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Asus Takes Another Stab at Revolutionizing Netbook Market
Perhaps most well known for their netbook innovations with the Eee PC, Asus is at it again with their latest rollout at CeBIT Germany. The "Waveface Light," a new concept laptop, can be used as a conventional laptop or converted to a tablet by removing the keyboard and opening it to a completely flat position. Sounds like either a stroke of genius or a "small widget broke and now it's worthless" design issue.
Anything sufficiently different to be radical (in either a good or bad way) won't be considered a netbook.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Thing looks remarkable. If it works as advertised, the main thing I'd want to know is what operating system runs on it?
The "Waveface Light," a new concept laptop can be used as a conventional laptop or converted to a tablet by removing the pc and opening it to a completely flat position.
run that by me again
In response I can see Apple introducing: the iSheet....
Umm, get a $399 ION netbook problem solved?
So they've ripped off the Always Innovating Tablet and are calling it their idea?
And somehow I don't think the Always Innovating tablet was the first.
In response I can see Apple introducing: the iSheet....
Casper would claim prior art.
. . . not that that ever stopped Apple or the USPTO before.
The ION is a good step in the right direction, but (in my opinion) it is still a bit lacking. Don't get me wrong, it's a vast improvement on GMA, but it's still just one step. From what I've seen though, the ION 2 is going to be a big improvement. I haven't looked it up but are any of the ION 2-equipped netbooks available to purchase yet?
Living With a Nerd
Or possibly the EeePad.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Right now an engineer at Intel is slapping his forehead and saying, out loud, "Why didn't I think of that? We should have been trying to make faster chips that use less power all along!"
Whale
It's a shame that, even after being stripped down with vLite, Windows 7 is still so huge. It runs REALLY REALLY smoothly on netbooks (even lower powered ones), but the amount of storage space it commands is just too much.
Living With a Nerd
They already use a tablet-laptop (image) and every child in every school has one.
Yeah, old news, is so exciting.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
I think they'd sell a lot more if they made these full size.
Theres no reason you can't put an atom chip in a laptop with a 14 inch screen and a real keyboard.
I suspect the only reason this isn't happening is because Intel would be cannibalizing their "real" laptop sales.
Windows XP is lightweight compared to a modern Gnome or KDE system.
See the videos below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTmzBsx6p_I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceHb98Ri4BE
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Storage isn't a problem when netbooks come with 2.5" SATA disks.
So, you don't actually want a netbook (a cheap, low powered laptop for surfing the web), you just want a regular small laptop? Buy a regular small laptop then.
I'm waiting for the "convertible" laptop / netbook that has the electronics package behind the screen and all that's in the keyboard part is the keyboard and maybe an optical drive or two. With the two pieces together it'd be just like what we have now - or you could detach the screen and use it as a fully featured tablet. Best of both worlds - but there's some engineering to do before this can become a real product.
My question is what is the price point for this machine?
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
it's an innovative "new" concept, that has been shipping for several months, in the form of the http://alwaysinnovating.com/ touchbook
No, I want a laptop with a 9" or 10" screen that can play semi-modern games (Civilization IV being a good example) at lower to medium settings without running at 5 frames per second.
What, in your opinion, defines something as a small laptop or a netbook? Can you point me to a 9" machine and say "that's a small laptop" and then a different 9" machine and say "that's a netbook"?
Living With a Nerd
...if they'd ever release v2.
I think you are missing the point of netbooks. What you want would add to the quality of the internal parts (cost), would use more power (battery life), and would need a large screen (Size).
What I, and the netbook users I know, are looking for, and using, is something that will have the battery life to make it through several classes (battery life) and is reasonably cheap (cost), light, and doesn't take up much space on the desk (size). I think you would be better served by a regular, or power user oriented, computer or laptop.
Then they are not decent netbooks. If it has a moving part I do not want it. Nothing is as durable cheaply nor as battery efficient as a netbook with no moving parts.
LXDE solves that problem.
Nowadays sure, but those of us with older ones (like a Dell Mini 9) are a bit limited in our storage options. I'm not paying 1/3rd of what I paid for the machine just to upgrade the storage space to a reasonable level, know what I mean?
I know that purchasing any netbook at this point would make this problem moot, but there are still netbooks out there that are fully functional with a lot of life left in them where storage is an expensive commodity. Being a Mini 9 owner is where my perspective comes from...it would be nice to get something newer, but my money is needed elsewhere at the moment -_-;;
Living With a Nerd
The problem is that net books can game. They can play old low powered games. New games are by nature designed to push limits on desktops. Netbooks by nature are not going to be able to run these games. Some laptops may be able to run some of the newest stuff at lower resolutions and with some eye candy turned down. Netbooks are minimalist by nature. Move on.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Your preferences differ from the millions who purchase netbooks with fans and hard disks.
It's like a concept car, meaning it looks cool but is probably just a mockup. Plus like a concept car it will never make it into production most likely.
I believe this has been attempted many times in the past, but when the users fire up their netbooks a few times only to find that everything still *just works*, and that there's no malware, there are no viruses, no unpatched or delay-patched exploits, they freak and ask for their *windows* back.
Being users finally "in control" of their systems only speeds up their return to lemminghood.
The revolution happened long ago - it's the self-professed Windows experts who've become immovable.
cheers,
Though no screen under the keyboard (if I understood the ASUS article right). http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/04/lenovos-u1-is-a-netbook-with-removable-tablet/
Not really...I have a relatively up to date desktop gaming machine, I'm just looking for something small to leave next to my couch so when we stream netflix/watch hockey or boxing I can still play modern games. Like I said, I'm not looking to play Crysis at max, nor am I expecting to play something at crazy high resolution at 16x AA...I just want to be able to play something like Civ 4 at medium settings...the nVidia ION is close to providing what I want (and in my price range), and the ION 2 looks like it's going to be even better.
I don't really want a full-size or even a small (14") laptop...I'm looking for a small machine (10", 11" absolute max) that I can easily see over and use for some light gaming. Hell, my Mini 9 can play things like Deus Ex and even Guild Wars (Guild Wars requires just about everything be pushed all the way down, but it is quite playable)...again, considering the ION, it can't cost that much more to make this happen. Who knows, there are already likely netbooks out there that can do what I want...I just haven't looked in the past year since I got my Mini 9 because I'm not going to buy one for another 6 months or so.
Living With a Nerd
Like I said, I'm not looking to play something like Bioshock 2 or Modern Warfare 2 on there...I just want something like Civ 4 on Medium settings to run at a playable pace. I know netbooks aren't designed for heavy gaming, but being able to play a game of Civ IV or logging on to WoW and keep things playable and not-ugly would be nice...at least, if for no other reason other than travel and as a cheap "guest" machine at a LAN.
Living With a Nerd
Alienware do a nice looking netbook. That should be able to game!
Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
Any time a hardware maker let design come before function, wonderful things came out, that wrote history. Computers: look at Apple. Cars: look at Saab. Aircraft: look at the Concorde. Go Asus go !
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
I agree with the parent poster...I LOVE that my netbook has no moving parts and runs silently.
Living With a Nerd
OK, a couple of things in the article and the youtube videos referenced in comments above imply (or directly state) that at least one of these objects has a flexible screen.
Anybody seen anything flex here? In the video it's all static and under glass so that people can't touch it, and the photos are completely static of course.
Are they touting a new tech or did I miss a big announcement of commonly available flexible displays?
You're talking about the M11x, yeah? It does look awesome and certainly has far more performance than I'm looking for, but I can't justify spending that much money on such a small system...~$800 would be a great "full-size" laptop :/ I know that's sort of like throwing your post back at you, sorry about that...
Living With a Nerd
I would assume that it being the CeBIT it is either a working prototype or a mock-up
Image of the open laptop: http://bit.ly/bjURNV
No thanks. I'll stick with Ubuntu on my Mini-9 and SSD drive. I have more storage than I need, no moving parts, a battery that lasts for-frigging-ever and no heads to impact the platters if I drop the netbook while it's on.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
don't you hate the phrase 'design concept', almost as much as people who believe that they will look like the production version, if they ever get to production.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
There are millions who don't know the difference, other than price. If my wife saw two identical-looking machines, one with an SSD drive, the other with a 2.5" SATA drive, she wouldn't even consider the difference in durability or battery life. She would complain about both things later, but at purchase time, she would go with the less expensive option (BTDT).
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
How much storage does yours have? My Mini-9 came with 32G of storage, of which I am currently using 52%, even after copying a bunch of crap to it. 'Course, I don't play the games you've mentioned above...
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Those are the folks that don't know any better. They often buy garbage.
I have one of those, buy a freaking SDHC card.
BlackBox is really lightweight. It's what I run on my dinosaur 700MHz Celeron desktop at home (yeah, I pretty much always use a laptop or netbook any more). OTOH, I wouldn't give it to someone who's never used Linux before.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Exactly.
You're missing the point of netbooks. Obligatory car analogy; do you buy a motorcycle (because it's portable) and then bemoan the fact that you can't carry four people on it?
Of course not.
No, you get a damn car. Similarly, you don't buy a tiny netbook with a 1.6ghz low powered single core, 1gb of ram and integrated video, and then absurdly expect that it would or should be capable of gaming. Want portable gaming? Buy an alienware.
I'm not upset that older netbooks can't do it, I just want a little more focus placed on it in the future. Look at the performance difference between an original EEE PC and the netbooks that are out on the market now...the difference is huge, with only a couple of years seperating them. I'm simply looking for enough of a performance bump so that I can do simple gaming without having to take a full-size laptop with me. Again, we aren't talking about Crysis with full AA here...we're talking about something like Civ IV being playable on medium. Do you think it's ludicrous to want my $400-500 modern machine to be able to run a game that is nearly 5 years old at HALF of what that game is capable of displaying?
That other poster was right, you're an absolute twit for thinking Intel simply didn't think to make their chips more powerful whilst still drawing the same power.
Again, I never said they didn't do it...I said they should do it in the future now that technology has caught up to the size. Thanks for the insult though, I appreciate it.
For the record, as far as I'm concerned, the netbook/laptop distinction is that netbooks have an Atom or ARM CPU (or AMD's offering, once they release it) and are no more than 11 inches. If a clamshell-style portable computer doesn't meet both of those conditions, it's a laptop.
So once the ION 2 systems become widely available...would you still consider that a netbook, despite their ability to (supposedly) play modern games?
Living With a Nerd
Small, Fast, Cheap, pick two.
You want all three, that is just not a realistic option.
Small, somewhat cheap, and slightly fast.
See? Cut two of them down, and suddenly all three are possible.
Living With a Nerd
I have an 8 gig Class 6 SDHC in there currently, and it's been great.
My SSD, however, is also an 8 gig. The cost of upgrading the SSD is about equal to upgrading to a larger SDHC. And before you ask, it was a gift, which is why I didn't get it with more internal storage in the first place.
Living With a Nerd
And plenty of us that do. Personally, all other things being equal, I'd prefer an SSD on a netbook, but all other things aren't equal.
IMO, though, a netbook is more defined by having a clamshell form factor, being ultraportable (a combination of screen size of about 12" or less, being thinner than most laptops, and low weight) and having battery life for 6+ hours of continuous operation than by the particular technology used to acheive those goals.
Definitely a mock-up. ASUS has no idea when it might become a real product. You can hear it straight from them.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
It came with the 8 gig SSD -_-;; It was a gift though...so..you know...free is good :-)
I don't need the increased storage for the games (I have an 8 gig Class 6 SDHC in there, which holds whatever I'm currently playing), I need the increased storage because there is only about a gig of free space even after cutting down Windows 7 with vLite. Even just a 16 gig SSD would be more than enough, I just haven't done it.
Living With a Nerd
Windows XP with no apps is a little lightweight compared to KDE bundled with countless KDE apps in total disc space.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I really don't see the point of detachable screen, detachable keyboard thing.
The swivel lid tablet laptops seem to work fine if you just want the screen and If weight is the issue I wouldn't want to leave the keyboard at home and then regret it later.
What did impress me was the DR-900 reader.
I've been waiting for a paperback replacement for a while and this seems like it for me.
The specs I found are 10,000 pages turns, 1024 x 768 resolution, 4GB internal storage plus an SD slot,PDF/TXT/ePUB/HTML.
Now if they can only sell it for $200 or less.
I'm aware of the difference, and I chose a much bigger and faster hard disk.
For me, the ideal device would be about a 17" light weight touch screen tablet PC, that can stand alone as a netbook; but then become more a dumb display/hard disk at my desk. That way you could have a nice useable display you carry around that functions, but have a fast Processor/keyboard/memory you slap on, and plug it in to game with.
Basically a dedicated GB Ethernet port connecting my "desktop Processor" to this device.
I don't game, but I go out and gather data from a bunch of machines, quickly look that the data is real, maybe tweak a few things if needed, then go back to my desk and crunch data for 2 hours (because my laptop is somewhat slow) But not worth the hassle of transferring Gigs of data to a PC for this. Also all these apps are expensive licenses, so I must have them available to travel, but want them on a faster CPU to crunch.
Similar, I lug my Laptop home every night to provide emergency tech support, and VPN for off hours meetings, lug it in to meeting rooms to take notes... I need all my data from daily use, but a 1 Ghz atom would provide the functioning I need when away from the desk, but a 2.2Ghz core Duo doesn't cut it at my desk.
Or you could get the software developers to design their software better?
I play World of Warcraft on my Netbook all the time. Not too bad when you're running dailies that include mostly flights back and forth.
Yeah...Blizzard (like Valve) is good about keeping the minimum requirements on their games low, but making the visuals scale quite well. The difference in visuals with World of Warcraft turned all the way down and turned all the way up is HUGE, , but all the way down requires very little computing power while all the way up still doesn't require anything unreasonable.
Out of curiosity, what netbook are you running it on and what are the specs?
Living With a Nerd
No, iSheet you not.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Wow. There's a gamer who really loves Civ IV.
Right now I read and browse mostly on an eeePC 1005. If they made a slim, really low power netbook with an e-Ink display on the outside of the lid I'd buy one right away.
Keep it closed and you have an e-Ink based reader. Open it and you have a full fledged netbook.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
I keep using it as an example because the gameplay is perfectly suited for something like a netbook...travel, or parked on a couch watching TV.
But yeah...I do love Civ IV :-)
Living With a Nerd
Too cool. I think this might be the kitchen computer I've been waiting for! If I could prop it up in lots of different configurations based on where I need to use it (hang it on the wall over the oven, make a ^ and prop it up next to my cooking, lay it flat on the counter).
Then if I could roll it up and take it into the living room as universal remote...
Except that, since you don't seem to be able to find what you want, it is apparently impossible to have all three. We all understand what you want, and I suspect a lot of us think it would be cool. I personally would like one of them. I'd also like Centauri's car from "The Last Starfighter" (the one that is useful for highway, aerial, space, and hyperspace driving), but I can't get one of them either.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Were any good games ever made beyond those systems?
I dunno man, the ION 2 stuff looks like it's going to be exactly what I'm looking for. Here's to hoping.
Oh, and screw Centauri's car...I'd be happy with his super-snazzy suit.
Living With a Nerd
...on ASUSsebook reader featured on the same page. Looks great, and if it's offered at a reasonable price (like most ASUS offerings are) it could well ignite the ebook market just as the Eee Pc did with the netbook one.
Your preferences differ from the millions who purchase netbooks with fans and hard disks.
Also Lots of people like watching DVD's on the go.
Basically, for that you need an Intel 4500 MHD (much more powerful than prior GMAs) or something from ATI or nVidia and a decent CPU. Plenty of laptops have these, but anything smaller than 11.1" uses different types of hardware, and there have to be sacrifices. Gamers usually prefer large desktop replacement laptops, which are on the opposite end of the spectrum from netbooks.
That said, consider getting a portable gaming console with real gaming controls and games optimized for it. PC games are designed to maximize the hardware of much larger devices. Obviously smaller devices are going to lag behind by several years.
Go away, and stop ruining products I actually want with irrelevant bullshit I don't need and refuse to pay for.
Everyone else here can see you're a moron. Why can't you?
Net books are designed to be just powerful enough to surf the inter net . If you make them more powerful, they are no longer netbooks. What you are asking for is akin to wanting to meet a 5' 6" midget.
Your OS is too big, try another.
As I asked another poster further down in the conversation, if that is the case, would you consider something using the new ION 2 hardware to be a regular laptop then? Despite having the form factor and battery life of a netbook?
Living With a Nerd
As do I and via the magic of x264 you can store an entire DVD in less than 1GB of harddrive space.
A small, efficient laptop is not a netbook. A small, efficient, low-priced, low-power laptop is a netbook. Now, low-power is a relative term, so it will gradually increase with time, but by the time you can easily play Civ 4 on any netbook, you will want to play Civ 5 on your netbook because Civ 4 is too old.
Free is indeed good :)
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Point taken. I'm the last one to say one size fits all, and I suspect that most of the people on /. are savvy enough to weigh the pros and cons of SSD vs. 2.5" SATA drive. I was just arguing that a lot of technical decisions are made by non-technical people solely on the basis of cost, without considering what that additional cost is buying.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
I thought early thinkpads did this, too. Not just to be a flat display surface, but so they could have the light source removed and sit as a "foil" on an overhead projector - in the days before video projectors were common in conference rooms.
Don't recall if this was before or after powerpoint.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Don't draw conclusions from buzzword names. If 'netbooks' were solely about surfing the web, they wouldn't be sold with XP and be using X86 processors and have large amounts of memory. Netbooks are Laptops which can do 99% of what people want to do, just without being huge.
Personally, I think anything bigger than 10 inches is clumsy to be carrying around all day. I can get everything I need to get done on a 9'' netbook.
You're missing the point of netbooks. Obligatory car analogy; do you buy a motorcycle (because it's portable) and then bemoan the fact that you can't carry four people on it?
Better car analogy: Despite common conceptions, an SUV isn't the best choice if you want space, you're better off with something like a Minivan.
To the point, there is no reason why a Laptop with reasonable gaming power should have to be huge. That's the whole point about the recent investment in mobile graphics chips. If we can use them to make 3D Desktops why shouldn't we use them for games.
Before rolling out revolutionary new products, Asus should work on its product quality and service. I'm writing this on the replacement eeePC they sent me after around five months and four service trips for the lemon they sold me.
Revive the Constitution.
Get a netbook with an ULV Core 2 Solo. It'll run circles around even your dual-core Atom and not use too much more power. The downside is that I think it only comes in 11.6" 'netbooks' but maybe soon it'll come in 10" netbooks.
I just read your article.
I can't believe you would overlook something as blatant and currently on sale as the MX11 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBrCWdxVNPQ )
And yes, it plays Crysis.
Alienware’s MX11 is a gaming laptop squeezed into a 11inch netbook chassis.
Core 2 Duo processor
1GB Nvidia 335M graphics card
6 1/2 hours of battery life (battery mode)
1366 x 768 pixel display
2 hours of gaming mode
Gaming mode can be toggled on/off, switch from gaming mode to casual mode without restarting
Video out via DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA, SIM slot
3D mark scores in 6-7k range
50FPS Crysis, 30FPS Call of Duty on High Settings
Anything sufficiently different to be radical (in either a good or bad way) won't be considered a netbook.
I think everyone misses the point of a netbook (or the original purpose before it became mainstream). A netbook is supposed to be inexpensive, power efficient and portable.
You can't make an expensive netbook with a lot of features and a bigger screen, it just becomes another laptop.
get a notebook (not net , note) with the new intel core i7 640M (U or L - http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=43563,47700,). The U model at 18W TDP gives the atom chips a run for their money (well, not really in same category, but much better performance/wattage than anything before mobile nehalem came along). Lenovo has the x201s, but I'd take a look at the fujitsu P770 series - http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=P770. Not really in the netbooks price range, and not featuring ION (which is a true shame) but more than adequate from power consumption versus performance standpoint. If you want a portable gaming platform, either alienware or one of the eurocom models ( http://www.eurocom.com/ ) might suit you better.
Your fundamental limit is the screen. There's little point in having the latest and greatest graphics card feeding a 9" LCD.
Or the number of people who would buy such a device is so small it wouldn't be commercially viable.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Performance costs.
Miniaturization costs.
If you want performance and miniaturization, that'll cost lots. Most likely more than the sum of the individual features.
So even if it were technically possible to do what you want, it would be so expensive that nobody would buy it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
What color pony would you like?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I have a concept too:
How about a flexible, holographic resistive and capacitative 3d touchscreen on all sides of the netbook, that you can mould into exactly any shape you like. Wouldn't that be cool?
In other words: What is a concept design worth? TFA doesn't say they have anything working, does it?
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Or the number of people who would buy such a device is so small it wouldn't be commercially viable.
Possibly, but that's a very rash and generalized comment. Both screen size or even screen resolution are no limit for games or fun. Even devices like the iPhone or PSP always like to push the borders.
This is an old and tired argument BTW. Like the people shouting "FullHD is too much", "FullHD is too much for screens smaller than 40''" or "60fps in enough for anyone" or "SNES graphics are enough for any handheld".
Technology will continue to progress and people will continue to buy it.
This is going to sound like I'm being facetious, but I'm actually not. Try playing nethack when you travel. The hardware requirements are *a lot* lower and it'll drag you in just as Civ IV would. Yes, it's taking an approach of giving up and doing something else, but the end result - having fun playing a game on your available hardware - will be the same.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
I'm actually playing through Aarcanum on it (Haven't played Arcanum in years!), and Deus Ex runs great on there as well.
Living With a Nerd
If I'm wrong then where are they all?
One that reflects the observed facts.
What's that got to do with anything? Do any games on those need the capabilities of a high-end graphics card?
No, it's a perfectly valid one - that a system is only as good as its weakest link. What use is something that can't be seen?
It's like playing a thousand dollar amplifier through twenty buck speakers.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If I'm wrong then where are they all?
You drew a fallacious conclusion. Just because it hasn't been tried doesn't mean there would be no market. The entire netbook boom is proof that this is a flawed assumption.
One that reflects the observed facts.
Not in the slightest.
What's that got to do with anything? Do any games on those need the capabilities of a high-end graphics card?
Um, yes. They use some of the latest in graphics architecture.
If you mean a 200 Watt PCI-e card with active cooling, then no, that's ridiculous.
No, it's a perfectly valid one - that a system is only as good as its weakest link.
Another tired saying. A small screen is not a "weak link" and hardware is still a far way from the screen being the weakest link.
What use is something that can't be seen?
If you can't see a nine-inch screen I think you should get your eyes checked out.
It's like playing a thousand dollar amplifier through twenty buck speakers.
A strange analogy, but that's probably about the parts cost for standard speakers. Audiophiles who spend tens of grand on a speaker will probably disagree, but a thousand-dollar amplifier isn't exactly high-end either.
I've heard that nearing the end of large worlds, gaming is CPU-bound (at least during end-of-turn events). So, you might want to look for a small CULV (Core Ultra Low Voltage) laptop...
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3735
Typically you'll have 11" displays with 768 lines on a CULV, and probably 1024by600 on a typical netbook. However, you'll pay more for a CULV, the CULV is bigger and has (usually) a lower battery life.
My ideal device is an iPod touch like device that I can use on the go, and fit in my pocket. Then when I need to go data collecting, or need more road-power, I dock it into a tablet or laptop and transfer my apps seamlessly. Then when I get back to the home office, I plug it into my desktop, and get those same apps, seamlessly, without ever having to migrate data.
That's my ideal device.
It's not impossible - it may be impractical - but that's what I want. I'm sick of dealing with all of my computers being different builds of my perfect working environment, with my data scattered all over hell and gone.