Do you really want the VIA Nano in an HP Mini? I don’t think so

HpmininoteI’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the comment "I can’t wait for the HP Mini-note to get a VIA Nano inside!" or some derivative thereof. We reviewed HP’s netbook with the current VIA C7-M running at 1.6 GHz and the new Nano is a pin-for-pin match of the C7. Folks are making the leap that a simple CPU swap by HP will reap big rewards in terms of performance. They’d be correct, since the Nano is magnitudes faster than the older C7-M but you can’t forget the other side of the equation. It’s the one we always have to consider with mobile computing devices: the see-saw with processing performance on one side and power usage on the other.

Reading through some of the recent comparisons between the Intel Atom and the VIA Nano today (you can find them here and here)only underscores this point. Remember that the 1.6 GHz Intel Atomshrinks its TDP or Thermal Design Power rating to 2.6 Watts under load.The TDP for a VIA Nano at 1.8 GHz? It maxes out at 25 Watts. That’sdoesn’t imply that the Nano constantly uses ten times more batterypower than the Atom, but it’s a large difference that will surelyimpact runtime.

Let’s look at this another way: the current HP Mininote runs the 1.6GHz C7-M. Maximum TDP for that processor? 8W, or roughly a third of thenew Nano. Of course, the other components come into play for any mobiledevice as they all use a certain amount of power. But if HP decided toput the Nano inside the Mininote, they’d have two choices: increase thebattery size to maintain the 2.5 hours of runtime on a standard battery(double that with the 6-cell) or drastically reduce the amount ofadvertised runtime. For some folks, that would be fine: they’ll wantmore power than the C7-M offers. They just have to remember that whenthey sit on the performance side of the see-saw, the power usage sidewill above their head and shoulders.

I’m still very much looking forward to the new VIA Nano asit’s a step forward for VIA and brings more competition to the playingfield. However, I think it might be better suited to a standardnotebook that can handle a larger battery… not a netbook like the HP Mini-note. For a compromise between power and performance, HP is better to either stick with the VIA C7-M or consider an Intel Atom.

(via Engadget)

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