15 best netbooks in the world today

Top 15 best netbooks in the world today

It's hard to believe it's been just two years since Asus revolutionised the notebook market with its release of the Eee PC.

This tiny form factor computer omitted the optical drive in favour of USB ports, and even ditched Windows, switching to Linux to keep costs down. It was a brave move on Asus' part, but one that paid off.

Since then, the netbook as a concept has snowballed. Almost every major computer manufacturer has some form of netbook on offer, and there's been a lot of innovation in the field.

Modern developments

This year we've seen Nvidia's Ion platform enter the market in the form of Samsung's sprightly N510, a netbook which actually had enough under the hood to make it behave like a proper PC.

We've also seen Windows 7 Starter edition emerging on netbooks. Built from the ground up to run on tiny computers, it's a breath of fresh air in a market that's become synonymous with XP's primary colours.

Next year will certainly see manufacturers using Windows 7 to sell their new, hopefully more powerful netbooks.

The big problem with netbooks at the moment is that they're all inherently similar. Most running on Intel's Atom processor (with a couple of notable exceptions), and are incapable of doing much more than word processing and running really ancient games.

With this in mind, we've rounded up 15 of the most unique netbooks of the past year or so. Whether it's the price, the battery life, or the monolithic corporate sponsorship, each of these netbooks have done something to make them stand out from the crowd. We'll start with the cheap ones...