N550

Netbooks are all so similar in terms of performance that it’s difficult to get excited about reviewing “yet another netbook”. Aesthetics and build quality may change, but outside of features like NG-ION or the use of an SSD, there’s not much new under the sun. However, one Atom variant that we haven’t had a chance to actually test in house is the dual-core Atom N550. With support for DDR3 memory and a second Hyper-Threaded core, can this “high-end” Atom change our feelings? As an added bonus, we also ran a few benchmarks on a six-year-old IBM ThinkPad T42 just to see where it falls in relation to Atom. Besides being our first look at a dual-core Atom N550 netbook, HP’s Mini 5103 packs in just...