AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 was the quickest through a Jalbum-based benchmark.

For many battery life and the CPU power drain is more important that pure performance, but as these CPUs were tested in different netbooks, it’s hard to test.