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For the past two years, virtually every netbook released has shipped with an Intel Atom processor and integrated graphics. A few mini-laptops with 12 inch displays shook things up a bit with NVIDIA ION graphics or Broadcom HD video accelerators, but the truth is that if you look at the performance section of most of my netbook reviews over the last few years you won’t find a lot of surprises.
That could all change this year, now that we’re starting to see 10 and 12 inch mini-notebooks with AMD processors and ATI graphics. Engadget has posted the first detailed reviews I’ve seen of the Acer Aspire One 521 and 721 , which have 10.1 inch and 11.6 inch displays respectively, and one of the latest AMD chips for low cost, low power ultraportables.
While neither model got spectacular battery life, each laptop was able to run for 3.5 hours or longer on a charge which isn’t horrible — and it’s a big improvement over previous budget laptops with AMD chips.
