On 19.05.2012, James Wilkinson wrote:
I bet that Asus netbook is based on an Atom processor and an Intel
chipset, and whatever else you might say about Intel (and who doesn’t?),
they still (mostly) remember the twenty-year-old Pentium lesson that if
it’s got their name on it, it ought to be reliable.
Q: According to Intel, the Pentium conforms to the IEEE standards 754
and 854 for floating point arithmetic. If you fly in aircraft
designed using a Pentium, what is the correct pronunciation of
"IEEE"?
A: Aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee!
[SCNR!]
Seriously, I think you're totally right. Pricing these days seems to
follow marketing strategies rather than reflecting quality. Most of
the components are the same, and "fashion" has a big impact on how
much they want to have for a particular machine. E.g. if you want
something that is very slim and looks sharp, you'll have to pay double
the price of a machine containing the same core components, but is
standard sized.