The best 11.6 inch netbook for really comes down to your preferences… Speed, Battery Life, Screen, Keyboard, Features, and Brand Name.
The 11.6 inch form factor is a bit bigger than the standard 10.1 screen, and provides for a roomier keyboard as well as HD display (720p). This size netbook usually comes with an HDMI port and makes a great work/play laptop.
Our 3 favorites netbooks in are from Acer, Gateway, and Lenovo.
Acer Aspire AS1810
We have found the Acer Aspire AS1810 11.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) to be a very good buy. Its key specifications are:
- 1.3GHz Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 Processor
- 4096MB DDR2 667MHz Memory
- 320GB SATA Hard Drive, Intel WiFi Link 1000 802.11b/g/Draft-N, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR
- 11.6″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit Display, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
- Windows 7 Home Premium, 8+ hours of battery life
The Acer runs fast and starts quickly and comes with a full 64 bit version of Windows Home Premium for performance and expandability. Battery life is rated at 8 hours and, while not as long lasting as the very best models, this 3 lb wonder will put older laptops to shame. It has 802.11N for fast connection speeds and an HDMI output for using your home TV.
Customer Reviews
Plenty of power and memory. Windows 7 runs extremely well. Set up was a breeze. This computer is faster and more powerful than my desktop. Good things do come in small packages. The screen is quite easy to view despite the small size. It’s lightweight and easy to carry with me. That was a concern since my old laptop was very heavy and burden to take along. It also runs very cool and doesn’t burn my lap as many laptops are prone to do.
The processor speed is awesome and can do more than traditional office productivity and web browing activities. Loaded statistics software and it blazes. My daughter will be using it for running complex complex graphics and stats algorthims for her neuro research projects. The keyboard, screen is beautiful. The fullsize keyboard has lots of one touch special funtions that makes navigation easy. I miss the trackball. I have not gotten used to the touchpad. The pinch and swivel motions does not feel natural to me (I am not an iPhone user). The screen is sharp. HD like quality. It is not full matt screen, as one can still see reflection. The web camera is OK.
The laptop has enough ports for normal use – USB, HDMI, Ethernet, audio jacks etc. Battery – it is close to the advertised life. Gave me about 6 1/2 hours of moderate to heavy use. Still new, want to test it further before making judgement on this. Still a vast improvment over traditional laptops.I wanted to mention how long the battery lasts. I am notorious for rapid battery consumption on all devices (have to take cords with me always) —this computer is changing that. I take it to school and it is on from 1:30-8:00 intermittently running MS office apps like Word, Excel and Powerpoint, plus an internet browser (I use Firefox). The use is not constant, but it’s still on and ready the whole time. I don’t even bother taking the cord with me, becuase on average after this usage I still have between 70-75% battery remaining when I get home! Amazing!
Gateway LT3119u 11.6-Inch
The Gateway LT3119u Netbook has some impressive specs for a little maching:
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor L310
- Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
- 11.6-inch HD Widescreen Ultrabright LED-backlit Display
- AMD RS690V Chipset
- 2048 MB DDR2 Memory
- ATI Radeon X1270 Graphics
- 250 GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- Built-In .3 MP Webcam
- Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
- High-Definition Audio Support
- 802.11b/g WiFi CERTIFIED
- 3 – USB 2.0 Ports, Multi-gesture Touchpad
- 6-cell Li-ion Battery (4400 mAh), up to 4 Hours of Battery Life
- Weight 3.04 lbs.
This fashionable design of the LT31 Series expresses style and personality with its gloss finish and engraved stainless steel logo. At only about 1-inch thin, this Netbook is easy to carry on the go, and provides up to 4-hours of cable-free battery life.
Fueled with 2 GB Memory and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, experience uncompromising performance to multitask with ease and breeze through demanding applications while on-the-go.
The 11.6-inch Ultrabright LED-backlit display supports high-definition fun while 16:9 aspect ratio provides true cinematic view for movies watching and HD Internet videos on the go.
Enhanced ATI Radeon X1270 Graphics delivers smooth-playing movies, online video and more that are bursting with color.
Customer Reviews
Overall, I very much like the Gateway LT3119u. Compared to my previous notebook (HP tx1020us tablet with Vista), I enjoying using this notebook a lot more.
I bought this laptop which includes a 6-cell battery, which is different from the 3-cell battery that are in the pictures. The 6-cell battery juts out from the back; if you search for “Gateway LT3103u”, you can see how it looks.
I love the keyboard; it types very well compared to my previous laptop. The keys are big and I have had very little trouble typing. I would like the arrow keys to be a bit bigger, but when I compared to other netbooks, the sizes are comparable. Thus, there is nothing to complain about when comparing to other models.
The netbook is fairly light (less than 3.5 lbs), even with the 6-cell battery. The design feels solid, and overall, I am happy with the look and feel. With the extra battery, the back looks a little ugly on first impression. However, after a few days, you really won’t care about it. Also, it angles downward so that the netbook is lifted up from the desk surface to allow better ventilation. In other words, there is a reason why the battery juts back and down like that.
Lenovo ThinkPad X100E 11.6-Inch Netbook
The Black Lenovo ThinkPad X100e 11.6in Netbook with Athlon Neo MV-40, 2GB DDR2, 250GB HDD, ATI Radeon HD3200, Webcam, GB LAN, Wi-Fi, and Windows 7 Professional has a slick new design and bold color. But make no mistake, this notebook is all ThinkPad – reliable, rock-solid and well-equipped. Best of all, it’s the most affordable ThinkPad ever.
Lenovo ThinkPad X100E Details
- Athlon Neo MV-40 Processor
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- 250GB Hard Drive
- 11.6″ Display; ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics
- Windows 7 Professional
Customer Reviews
The screen is very nice and bright. In fact I have to turn it down from the brightest setting sometimes indoors, as it can hurt my eyes due to the extreme brightness. The resolution is just fine for doing research, writing, etc. After a quick period of adapting, the screens on my T6x series feel huge and overly tall by comparison. It is enough resolution to dock side-by-side windows and work with dual documents, barely.
Performance is just fine in my book. With 9 windows of Google Chrome open, two Word documents, one Notepad text file, Windows Media Player playing an HD movie, two Windows Explorer windows, Adobe Reader 9 opened to a large PDF file, TrueCrypt drive encryption running, AVG, and Warcraft III– RAM usage was around 1.2 gigs, and processor use hovered around 60-70%.
I have used this as my main work machine, doing office / productivity work, for about a month now. It is a great small laptop, especially for the price. Build quality is superb. The X100e does not have a roll cage (i.e. internal metal skeleton) like some higher-priced X and T series Thinkpads, but you’d never know it, probably because the small size makes it largely unnecessary. The case is nice and stiff; the hinges are superb; and in general the build quality seems to be a cut above the T6x series, at least. However, I do miss the slightly rubbery paint from my other Thinkpads; this black matte paint is smoother. Still nice, but not as nice. The keyboard is the best I’ve used on a laptop. It is superior to the ones on my T60 and T61, previously my favorites.
I have owned the thinkpad x100e for 3 weeks and so far I am satisfied with this laptop. The laptop is small, light, quiet, keyboard and touchpad are really comfortable, the webcam has a high resolution. The two options of trackpoint and touchpad are convenient, especially for a new thinkpad user like me who is not used to the trackpoint. I really like the zoom function of the touchpad, it makes reading more easily on a small screen. This laptop does not have HDMI, and it is probably not suitable for game players since it is more like a netbook.