The Top 10 Mobile Computer stories of 2008

With 2008 almost at an end, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back over our most popular articles over the last 12 months – the ones that got the most clicks from you, in other words.

And yes, we know there’s still a couple of weeks to go before we sign off for the year, but given the numbers of people that propelled these pieces to top ten status, we don’t think we’ll see anything suddenly shoot up the chart in what’s left of the year.

1. Hands-on with the MSI Wind (May)

Until the MSI Wind U100 came along, the only netbooks we’d seen by May 2007 were the Asus Eee PC 701 and 900, and the Packard Bell EasyNote XS. Asus’s offerings were groundbreaking devices, but they weren’t without compromise; while the EasyNote XS is best forgotten…

So, when word started circulating in April of a stylish new netbook from MSI, we were pretty excited. That netbook turned out to be the Wind and we were the first people to spend some time with an early production model – and publish a story about it.

2. Hands-on with the Asus N10 (September)

Videos are a great way to give a quick impression of a product, and they’re really the only way to show how well it works. This was certainly the case with the Asus N10 – an Intel Atom-powered laptop (not a netbook) from Asus.

Though not much bigger than the Eee PC 1000, the N10 came with a discrete nVidia GeForce 9300 graphics chip, which meant that it could run 3D games on its compact 10in screen. Our clip of the N10 running Call of Duty 4 proved phenomenally popular, so we followed it up with a couple more that also showed how it handled Crysis Warhead.

3. Acer Aspire One review (June)

We’d already published some (rather ropey) hands-on footage of the Aspire One by the time we published our review, but Acer’s cheap netbook still proved popular. Although it ended up being a bit more expensive than we expected, the Aspire One is still a great buy – and it’s still the only one that really only fulfils the true netbook criteria (although battery life could be better).

4. Asus Eee PC S101 review (October)

We’d seen a fair few netbooks by the time the Asus Eee PC S101 came along, but this was the first model to show that just because they’re cheap, they needn’t look it. Actually, at £449, the Eee PC S101 wasn’t actually that cheap, but it was gorgeous. Oh and did we mention that WE HAD THE WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE REVIEW! Go us!

5. MSI Wind U100 review (July)

If a picture clearly paints a thousand words, that might explain why our early photos of the MSI Wind U100 is scored higher in our chart than our lengthy review, but the review still was staggeringly popular. As was the MSI Wind itself, of course, and rebadged models of this svelte netbook are also being sold as the Advent 4211, Medion Akoya Mini E1210 and LG X110 .

6. Asus Eee PC 701 (4G) review (November 2007)

The first ever netbook appeared at the end of 2007, but interest in that model – Asus Eee PC 701 – hasn’t waned over the last 12 months. We published some exclusive hands-on photos of the Eee PC 701, in the guise of the RM miniBook, in early October and interest in the low-cost laptop (the term ‘netbook’ hadn’t actually been coined by this point) was sky-high by the time we published our full review.

7. RIM BlackBerry Bold review (August)

Our BlackBerry Bold review was the talk of the web in August, although not quite for the reasons we would have liked. Disappointed by its terribly slow web browser over both 3G and Wi-Fi, we published a video that showed how it compared with the Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, we failed to notice that during the test, the Bold had slipped off Wi-Fi and onto 3G, while the iPhone stayed on a Wi-Fi connection (something not helped by the Bold’s confusing web browser configuration).

While the performance problem was real, this slip rendered the video inadmissible as evidence. It did prompt other Bold owners to post their own performance test videos though, which vindicated our opinion that its web browser was too slow to use.

We did subsequently re-run the BlackBerry Bold and web browser speed test and its performance turned out to be much more respectable. Which was nice.

8. How to install a lightweight version of Windows XP on the Asus Eee PC using nLite (January)

If you didn’t like the pre-installed version of Linux that many netbooks used, came with, limited-capacity SSDs on some models made installing Windows XP almost impossible. But only almost…

Our comprehensive step-by-step guide showed you how to excise the unnecessary components from a Windows XP CD to make your own streamlined installation disc, which was ideal for making the most of a 4Gb SSD. The whole thing was done with a free utility called nLite and although we pitched this guide at Eee PC owners, it applies to all netbooks – even ones with hard disks.

9. How to connect to Xbox Live with a 3G modem (May)

Repeated questions about Xbox connectivity in the comments on an old 3G USB modem review led us to look closer at gaming with mobile broadband. The result was this step-by-step guide that explained how you could use a laptop with Internet Connection Sharing to connect an Xbox 360 to Xbox Live. And it works well enough for multiplayer gaming, too, although there are a few caveats. This How-to guide has also generated the most comments of any Mobile Computer article, which is ironic since it was spawned from a comment in the first place.

10. How to flash your BIOS without a floppy drive (July)

Last, but by no means least we have another netbook guide, although the advice contained in this How-to article applies to any computer, portable or otherwise. It all stemmed from the inability to update the BIOS on the MSI Wind after we had problems with our review model. A little research resulted in a solution that let you run the update from a bootable USB flash drive and this step-by-step guide lists everything you need to do it.

So, with eight of Mobile Computer’s top ten articles consisting of netbook reviews or how-to guides, it’s pretty clear that 2008 was the year of the little, low-cost laptop. Will the same hold true for 2009? We suspect so, but it’s difficult to see how manufacturers will maintain the same momentum in market where specifications are deliberately restricted by Microsoft’s licensing terms for Windows XP Home.

Of course there’s nothing to stop netbook makers switching to Windows Vista and dropping dual-core Atom chips into their wares, but this will bump up prices – Vista licenses cost more than XP and netbooks will need better specifications all-round to run it successfully.

We'll resist the urge to do any crystal ball-gazing for next year though, and instead end with an invitation. If there's something you'd like us to cover at Mobile Computer, from reviews to videos to how-to guides, drop us a line. You never know – your suggestion may end up on 2009's top ten list of articles...