I agree most of what was said. Wireless N is not more expensive than G so why are so many companies leaving out N?

If anyone can do a 1280x768 10.2" with 802.11n 6 cell battery, and bluetooth for under $600 Ill probably buy it.

Also I would like to see more attempts like the N10 with a graphics option only with a slightly lower cost ($500 - $599 range)

I think OS's have to come some way before you should really wish for that screen resolution / pixel density. Sure, plenty of them say they're completely scalable, but there's always bugs, or apps that don't respect dots per inch and go for pixels instead. One thing that seems like a common necessity for me is good mouse interface, and Linux has come the furthest on this: the alt-click resizing and moving avoids having to chase increasingly small window borders, and menus aren't moved all to the top like Mac. Unfortunately, Linux has plenty of other quirks, especially with all of the different possible display libraries -- most of which scale the fonts, but not by the same amount: some end up looking large enough to anti-alias to a bold look, others not.

I would pay premium for netbook with trackpoint. Unfortunately even Lenovo's netbook have touchpad so I pass.

Try fitting all of that into a $350-450 price range.

I'd say an Acer Aspire One with the six-cell battery (NCIX sells two such models that come out of the box with six-cell batteries) would be close enough to the ideal.

Sadly, a higher display DPI costs money, which is one of the reasons why the HP Mininote 2133 and the Gigabyte M912 net-tablet are more expensive, so it'd still have to be WSVGA I fear. LED backlighting would be preferable, since it isn't really more expensive than CCFL backlighting and it consumes the battery charge slower.

The Aspire One has a keyboard arranged correctly with a relatively comfortable key size, and doesn't look butt-ugly. And even the six-cell models are priced right (under CAD 450). The big problem with it is, of course, its touchpad, which is too small vertically and has the straddled button configuration.

A business notebook style trackpoint would've been ideal for this form factor (witness how it's the only pointing device on the ThinkPad X series, barring the new and exceptional X300 and X301), but then I imagine that those tend to cost more than touchpads, and the consumers these netbooks are marketed at are more familiar with touchpads than trackpoints and so would prefer a touchpad-equipped netbook.

802.11n devices are more expensive at this point (and require an extra antenna) compared to 802.11a/g devices, so in the interest of costs, I'd prefer a g model (as long as it was cheaper, of course). Bluetooth is cheap enough (attached internally via USB) that that should be available standard on netbooks, not least because it can be used to tether with a 3G phone on the road, thus contributing toward the "net" part of a netbook's mission.

I agree regarding the mechanical drive and the RAM, but I doubt we'll see netbooks equipped with a 2 GiB SO-DIMM out of the box any time soon.

I think you're asking for too much. Just go with the One.

well said, I'll take one.

Battery life, keyboard size/layout and trackpad layout are the biggest issues I've noticed so far.

As you mentioned, there's no point in having a supposedly portable device if you can only use it for a few hours and then it stops working.

The buttons on the sides of track pads are awful.

The AA1's "french" layout is awful, putting \ buttons everywhere I'd press shift or enter.

You forgot WWAN, e.g. 3G HSDPA. A "computer" that I cannot use to check my email or browse the web whilst on the train (commuting) is next to useless to me. Heck, even my phone can do this, but the screen is small. Figerprint reader would be nice addition (but not essential) for fast and easy login; the last nice feature is ExpressCard slot (alongside with SD, of course). I want Linux with this, with rather conservative CPU and SSD (for long battery live).

I think that all you'll get out of this is that people have different desires in a netbook.

I think that 8.9" is the perfect size, but I am willing to accept 10.2" if the overall netbook volume is the same as the 8.9".

But I am happy with Linux and a small (8 or 16GB, not slow) SSD (with extra SD card slot for capacity expansion). I don't need Windows on such a device. This type of device isn't a replacement for my other computers, but a companion. Instead of compromising on a laptop, I can get a desktop and a netbook for the same price.

Some of the Linux application launcher GUIs for netbooks look useful for a touchscreen however, so I think that would be a useful thing to have. Bluetooth too, or maybe the ability to add a 3G data card internally.

One major feature of these netbooks is price. In fact I think it is one of the essential core features. I am not happy to see the prices rocketing upwards of £250, because it turns the device from being the everyday companion, to being precious enough to worry about slinging into the bag.

Of course I'd be happy enough with a 2008 remix of the Psion 5 design. I wonder about a netbook design using an NVIDIA Tegra application processor...

The HP mini note has a lot going for it, its got the right keyboard for these devices and a decent screen. Its also as big as I'm will to go, sure its longer than the eee but its not as wide and its thinner.

My perfect netbook would have the following.

- Screen from the Gigabyte (touch and 1280x768)
- no scroll zone (just use the touch interface on the screen)
- Keyboard of the HP mini note, expanded a little due to no scroll section
- Size of the HP mini note but less deep due to no scroll section.
- Approx 1kg.
- 16GB fast SSD, not eee slow
- 2GB ram (so no swap)
- Vista Business as the OS
- 50Wh+ battery.
- Internals from the Raon Digital Everun Note (Turionx2 1.2ghz, ATI RS690E)

http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/09/everun-note-full-review/

I am not a fan of motherboard-mounted RAM, because if that RAM goes bad you are stuck with it.

I like my MSI Wind very much. I'd like another hour of battery life (will get it with the 6-cell battery) and would like a RS232 DB9 Serial Port, and an expressport slot to stick in an air card rather than BT tethering all the time.

And I like paying $$$ and maybe a pound in weight for small, thin, and light notebooks. 8-9 hours battery life. Excellent performance, standard keyboards and operating systems, all ports and connectivity, full warranties, SSD and optical built in, higher resolution displays.

I'll add a screen that is comfortably readable in sunlight to that list.