Ion-Based Netbooks Compared — Which One Wins?

It seems as if we’ve been waiting forever for netbooks equipped with Nvidia’s ION chips to hit the shelves. The ION kit should make for a better platform for netbooks, especially in the graphics department. Netbook diva Joanna Stern of Engadget has put four ION-based netbooks to the test, and has published her findings. As cheap as netbooks can be, it is important to realize that the four netbooks Joanna has tested range in price from $475 to $650, a healthy range for cheap notebooks.

The evaluation covers units from Lenovo, HP, Samsung and ASUS, all in the 11.6 or 12.1-inch form. Interestingly, while the ION promises better performance than the cheaper Atom, Engadget felt that these netbooks were more laggy than the Atom variety. I suspect that has to do with the higher screen resolution, but it’s something to consider when shelling out more money than for the typical Atom-based netbook.

Check out the review for the overall winner, but with each of the four winning in one or more categories, they seem to be pretty evenly matched. That means cheapest wins in my book.

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