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| by FiXT | September 16, 2008 | ||
| System Performance System Performance Given that the M912v hardware specifications are nearly identical to most other netbooks, general system performance is on par. For those who are unfamiliar with what to expect here is a quick summary: netbooks are not notebooks. They are not intended to be a notebook or desktop replacement or even a primary PC, depending on what your computing habits involve. A netbook is intended for simple tasks: web surfing, emailing, word processing and basic multimedia functions such as watching videos or music. The appeal lies in the fact that they can do these things while remaining low cost and lightweight. If you are looking to render video, edit graphics or play games better than pong, this is not your thing. In our short testing of all the basic functions, the Gigabyte flies through tasks with ease and this section will touch on a few areas of interest.  Boot Up Boot up time, even with Windows XP Home, was a touch slower than we have seen with other UMPCs. The M912v is powered by the 1.6GHZ Intel Atom processor, 1GB Ram, and a 160GB 5400RPM hard drive. While many other netbooks have chosen to go with SSD storage devices, Gigabyte currently only has a 2.5in SATA HDD option. The time to reach the desktop was roughly 44 seconds, and the OS and programs were fully loaded within 1:03 minutes. Comparatively, the Acer Aspire One with identical specs but an 8GB SSD took 29s and 44s and the Aspire One with 120GB HDD took 37s and 54s. Overall, a few extra seconds are not going to be a major hassle. We found that once up and running, programs and applications experienced very little sluggishness and the HDD actually performed faster and more efficiently with Windows XP than the solid state drives which suffer from slower write speeds. Performance and Battery Life  Our limited time with the system did not allow us to run a complete assault of benchmarks, however we did cover the basic programs that netbooks were intended for. Web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox experienced no hiccups. Even with extra Firefox add-ons to improve the touchscreen ability, pages loaded quickly and the wireless card was never flaky, maintaining a strong signal the whole time. Streaming video over the wireless was exceptional as well. Almost no buffering was noticed and even running multiple instances of streaming YouTube videos were not enough to cause slow downs. Launching Windows Media player 10, we were able to play back 720P video flawlessly. As expected however, running a 1080P sample proved to to much for the system and it was unable to avoid stuttering. Basic word processing and spreadsheets using Office 2007, switching between simultaneous windows and copying data was yet another cake walk. Unfortunately, you will only be able to do all this for a little over two hours. Using the program Battery Eater Pro and the standard portable power settings, the Gigabyte’s 4-cell lithium ion battery barely made it 2 hours and 18 minutes before dying off. While in normal circumstances the unit may not be under full load 100% of the time, and smart users will turn off the Wi-Fi and adjust power saving modes; the fact that the 4-cell unit would barely be able to last a through a full length feature film is slightly disappointing. Given the extremely low power requirements of netbook hardware we would have liked to see the system keep up with its other competitors above the 3 hour mark. Though rumour has it, a 6-cell battery model may be in the works which will see a definite improvement to the battery life, but also added weight. | ||
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