Lets look at the specs - Samsung 305U1A and VX6s

As it's going to be a little while before I can afford any new toys I'm going to have to fawn over some specifications.  While looking around for NVIDIA ION powered netbooks (the NC10 doesn't like driving 2 screens) I stumbled across some interesting machines on ebuyer.

The first is the Asus Eee PC VX6S Lamborghini Netbook (£470.00 at time of writing) and the Samsumg 305U1A Laptop (£366.34 at time of writing).  My first thought was WTF!  That's one expensive netbook, and more expensive than a laptop?  Time to investigate.

On paper they are certainly very similar machines.  The key differences being AMD vs Intel CPU and 12.1" vs 11.6" screen.  Likewise, it's Intel vs AMD for the chipsets.  Interestingly, both machines (or at least the 2 specific models I found) use AMD (nee ATI) graphics.  The 2 being similarly specced with the Asus offering a 6470 against Samsungs 6310.  That being said, I'm not entirely sure that's a relevant point.  Both machines have an internal screen resolution of 1366x768 so I'm not sure anything too taxing could be thrown at them.

	Asus VX62 Lamborghini	Samsung 305U1A
Form	Netbook	Notebook
CPU	Intel Atom D2700 2.13GHz	AMD E-450 1.65GHz
Chipset	Intel NM10	AMD A50M
Storage	320Gb HDD	500Gb HDD
RAM	4Gb	4Gb
Display	12.1" LED (1366x768)	11.6" LED (1366x768)
Graphics	AMD Radeon HD 6470	AMD Radeon HD 6310
LAN	RJ45 (Unknown)	10/100/1000 Ethernet
WLAN	802.11bg/n	802.11bg/n
Bluetooth	3.0	3.0
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)	Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)
USB	3 (1xUSB2.0, 2xUSB3.0)	3 (USB 2.0)
Graphics Out	VGA, HDMI	VGA, HDMI
Card Reader	802.11bg/n	4 in 1 card reader
Audio Out	Headphone, Mic	Headphone/Mic combo
Battery	6 Cell Li-Ion 2600mAh	4 Cell Li-Ion, 4000mAh

I'm going to do a little more research in to the battery life of these 2 machines.  At this point I wouldn't like to say whether I think the Intel or AMD CPU will be more advantageous.  The first netbook I bought had a VIA CPU and a pathetic runtime.  For a machine like this the power consumption is crucial.  Samsung offer a larger battery than Asus.  Whether this is offers greater runtime or makes up for increased power consumption remains to be seen.

While the 12 inch screen on the Asus is tempting, I think this starts to break the idea of what a netbook is.  I'm certainly not one to use novelty, oversized laptops.  I use a 14" as my primary PC.  That being said, it's a Dell Latitude that spends most of its time in a port replicator, driving a 24"/22" display combo.  When on the move, it's a little more practical than the 15"+ laptops available today.

At first glance my preference would be the Samsung due to the lower price tag.