Ok. Did a comprehensive survey of all PM's dialogs on the mininotebook with 1024x600 pixel screen:
*Preview window - ok
*IPTC classic editor - ok
*IPTC new editor - ok
*IPTC stationery (classic) - ok
*Preferences - lower buttons are truncated (Import/Export/OK/Cancel). Workaround #
*FTP window - ok
*Upload (PHotoshelter et cetera) - ok
*Email photos - can't test, no MAPI on my notebook
*Adjust capture date/time - ok
*Structured keywords panel - ok
*Normal keywords panel - ERROR, by default longer than screen height, but resizable - though if resized, the Apply to selected... button only shows one third (even if moved all the way up). Still can be pressed though
*Set User/Client vars - NOT OK. Can just see and enter text on the lowest fields (Client1,Client2,Client3), but few pixels of them are truncated. OK/Cancel buttons not visible. Still usable with #
*IPTC stationery (new) - ok (must be resized manually first, then shows the button right. Just drag the upper window border down)
*Ingest - ok
*SAVE AS - NOT OK. The complete line of buttons (OK/Cancel/Flash/Variables) is not visible. Possible workardound #, but clumsy. PLEASE REDESIGN...
all other dialogs are small enough to fit on much smaller screen.
# Workaround:
(on 1024x600 screen, it's quite important to have the Windows Task bar set to hide automatically, this reclaims a bit of space)
Workaround - you can always press ESC to cancel the whole dialog, and press ENTER to OK the dialog. Also, you can grab the window title bar and move it upwards a bit behind the top edge of screen, which makes just enough of the buttons visible to work.
So, all in all, PM is quite usable on a 1024x600 screen albeit with some clutches, and these only with the Save As dialog (User/Client dialog might get used quite less)
Although, as a feature request, as I know of a number of photographers from both papers and networks considering these netbooks for traveling light, and the 1024x600 a de facto standard on most such devices (with only very few of the most expensive ones sporting such as 1280x800), I humbly suggest to Kirk to redesign slightly the Save As dialog. At a cursory glance, these might work:
1) moving the Convert to sRGB and Sharpen buttons next to the Resolution field, with Convert above the Sharpen. Still a convenient location. Thus, a whole line of space saved.
2) Removing the blank line between Rename as' Set Seqn variable... button and Open destination as Contact sheet checkbox. Another line saved.
3) Adding universal keyboard shortcut for selecting the Flash and Variables dialogs (the OK and Cancel are accessed by Enter/Escape already)
Together these optimisations would make sure that the Save As dialog is visible completely even on 600px high screen, which is used by plenty of new small devices (some as small as a 5x7" photograph, like the Kohjinsha S3 and Fujitsu U2010 and even smaller Willcomm D4 - while running full Windows with HDD!).
z
Even better would be adding an option like Small Screen Support in preferences, which would make the dialogs even slimmer, although I don't know anything how that difficult in Windows windowing model is. The changes to the Save As would suffice and make it 100% usable which would be enough :-) Please consider this, Kirk.
Now to some usability - So far I have heard the Atom CPU (1.6GHz) used in these netbooks is roughly comparable to old Pentium-M at 1Ghz (Banyas core). Some subsystems could be faster, some slower, but all in all roughly comparable. I have been using the JVC MP-XP 731 which has the Pentium-M at 1Ghz fitted with 1GB RAM and upgraded with 7200RPM HDD (the HDD upgrade made all the difference - 4200 vs 7200 is quite a lot in system responsiveness).
I can run PM reviewing 10megapixel files comfortably (although more RAM would help), and edit them in PS on the go to meet football deadlines comfortably. Of course I do not open ten files at once in PS, which is generally a bad idea anyway unless you are on Mac Pro... Lightroom performance is so so, but it has always been so - it is certainly usable, but don't expect to shoot RAW on football match deadlines... which most people don't do anyway. Of course some complex edits with multiple layers and multiple filters are bad idea, but for a computer that fits inside a Domke insert (!) in my F2 bag, that's still pretty remarkable - I use it for newspaper file preparation where I usually adjust levels and curves and highlights/shadows at maximum. Complex editing is best left for home with calibrated monitor and big tower desktop...Although I used the mininotebook on magazine assignment in China (no hot deadline) even with 1DmkIII RAWs inside Lightroom and managed
So, based on this, I would say the netbooks would certainly be usable for photojournalism work with JPEGs, and occassional RAWs if not on deadline.
I would recommend maxing your RAM (AFAIK the Asus and Wind support up to 2GB with aftermarket RAM upgrades, and the hardware platform might even support more) and getting the fastest HDD available (AFAIK most of these netbooks with HDDs instead of SSDs use standard 2.5" notebook drives, which are possible to get at 7200RPM speed, and swapping them in both MSI and ASUS shouldn't be too difficult). If computer savvy, I also recommend slimming down the operating system of unneeded things and services, deleting unneeded photoshop plugins and so on. Try XPlite or nLite.
Hope this helps, Frantisek
